other differences which I shall observe or which as I suppose are observable have their rise which are these following The covenant of Works or as learned Camero calls it the covenant of Nature was for preservation of man in life that is in present blisse and happinesse to hold him in the condition in which it found him which is implyed in the penalty threatned as was before noted man must not die till sinne enter and exprest in that promise of God Do this and live His life must be continued as long as his obedience lasted his happinesse must have been perpetuated though not necessarily in the same degree God might have translated him from a life on earth to a life in heaven had he kept to the terms of the covenant The covenant of grace is for mans restitution reconciliation and recovery He was before in blisse and if he had so abode he might with good reason have taken up Peters words It is good for us to be here Now he is in misery and must be restored if ever he be blessed and so a farther difference doth arise The covenant of works had its precedency was first in time The covenant of grace in order of time follows after This must needs follow Mans estate in integrity being before his fall the covenant made in his integrity must needs precede the covenant entred into in his fallen condition unlesse we will place the third of Genesis before the first the fall of man before his creation And therefore that is utterly a mistake in one who in the very entrance upon his Treatise of the two covenants gives the covenant of grace the precedency in time giving this as his reason why he places the covenant of Grace before the covenant of Works because the covenant of Grace was in being before the covenant of Works quoting for proof Gal. 3. 17. The covenant which was made before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disanul But this can by no means serve his purpose unlesse we should conclude that the covenant of Works had its beginning in Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law by Moses and the covenant of Grace of only four hundred and thirty yeares more ancient standing And that will as little serve his purpose which he after brings in that there was an agreement and covenant between God the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ about the salvation of man before Adam sinned yea before the world began Seeing that covenant between the first and second person of the Trinity was not the covenant which he hath in hand to treat upon namely the covenant which God entred with man as he himself confesses No covenant can be made with man before man be in being A noâens can be no party in a covenant And whereas we are told that the same covenant which was made with Jesus Christ before time was afterwards made with man I desire that all would observe what is laid down in that Treatise concerning that covenant Christ for his part was by covenant to become a Mediatour Surety and Saviour for all those that his Father should give him And must we become such Mediatours Sureties and Saviours also God the Father did promise to Christ as is further said all the things that did belong to his Mediatourship and things to gratifie and satisfie him for his Mediatourship May we by covenant expect such things from the Father likewise If we are neither tied to the same work to which Christ by covenant was tied nor are to receive the like gifts as he by covenant was to expect we are not in the same covenant that past between the Father and Christ And though these two were one which must not be yeelded the covenants ad intra which the persons of the Trinity make with themseâes and those ad extra with the creature may not be confounded yet that would evince no such precedence in time seeing there was alike agreement in the whole Trinity for the creation of man and Gods covenant with him in his integrity as is fully assented to in the same Treatise to the utter overthrow of all that which upon the former supposition he had built To that question To what end should the covenant of Grace be made before man stood in need of Grace he answers Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world And he had all things then as present and real before the eyes of his glory as now he hath viz. Mans Creation Fall Recovery and in this sense there was no precedency of time in regard of any of Gods Counsels or secret actions And then there can be no precedency of one of his covenants before another we must finde then a sense according to which there is a precedency which is not found in any covenants of the Trinity among themselves which in exact propriety of speech are purposes rather then covenants and were before all time but in the actual entrance and assent by the creature given which is in time and admits precedency In which consideration the covenant of works hath its precedency before that of Grace as the state of integrity was before the fall Whence farther yet follows that the covenant of works was but a small time in force at least but a small time of use only during the space of mans integrity which some say was only one day in all probability not long in that man enjoyed no fruit of that blessing in Paradise Increase and multiply But this second is of everlasting continuance when the first Covenant was violated by our first parents and so made uselesse that of grace succeeded which is our only planck after shipwrack but none shall ever succeed this second Adam failing of salvation by the covenant of Works which he entred in the first place is saved by the covenant of grace into which after his fall he entred and into which he was of grace admitted but he that is not saved by the second must everlastingly perish and so I understand that text Heb. 10. 26. If we sinne wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinnes but a fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation where by sinning wilfully I understand an utter rejection of Gods tender of this sacrifice of Christs blood which I gather from the Apostle in the words that follow the proof that he brings of that sad assertion He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the blood of the Sonne of God and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing This is that wilful sinne of which there is no expiation When man had cast off the yoke a sacrifice was found Christ made his soul an
20. They had their righteousnesse and as was supposed they made a great progresse in the way of righteousnesse yet we must have an exceeding righteousnesse above that which they taught and practised or else there is no salvation in this covenant These two covenants notwithstanding remaine distinct and not confounded together There is a legal righteousnesse such as the Law in the highest extremity of it requires without the least indulgence in case of failing This the covenant of Works calls for and in this we fall short but Christ answers and therefore He is the end of the Law for righteousnesse Rom. 10. 3. and by this we are saved There is a righteousnesse of the Gospel which God in covenant calls for to which it is his Spirit enables and in this we are saved 2. Gospel-obedience is called for in the Covenant but not as any condition of the Covenant Faith is the alone condition obedience necessarily flows from it and follows upon it when once we believe it need not to be conditioned or indented for seeing when we are in Christ by faith we can then do no other than obey I answer This position here laid down that obedience necessarily follows and flows from Faith is a position indeed maintained by the reformed Churches against Papists Arminians Socinians and other opposites of it from which position of ours they inferre as by necessary consequence that all commands requiring obedience are then needlesse and all exhortations reproofs motives and promises to no purpose None either commands or perswades the Heavens to move the Sunne to give light the Fire to give heat or the water to give moisture That which necessarily works is let alone to work and to take its course in working And this Objection taking away this Gospel-condition on this ground is of the same stamp Obedience necessarily flowing from Faith includes Gospel-commands exhortations reproofs as well as Gospel-conditions If God need not to condition and engage for obedience from Beleevers because they thus necessarily obey then he needs not give commands or presse obedience for the same reason when yet the Gospel is full of exhortations commands menaces promises with application to Beleevers to men professing Faith to men in Christ by Faith For satisfaction then of this Popish-Arminian objection we must distinguish of consequents which necessarily flow from their principles Some are natural which of themselves have their effects as those in the objection mentioned Here is neither command imposed condition required nor promise held forth They are not in any capacity of acting or working otherwise than they do Others are moral who work not by way of Physical necessity but are kept in their way by the power of grace upholding which does not exclude but necessarily takes in mans endeavour in the use of meanes to yeeld obedience and to hold on in all patience and perseverance This argument followed home will be of equal force against Faith as a condition as against sincerity seeing Gods Elect shall beleeve as they that beleeve shall yeeld obedience There is a like necessity of faith flowing from election as there is of obedience to flow from Faith as Faith therefore so obedience either of both in their places are covenant-conditions CHAP. XXV What degree of obedience the Covenant of grace calls for from Christians HEre is seasonably moved and is not without some difficulty answered what degree of obedience this new covenant calls for from us that so we may endeavor it and understand our selves when we have by grace attained to it that having entred covenant with God we may not be found of those that have wickedly departed and dealt falsely in the covenant In this there are several opinions which are to come under examination First some say that it is required of Christians in an exact way in a full perfection as of parts so of degrees answering to the perfection of the Law as written in the heart and given on Mount Sinai And so required that obedience in a more low degree will not be accepted or the mercies promised in the covenant obtained which doctrine of theirs rigidly followed stands as that two edged sword Gen. 3. 24. keeping the way of the tree of Life and making the way to salvation unpassable Thus the Councel of Trent If any man shall say that by Baptisme men are obliged to Faith only and not to the observation of the whole Law let him be accursed which Chemnitius in his Examen confesses in a qualified sense might be admitted seeing persons baptised owe subjection but not in the sense which that Canon holds forth being an allusion to that of the Apostle Gal. 5. 3. I testifie again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor of the whole Law By which Glosse Baptisme makes Christ of none effect as well as Circumcision as it was taken in the sense of those false Teachers among the Galatians viz. as a leading ceremony of the Law binding to the observation of the whole And so also Bellar. lib. 1. de Baptis cap. 15. Baptisme doth not make us debtors to Faith only but to keep the whole Law and there explaines himself that to deny a man to be a debtor to keep the whole Law may be taken two wayes either so as that to do things against the Law were no sinne as though the Law were abrogated This he confesses Protestants do not say and in that he saith there is no controversie or else so that justification or salvation doth not depend on the fulfilling of the Law but only on the mercy of God by faith applied this he makes the Protestants errour and so brings in justification by the Law and utterly confounds the covenant of works and grace together onely I confesse the businesse seemes much mollified by the explanations that they give of those words fulfilling of the Law First curtelling the Law in taking off the first fomes and motions of actual sinne yea even all that goes before consent of will making it no sinne at all as also multitudes of actions some of them foule enough as not within this verge such which they call by the name of venial sinnes which are besides the Law but not against it bending as some merrily speak but not breaking the Commandments though they would never give us a catalogue of sins mortal or venial nor any certaine mark or character whereby they might be distinguished All these are pared off as no breaches of the Law nor in their own nature deserving the sentence of eternal death and the temporal punishments due to them after death is holpen out by their Indulgences Secondly so helping themselves out with distinctions at least some among them that keeping the Law with them is no other than the grace of sanctification in the very sense as the Orthodox hold it forth He that pleases may read what Jansenius hath chap. 81. of his Harmony Opposing Luther for his denial that
do them that ye may live and go in and possesse the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you Deut. 5. 33. You shall walk in all the wayes which the Lord your God hath commanded you that ye may live and that it may be well with you and that ye may prolong your dayes in the land which ye shall possesse Deut. 30. 16. In that I command this day to love the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgements that thou mayest live and multiply and the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in the land whither thou goest to possesse it Deut. 6. 24 25. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as it is this day And it shall be our righteousnesse if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us We may so interpret those Scriptures and the Jewes as it appears for a great part did so interpret them that they hold out a covenant of Works when Grace was not at all acknowledged to assist in doing nor Christ known at all to satisfie for failing and to expiate for transgression These seeing nothing but a reward upon labour and punishment in case of transgression They may yet be so interpreted as taking Grace in the Work for change of the heart and putting it into a posture for obedience according to that even in Moses Deut. 306. I will circumcise thy heart and the heart if thy âeed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live and so these duties are only Gospel qualifications of truth and sincerity of obedience In this sense which they may well bear and I take to be their native sense here is no more than what we finde in the Gospel from Christ and the Apostles They that have done good shall rise unto the resurrâction of life John 5. 28. To them that by patient continuing in well-doing seek for glory and immortality eternal life Rom 2. 5. Where as in many other places we may see that according to the New covenant a man may make the attaining of life the end of his work and the Reader may see phrases of his nature to be New covenant New Testament and Gospel-language unlesse they will charge Christ and the Apostles to have Old Testament-spirits To save a mans self may be so understood as to bear a sense purely legal anti-Evangelical and opposite to Grace or Faith in Christ and so it is used by the Apostle or a phrase very near it For by Grace ye are saved through Faith not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. Not obscurely shewing that if we are saved of our selves it is not of Grace not of Faith and not the gift of God Yet the phrase may be understood in a Gospel-sense as requiring and implying no more than our endeavour in a state of grace through the assistance of the Spirit to walk in Salvation-way To strive to enter in at the strait gate and to seek the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse of it and so we finde it used and that more than once in Scriptures 1 Tim. 4. 16. Take heed unto thy self and unto the doctrine in so doing thou wilt save thy self and them that hear thee Ministers taking heed to doctrine save hearers and yet are no saviours in opposition but in subordination to the Lord Jesus Ministers and others taking heed to themselves save themselves and yet are no self-saviours in opposition to free grace the merit of or faith in Christ Jesus Peter in his first Sermon after receiving of the holy Ghost preâcht the Gospel yet he urg'd this which some will have to be no other than a covenant of Works Save your selves from this untoward generation Act. 2. 40. And the Apostle preacht no other thing than Christ and him crucified when he called on the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. To be found in our own righteousnesse in that sense that Paul uses it Phil. 3. 8. doth exclude the righteousnesse of faith that was no bottom on which he durst stand yet in the sense that Ezekiel uses it the soul is delivered by it Though Noah Daniel and Job stood before me they would but deliver their own soules by their righteousness Ezek. 14. 14. so Ezek. 18. 22. In his righteousness that he hath done he shall live Noah was an heir of the righteousness of faith Heb. 11. 7. as the Holy Ghost himself witnesseth yet the same Holy Ghost tells us that his own righteousness delivers his soul So Solomon saith Righteousnesse delivers from death he doth not only say it would deliver were it exact and compleat but such as it is it doth deliver Prov. 20.2 David as Paul observes describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works Rom. 4. 6. Yet the same David puts blessednesse upon works Psal 112. 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his commandments Psalme 119. 12. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord Blessed are they that keep his testimonies that seek him with the whole heart Ps 128. 1. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walketh in his wayes And so also the Apostle James Who so looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word that man shall be blessed in his deed James 1. 25. The Apostle Peter tells us We are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1 5. Our salvation is not in our own keeping It is not our own care that frees us from destruction yet John saith He that is begotten of God sinneth not and keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not 1 John 5. 18. Here are the same words affirmed and denied and both from one and the same mouth of truth a different sense therefore is to be enquired after A righteousnesse which is the condition of the covenant of Works out of our own inherent strength and abilities in an exact perfection is denied a righteousnesse not of us but through grace wrought in us in sincerity which the covenant of Grace calls for is asserted and required Ninthly Though the whole Law that Moses delivered from God on Mount Sinai to the people and is among the sacred Oracles of God for posterity do containe a covenant of Grace yet the Law is taken sometime in that strict sense as containing a covenant of Works and holding forth life upon condition of perfect obedience So the Apostle Rom. 10. 5 6. puts an opposition between the righteousnesse of the Law and the righteousness of Faith So also Gal. 3. 18. If
into 2. Grounds Examined Enervated II. Putting too great a restraint on the New Covenant 1. Limitting it alone to the Regenerate 1. To which something is spoke 1. By way of concession that sundry Divines seeme to speak to that purpose 2. By way of Avoidance from their owne words 2. Contrary asserted 1. In Old Testament-times 1. By confession of the advesarie 2. By Scripture-testimony 36 2. In New Testament times 1. by New Testament Scriptures Mat. 28. 19 Mat. 22. 24 Heb. 10. 29 1 Pet. 2. 9 37 2. By Arguments of sundry sorts ch 38 3. Objections answered ch 39 4. Corollaries drawn 1. Professed Beleevers are under a Covenant of Grace and not a Covenant of Works chap. 40 2. Interest in a Church-state is of equall atiude with the CovenaÌt c. 41 3. Such Covenant-interest is sufficient to give accesse to and interest in particular visible Churches chap. 42 4. Dogmatical Faith entitles to Baptisme chap. 43 5. Impenitence and unbelief in professed Christians is a breach of Covenant chap. 44 Five Positions concerning particular Churches 1. Where nothing is wanting to the being of a Church yet much may be wanting for the wel-ordering 2. A people in a vicinity ought to associate themselves 3. Professing Christians upon tender ought to be received 4. Reformation of abuses is the work of Christians rather than separation 7. Rules concerning separation 5. Together Churches out of Churches unwarrantable 2. Terminating it onely in the person actually entring excluding the issue in which 1. Question stated as to Abrahams natural issue Chap. 45 2. Arguments concluding the natural issue of Abraham to be in Covenant Chap. 46 3. New-Testament Testimonies evincing it Ibid. 4. Objections from Rom. 9. 6 7 8. answered Chap. 47 5. The extent of it to the issue of Beleevers in New-Testament times 1. Asserted Chap 48 2 Proved 1. By Scripture testimonies Rom. 11. 16. Chap. 49. 50 1 Cor. 7. 14. Chap. 51 Galat. 4. 29 Chap. 52. Matth. 19. 14. Marke 10 14 Luke 18. 16. Chap. 53 2. By several arguments Chap. 54. 6. Corollary for Infant-Eaptisme Chap. 55 1. By Arguments asserted objections answered 2. The reality of connexion between the Covenant and the Seal vindicated Chap 56 3. Sin of Sacriledge upon the repulse charged Ch. 57 4. The title of all infants of professing parents asserted Chap. 58 7. Practical uses concerning parent and issue inserred Ch 60 1. All possible engagements to holinesse of life Ibid. 2. Parents must see that their childrens breeding answer their birth 3. There is great danger in opposing Gods Covenant-people 4. Consolation from this Birth-priviledge 1. In reference to Nations 2. In reference to single persons 1. Themselves 2. Their posterity The Analytical Table being chiefly intended for and suited to learned capacities the vulgar Reader may here see the whole of the following Treatise as it is digested into Chapters and these easily found by the pages opposite to them Chap. 1. AN Introduction into the whole page 1 Chap. 2. The Covenant of God entred with mankinde distinguished page 8 Chap. 3. A Covenant between God and fallen man in the proper nature of it asserted page 10 Chap. 4. The Covenant of grace is between God and man and not between God and Christ page 13 Chap. 5. The Outward and not the Inward Covenant is a Covenant properly so called page 19 Chap. 6. Six positions tending to clear the thing in question page 24 Chap. 7. The Covenant of Grace calls for conditions from man page 33 Chap. 8. A grand Objection against this Doctrine answered page 36 Chap. 9. Further Objectious against the former Doctrine answered page 48 Chap. 10. God in the dayes of the Gospel keeps up the power and authority of his Law The obligation of it is still inforce to bind the consciences of Beleevers page 53 Chap. 11. The Moral Law is a perfect rule of righteousnesse page 62 Chap. 12. The Moral Law bindes as it was delivered by the hand of Moses page 73 Chap. 13. God entring a Covenant of Grace with his people keeps up his Soveraignty in exercise of Discipline in the correction and chastisement of his people for sinne page 77 Chap. 14. ãâ¦ã between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace page 86 Chap. 15. Differences between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace page 87 Chap. 16. A further difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace page 91 Chap. 17. Works incumbent upon the Mediatour of the Covenant of Grace page 93 Chap. 18. Further differences between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace page 99 Chap. 19. Objections against the former Doctrine answered page 113 Chap. 20. Further differences in the conditions in the Covenant of Works and the conditions in the Covenant of Grace page 115 Chap. 21. Faith is a condition of the Covenant of Grace page 118 Chap. 22. Objections against the conditionality of Faith answered page 130 Chap. 23. Repentance is a condition of the Covenant of Grace page 136 Chap. 24. Objections against the conditionality of repentance answered page 144 Chap. 25. What degree of obedience the Covenant of Grace calls for from Christians page 148 Chap. 26. The necessity of a Ministry to bring men into Covenant with God and to bring them up to the termes of it page 160 Chap. 27. Schooles and Nurseries of learning in order to a gifted Ministry necessary page 173 Chap. 28. An orderly way of admission of men into the Ministerial function necessary page 180 Chap. 29. Ministers of Christ must bring their people up to the termes of the Covenant pressing the necessity of faith and repentance page 188 Chap. 30. A people in Covenant must come up to the termes of the Covenant being engaged to God they must answer their engagements page 190 Chap. 31. The distribution of the Covenant of Grace into the Old and New Covenant with the harmony and agreement that is found between them page 202 Chap. 32. Differences assigned between the Old and New Covenant page 205 Chap. 33. Positions tending to clear the first Covenant under Old Testament-dispensations page 210 Chap. 34. The Old Covenant was not made up of meer carnal promises but contained New Govenant-promises that were spiritual and saving page 219 Chap. 35. The Old Covenant was a pure Gospel Covenant and not mixt page 224 Chap. 36. The Covenant of Grace admits Christians in Gospel-times in a state of unregeneration and is not limited in the bounds of it to the elect regenerate page 231 Chap. 37. New Testament-Scriptures asserting the latitude of the Covenant of Grace in Gospel times page 235 Chap. 38. Arguments evincing the Covenant of Grace in Gospel-times in that latitude as before is asserted page 248 Chap. 39. Objections against this latitude of the Covenant answered page 257 Chap. 40. Professed beleevers are under a Covenant of Grace and not a Covenant of Works page 262 Chap. 41. Interest in a Church-state is of equal latitude
the fruits of it upon such and such conditions to be by us fulfilled It will be worth our labour to enquire what is meant by the conditional engagement unto which he says some winde up the merit of Christ as affecting God with it doth he mean such conditions that as causes or impulsive motives take with God to enter such engagement If this be the meaning I shall freely yeeld that there is no such conditional covenant that there is no such condition in any Covenant of God with man In this sense Master Culverwell in his Treatise of Faith page 143. takes it Having mentioned several conditional promises in which faith is expressely required and such wherein it is necessarily understood he saith In all which faith is necessarily understood for the obtaining of the benefit promised But yet in all these faith is no condition properly so called moving God to promise life But taking it in this restrained sense as moving God to promise life he much mistakes himself where he saith That it confounds the Law and the Gospel taking away a chief difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace page 141. Seeing there was no condition thus understood in the covenant of works There was not any such good accruing to God by any thing that Adam was to do that upon it or for it God should make the promise of life God hath no motives out of himself to confer his rewards Conditions taken in such a sense will make the covenant of grace and the covenant of works all unconditional But taking the word condition in the sense as it is in ordinary use and as it properly signifies for duty in covenant indented agreed upon and assented to on performance or neglect of which the promise stands or falls it is plain that there are such conditions in both covenants equally in one as the other The necessity of the concurrence of grace to the work of faith will as soon make it no duty as no condition and many denying the one have learnt to deny either of both as well duties as conditions Mr. Culverwel therefore consesseth that faith in some sort may be called a condition because the promise of life is made to persons qualified with faith page 143. and this conditional promise well understood saith he page 141. may be born And if understood with such a restraint as the word will not suffer we confesse Christians must not acknowledge it This being premised let us look into the reasons brought to back the former assertion First All such conditions if spiritual blessings are part of the purchase of the death of Christ and if not are no way fit to be conditions of such an attainment Answ They are so parts of his purchase that they are also our act The act of man by the power of God God gives faith and gives repentance yet we beleeve and we repent we may as easily reconcile Christs purchase with the nature of a condition as Gods free gift of grace with our duty If the gift were of grace and no duty required then there were force in the argument This ridgidly followed will disingage man from all obedience to God seeing all power to obey is part of the purchase of Christ Secondly It cannot be made apparent how any such conditional stipulation can be ascribed to God Answ We finde such a one in Scripture ascribed to God no condition can in more plain terms be held our In case we cannot see how it can be it were safer to lay our hands on our mouths and acknowledge our weaknesse then to withstand so clear evidence He is pleased to give his Reasons First saith he It leaves no proper place for he merit of Christ Answ This reason I can by no means reach Christ may merit and upon what terms he pleases confer what he hath merited Duty in us excludes merit in Christ as well as conditions imposed upon uâ See Ball on the covenant page 133. Secondly It is very improperly ascribed to God c. Stipulation or engagements upon conditions that are properly so do suppose him that makes the engagement to be altogether uncertain of the event thereof for which the authority of Lawyers is quoted If conditions among men be of such uncertainty it doth not thence follow that it is so in those conditions which God imposes on performance of which he conferres the mercies which he gives in promise If there be so much difference between moral hope and that Christian grace which is wrought by the Spirit that the one is only possible conjectural uncertain and doubtful the other assured and never failing The one often ending in shame The other never making ashamed Then there may be a like difference in the conditions assigned by man and those assigned by God Men may be still uncertain yet God may be assured the event being not left to contingency or the freedome of mans will which is supposed to stand in aequilibrio but determined by the act of grace which is not hid from him whose hand works it in the hearts of his people This might seem to carry far rather force against all conditions in the first covenant which is yet granted to be conditional which for performance was meerly suspended on mans will but hath no colour against the conditions of the second covenant which God works of grace as he requires of sovereignty One is pleased to say Surely they are wide if not very wilde who affirm that all the stipulations on the part of God upon the death of Christ are upon a condition which himself knows to be impossible for them to perform to whom they are made which among Wise men are always accounted nugatory and null And may not the like be said of exhortations promises threats commands God as well knows our disability to answer these as to fulfil conditions yet they are neither wide nor wilde that acknowledge such exhortations promises threats commands without abilities in fallen man to answer them farther then the concurrence of grace that is in Christ Jesus strengthens them There are many more Objections raised by others which the Reader may see brought in by Mr. Grayl and Mr. Woodbridge and fully answered CHAP. X. God in the dayes of the Gospel keeps up the power and authority of his Law The obligation of it is still in force to binde the consciences of beleevers THe last Position that I shall premise is That God in his entry of covenant with man in sinne doth so manifest his free grace that he still keeps up his Sovereignty so exalts mercy that he loseth nothing of his rule and authority His chief aime is to exalt the glory of his free grace and to set out the riches of his great mercy that so noble a species as that of mankinde might not for ever perish yet he quits not man of his subjection and obedience When the Angels fell some stood whether the fallen or persevering number
bindes us to believe 2. Much of that which I have spoke by way of answer to the former may be applied to this likewise 3. I shall hereafter speak to this that faith is a duty of the Moral Law where the Reader may have further satisfaction 4. If Adam had no command for faith then he was not in any capacity to believe and by his fall lost not power of beleeving And consequently it will not stand with the Justice of God to exact it at our hands having never had power for the performance of it 5. I say there was power in Adam for that faith that justified but not to act for justification Adam had that habit and the Law calls for it from all that are under the command of it But the Gospel discovers the object by which a sinner through faith is justified 3. The same answer may serve to the third exception which indeed is the same with the former only a great deal of flourishing is bestowed in discourse of the understanding and will paralleling them with the Prefaces grounds and occasions of Laws not needful to be repeated And at last bringing all to the Articles of the Creed to which enough already is spoken 4. It is said But what if all this had been left out and you had proved the Moral Law the only Rule of duty doth it follow therefore that it is the only Rule Answ If the Moral Law be the only Rule of duty then I take it to be the only Rule for I enquire after nothing but duty and I take righteousnesse to be matter of duty and then the only Rule of duty is the only Rule of righteousnesse It is further said Sure it is not the only Rule of rewarding And I say Rewarding is none of our work but Gods and I look for a Rule of that work which is ours and that we are to make our businesse I confesse an imperfection in it to give life but assert a perfection as the Rule of our lives It justifies no man but it orders and regulates every justified man 5. It is further said The same I may say of the Rule of punishment To which I give the same answer It is not our work but Gods either to reward or punish And here he speaks of a part of the penalty of the new Law And I know no penalty properly distinct from the penalty of the old He is wont to compare it to an Act of Oblivion and Acts of Oblivion are not wont to inflict penalties but serve to remove them when another Law imposes them That of the Parable is instanced None of them that were bidden shall taste of the Supper when the sin for which they there suffer is a breach of a Moral command 6. It is said The principal thing intended is that the Moral Law is not the only Rule what shall be the condition of Life or Death and therefore not the only Rule according to which we must now be denominated and hereafter sentenced Just or Vnjust To this I have already given a sufficient answer and if I had not our Authour answers fully for me where he says The precepts of the Covenant as meer precepts must be distinguished from the same precepts considered as conditions upon performance of which we must live or die for non-performance And I speak of them as meer precepts and so they are our Rule of righteousness not as they are conditions either of the covenant of works or grace And a man may be denominated righteous by the Laws Rule when he cannot stand before the sentence of it as a covenant of which we have heard sufficient After a long discourse against all possibility of justification by the Law of works as though I were therein an adversary or that the Antinomian fancy were above all answer that a man cannot make the Law his Rule but he makes it withal his Justification he goes about to prevent an objection and says If you should say this is the covenant and not the Law he will reply 1. Then the Law is not the only Rule To which I say When my work is to make it good that the Law is our only Rule I marvel that he will so much as imagine that I will say that which makes it not the only Rule But perhaps he thinks I do not see how it cannot follow as indeed I do not neither can I see any colour for it 2. He replies It is the same thing in several respects that we call a Law and a Covenant except you mean it of our covenant-act to God of which we speak not who knows not that praemiare and punire are Acts of a Law And that an Act of Oblivion or general pardon on certaine termes is a Law and that the promise is the principal part of the Law of Grace To which I say that praemiare and punire are essential in a Law Some have power of command so that their words in just things is to be a Law where most deny any power of punishment as an Husband over the Wife Some parents have Authority to command children children remaining under the obligation of the fifth commandment as long as the relation of a childe continueth when they have neither power to reward or punish Jacob took himself to be in power to command Joseph among the rest of his Sons as appears in the charge concerning his burial Gen. 47. 29 30. and chap. 49. 29. So compared and yet he was not in power either to reward or punish him And though they be acts of a law where he that gives the Law is in power Yet they are no parts of a Rule nor any directory of life to him to whom they are proposed I know that an Act of Oblivion or general pardon may be called a Law as many other things are catachresticè and abusivè but that it should be a Law properly so called I know not The Romanes defined a Law whilest that a Democratie was in force among them to be Generale jussum populi aut plebis rogante magistratu Afterwards when the State was changed and the Legislative power was in other hands they defined it to be Jussum Regis aut Imperatoris And Tully's definition of a Law is that it is Ratio summa insita in natura quae recta suadet prohibetque contraria Here jussio suasio and prohibitio are express'd which are not found in Acts of Oblivion That every man who is within the verge of such an Act may be said to be acquit by Law I willingly grant seeing that act takes off the force of the Law condemning him But that it is a Law strictly so taken I know not CHAP. XII The Moral Law bindes as it was delivered by the hand of Moses A Third branch of the general Proposition before delivered follows which is that the Moral Law as delivered by the hand of Moses is obligatory to Christians This I
and Law-ceremonies did not reach beyond John who was the last of the Prophets who did bear witnesse of Christ Some say that in case the Law bind as it was delivered by Moses then all that Moses did deliver is obligatory to Christians Quâtale is omne and so the ceremonial Law bindes as doth the Moral and we shall bring our necks under that yoke To this answer all that Moses did deliver doth binde unlesse we have a release or discharge from the same authority by which he spake and hence an argument is drawn for proof of that which we have in hand If the ceremonial Law had bound Christians to this day had it not been revoked and abolished then the moral Law which is no where revoked or abolished as hath been shewn doth still bind Christians This is plaine there is no reason that the ceremonial Law should be obligatory above the Moral But the ceremonial Law had bound Christians to this day had it not been revoked and abolished This is as plain when the great question was in the primitive times whether the ceremonial Law did binde Christians whether they were to circumcise their children after the manner of Moses and consequently to observe other Rites This is decided in making it appear that these were abolished as being shadows of good things to come and an end put to their obligation It may be further objected that if all be of force that Moses wrote as from him then that of divorce of the wife on any cause is of force likewise That was commanded by Moses as the Pharisees Mat. 19. 7. tell the Lord Christ from Deut. 24. 1. To this Chemnitius hath answered that Moses delivered this Tanquam legislator as one that gave orders to that people as to their political estate not Tanquam Theologus as a Prophet raised up to deliver the minde and will of God unto them Moses his writings therefore are in force not onely ratione materiae as containing such precepts upon which Christ in the New Testament hath put a divine sanction but by vertue of a sanction from heaven put upon them as delivered by him and the obligation still remaining If Moses once be neglected I shall fear that Peter and Paul will not long be honoured Moses being a servant in the same house with them and the rest of the Apostles and pen-men of New Testament-Scriptures CHAP. XIII God entring a Covenant of Grace with his people keeps up his Sovereignty in exercise of discipline in the correction and chastisement of his people for sinne AS God holds up his Sovereignty under the covenant of grace in keeping on foot his commandments so also in his exercise of discipline upon those with whom he is in covenant He neither suffers them to be without Law nor to go on in transgression of his Law with impunity and freedome As they have his precept to keep from sinne so they are in danger of his hand in case of sinne Those that are against us in the former are our adversaries in this likewise As they plead a manumission of Christians from the mandatory power of the Law so they will also have them exempted from all chastisement or correction Against these we maintaine that the people of God in covenant even those whose hearts are stedfast in covenant do suffer under the covenant of grace in case of sinne and that for sinne For proofe of this I shall bring Scripture of three sorts 1. Giving instances of the Church and people of God under sore and great afflictions for sinne and these places are even without number Esay 42. 24. Lam. 1. 8. 3. 39. 5. 16. Micah 1. 5. Yea they lie under sufferings till they acknowledge sin till their stomacks are brought down and they humble themselves for sin Lev. 26. 41. Against this is objected that among these afflicted ones there were reprobates as well as elected ones and Elect ones in the state of unconversion and they might suffer for sinne which the childe of God does not nor can not To this I answer 1. There were true converts among these or else the whole world had no converts in it 2. These in their confessions and humiliations involved themselves among the rest and make themselves of the number of those that by sinne draw down sufferings as we have Ezra Daniel and others for examples 2. Instances of the most precious Saints sinning and suffering for sinne 1. Moses and Aaron Numb 20. 12. The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron because ye beleeved me not to sanctifie me in the eyes of the children of Israel therefore ye shall not bring this Congregation into the land which I have given them Both their sinne and their sufferings are noted there which Moses seems never to have done with Deut. 1. 37. Deut. 3 26. Deut. 4. 21. Deut. 34. 4. 2. David his sinne we finde 1 Sam. 11. at large related his sufferings in the next chapter he suffers in all his relations 1. As a father his childe dies 2. As an husband his bed is defiled 3. As a Prince the sword is brought upon his land 3. Solomon 1 Kings 11. 11. For as much as this is done of thee and thou hast not kept my Covenant and my statutes which I have commanded thee I will surely rend the Kingdom from thee and I will give it to thy servant 4. Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32. 25. 26. But Hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the dayes of Hezekiah In which words we see his sinne his suffering for sinne and his humiliation upon account of his sinne Here also exception is taken These here mentioned say some lived under Old Testament dispentations To this I answer 1. We may take up Pauls words in behalf of these 2. Cor. 10. 7. If any man trust to himself that he is Christs let him of himself think this again that as he is Christs so they were Christs Moses that suffered as we have heard upon the account of sinne esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11. 26. And David that suffered in like sort in spirit called him Lord Matth. 22. 43. 2. That we may not lose Old Testament-Scriptures for if we lose them here we shall hold them no where let us look upon Prov. 3. 11 12. My sonne despise not the chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as the father the sonne in whom he delighteth In which words we see 1. The sufferings of the people of God thrice repeated 2. The impulsive cause implyed in the word chastisement which ever is for some fault Psalme 39. 11. 3. The hand that
thorow with it here is pure justice without relaxation as to the value confest by those who yet contend whether idem or tantundem be paid by Christ the same in kinde as was owing by man or the like in value and estimate He that is brought under a divine attachment must not come out till he have paid the uttermost farthing which man in torments is ever in discharging and never can discharge It is as easie to make a world as by way of ransome to deliver a soul Christ therefore that knew no sin is made sinne that is an offering for sinne God manifest in the flesh he that was God and man hath undertaken the work man to suffer and God to satisfie in suffering and so God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Corinth 5. 19. The immediate effect or result of this price of mans redemption I suppose is the putting of man into a capacity of a covenant with God yet when this is done till more be done by Christ in the way of his Mediatourship for man men are not yet in covenant not the Elect among men This is evident in those Ephesians that were raised up together and made sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 6. There was no time in which Christ had not paid the price of their ransome yet there was a time and then but lately over that they were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world Ephes 2. 12. Elect Infidels are not till their call in covenant they stand not actually reconciled and one with God before Faith for then there needed no Ministery of reconciliation to follow If this were granted then Christ did the whole for mans salvation on the crosse by himself and doth nothing now in heaven by way of intercession nor any thing by his agents in a ministerial way upon earth neither could man before faith be underwrath in which he is yet concluded by our Saviour himself John 3. 36. A state of wrath and an actual reconciled estate cannot stand together There is a price paid and as I may say in the Fathers hand but to be applyed according to the good pleasure of the Father and the Sonne A man may purchase a prisoners liberty so that he hath it in his just and legal power to set him free and yet take what time he pleaseth in discretion to impart it to him and actually deliver him In this work there are three parties God the Father as Creditor Christ Jesus the Surety Man the Debtor The Father might have refused this discharge from the hand of Christ and exacted it of the principal Christ might have refused to have made such payment he was not in the Obligation There was a relaxation of the person as is agreed on all parties Man must come in and manifest his acceptance Till he is content to leave his old master sin and Satan This new Lord gives him no entertainment he must be content to come out of bondage or else he can enjoy no freedome 2. The next work of Christ is to bring man within the bond of the covenant professedly to accept it for which there is yet a double work First to make tender of it this hath been Christs work as the Prophet of his Church in all ages In what latitude in was carried in the dayes of the fathers before the flood it is rather obscurely pointed at then plainly shewed yet there was then a distinction between the posterity of Seth and that of Cain and so contiued till the dayes of Noah when the sonnes of God saw the daughters of men children of the covenant saw those out of the covenant Men within the visible Church saw women without the Pale and joyned themselves in marriage with them From Abrahams dayes it was confined to his posterity and held within his line and those few that as proselytes joyned themselves unto them In Gospel times it is enlarged the tender is made not to Jewes only but also to every Nation under heaven the Commission being to preach the Gospel to every creature none by Nation so contemptible that is to be excluded In Christ Jesus there is neither Barbarian nor Scythian Jew or Gentile Col. 3. 11. And as there is to be a tender so also it is his work to shape the heart for acceptation of it to embrace the terms and enter into it God shall perswade Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9. 27. The inhabitants of the Isles peopled by Japhets posterity shall become the Israel of God shall succeed the Jewes in a Church-state and vissible profession of the name of God The hand of the Lord was with them namely those that preacht at Antioch and a great number beleeved Acts 11. 21. where beleeving after the manner of the History in the Acts is no other then embracing the Doctrine of Faith they were made Disciples many of which after fell off even from their profession A third work is to enable those whom he brings to glory those among them in covenant that are called according to his purpose to performe the duties of the covenant to be stedfast and upright in it and this is by Circumcising their heart giving them a new heart writing his Law in their hearts putting it into their inward parts keeping them by his mighty power through faith unto salvation of which more hereafter The last work is to crown with glory those that by grace he raises up to the termes of the covenant thus qualifying them he crowns them I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to my self John 14. 2 3. Here some difficulties offer themselves If the covenant of works past between God and man in his integrity were immediate and the transactions of it without reference to Christ then if follows that faith in Christ is not commanded in that Law Obj. which was given to man for a rule There being no possibility of it there could be no command for it and there was no possibility of Adams beleeving it seeing Christ was not revealed and was not as Mediatour of any use This opinion is strongly maintained by Arminians Armin. in resp ad artic decimum nonum Corvinus Contr. Molin cap. 11. And to this end that they may make it good that God cannot in justice require faith in Christ from man in his fallen condition unlesse he withal confer upon him abilities to believe seeing he never had that power from him in his integrity and state of purity and upon this supposition
not necessitated Upon these grounds it is that I finde no reason to widen the differences between these promises and priviledges in either covenants The identity of conditions in the covenant of Works and Grace on Gods part we have seen The great diversity in the conditions called for from man comes to be spoken to And in the first place this difference offers it self The conditions of the covenant of Works were in mans power being left to the freedom of his will he had abilities in himself without seeking out for further assistance then a meer general concurrence to perform them This ability in man to answer whatsoever was called for at his hands from God appears First in the integrity of his nature Being made like God his principles must needs carry him to a conformity with God and these principles were connatural to man in his first being and beginning Man being made of God to contemplate his glory and to enjoy communion with himself he made him not defective in any of those noble qualifications that serve for it or have a tendency to it Papists indeed will have this to be a supernaturall gift of grace and above the glory of mans first creation Bellarmine compares it to a bridle given to curb that lust which riseth against reason in us That rebellion of lusts in man they conceit would have been if man had not fallen which as it layes a high charge upon God in such an aspersion of his pure work drawn after such a patterne so it makes way for other opinions that the first motions without consent are no sins and that lust in the regenerate is not sin But as the bottom is rotten so also the building that is raised upon it is ruinous There was an happy agreement in man as well with himself as with his Creatour The fall brought in a necessity of support and supply of Grace Secondly this appears from the equity which must be granted to be in the command of God which requires that the work given in charge be not above his abilities that is charged with it The Arminian argument from a command to abilities to keep the command from a threat to conclude a power to keep off from the thing threatned is of force as long as the person under command keeps himself in the same station and strength as when the command was given But applying this to man in his fallen estate who had sinned away his abilities the strength of it is wholly lost The command of God retains its perfection when we are under the power of corruption The Law is nothing abated though we be weakened 3. It appears in the work it self which was charged upon man upon performance of which he was to expect happinesse There is no more explicitely mentioned then that negative precert Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die This all may yeeld might easily have been kept if the command had been heeded or the menace observed The Jews at their worst could observe the commands of non-licet meats and this was a command of like nature yet this was not all unto which man was tied Being made in the image of God he had clear light to discern good from evil and as all yet retaine darkly and obseurely so he had the Law written in his heart clearly Adultery Murder though no otherwise condemned then by that light which he had by creation in that estate had been sin The former positive Law was evil because forbidden take away the prohibition and there had been no sin in eating These are forbidden because evil The Law imprinted by creation being presupposed there needed no further Law to make them sinful They that never had the written Law are condemned for these practices by that Law which by nature is written in their hearts But against these there was in nature an Antipathy Mans pure nature had them in abhorrency As now there needs no Law more then nature doth suggest to forbid the eating of poyson feeding on dust or carrion So then there needed no more Law to condemne these practices so that obedience in that state was in mans power must necessarily be yeelded The conditions of the covenant of Grace are not performed but by special grace a power from God must concurre for their work in man Man hath no abilities in himself to answer what God requires and if he rise not up to the terms of this covenant till he raise himselfe he will for ever fall short of it As the covenant was vouchsafed of grace so grace must make us meet to partake of the benefits of it This appears 1. In the state and condition in which God findes man when he first enters covenant with him yea after covenant entred till a change be wrought and abilities conferred to answer that which God in covenant requires This state of man the Apostle expresses Ephes 2. 1. Dead in trespasses and sins alive and in power for nothing at all but sinne This was the condition of Heathens never in covenant and so of the Jews who were a people in actual covenant and owned of God as his inheritance as God willing shall be shewn Their conversation was the same as the Apostle there confesseth Among whom we also had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others This in abundant other expressions in Scripture is discovered holding forth the same thing Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly That infant Ezek. 16. 4 5. had no more possibilities of life then is to be found even in the state of death Reas 2. It appears in that power which is exercised by God in the change of those in covenant with him whom he fits for himself for Eternity This power in Scripture is set out in several expressions First Creation Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works All ability to good is from the frame into which grace puts us As there is a power out of man which gives him Being So also there is an answerable power for his new Being He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not 1 John 5. 18. Secondly Quickning The dead have not power to raise themselves without a further power for their Resurrection Neither is it in the power of man Who is dead in trespasses and sinnes Eph. 2. 1. Thirdly Taking away the heart of stone and giving an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. To change the nature of things which is here done is the work of an Omnipotence which was Satans argument not denied by Christ If thou be the Son of God command these stones to be made bread Mat. 4. 3. Fourthly Causing
the first and great Commandment in the Law in this life can be fulfilled and charging it with blasphemy Luther having Austins authority in several places as Jansenius confesses for to second him affirming with him that this Commandment in this life cannot be perfected or fulfilled but it is to be fulfilled in the life to come giving his reason As long as there is any thing of carnal concupiscence to be restrained God is not with the whole heart loved The good Bishop knows how by distinction to salve Austin and maintaine his doctrine to be good divinity and denying Luther that favour to leave him under the brand of blasphemy so that the result of all with him is this God is then loved with the whole heart when any one out of inward and sincere affection to God is principally exercised in those things which are of God studying above all things to please him and carefully to observe not one but all his Commandments and that not slothfully and against heart but diligently and cheerfully grieving from the heart if any thing by others or himself through infirmity of the flesh be admitted contrary to the will of God So that some might think all controversie in this point may cease and that the difference between us were no more than a strife of words seeing we do not only confesse that this ought to be done but also urge a necessity of doing of it and they say the Law is fulfilled when it is done But here 1. Much wrong is done to the Law as though it were a rule of our strength not of our duty that it answered and might be applied to each mans impaired strength and weakened abilities or that the Gospel-grace of godly sorrow for sin against the Law were the keeping of the Law making repentance a satisfactory discharge for disobedience When these men cannot bring up mans nature to the streight line of the Law they bring down the Law to the crooked nature of man 2. It is injurious to man puffing him up with conceit of answering the Law setting him up as high as he should be laid low ready to say with the young man in the Gospel All these have I kept from my youth when holding out the Law in its just latitude as it was happily brought home to the Apostles conscience sin would revive and he would see himselfe in a lost condition A second opinion is that the covenant of grace requires perfection in the exactest way without help of these mens distinctions in an equal degree with the covenant of works but with this difference In the covenant of works there is no indulgence or dispensation in case of failing but the penalty takes hold the curse follows upon it But the covenant of grace though it call for perfection such is the exactnesse of it yet it accepts of sincerity such is the qualification of it through grace or the mercy in it If I should take up any opinion in the world for the Authours sake or those that have appeared as Patrons of it then I should embrace this The reverence deservedly due to him that I suppose first manisted himself in it hath caused it to finde great entertainment but upon more than twenty yeares thoughts about it I finde it labouring under manifold inconveniences 1. It establishes the former opinion opposed by Protestants and but now refuted as to the obedience and the degree called for in covenant And if I should be indulgent to my affections to cause my judgement to stoop Dislike of the one would make me as averse from it as an opinion of the other would make me prone to receive it Judgement therefore must lead and affections be waved 2. If this opinion stand then God accepts of Covenant-breakers of those that deale falsely in it whereas Scripture charges it only upon the wicked upon those of whom God complaines as rebellious Deut. 29. 25. Josh 7. 15. Jeremy 11. 10. Jeremy 22. 8 9. Yea it may be charged on the best the most holy in the world lying under the guilt of it according to this tenent 3. Then it will follow that as none can say that they have so answered the commands of the Law that they have never failed they have not if put to answer in the greatest rigour once transgressed so neither can they with the Church make appeale to God That they have not dealt falsely in the Covenant nor wickedly departed from their God Psal 44. 17. Every sinne according to this opinion being a breach of it and a dealing falsely in it 4. Then that great promise of mercy from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments to do them Psalme 103. 17 18. only appertaines to those that so keep the Law that they sinne not at all against it 5. Then our Baptism-vow is never to sin against God and as often as we renew our covenant we do not only humble our selves that we have sinned but we afresh binde our selves never more to admit the least infirmity and so live and die in the breach of it 6. Then the distinction between those that entered covenant and broke it as Jerem. 31 32 33. and those that have the Law written in their hearts and put into their inward parts to observe it falls all standing equally guilty of the breach of it no help of grace being of power to enable to keep Covenant Each of these five last arguments are replyed to by a distinction of the precept and conditions of the Covenant Men that are sincere break the precept as is said but not the conditions But I know no precepts in covenants which are not conditions Faith and Repentance are Precepts and I think the alone Precepts and I know not neither do I heare of any other Conditions 7. Then it follows that Sincerity is never called for as a duty or required as a grace but only dispensed with as a failing indulged as a want It is not so much a Christians honour or character as his blemish or failing rather his defect than praise But we finde the contrary in Noah Job Asa Hezekiah Zachary and Elizabeth Nathaniel an Israelite indeed that entered covenant and kept covenant Sincerity is a degree towards perfection in obedience and if the command looks no lower than perfection in degree the imperfect degree is not commanded though it be indulged And therefore I conclude that as in the Law there was pure justice as well in the command given as the penalty threatened without any condescension or indulgence So in the covenant there is mercy and condescension as well in the condition required as in the acceptance through grace The Covenant requires no more than it accepts The alone Argument Object so farre as ever I could learn that hath brought some of reverend esteeme heretofore into this opinion is That if
the covenant requires not exact perfection in the same height as the Law calls for it then a Christian may fall short of the Law in his obedience and not sin perfection being not call'd for from him nor any more called for from him than through grace he doth performe he rises as high as his rule and so sins not through any imperfection therefore to make it out that a beleevers imperfections are his sins it must needs be that the covenant requires perfection as to make good that he may be saved in his imperfections it must be maintained that it accepts sincerity But this argument is not of weight Christ entering a Gospel-covenant with man findes him under the command of the Law which command the Law still holds the Gospel being a confirmation not a destruction of it All imperfection then is a sinne upon that account that it is a transgression of the Law though being done against heart and laboured against it is no breach of covenant We are under the Law as men we are taken into covenant as Christians Retaining the humane nature the Law still commands us though the covenant in Christ through the abundant grace of it upon the termes that it requires and accepts frees us from the sentence of it Here is objected What shall we think of those Texts in the New Testament which require us to be perfect 2 Cor. 13. 11. James 1. 4. Yea perfect as God is perfect Matth. 5. 48. reproving weaknesse and infirmity and commanding a going on to perfection Answ We are to think of them as Protestant Dâvines ordinarily do in their commenting upon them We deny saith Rivet that the perfection of which Scripture speaks either when it commands us to be perfect or gives testimony of perfection or integrity to some consists in a freedome from sinne Exercit. 52. in Genes pag. 267. The Text quoted out of James serves well to explaine the rest Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing whence we may argue 1. That perfection which Christians may attaine is the perfection that the Apostle calls unto This is plaine in the text He calls for perfection that we may be perfect But Christians can reach no further a degree in perfection than sincerity Therefore the Apostle calls onely to sincerity 2. That is the Apostles meaning where he speaks of perfection that himself gives in as his meaning This is cleare he is the best interpreter of himself But he expresses himselfe by perfect there to mean entire or lacking nothing A perfection of entirenesse or integrality then he meanes a perfection of parts and not of degrees For that text of Paul 2 Cor. 13. 11. Finally brethren farewell be perfect c. let us compare with it that which he testifies of some in Corinth 1 Cor. 2. 6. Howbeit we speak wisdome among them that are perfect that is those that have a right and more full understanding of Gospel mysteries put in opposition to the weaknesse of novices which perfection is according to the Apostle the way to unity of judgement As for the Text Mat. 5. 48. Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect If it be streined to the highest it calls for a divine increated perfection our adversaries then must yeeld that there is a sicut similitudinis non aequalitatis in that place And if the context be consulted we shall finde that it is opposed to that half hypocritical-righteousnesse which was found in Scribes and Pharisees which all must exceed that enter into the Kingdome of heaven In Heb. 6. 1. a novice-like imperfection in knowledge is reproved and a further growth towards perfection is called for It is further objected If perfection were not the duty of a Christian and unperfectnesse and infirmity his sinne why doth the Apostle groane and grieve under the remainder of his natural infirmities and presse on to perfection Rom. 7. 14. to the 24. Phil. 3. 12 14 The conclusion here is granted The one is a duty the other is a sinne and because of failing in the one and the burden of the other the Apostle groanes Foreseeing that this would be yeelded him there is added by way of objection Or is such unperfectnesse a sinne onely in reference to the rule of the Law and not the rule of the Gospel or that the Law doth but the Gospel doth not call for perfection Answ There is not one rule of the Law as I have demonstrated at large and another of the Gospel seeing the Gospel establishes the Law Onely the gospel-Gospel-covenant calls for those sincere desires which grace works to conform us in our measure of the rule of the Law There is yet a third opinion which I may well doubt whether I understand but so farre as I do understand I am as farre from assent to it as either of the former and that is of those who do not only assert a personal inherent righteousnesse as well as imputed against the Antinomians But also affirm that this righteousnesse is compleat and perfect which if it were meant onely of the perfection of the subject as opposed to hypocrisie dissimulation or doublenesse implying that they do not only pretend for God but are really for him that they do not turne to him feignedly as Israel was sometimes charged Jerem. 3. 10. but with an upright heart or of the perfection or entirenesse of the object respecting not one or only some but all commandments which is called a perfection of parts we might readily assent to it The covenant calls for such perfection Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be thou perfect and many have their witnesse in Scripture that they have attained to it as Noah Gen. 7. 9. Job Job 1. 1. Hezekiah Esay 38. 3. But a perfection above these is maintained a perfection compleat and full Righteousnesse signifies as is said a conformity to the Rule and a conformity with a quatenus or an imperfect rectitude is not a true conformity or rectitude at all imperfect righteousnesse is not righteousnesse but unrighteousnesse It is a contradiction in adjecto though holinesse be acknowledged to be imperfect in all respects where perfection is expected in reference to the degree that it should obtaine or the degree which it shall obtaine or in reference to the excellent object about which it is exercised or in reference to the old covenant or the directive and in some sense the preceptive part of the new Covenant in all these respects it is imperfect and righteousnesse materially considered is holinesse and therefore thus imperfect but formally considered it is perfect righteousnesse or none this not in relation to the old rule but the new Covenant Upon this account they are charged to discover grosse ignorance that use and understand the word righteous and righteousnesse as they relate to the old rule as if the godly were called righteous besides their imputed righteousnesse only
confirmed at large but that others have fully done it and I know not that there is any adversary that appears in it The name of a covenant is frequently given to it Deut. 4. 13. He declared unto you the covenant which he commanded you to performe even ten Commandments See 2 Kings 18. 12. 2 Chron. 6. 11. All the essentials of a covenant before mentioned Parties Consent Conditions are found in it as we may see in that one Text Deut. 26. 17 18. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God to walk in his wayes and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee Yea the solemnities of a covenant as before hath been largely shewne are found in it Secondly This covenant delivered by Moses to the people of Israel was a covenant of Grace the same in substance with this under which we live in Gospel-times This is so largely proved to my hand by Master Ball in his Treatise of the covenant page 102 103 104. and Master Burges in his Vindiciae legis page 224 225. that I may spare my paines yet in brief That covenant which teacheth Christ in which men attaine salvation that accepts men upon repentance in which there is pardon of sinne and in which the heart is circumcised of God that is a covenant of grace One of these single will evince it much more in their joynt strength will they conclude it But the covenant delivered by Moses was such a covenant In that covenant Christ was taught John 5. 46 47. Had ye beleved Moses ye would have beleeved me but if ye beleeve not Moses how will ye beleeve my words Whence the collection is plaine Beleevers of Moses are Beleevers of Christ and Rejecters of Moses are Rejecters of Christ See Luke 24. 25 26. with 44 45 46. John 1. 45. Acts 26. 22 23. Rom. 3. 21 22. The Prophecies Promises Types Genealogies Sacraments under that covenant whether ordinary or extraordinary all held forth Christ as might be easily shewn in their several particulars In that covenant the people of the Jews attained salvation and were not only fed with temporal Promises and a covenant meerly carnal not looking above or beyond the land of Canaan as shall be shewen In this covenant men are accepted and received into mercy and favour upon repentance When thou art in tribulation and all these things are come upon thee in the later dayes if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shalt be obedient to his voice for the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee neither destroy thee nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them Deut. 4. 30 31. In this covenant there is pardon of sinne the great priviledge of the New covenant Heb. 8. 12. The Lord proclaimes himself to Moses The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34. 6 7. See Exod. 32. 31 32. 2 Chron. 7. 14. Psal 25. 11. Psal 51. 12. 7. 9. 14. In this covenant the heart is circumcised another great priviledge of the New covenant Heb. 8. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God All of these any of these hold out a covenant of Grace Thirdly the ten commandments which are called the covenant of God Deut. 4. 13. 2 Chron. 6. 11. all that Moses delivered to Israel being there epitomized holds forth a covenant of Grace and not of Works This appears in the Preface intimating Gods grace and goodnesse to that people bringing them out of the land of Egypt and the house of Bondage Which deliverance had more in it than a bare temporal mercy otherwise their passage through the red Sea could have been no Baptisme as the Apostle calls it 1 Cor. 10. 1. Neither had it been any act of justifying faith in Moses to observe the Passeover which yet the Apostle observes Heb. 11. 28. Then their Rock and Manna had been a viaticum in the way but no Sacrament There God avoucheth himself to be the God of that people I am the Lord thy God and he was a God in covenant to none of man-kinde fallen but by an act of grace It appears in the first commandment where God requires them to accept him and cleave unto him which cannot be done but through Christ It appears in the second commandment in the preceptive part of it which contains the whole ceremonial Law in which pardon of sinne was found through Christ Thither Interpreters reduce all the Sacrifices Types Sacraments of the Jewes It appeares in the reasons annext to that precept which as it threatens judgement on transgressours of the Law so mercy to those that observe it Mercy is an act of Grace and not vouchsafed but in Christ It appears in the fifth commandment in the promise there annext and fastened to it So that this covenant or this summe or epitome of the covenant between God and his people which was put into the Arke and the Mercy-seat or propitiatory set upon it in the most holy place Exod. 26. 34. was a covenant of Grace Fourthly this covenant delivered by Moses and epitomized in the Decalogue being a covenant of Grace it could by no meanes be in the whole and entire nature of it a covenant of Works This is plaine God doth not at once with the same people enter covenant upon so opposite termes These are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã either of them destructive to the other We may argue concerning the covenant as the Apostle doth concerning Election If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work This I speak as for their sakes that make it a mixt covenant such a one as Pauls adversaries preacht in the Churches of Galatia so also for their sakes that assert it to be a covenant of Works never undertaking any answer to those arguments which so clearly conclude it to be a covenant of Grace Fifthly What this covenant is to any that it is to all whether it be of works or of grace what it is in it selfe in the tender and termes of it that is the denomination of it This is plaine Mens faith or unbelief Mens obedience or transgression cannot diversifie the nature of that which God doth tender And what God spake to the people he spake to all the people the same to all that he spake to any Exodus 19. 25. Exodus 20. 18. compared and therefore that is a mistake in some that say That the Law is doubtlesse a pure covenant of Works to some men but not to all It is a covenant of works occasionally and accidentally and not only to those which are not related to comprehended in or made
them onely that receive the benefits of it and are upright in it An eminent Divine putting the Question and returning answer How a man may know himself to be in covenant with God presently foresees an Objection against any such Quaere As Saul and all the people of Israel were in covenant with God so all professing Christians are covenanters likewise and hereby all distinguishing notes of Professors some in covenant and some without must needs fall to the ground one member then of the distinction having no being for solution of the doubt he layes down a distinction There is saith he a twofold covenant 1. A single Covenant which God makes with his children when they are baptized which is this if ye will believe repent and walk in my ways ye shall be saved now if they break this condition God is freed 2. A double covenant to performe both parts which is this if you will repent and beleeve ye shall be saved and I will give you an heart and you shall repent believe and be saved So Preston on Attributes part 2. page 85. 86. These distinctions plainly yeeld that there is a covenant between God and man in this latitude of which we speak and which here is exprest and that all professed Christians so called are in an outward and single covenant which puts them into a capacity of Sacraments and their children which is a covenant properly so called and which Scripture holds out for the covenant of God with his people These Divines yeelding so much and their meaning being so Orthodox there is no reason of contraversie with them or contention about words Yet I should choose rather to expresse my self in Pareus his words against Stapleton the Jesuite on 1 Cor. 7. 14. objecting against this doctrine for it is a doctrine which Antipaedobaptists and Independents have borrowed from Jesuites and we have them all in this as in many other things our Adversaries To be in covenant saith he is taken two ways either according to tiole to the covenant or to the benefits of the covenant He is said to be in covenant that either obtaines the benefits of the covenant which are remission of sinnes adoption c. Or else that hath onely the title and outward badge of the covenant so that he is repute to have interest in it and is not an alien from it The right of covenant belongs to all that externally make profession These engage themselves upon Gods termes The benefit of the covenant remission of sinnes justification adoption c. belongs only to the Elect regenerate Or farther we may distinguish of the covenant of grace and the grace following the covenant The covenant of grace is in the latitude before mentioned the grace following the covenant in that restriction that some contend for or else we may distinguish of entring covenant and stedfastnesse and faithfulnesse in the covenant All enter that are visible professors onely the elect and faithful are steady in it This distinction is evidently grounded on Psal 78. 34. They remembred that God was their rock the high God their Redeemer nevertheless their heart was not right in them neither were they stedfast in his covenant All covenant-enterers are not covenant-keepers To take off this restriction and for overthrow of this imaginary difference it were enough to require of these Asserters of this covenant-restriction and limit where God hath put any such restraint for affirmanti incumbit probatio and to require some reason why men in nature in Old Testament-times should be honoured with that neare relation to God as to be of the Common-wealth of this people enjoying not barely civil and domestick Priviledges but saving Ordinances and under the Gospel must stand shut out of all such visible relations why unregenerate men in order to regeneration may not come under the discipline of God under the Gospel as well as under Old Testament-dispensations Why poore sinners that confesse with their mouth with the Eunuch that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God Acts 8. 37. may not be indulged those proviledges now Christ is come in the flesh to save sinners whereby they may be brought to be beleeve with the heart that they may be saved To those that would make such a distance between the covenants as to throw out of the covenant of God and visible communion all that are unregenerate we may speak in Christs words From the beginning it was not so and either we must see some good ground that in this there is by the will of God this great change or else we shall beleeve as it was then so it now But I shall deale more liberally and make it appear that the Gospel doth not only not quit us of it but establishes it doth not only not abolish it as it doth the Types of the Law but holds it forth and gives testimony of the continuance of it CHAP. XXXVII New Testament-Scriptures asserting the latitude of the covenant of Grace in Gospel-times LEt that Text Matth. 28. 19. in the first place be weighed Go teach all Nations c. which our adversaries in this cause willingly consent to have translated Disciple all Nations and therefore there needs no words nor stir to be made about it and that a Disciple of Christ is in covenant with God is as freely confest he takes God in Christ to be his God he layes claime to salvation by him this ground being laid in which I think I have not an adversary I draw from hence a twofold Argument First that covenant between God and man which is committed to the Ministry of man to work to judge of being wrought and to put to a Seale for confirmation of it is a covenant onely visibly entred and doth not require any inward real change or work upon the soule to the being of it This Proposition is clear man can judge no farther than of that which is outward and visible Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart If none but a regenerate elect person be in covenant then none but God knowes who are in covenant Then we may apply that of the Apostle spoken of the Seal of Election The Lord knoweth them that are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. unto every one that as a Church-member is to be received into visible fellowship A Church-member and an elect person according to this tenent are termini convertibiles and the seale of the Spirit and the seale of the Sacrament are in equal latitude To baptize an unregenerate person is to put a seal to a blank as high an abuse of that sacred Ordinance as the circumcision of the Sichemites Gen. 34. 24. That this covenant is such appears in that Text It is committed to man to work and to judge of it being wrought to put a seal for ratification and confirmation of it The Apostles were to make Disciples to bring men into covenant with God and being discipled to baptise them
their flesh this signe and seale of the Covenant 2. Upon it they had many and great priviledges yea all Church priviledges followed upon this leading priviledge though otherwise strangers to the Common-weale of Israel now they were look't upon as of Israel 3. Answering unto and in sincerity making good that unto which they do actually engage the whole blessing of the Covenant is theirs They that undertake the termes on which covenant-salvation according to the Gospel is had are actually vested in a a saving covenant but they undertake the termes on which covenant-salvation according to the Gospel is had they are therefore in a saving covenant 4. In case unbelief and impenitence in them be not only Law-transgressions but also Gospel-sins and breaches of a Gospel-covenant then these professed believers are under a Gospel-covenant This is evident They sin not against the Gospel that are not under the Gospel they break not covenant that were never in covenant but their unbelief and impenitence are above Law-transgressions they are Gospel-sins and breaches of covenant as I think need not to be proved and therefore it is plain that they are in covenant Upon this account I confesse I have often marvelled why many eminent and godly Divines do earnestly perswade their people to whom they speak to enter covenant with God giving directions what way they are to take to come into covenant with him telling them that it is of great concernment to them to know under what covenant they are whether under a covenant of Works or a covenant of grace when the same men expressely say that we all entred covenant in baptisme and that unbelief and impenitence at least if not every sin is a breach of our baptism vow and covenant Might not any think that these did perswade to be baptised and that they tell their people that it is of great concernment to know what covenant it is that baptisme seales whether it seales the covenant of Works or the covenant of Grace If we enter in covenant in our baptisme as they truly say that we did as to the Jus in re then how comes it to passe that any that are baptised are out of it and being already actually in it how are they perswaded to enter into it These perswasions therefore and motives to enter covenant I think should be to presse men on to keep covenant and so the directions which they lay down are indeed of divine and excellent use And when they say it so much concernes men to know what covenant they are under I conceive it should rather be to let them know of how great concernment it is to them to see that they have their interest in the mercies of the covenant through grace answering to the termes of it and requisites in it and so the entring of covenant which is done as these say in baptisme and keeping of covenaut or obtaining the mercies of the covenant would not be confounded but distinguished Their labours would likewise be of excellent use which otherwise scarce suit either with their own words or the Scriptures It may be objected that in case they are from under the covenant of Works and under the covenant of Grace then they are exempted from the curse and acquitted from the condemnation which is annext to that covenant which cannot be affirmed of any meer Professour of Christianity in unbelief and impenitence and enough is spoken in this Treatise it self against it To this I answer 1. The curse may follow upon the transgression of the Law as a Law without consideration of any covenant at all whether of Works or Grace and it is not interest in Covenant but interest in Christ which these supposedly such have not that frees from condemnation 2. What if it be yielded that they beare no more than the penalty annext to the breach of the Covenant of grace If the Gospel be consulted that is sufficiently sad and heavy If they be put to beare that nothing more needs to be added to the burden and indeed with submission to better judgments not resolvedly determining any thing it is my thoughts that professed Christians in unbelief and impenitence suffer not upon account of the penalty annext to the breach of the covenant of Works but upon account of the penalty annext to the breach of the covenant of Grace and let not any here object that the transgression of the Law shall not then be laid to their charge for the Gospel bindes us to the obedience of the Law though not in exact perfection yet in sincerity and truth And this I suppose receives strength from that of the Apostle 2 Thes 1 7 8. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which character therof not knowing God Interpreters saith Dr. Slater upon the words generally take to be a description of the Gentiles who though they know God by his Works yet they know him not by his Word and to this he subscribes The other character of not obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ is as he saith a circumscription of Christians according to Interpreters Gospel-disobedience is then their guilt and upon account of this they suffer Had they believed and yielded sincere obedience which they professed and to which they engaged themselves they had not perished and the want of this appears to be their destruction CHAP. XLI Interest in a Church-state is of equal latitude with the Covenant THen it follows by way of necessary corollary that Church-membership interest in a Church-state is of equal latitude not only the elect and regenerate but all in covenant as before spoken to have their right stand entitled to Church-priviledges And here lest I should be mistaken let me explaine my selfe that my meaning is not ipso facto because in covenant with God and called by his name to entitle them to the Church invisible and so to suppose them lively members living in grace by influence of the Spirit from Christ This would clearly enough contradict that which before I have spoken and were indeed a contradiction in the adject I mean it of a visible Church-state and interest in visible priviledges If any quarrel at the distinction as some have done on either hand endeavouring to take off both members The Church of Rome not admitting any Church invisible and others not brooking any Church but such as consists of invisible members as may appear in their definitions of a particular Church putting in those clauses that belong only to the Church invisible I shall refer them to Doctor John Reynolds in his second Thesis fully bottoming it on that Text Mat. 22. 14. Many are called but few chosen which yet must be confest with judicious Master Hudson that it is not a division into two distinct Churches or species of Churches but a distribution of the subject by the adjuncts
it p. 272 Baptisme into particular Church-societies examined p. 461 See Infants Infant-Baptisme Beleevers Vnregenerate persons have the name and outward priviledges of Beleevers p. 249 Berith In the most proper sense signifies a Covenant p. 37 Birth-priviledge Birth-interest in Ancestours-priviledges is of the nature of the things that descend from Parent to Childe p. 401 402 It is so in civil Priviledges in all Kingdomes States Corporations ibid. Vpon this account Protestants are taken up by Jesuites and the Orthodox by Anabaptists in their words p. 403 Birth-interest in Ancestours-priviledges is held up in all other Religions p. 405 God ownes Infants borne in the Church upon account of their birth as his children his servants ibid. Birth-interest being denied parent and childe are heterogeneal p. 406 Children then brought up not in Covenant but for Covenant ibid. According to Scripture-grounds no hope left of their salvation p. 407 Branch What with the Apostle it signifies Rom. 11. 16. p. 325 Branches of two sorts Natural and engraffed ibid. See Root C Canaan GIven to Abrahams natural issue by Promise p. 301 That gift was an appendant to the Covenant p. 303 The promise of it did not denominate the Covenant mixt p. 226 Carnal See Covenant Camero's Assertion of an animal life in Paradise p. 100 His distinction of an absolute and conditional Covenant of the Antecedent and consequent love of God p. 46 47 Children Acts 2. 39. Comprizes Infants p. 322 Not the same with sons and daughters of the Nation vers 17. p. 319 See Promise Christ Is the Mediatour of the Covenant of Grace a fulnesse and fitnesse in him for that work p. 92 A Covenant made of God with him p. 14 This Covenant not the same with the Covenant of Grace made with man ibid. In the assumption of mans nature he did not change the law of nature p. 57 Whole Christ is to be received by Beleevers p. 190 Justification strictly so called seemes to be the fruit of Christs passive righteousnesse p. 123 His active and passive obedience both concurre to mans full happinesse ibid. See Mediatour Christians Vnregenerate persons have the name and outward priviledges of Christians p. 252 Church The distinction into visible and invisible asserted and explained p. 267 See Engraffing Church visible Distinguished into universal and particular p. 269 Universal visible Asserted p. 267 c. It consists of all that make profession of Christian Religion p. 268 Interest in it is of equal latitude with the Covenant p. 267 Church particular A man by Covenant with God interessed in the universal Church visible needs nothing farther for his accesse and interest in particular Churches p. 270 Cohabitation makes not up a Church congregational p. 273 Yet it is necessarily required ibid. A people cohabiting in a vicinity ough to associate in Church-fellowship for Ordinances ibid. Professing Christians in such cohabitation are to be esteemed particular Church-members p. 274 Church-Covenant Explicite or implicite p. 459 Covenant explicite not essential to the relation of a particular Church-member p. 460 Without any Scripture-precedent p. 272 460 Where all is enjoyed for the being of a particular Church much may be wanting for the well-being p. 273 Church pure impure When to be judged pure p. 277 Impure Churches have yet the being of Churches ibid Rome a Church of most impure being ibid. That which especially denominates a Church pure or impure is doctrine p. 278 Doctrines tending to the defilement of Churches are tainted either in the foundation or superstruction ibid. See Errors Parochial Churches Vindicated p. 274 See Place Circumcision A seale of spiritual mercies p. 227 Both a priviledge and a bondage p. 208 Called by the name of Covenant p. 423 It was bottomed on the commandement p. 297 Which command had relation to the Covenant ibid. It was peculiar to Abrahams natural issue p. 301. Cohabitation See Church particular Commands Frequent and full under Moses his administration p. 213 See Law Consent In man of necessity to his being in Covenant with God p. 3. Consequence From Scripture justified p. 416 Conditions Covenant What a Covenant-condition is p. 35 Conditions of the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace on Gods part seem to be the same p. 99 Conditions in the Covenant of Works Were in mans power p. 102 103 Kept man within himself for righteousnesse p. 115 116 Their end was mans preservation 117 Conditions in the Covenant of Grace Covenant of Grace hath it's conditions p. 33 34 Arguments asserting it p. 34 c. Objections answered p. 36 c. These conditions are not performed without special assistance of Grace p. 104 Arguments for special assistance in this work p. 104 105 Objections answered p. 113 c. These conditions carry a man out of himself for righteousnesse p. 116 They are for mans restitution p. 117 A people thus in Covenant must come up to the termes and conditions of the Covenant p. 190 c. No happinesse or assurance but in performance of these conditions p. 195 Objections answered p. 199 Covenant in general Figurative acceptions of the Word p. 2 Requisites in a Covenant p. 3 Mutual contracts of the nature of it p. 38 Distinguished p. 4 Defined p. 5 Covenant between God and Man Reasons why God dealt in a Covenant-way with man p. 6 7 Covenant between God and man defined p. 8 Definition asserted p. 37 38 This Covenant distinguished into Covenant of Works Covenant of Grace p. 8 Covenant of Works and Grace Their agreement p. 86 Their respective differences p. 87 c. Covenant of Works Was entered in mans integrity ibid. Was alone for his preservation p. 88 Did precede the Covenant of Grace ibid. Was a small time in force p. 90 Had no Mediatour p. 91 Covenant of God with Christ Not the same with the Covenant of Grace entered with fallen man p. 14 15 Covenant of Grace Defined p. 159 Distinguished into the Old and New or first and second p. 202 Hath it's solemnities in the highest way p. 5 12 Was entered in mans fallen estate p. 87 Is for mans restitution p. 88 Is in time after the Covenant of Works ibid. Is of everlasting continuance p. 90 Is in and by a Mediatour p. 91 God in this Covenant so manifests his free grace that he still keeps up his Sovereignty p. 53 Old and New or first and second Covenant Their agreement in 6. particul p. 202 c. They are one in substance p. 204 Old Covenant Was administred and held forth by Servants Prophets Priests c. p. 205 It received only the Jewes ibid. It had its date of time and is antiquated for another to succeed p. 206 It was dedicated with the blood of Bulls and Goats ibid. It held forth Christ only in a promise to be incarnate to suffer p. 207 It held all out under types figures and shadowes ibid. Vnder that dispensation knowledge dim those under it in a state of darknesse comparativè to Christians p.
208 Circumcision that painfull signe was the leading initiating seale of it p. 209 Nine positions tending to clear the Old Covenant under Old Testament-dispensations p. 210 211 212 c. See Moses It was not made up of carnal promises p. 219 c. The charge of the Old Covenant to be meerely carnal serves divers interests 1. To bring down all honour and esteem of Old Testament-Scriptures p. 220 2. To take Infants out of Covenant p. 221 3. To keep Infants from Baptisme p. 222 Testimonies evincing the spirituality of Old Covenant-Promises ibid. This Old Covenant was a pure Gospel-Covenant and not mixt p. 224 New Covenant It is held forth by Christ the Mediatour p. 205 It takes in all Nations ibid. 206 It must remain till the end of time ibid. The dedication of it is in the blood of Christ p. 207 Christ already come in the flesh is set forth in it ibid. Truth without type or-shadow held forth in it p. 207 208 Light abounds and knowledge is clear in it p. 208 Baptisme is the initiating seal of it p. 209 It is not limited to the Elect Regenerate p. 231 The meaning of some Orthodox Divines that in some expression seem to deny it p. 233 Severall New Testament-Scriptures evincing it p. 235 c. Arguments asserting it p. 205 Absurdities following upon the restraint of the Covenant to the Elect regenerate p. 252 Objections answered p. 257 It comprizes professed Beleevers and their issue p. 246 The question stated as to the issue of Abraham in severall particulars p. 296 297 c. Arguments from Old Testament-Scriptures evincing the natural issue of Abraham to be in Covenant p. 301. From New Testament-Scriptures p. 304. The grand Objection Rom. 9. 6 7 8. answered p. 309 A second Objection that it is not in that latitude in New Testament-times answered p. 316 1. By Quaeries put p. 317 New Testament-authorities Acts 2. 38 39. Rom. 11. 16. 1 Cor. 7. 14. Gal. 4. 29. Matth. 19. 14. p. 318 3. Arguments evincing it p. 401 c. D. Death WHat in Scripture it implies p. 100 p. 101 The same in the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace ibid. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The proper and most received signification denotes a Testament and not a Covenant p. 38 39 Disciple Vnregenerate persons have the name and outward priviledges of Disciples p. 251 Whole Nations in capacity to be Discipled p. 236 Infants are Disciples p. 413 Discipline God in the Covenant of Grace keeps up his Sovereignty in exercise of Discipline p. 77 78 c. See Separation E. Election INto a Church-state p. 340 The Covenant of Grace not commensurate with Election p. 98 Election leads to salvation without any merit of workes p. 341 See Reprobation Engraffing There is no engraffing into the Church invisible p. 336 Engraffing by Faith according to Election is into Christ. ibid. Engraffing into the true Olive Rom. 11. is into the Church as visible Asserted by Arguments p. 327 c. Errors Have their estimate more or lesse according as they are against Christ p. 280 Some render Christ in an incapacity to be Mediatour ibid. Some are in whole or in part inconsistent with his Mediatorship ibid. Errours either in the foundation or in the superstructure p. 278 In the foundation more neere or more remote p. 279 Epample The Argument that there is no example for infant-baptisme answered p. 414 Extreames In the worship of God dangerous p. 439 F Faith IN Christ commanded in the Moral Law p. 96 c. Is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace p. 118 c. Proposâtions tending to clear it p. 122 Reasons to confirme it p. 119 Objections answered p. 130 c. As accepting Christ as a Lord it doth not justifie p. 125 It justifies as an instrument p. 126 Truth explained p. 127 Objections answered ibid. See instrument Faith of profession entitles to Baptisme p. 289 Arguments proving it p. 290 Faith and Repentance our conditions not Gods p. 144 Faith of profession Entitles to the Church visible p. 334 May be lost p. 333. 334 Flesh Birth after the flesh gives a visible title to Church interest p. 370 c. Children of the flesh those who in course of nature come from Abraham ibid. G. Gentiles SInners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. 15. what it implies p. 305. 306 Engraffing of the Jewes and the Gentiles Rom. 11. is into the Church visible p. 327 See Engraffing Church of Jewes and Gentiles one p. 328. Gomarus His answer to the Anabaptists Argument draw from Rom. 9. 6 7. p. 313 c. Gospel Where it is tendered and recieved there is a Covenant p. 161 Where it is tendered and refused there is no Covenant ibid. Grace Is the Fountaine and rise of every Covâânant of God with man p. 9 The necessity of the concurrence of Grace in mans conversion p. 111 Arguments evincing it p. 104 c. Objections answered p. 113 c. Sufficiency of Gospel-grace in the Old Covenant to convince men of sin for not beleeving p. 215 H. Holy Holinesse HOlinesse of relation of infusion p. 326 One and the same holinesse in every branch of the Olive Rom. 11. ibid. Holinesse not legitimation p. 357 Not regenerate with the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 14. ibid. See places Holinesse of relation of persons p. 440 Of unreasonable creatures ibid. Persons holy in some peculiar way of service p. 444 In a more general way as separate from Idols to God p. 447 Heaven See Kingdome I. Jew A Jew by nature is one in Covenant by birth p. 306 Infant Those little ones that Christ recieved and blessed were infants p. 394 They were infants of Parents in Covenant p. 394 395 They were themselves in Covenant ibid. They were admitted upon a common right and no special priviledge above other infants in Israel ibid. They were admitted to a Church-priviledge p. 397 The Disciples excluded them upon their minority and Christ will have that to be no bar for their admittance p. 399 Infant-Baptisme By Arguments asserted p. 410 c. Objections answered p. 411 c. Infants of all Christian Parents have right to Baptisme p. 448 Infants of wicked Parents p. 448 Of misbelieving Parents p. 449 Of ignorant Parents ibid. Of illegitimate birth p. 450 Of excommunicate persons p. 468 Right of infants of Apostates discussed p. 453 Infants have right to Baptisme as from immediate so from mediate Parents p. 465 Infants within the verge of Baptism-institution p. 411 412 Infants of Christian Parents entitled to the Lords Supper by jus ad rem not jus in re p. 436 Instrument The Word the outward Faith the inward instrument in justification p. 129 Faith more aptly said to be an instrument in justification than the word ibid. Relative actions have not their instruments fitly and properly so called as those that are absolute p. 127 Faith is the instrument of man in the work of justification and because of man in a work of this nature it
is not unfitly called in instrument of God p. 128 See Faith Justification Ishmael In Covenant when circumcised p. 296 Not to be branded with bastardy ibid. He and his seed cast out of Covenant p. 298 Justification Mans concurrence in it necessarily required in it as an acceptant not as agent p. 127 It is a transient act of God not an immanent p. 132 It is not from eternity p. 131 c. A justified man an an fitted for every duty to which God calls p. 135. See Faith Instrument K. Kingdome of Heaven IN what sense taken Matth. 19. 14 c. p. 399 The Hinge of the contraversie concerning infants interest in Covenant hangs not on the interpretation of those words ibid. Anabaptists reasons not sufficient to prove it to be meant of the Kingdome of Glory p. 400 Though understood of the Kingdome of Glory it serves not to discovenant or dischurch infants p. 401 L. Law COnsidered as a Covenant to give life is inconsistent with the Gospel p. 55 Moral-Law hath a commanding power over Beleevers ibid. By Arguments asserted ibid. Objections answered p. 58 In what sense a dead husband p. 59 See Moses A rule of our duty not of our strength p. 151. Life What in Scripture it implies p. 100 The same in substance in the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace ibid. A Medium may be concieved and is by some assigned between life and death in Scripture acceptation p. 123 Lord. The acceptation of Christ as Lord doth not justifie p. 125 Love To do a thing out of obedience to the Law and by love not opposite p. 61 Love cleaves to Christ for communion but recieves him not for justification p. 125 M. Master Marshal VIndicated p. 435 Mediatour A foure-fold work respective to the Covenant incumbent on the Mediatour p. 93 c. See Christ Moses Metaphor God's entring Covenant with man no Metaphor p. 10. 37 Ministers Must bring their people up to the termes of the Covenant in pressing the necessity of Faith and Repentance p. 188 c. They must not sever the promise from the duty p. 189 Ministry The necessity of a Ministry to bring me into Covenant and to bring them up to the termes of the Covenant p. 160. Reasons evincing that God hath appointed such a Ministry to be perpetuated through all ages p. 162 c. Reasons evincing the necessity of such an established Ministry p. 165 c. Objections answered p. 168 169 An orderly call from God into the Ministerial function necessary p. 180 Reasons assigned p. 181 182 Several wayes of calling to the work of The Ministry p. 182 See Ordination Ministry-maintenance p. 442 Moses The Law as delivered by Moses bindes Christians p. 73 74 75 He delivered a Covenant to the Jewes p. 210 He delivered a Covenant of Grace to the Jewes p. 210 211 In his time commands were frequent and full the directive and maledictive part for discovery of sin were open and clear but promises for eternity little known p. 213 He was a Mediatour in type N. Nature TAken for Birth-priviledge or descent from Ancestors p. 307 Taken for qualifications of nature ibid. Jewes by nature had priviledges above Gentiles p. 307 308 O. Obedience See Righteousnesse Olive THe whole universal Church visible Rom. 11. p. 325 Fatnesse of the Olive glory of Ordinances p. 326 Ordination An orderly call by way of Ordination into the Ministerial function necessary in all not gifted by immediate revelation p. 182 Ordination described ibid. Men in Ministerial function are to act in Ordination p. 182 183 They are to set men apart as Presbyters and Elders p. 184 Ordination not to be passed but upon examination and tryal p. 140 To be solemnized with fasting and prayer p. 185 186 Imposition of hands to be used p. 187 Objections answered ibid. P. Pardon NAtional and personal p. 343 My People That phrase applied in New Testament-Scriptures to those that stand invisible relation to God p. 258 Places for worship In New Testament-times have their warranty In what sense holy p. 441 Places holy by divine institution by divine approbation p. 439 Positions concerning places for worship in Gospel-times p. 441 Not in equipage with the Temple and Tabernacle ibid. Temple and Tabernacle had the pre-eminence in four Particulars ibid. Our places of meeting by good warranty called Churches p. 441 c. Position This Position that the Moral Law hath no commanding power over Believers examined p. 58 That position concerning the Old Covenant to be both a Covenant of Works and a Covenant of Grace examined p. 210 Power Necessary in the call of Nations to a visible Church-state p. 330 Priviledge See Birth Professors Who to be accounted so before men p. 450 Promises Made to the wiked made good to the believing and penitent p. 190 Absolute promises yield not peace to him that is wanting in the conditions of God required ibid. p. 47 Objections answered p. 190 Spiritual promises rare and obscure under Moses his administration p. 213 Scriptures evincing the spirituality of Old Testament-Promises p. 222 Temporal promises annexed as appendants to spiritual in the Old Covenant p. 226 Children of Promise All the seed of Abraham by Isaac born by vertue of that miraculous promise p. 298 Q. Quaeries PVt to those that restraine the New Covenant to the Elect regenerate p. 234 c. Put to those that put a limit to the New Covenant respective to the issue p. 317 R. Reconciliation GRadual or total of persons of Nations p. 331 Repentance A distinct grace from faith p. 136 A condition of the Covenant of grace ib. Considered in the prae-requisites p. 137 In the essential parts of it ibid. Privative part which is cessation from sin is required in Covenant p. 140 Positive part which is a returne to God and an holy walk with God is required in Covenant p. 142 See Righteousnesse Objections answered p. 144 c. Reprobation No cause of unbelief or sin p. 341 It leads not to condemnation without merit of sin as Election leads to Salvation without merits of works ibid. Righteousnesse What degree of righteousnesse is required in the Covenant of Grace p. 148 Perfection of degrees is not so required that upon the defection of it the penalty is incurred p. 149 Perfection of degrees is not required and sincerity accepted p. 151 Reasons assigned ibid. c. Objections answered p. 153 Our Evangelical righteousnesse is imperfect p. 155 c Sincerity is required and accepted p. 112 c. Root and Branch Denote parent and childe Rom. 11. 16. p. 325 Root Abraham Isaac and Jacob. ibid. Every natural parent a Root p. 338 Every natural believing Parent an holy Root ibid. Abraham a Root by communication not by example p. 399 S. Sacraments ARe Gospel mysteries p. 446 Sacriledge Defined p. 440 With-holding infants of believing parents from Baptism is Sacriledg p. 437 c. Saints Vnregenerate persons have the name and outward priviledge of Saints p.
disobligation to obedience a Cùm itaque homo jaceret sub maledictione ad obedientiam amplius non obligabatur quia coli ab eo Deus ampliùâ non volebat b Nam quòd coli à creature sua Deââ vult favârâis est The Sovereignty of God is held up 1. In keeping up his commandments The Law hath a commanding power over beleeevers Rom. 7. 1 c. vindicated The Law bindes the whole of man * Authorities vouchsafed for the perfection of the Moral Law as a Rule a Lex ista Dei quae in Decalogo continetur est perfectissima regula ad vitam hominis dirigendam b Ut legem istam Dei eo loco habeamus quo debemus i.e. ut non aliter de eadem cogitemus quam ut de vitae nostra unica forma tanquam de illa norma quae nullum habet defectum sed perfecta est in sese perfectionem omnem à nobis requirit c Ipsa lex Christi est exactissima perfectissima regula Sanctitatis justitiae d Passim in Scripturis confirmatur quae perfectionem legis divinae mirificè extollunt e Tam perfecta est haec lex ut nihil ei in praeceptis moralibus aut à Christo aut ab Apostolis ipsius additum fuerit quoad exactionem bonorum operum normam sub novo Testamento sit adducta f Obligans omnes creaturas rationales ad perfectam obedientiam internam externam g De perfect â obedientiâ quam Lex requirit h Variis autem corruptelis omnibus temporibus olim nunc depravata est doctrina de perfect â obedientia quam Lex Dei requirit i Est praeceptio divina continens piè justeque coram Deo vivendi regulam requirens ab omni homine perfectam perpetuam obedientiam Arguments evincing the perfection of the Moral Law a Exceptions taken against the perfection of the Law b 1. Exception 2. Exception 3. Exception 4 Exception 5. Exception 6. Exception The Covenant of Works was entred into in mans state of integrity The Covenant of Grace was entered into in mans fallen condition The Covenant of Works was to mans preservation The Covenant of Grace was to mans restitution The Covenant of Works was first in time The Covenant of Grace in order of time followed after The Covenant of Works was a small time in force The Covenant of Grace is of everlasting continuance The Covenant of Works had no Mediatour Sol. Cujus enim participatione justi sunt ejus comparatione nec justi sunt Aug. ad Orosium contra Priscil cap. 10 Sol. The Covenant of grace is by a Mediatour Christ brings man into a capacity of covenanting with God Christ brings man within the verge of the Covenant 1. By his tender of it 2. By shaping the heart for it Christ brings up to the terms of the Covenant Christ crowns those that come up to the terms of the covenant Difficulties removed Faith is a duty of the moral Law The Covenant of grace not commensurate with election Conditions in the Covenant of works and the covenant of grace of Gods part seem to be the same Life promised in the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace is one and the same Death threatned in the Covenent of Works and in the Covenant of Grace is one and the same The conditions in the CovenaÌt of works were in mans power QuaÌ veluti aureo quodam fraeno pars inferior parti superiori pars superior Deo facile subjecta contineretur Bellar. De. Grat. primi hominis cap. 5. The conditions in the Covenant of Grace are not performed without special assistance Reasons Jer. 31. 33. cleared a Si filius miles acceptis à patre naturalibus ordine atque armis strenuè militaret sicque forsit an in superbia erigeretur inflatus quomodo in ipso cradicaretur superbia plantaretur humilitas Si ei ab aliquo diceretur Non glorietur omnis mile in conspectu patris sui Ex ipso enim est in militia ut qui gloriatur iâ patre suc glorietur quid habes quod non accepisti Si autem accepisti quid gloriaris quasi non acceperis Posset enim rationaliter respondere dicendo quare non deberem de mea militia glâriari Accepi quidem à patre meo natural a mea quia nullus generat semetipsum accepi ordinem quia nulli conceditur infig nire semetipsum accepi arma qui a similitur caeteri militum non nascebar armatus nec sum fabor armorum debitum tamen usum istorum qui omnibus praevalet non accepi ab alio sed habeo me ex meipso crebas victorias fama celebri diâlugatas non accepi ab alio sed âabeo ex mâipso Pro hujusmodi igitur in me ipso merito gloriabor in alio autem nihil sic de quolibet milite Jesu Christi Necessity of the concurrence of grace Habitus infusi infunduntur ad mâdum acquisitorum The conditions in the Covenant of Works kept man within himself for righteousnesse The conditions in the Covenant of Grace carry a man out of himself to be righteous by anothers righteousnesse The conditions in the Covenant of works were for mans preservation in present happinesse The conditions in the Covenant of grace are for mans reparation Reasons convincing Faith to be a condition of the Covenant of grace In what sense faith is here taken Propositions tending to clear the point in hand The acceptation of Christ as a Lord doth not justifie Faith justifies as an instrument Fides percipit justificationem efficit sanctificationem a Quà m primum ergo instrumentum principali agenti non subservit instrumenti naturam a mittit Quae realâm evidentem mutationem extrinsecus nullam infert Transiens actio est quae revera mutationem infert A justified man is fitted for every duty to which God is pleased for to call Faith and Repentance are distinct graces and not one and the same Godly sorrow is a prerequisite to repentance Some degree of soul-shaking by the Law necessary Limits put to this doctrine of godly sorrow The essentials in repentance are 1. Privative Cessation from sinne 2. Positive A returne to God and an holy walking with him The Objection retorted Faith and repentance are our conditions not Gods Sol. Via ad regnum non causa regnandi Arguments evincing that Faith and Repentance are our conditions and not Gods in the proper conditional covenant In what manner Works are called for in the Covenant of Grace Repentance necessarily flowing from Faith is not thereby disabled from being a condition in the Covenant of Grace Perfection of degrees is not so called for of God in Covenant that upon failing it the mercies promised in Covenant are lost a Si quis dixerit baptizatos per baptisimum ipsum solius tantùm debitores fidei fieri non autem universa legis Christi
servandae anathema fit Sess Sept. Canon Sex b Baptismus non id efficit ut homo solius fidei debitor âit non autem implendae universae legis Duobus modis intelligi posse hominem baptizatum dici liberum à lege divina servanda uno modo ut facere contra eam legem non fit injustum nec peccatum quasi lex abrogata esset de hoc sensu non est controversia altero modo intelligi potest ut facere contra legem fit quidem peccatum tamen non imputetur iis qui fidem habent nec pendeat justificatio aut salus ab impletione legis sed à sola misericordia quae per fidem apprehenditur a Nam cum est aliquid carnalis concupiscentiae quod vel continendo foenetur nam omninò ex tota anima diligitur Deus b Diligitur tunc Deus ex toto corde cum quis ex intima sincera erga Deum affectione occupatur potissimùm in his quae Dei sunt prae omnibus illi placere studens ac sollicitus ut non tantum quaedam Dei mandata perficiat sed cuncta idque non seniter ex tristi animo sed gnaviter hilariter dolens ex animo si quid vel ab alliis vel à se per carnis infirmitatem admittatur contrium divinae voluntati Jansenii Harmon c. 81. The Law a rule of our duty not of our strength The Covenant of Grace doth not cal for perfection and accept sincerity Sol. Our Evangelical righteousnesse is imperfect Omnis humana justitia injustitia esse deprebendiâur si divinitus districtè judicatur Gâegor Moral lib. 21. Cap. 15. Nostra fiqua est humilis justitia rectâ forsitan sed non pura nisi fortè meliores nos esse credimus quà m patres nostros qui non minùs veraciter quam humiliter ajebant Omnes justitiae nostrae tanquam pannus meâstâutae mâlieâis Quo modo enim pura justitia ubi adhuc non potest culpâ deesse Bern. in Serm. 5. de verbis Esajae pâophetae The Covenant of grace requires and acccepts sincerity The Covenant of Grace defined Where a Ministery is not there is no Covenant-people Where the Gospel is tendered and refused there is no Covenant Where the Gospel is tendred there is a people in Covenant Reasons proving the establishment of a Ministery to be perpeâuated through all ages * There was an end of ages at Christs first coming Heb. 9. 26. There shall be an end of ages at his second coming See Gomarus Tom. 2. p. 530. Reasons evincing a necessity of such an established Ministery * Anglia bis 4. annis facta est colluâies lerna omnium errotum sectarum nulla à condito orbe provincia tam parvo spaâio tot manstrosas haereses protulit atque haec Referunt Theoâ Cestrens in attestatione sua excusa Anno Domini 648. Objections against a Ministerial Ordinance answered Joel 2. 28 29. vindicated Jerem. 31. 31 32 33 34. vindicated a Quòd autem fanatici homines hinc occasionem arripiunt abolendae exterrae praedicationis acsi sub Christi regno esset superuacua facilè corum insania rejellâtur Haec corum est objectio Post Christi adventum non debet quisque proximum suum docere sacessat igâtur externum Ministerium ut internae Dei inspirationi detur locus Atqui praeterâunt quod in primis animadversione dignum erat Neque enim in totum Propheta negat quin docturi sint alii alios sed haec sunt verbââ non doccbunt dicendo Cognosce Dominum acsi diceret non amplius occupabit hominum mentes igneratia qualis antehac ut nesciant quis sit Deus Scimus autem duplicem esse Doctrinae usum Primò ut qui poenitus rades sunt a primis elementis incipiant deinde ut qui jam sunt initiati majores faciant progressus Quum ergo Christianis quam âu vivunt proficiendum sit certum est ne minem usquo adeò satere qaiu âoceri opus habeat utpars non postremae sapieriae nostrae sit docilitas Quae autem proficiendi sit ratio si velimus esse Christi discipuli Ptulus ostendit ad Eââes cap. 4. 11. Constituit Pastores Doctores c. Hinc apparet nihil minùs Prophetae venisse in mentem quà m spoliari Ecclesiam tam necessario bono Universities of necessary use Sol. Self-consecration to the Ministerial work unwarrantable A call from God to the Ministerial work must be expected The call of God is either extraordinary and immediate or ordinary and mediate by the Ministery of men The immediate call is by vision revelation c. The mediate and ordinary call is by Ordination Ordination described and in the several parts of it explained Men in Ministerial function are to act in it This Ordination is of Presbyters and Elders These Elders are the same with Bishops They are Elders of the Church universal Ordination is to be past on examination or trial To be solemnized with fasting and prayeâs Imposition of hands to be used in Ordination An Objection answered An Objection answered The danger of severing the promise from the duty Whole Christ must be received and all of his gifts embraced Promises are made to the wicked made good only to the beleeving and penitent The evil of breach of Covenant with man Breach of Covenant with God is a greater evil It brings National plagues It brings evil to eternity No Assurance of happinesse but in performance of the termes of the Covenant The office of the Spirit in the work of Assurance The immediate teste of the Spirits examined The Old and New Covenant The method followed in the ensuing part of the Treatise Agreement between the Old and New covenant in six particulars The Old and New Covenant in substance one Differences between the Old and New Covenant The Jews were in a state of light comparative to Heathens In a state of darkneâs comparative to Christiâns Moses delivered a Covenant from God to Israel in Mount Sinai Mâses delivered a Covenant of Grace to Israel The ten Commandments delivered by Moses were of this Covenant of Grace Being a Covenant of Grace it could by no means be a Covenant of Works What this Covenant is to any it is to all Under Moses his administration commands were frequent and full spiritual promises were rare and more obscure There was so much of Grace and Christ held out in the Old Covenant to leave them without excuse Many phrases in use under the Old Covenant-administration seemingly holding out a Covenant of Works according to Scripture use hold out a Covenant of Grace Though Moses delivered a Covenant of Grace to Israel yet the Law is sometime taken in that restrained sense as to hold forth a Covenant of Works The first imaginary difference between the Old and New Covenant Ad literam non fuisse promissionem remissionis peccatorum sed peculiaris protectionis gubernationis
VINDICIAE FOEDERIS OR A TREATISE OF THE Covenant of God ENTERED WITH MAN-KINDE In the several Kindes and Degrees of it IN WHICH The agreement and respective differences of the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace of the Old and New Covenant are discust The Conditions of the Covenant of Grace on mans part are assigned and asserted The just latitude and extent clearly held forth and fully vindicated Several Corollaries containing many heads of Divinity now controverted and practical points singularly useful inferred In particular the necessity of a constant settled Ministry to bring men into Covenant and to bring them up to the termes of it and of Schooles and Nurseries of Learning and an orderly call in tendency to it Infant Baptisme in that latitude as now in use in reformed Churches maintained Newly corrected and much enlarged in many places cleared by its Author Thomas Blake late Minister of the Gospel at Tamworth in the Counties of Stafford and Warwick Whereunto is annexed a Sermon preached at his Funeral by Mr. Anthony Burgesse and a Funeral Oration made at his death by Mr. Samuel Shaw The second Edition All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in the Covenant Psal 44. 17. London Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1658. To his Reverend and much Honoured Friend Mr. SAMVEL HILDERSAM Bachelar in Divinity and Pastor of West-Felton in the County of Salop Together with Mrs MARY HILDERSAM his pious Consort NO time can wear out the memory of those favours which I have received from your hands You were of the first that gave me a visit when few durst adventure themselves under the same roof being by the good providence of God necessitated to leave a place sorely afflicted with the Pestilence and labouring under a Feaver wherewith presently on my departure God pleased to afflict me and were eye-witnesses of the mean accommodations which in those straits could be provided for me and my reverend brother with both our wives and families all cast upon the same condition at that time you made it appear that your eyes affected your hearts in giving a free invitation to me and those that had dependance upon me to your house assoon as with security we durst adventure over any mans threshold where for many moneths we had free and liberal entertainment If Paul in an Epistle did remember the like from Onesiphorus with special observation that he was not ashamed of his chaine my heart must needs have checked me if having opportunity of Epistling according to received custom you should have been forgotten I shall not be ashamed of the language of beggers if they have learnt it from such a hand The Lord grant unto you that ye may finde mercy from the Lord in that day In your house I had not only leisure to make a good progresse in this Work but singular accommodation from your accomplisht Library So that you have not only a deserved interest in the Author but in the Work it self upon sight of one part you have often called upon me for publication of the whole So that if the Reader reap any benefit he may see how large a share in the thanks is yours I know you affect not Panegyricks neither am I fitted for them nor was ever accustomed to them There is much published to the world of one of you in the life of your reverend Father to whom I have often in my thoughts applied that of Doctor Hall concerning learned Whittaker Who ever saw him without reverence or heard him without wonder Having led the Reader through his glory they adde And yet his name with the lively picture of his person lives in his worthy sonne Master Samuel Hildersam whose learning Cambridge West-Felton in Shropshire do perpetuate the honour of his Reverend Father whose memory he doth much reverence and whose rich vertues both personal and ministeriall he doth happily imitate And it is not little that is said of the other where it is remembred that you were propounded by him for a meet wife for his dearest sonne and recorded that he was heard with affection to ingeminate these words Never man had a kinder daughter in Law To be a follower of such a precident and to be found worthy of such a Testimony is a greater glory than all the noble blood that ran through the veines of the greatest of either of your Ancestors Let this small piece finde a roome in your Study and Closet and testifie to the world that gratitude lives in the breast of From my study in Tamworth Novemb 4. 1652. Your most affectionate friend and servant THO. BLAKE READER THe Reverend Author of this Treatise is already known to the Presse by his former Labours which do give so faire a character of his worth and bespeak of thee so ready an entertainment of this excellent piece that were it not that in this glut of books wherewith the world is cloyed it might be unhappily buried out of thy sight We neither need nor should prefix these few lines tanquam digitum indicem to point thee to it The subject about which it is conversant is of noblest ranke viz. The Covenant of Almighty God with Man-kind which is distinguisht into its kindes of Works of Grace And this againe according to the several formes or modes thereof Old and New which how they respectively take hands and agree wherein they shake hands and part What the terms of the Covenant of Grace are as propounded by God and what the conditions on mans part whereupon he being thereunto responsal becomes truely a consederate what is the amplitude and comprehensivenesse thereof in respect of the persons that have right to claim to the priviledges or interests of it are all set forth in their various colours and so drawne to the life that thy spirit is not like to be tired with reading but led on with an appetite so sharp and quick that when thou arrivest at the end thou wilt complaine of the shortnesse of the way For in the doctrine of the Covenant truly stated an Orthodox Faith hath sure foundation thence practick godlinesse receives powerful influence and obligation Thereby very many errours of several sorts of Erronists as by a teste or standard are rectified or discovered from thence our Sacraments do as it were receive a soul and those pertinent and seasonable digressions following in this book concerning the necessity of a settled Ministry c. do by consequence receive both strength and usefulnesse As concerning the remains of a former controversie about Paedobaptisme which are presented to thee in this Book they are not out of their own place in a Treatise of the Covenant We shall not adventure to say any more thereabout but in imitation of that of Mr. Hooker in the Preface to his Ecclesiastical Politie shall crave leave to re-minde all agitatours of that or any other controversie
extreams the one much prejudicial to the Reader in Treatises of this nature to give us a bare skeleton of bones and sinewes leaving their Readers to clothe them with skin and flesh These serve better to help their memories that are already seen in the subject then to help those with satisfaction that are not already verst in it Memoriae mater ingenii noverca I would learned Amesius in his Medulla Theologiae Cases of Conscience and other learned Works had not affecting brevity herein been defective Sure I am the Reader might well wish that learned Camero's work De triplici foedere had by his own hand been more inlarged that he had spoken more fully where his Reader may see cause justly to close with him and given in his Reasons especially in several differences which he assigns beteewn the Old which he calls the subservient Covenant and the Covenant of Grace where many suppose they have cause to dissent from him The other extream might be the Readers benefit but would have been my burthen and that is an enlarged full discourse on every particular Divinity-head that may occur in the handling of this Subject a way which reverend Master Ball intended I have heard it from those that received it from his own mouth that his purpose was to speak on this Subject of the Covenant all that he had to say in all the whole body of Divinity a work that the whole Church might wish had not Divine providence determined otherwise that he had enjoyed life to finish That which he hath left behinde gives us a taste of it and the advantage the Church might have received by it I have thought it enough to handle each particular so as might well answer expectation in reference to the present subject To speak of Christ as a Mediatour of the Covenant and to set forth the distinct parts of his work in such mediation without handling the whole of the work and all the Offices incident to his Mediatorship To speak of his death ratifying the Covenant of grace waving the controversie of the extent of it in the intention of God or purpose of Christ It is sufficient to me to assert Faith to be a condition of the Covenant necessary to be put in by us to attain the mercies in the Covenant to speak of it so far as is here concerned without a large Treatise of the nature requisites and life of it so I may say of godly sorrow cessation from sin sincerity of obedience and the like Thirdly Those particulars relating to this subject which are most controverted and in this age disputed I have spoke to more at large to instance in some The conditions of the Covenant of Grace as well to the an sint whether there be any such conditions at all which in our times by several hands out of several Principles is denyed Or the Quae sint what these conditions be laying down rules and helps for the better discovery of them The supposed differences between the old and new Whether such that offer injurie to the Covenant under which the Fathers lived under Moses his administration or before his dayes making it a meer carnal Covenant consisting of temporal promises as the possession of the Land of Canaan and protection there or at the least a mixt Covenant and no pure Gospel-Covenant and the seals suitable Or such that put too great a limit to the Covenant in Gospel-times vesting it onely in the elect regenerate excluding all professed ones not yet regenerate not onely from Covenant-mercies but all Covenant-terms not admitting any to stand in any relation to God but those only whom his Spirit hath changed making the call of God in the largest sense convertible with Election and the seal of Baptism to be of no greater latitude unlesse by mistake mis-applied than the seal of the Spirit and determining it in the persons of the elect about which the meer congregational men and the Antipoedobaptists agreeing in the former do differ that they excluding the seed and leaving them in the same condition hope of education excepted with the Heathens In these and some others as the Reader may meet withall I have been more large in such things where all agree or where it much skills not whether we agree or differ as in what place whether on earth or heaven man had enjoyed immortality in case he had not sinned what need we to administer matter of contention our work is to make up breaches were it possible so far as it may stand with truth and not to widen them Fourthly I have not so tied up my self to the expresse immediate doctrine of the covenant but that I have occasionally drawn Corollaries or Inferences leading to other things of neer relation to and necessary dependance upon this of the Covenant I shall not need to give instance the Reader all along will meet with them such as I thought would be useful and to the judicious not ungrateful some of them practical that the whole of the Book might not be found to be Polemical ayming at least at that which the Poet so cries up Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dâlci Fifthly For that part in which Infant-Baptisme and its grounds are particularly vindicated from Antipoedobaptists the Reader may see their arguments and corrupt glosses are examined onely as according to my method laid down I have been necessitated and so that the Covenant had not been vindicated according to my duty in case that had been neglected And here those that please to heed may see First the dependance that this Controversie about Infant-Baptisme hath on the doctrine of the Covenant that a Scripture Covenant cannot be asserted but Infant-Member-ship Infant-Baptisme in the latitude as now generally used by Pastors in their Congregations must be upheld Secondly the order in which this controversie is here carried may so much the rather invite the Reader to it seeing what is in opposite Authors laid down scatteringly without regard to any head of doctrine in the Covenant to which it doth relate here it is reduced to its proper place and carried on in that manner as an orderly Treatise and not a personal conflict following adversaries no farther than as they stand in the way to cloud the truth that is there prosecuted and though many advantages are hereby neglected that might have been taken which adversaries use to prosecute to the uttermost and these adversaries would to the height have improved yet I am very well pleased making it my businesse that my Reader may not be troubled but edified Thirdly the Scriptures that are produced and ordinarily agitated in this controversie of Infant-Baptism are not only urged but a just Analysis of the context opened the full scope and drift laid down so that it may appeare that the words are not enforced but of themselves in their native strength commend that doctrine to us that of Jerome Apol. adversus Jovinian much takes with me Commentatoris
that was a mighty motive to draw a party in war to have the gift of vineyards and oliveyards to be the fountain of honour able to make Captaines over thousands hundreds fifties It is no lesse to draw on a party in Religion as every turne of State respective to Religion is a clear evidence If these stumble upon truth they yet hold it upon such carnal motives that they are neither true to it nor receive the comfort of it Make truth then the greatest advantage there is glory enough in it without any farther garb to have it in admiration own it though with a scracht face where you find it though you be otherwise at losse it will bring an hundred-fold with it If I can but gain these things at thy hands I shall not feare that this piece shall run the hazzard of thy censure spare no errour in it so that thou wilt gladly take up and rest satisfied in all the truths that thou findest That truth may have the first place in thy soul is the desire and prayers of him that can do nothing against but for the truth Thomas Blake November 27. 1652 Imprimatur EDM. CALAMY An Advertisement to the Reader touching this second Edition READER IT was once the sad complaint of Reverend Davenant that Religionis nostrae mysteria quae sunt ad parem solatium animarum promulgata in solam penè litigandi pugnandi materiam vertantur The great mysteries of Religion those pretious Beamings of the Sunne of righteousnesse which were shed abroad for the begetting of spiritual heat and life in the beleeving heart were often eclipsed and their influence much debilitated through the intervening body of cloudy Controversies This way Satan gained upon the Church in its Infancy which gave occasion to that good admonition we have upon record from the blessed Apostle Heb. 13. 9. Be not carryed about with diverse and strange doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace What these diverse and strange doctrines were Interpreters have their different thoughts which I shall wholly wave the Reader may yet observe the Apostle hinting at and tacitely reproving the pronenesse that was in men eagerly to pursue studiously to sweat and tug about empty notions whilest the spiritual sense and feeling of truth in the heart was little heeded The same Apostle traces Satan in the same design among the Colossians Cap. 2. Which puts him upon that pathetical exhortation Cap. 3. To seek the things that are above to lay out their zeal and centre their affections upon things of a more solid sublime and spiritual nature viz. the application of Christ in the power of his death and precious in-comes of his Spirit for the mortification of lust What unspeakable advantage this continued enemy of a beleevers life and comfort hath gained in our age not to mention the spoyles made in the intervening our present breaches sad decays two fully evidence yea so fully that did not a graciory word uphold and everlasting armes fix themselves underneath our ruines had been uncapable of any further breach In the midst of these astonishing providences and terrible dispensations the Lord such is his infinite wisdome and goodnesse hath brought forth meat out of the strong and honey out of the destroyer These windy stormes have through rich grace more deeply rooted some whilest others have been tossed to and fro these Controversal collissions have brought forth much light thus Satan lyes bleeding under his own weapons Among other precious treasures which the Church through mercy doth enjoy here thou mayest see truths of the greatest concernment to beleevers polemically vindicated practically improved that mens judgments might be ballanced and their hearts feel the weight of truth both which necessarily make up a beleevers acquaintance with the truths of Christ as they are in him The Covenant of grace both in its sure mercies and distinguishing priviledges is a truth of the greatest magnitude appearing rather as a glorious constellation than shining with the light of a single starre It is a rich Cabinet of Diamonds rather than any single jewel How far the Reverend Authour my ever Honoured and endeared Father hath been serviceable in the hands of Christ for the unsealing of this rich Cabinet the abundant acceptance which this Treatise found from men eminently judicious when it was wrapped up in the swadling bands of blurred papers before it went abroad doth fully speak I need not adde those many special acknowledgments from some of the ablest pens in the Nation which after the Authors death were found upon the file in his study much might be spoken by me did not my relation to him command a silence the Lydian Princes tongue would break no bonds when violence was offered to his father give me leave to apply that to the Reverend Author which sometimes was observed of the Athenian Orator that in his publique discourses he did not only ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but aculeos in animis auditorum relinquere And if I may without envy adde holy Melancthons pythy verse upon Luthers picture Fulmina erant linguae singula verba tuae But I shall forbear craving only thy patience in receiving an account how far thy gain will be doubled in this second Edition In the first the Learned Author was necessitated to take notice of several controversies which were then started these afterwards growing more personal therefore only beautiful in their season are in this wholly waved and truths asserted in Thesi In the first several expressions through the natural brevity of the Authours stile were obscure and occasioned the readers stumbling In this they receive an additional light what passages might seem abstruse now are enlarged In the first the method was unavoidably clouded in several places through digressions and appendices In this each head is digested in its proper place In the first several things were omitted which now upon second thoughts and deeper wading into the controversies herein handled are by the learned Authour in this inserted And the whol of this don by the Authors own hand which he had no sooner taken off and sent it to the Presse but the Lord dispatched a fiery chariot for him which took him away to the enjoyment of Truth it self what thou readest of him now was sealed with his death They that were acquainted with his state and frame of spirit in that juncture of time when it was finished must needs testifie there was no room for any carnal end to byasse or self-interest to steer his notions Respective to the doctrine here asserted I shall assure thee from the mouth of this blessed Author that as he sweetly laid down his life in clear and unspeakable assurance of glory so he dyed without the least Scruple in any of the truths here vindicated I shall no longer entertain thee in the porch but give thee possession of the house craving only thy Candor in the perusal of it orphane children
though under the eye and care of endearing friends yet sometimes may feel the want of a parental wing I am not without fears that this Orphane Treatise may complain of som Errata's through the Authors unexpected death the slow progresse of the Presse and my great distance from it The God of truth teach thee how to profit break every shell that thou mayest taste of the kernel clear up truths to thy apprehension and imprint them upon thy heart so prayes he who beggs thy prayers for him because he is Thine in our Lord Jesus Samuel Beresford A Scheme of the whole This Treatise contains 1. An Introduction 2. The body of the Treatise The Introduction doth contain 1. The figurative acceptions of the word Covenant 2. Requisites in a Covenant properly so called Chap. 1. 3. A distribution of Covenants into the in several kinds 4. Seven Reasons of Gods dealing with men in a Covenant way 5. The Covenant between God and man defined The body of the Treatise contains a distribution of the Covenant into the Covenant of Works Chap. 2. Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace is considered 1. In the general nature of a Covenant 2. Joyntly with the Covenant of Works 1. As considered in the general nature of a Covenant we may observe 1. A Covenant in the proper nature of it between God and fallen man asserted Chap. 3. 2. This explained in several propositions 1. The Covenant of Grace is between God and man and not between God and Christ Chap. 4. 2. The outward and not the inward Covenant is a Covenant properly so called 1. Asserted and argued Ch. 5. 2. Cleared in 6 positions Ch. 6 3. The conditionality of the Covenant of Grace 1. In five arguments proved Ch. 7. 2. Objections answered Ch. 8. Ch. 9. 4. God keeps up his sovereign y 1. In the power and authority of his Law Ch. 10 11 12. 2. In exercise of Discipline and correction for sin Ch. 13. 2. Consider joyntly with the Covenant of Works we see 1. Their agreement in eight particulars Chap. 14. 2. Their differences 1. In the Covenants themselves 2. In the Conditions annext Differences in the Covenants are 1. Primae The Covenant of Works was entered in mans integrity Chap. 15. The Covenant of Grace was entered in mans fallen condition 2. A prima ortae Differences à prima ortae The Covenant of Works was for mans preservation of Grace for mans restitution Ibid. The Covenant of Works had its precedency in time of Grace followed after Asserted Objections answered The Covenant of Works was of small time in use of Grace is of everlasting continuance chap. 16. The Covenant of Works had no Mediatour Asserted Objections answered of Grace was in and by a Mediatour Asserted Works incumbent on the Mediatour held forth 1. To bring men into a capacity of Covenanting 2. To bring men within the verge of the Covenant 1. By his tender of it 2. Shaping the heart for it 3. To bring the soul up to the termes of the Covenant 4. To crown those that come up to the terms of it chap. 17. Differences in the conditions 1. Supposed on Gods part Death threatned Life promised The same in both Asserted Objections answered chap. 18. 2. Real on mans part 2 Differences asserted 1. In the Covenant of Works the conditions were in mans power of Grace they are not performed without special grace Asserted in 6. Reasons chap. 18 Objections answered chap. 19 2. In the Covenant of Works the conditions kept man within himselfe of righteousnesse chap. 20 of Grace the conditions carry man out of himself to be righteous by anothers righteousnesse 3. In the Covenant of Works conditions were for mans preservation Ibid. of Grace conditions were for mans reparation 3. Conditions discovered 1. Serviceable for mans returne to God which is Faith 1. Explained the sense of it given and reasons evincing it Chap. 21 2. In 4. Propositions cleared 1. God will not justifie a wicked person 2. Man hath no righteousnesse of his own for justification 3. Man hath a righteousnesse of grace tendered Ibid. 4. This righteousnesse is made ours by Faith Asserted Explained 1. Faith in the Sovereignty of God doth not justifie 2. Faith justifies as an instrument 3. Objections answeâed chap 22. 1. Asserted Ib. 2. Object answ 4. Corollary drawn A justified man is fitted for every duty Ibid. 2. Serviceable for mans reparation in his qualifications to hold up communioÌ with God which is repentance 1. Objection a prevented It is not the same with faith Chap. 23. 2. Duty explained In the pre-requisite godly sorrow Asserted in six particulars limited Ibid. In the essentials Privative Cessation from sinne Ibid. Positive Returne to God 3. Objections answered 1. Joyntly against Faith and Repentance They are mans conditions not Gods chap. 24. 2. Particularly against repentance it self 1. It is not hereby made a Covenant of Works 2. Repentance necessarily flowing from Faith is not thereby diserabled Ibid. from being a condition in the Covenant of Grace 4. Degree of obedience required in our returne 1. Perfection of degrees not called for of God in Covenant 2. Covenant of Grace doth not call for perfection and accept sincerity Asserted Objections answered 3. Our Evangelical righteousnesse is imperfect Chap. 25. 4. Covenant of Grace requires and accepts sincerity 4. Corollaries drawn 1. Necessâây of a constant standing Ministery to bring men into Covevenant with God and to bring them up to the termes of it 1. Explained 2. Asserted 1. In seven reasons evincing that such a Ministery is established 2. In reasons evincing such a Ministery to be thus established 3. Objections answered Joel 2. 28 29. Vindicated ch 26 Jer. 31. 31. c. Vindicated 2. Schooles and Nurseries of learning in order to a gifted Ministery Asserted Chap. 27. Objections answered 3. Orderly way of admission of men into a Ministerial function necessary 1. Asserted by several reasons Chap. 28. 2. Explained by distinguishing of Callings 3. Ordination defined in the parts of it explained 4. Ministers of Christ must bring their people up to the termes of the Covenant 1. Explained 2. Asserted Chap. 29. Objections answered 5. People in Covenant must come up to the termes of the Covenant Chap. 30. The Covenant of Grace is either the Old or New Covenant In which observe 1. Agreement in 6 particulars Chap. 31. 2. Differences Chap. 32. Differences 1. Real in six particulars 2. Supposed or imaginary Nine Positions premised for a right understanding of the Old Covenant Chap. 33. Differences themselves assigned Differences assigned are 1. Laying the Old Covenant too low 2. Putting too great a restrainâ on the New I. Laying the Old Covenant too low 1. Supposing it to consist of meere carnal promises 1. Interests to which this deives Popish Socinian Antipaedobaptistical Chap. 34. 2. Contrary asserted and the spiritualty of the Old Covenant maintained 2. Supposing it to be a mixt and no pure Gospel Covenant Chap. 35. 1. Meaning enquired
with the Covenant page 267 Chap. 42. A man in Covenant with God and recieved into the universal Church visible needs no more to give him accesse to and interest in particular visible Churches page 270 Chap. 43. A dogmatical faith entitles to Baptisme page 289 Chap. 44. Impenitence and unbelief in professed Christians is a breach of Covenant page 294 Chap. 45. The question stated concerning the birth-priviledge of the issue of beleevers page 295 Chap. 46. Arguments concluding the natural issue of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to be taken into Covenant page 301 Chap. 47. Rom. Chap. 9. Verse 6 7 8 vindicated page 309 Chap. 48. The Covenant in New Testament times takes in parents with their children page 316 Chap. 49. Rom. 11. 16. vindicated page 323 Chap. 50. Arguments from a late hand for ingraffing into the Church invisible and breaking off from it answered page 330 Chap. 51. 1 Corinth 7. 14. vindicated page 349 Chap. 52. Galat. 4. 29. vindicated page 366 Chap. 53. Mat. 19. 14 Mark 10. 14. Luke 18. 16. vindicated page 393 Chap. 54. Reasons evincing the birth-priviledge and covenant-holinesse of Believers and their issue page 401 Chap. 55. A Corollary for Infant-Baptisme Infant-baptisme by arguments asserted page 410 Chap. 56. The reality of connexion between the Cavenant and initial seal asserted page 422 Chap. 57. The with-holding Infants of Christian parents from baptisme is the sin of Sacriledge page 437 Chap. 58. The children of all that are Christians in profession are by vertue of Covenant-interest to be recieved into the Church by baptisme page 448 Chap. 59. A defence of the former Doctrine respective to the latitude of Infant-Baptisme 468 page 458 Chap. 60. The application of the whole in several inferences page 478 A TREATISE OF THE Covenant OF WORKS AND OF THE Covenant OF GRACE CHAP. I. An Introduction into the whole I Shall not make it my businesse for an Introduction into this Work to enquire after the derivation of the word Etymologies are known to be no definitions The denomination being usually given from some adjuncts variable according to times places and not from any thing that is of the essence of that which is enquired after in which those are highest in Criticismes in giving their judgements of them can yet ordinarily go no higher then conjecture The common acception of the word in Scripture is that which will give the greatest light in finding out the nature of Scripture covenants which as most other words is variously used Sometimes is used Properly implying a covenant in deed and truth strictly so called and containing all the requisites of a Covenant in it Sometimes Tropically for that which contains some parts and adjuncts of a covenant and so carries some resemblance to and stands in some affinity with it This Tropical figurative and the native proper sense must be carefully distinguished and may by no meanes be confounded by those that will understand the true nature of a covenant and avoid those manifold mistakes into which some upon this a lone account have been carried The figurative acceptions of the word are diverse sometimes the homage required or duty covenanted for is called a covenant by way of Synechdoche seeing a covenant between a Superiour and Inferiour doth comprize it so Jerem. 34. 13. I made a Covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt which Covenant is no other then the Law that he gave them Exod. 21. 2. Sometimes the promise annext is called by the name of a covenant by a like Synechdoche 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 unto thee and to thy seed after thee Gen. 9. 11. Sometimes the Seal is called by the name of a Covenant by way of Metonymy of the adjunct serving to ratifie and confirme a covenant Gen. 17. 10. This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every man-childe among you shall be circumcised Sometimes Christ the Mediatour of the covenant is called by a like figure the covenant Isa 42. 6 7. I will give thee for a covenant of the people and light unto the Gentiles Sometimes the Lord Christs undertaking to work the graces covenanted for in the hearts of his people in the way of his power exerted in the conversion of sinners is called by the name of a covenant Jerem. 31. 33. This is the covenant that I will make with the whole house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts of which more in its own place Sometimes a covenant is taken for that peace which usually followes upon covenants Job 5. 23. Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee Hos 2. 18. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowles of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground and I will break the bowe and the sword and the battel out of the earth and will make them to lie down safely When yet neither a Law nor a Promise nor Seal annext nor yet the Mediatour or any undertaking of his can be a covenant properly so called A Law from God with a Promise annext assented to by man is a covenant and when a Seal is added there is a condescension to our weaknesse for the more abundant ratification and confirmation of Gods stability in his Promises In our enquiry after such covenants which God in his gracious condescension is pleased to enter with man the general nature of a covenant must be held every species must partake of its Genus We must not make Gods covenant with man so farre to differ from covenants between man and man as to make it no covenant at all we must also observe that which differences it from covenants meerly humane that covenants divine and humane be not confounded together In order to which we must know that in every covenant properly so called these requisites must concur First it must not be of one alone but at least of two parties one can make no bargain or agreement Secondly there must be a mutual consent of these parties When Nahash the Ammonite offered to make a Covenant with Israel on condition that he might thrust out all their right eyes 1 Sam. 11. 2. the Israelites refusing and running the hazard of a fight rather then undergo it here was no covenant Thirdly each party must engage themselves one to another for performance of somewhat covenanted for whether debt duty or promise When Abraham agreed with the Hittites for a burial place for foure hundred Shekels Gen. 23. 15 16. There was a covenant properly so called having apparently in it all requisites of a covenant So also in
consolation An up-right-hearted man findes abundance of peace in his covenant entered with God when he prayes and seeks the greatest mercy in prayer he is able to say In thy faithfulnesse answer me and in thy righteousnesse Psal 143. 1. Paul can say that God the righteous Judge shall give him a Crown of righteousnesse 2 Tim. 4. 8. Having engaged by covenant righteousnesse ties him to make good his engagements This is Gods end in his entrance of covenant and ratification of it by oath consequently in committing it to writing and confirming it by seal That by two immuntable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Heb. 6. 18. These strong consolations were the end of God in ratifying his Covenant They are the support and Spirit reviving cordials to his people in Covenant See the result of the Psalmists meditations In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Psalme 94. 19. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety Psalme 4. 8. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I feare The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid Psal 27. 1. Sixthly for the greater terrour of the adversaries of his people when they see themselves engaged against them and God stands in a covenant unviolable engaged for them when they see that their work is to ruinate and destroy him that God will save Hence it is while their Rock sells them not one of them chases a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight Deut. 32. 30. Paul in bonds can make Felix tremble on his Throne Acts 24. 25. Hamans wise-men and Zeresh his wife spake words of terrour upon experiment made If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevaile against him but shalt surely fall before him Ester 6. 13. Seventhly the Lord hereby puts a name and an honour upon his people David took it to be an honour to be related to Saul and so to become the sonne of a King much more then is it an honour to be brought into this relation to God This honour have all the Saints and they are taken into covenant for honour sake The Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his Commandments and to make thee high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in honour and that thou mayest be an holy people to the Lord thy God Deut. 26. 18 19. They are the portion the inheritance the children the espoused ones and whatsoever else that speaks a neer relation is theirs This was Gods way of dealing I doubt not with the Angels though we being not interested in it there is no necessity that it should be written for our learning Sure we are it was his way of dealing with man as well before his fall as presently shall be shewn as out of more abundant grace and condescension for his restitution And not mentioning for present any more then that which is essential in the covenant of God with man I suppose it may be thus held out to us A mutual compact or agreement between God and man upon just and equal termes prescribed by himself in which God promises true happinesse to man and man engages himself by promise for performance of what God requires This description here laid down comprizes the way of God in every one of his covenants with man both before and after his fall under Old and New Testament-revelations all that is essential in any covenant that he enters Equals covenanting do either of them article and indent but God condescending to a covenant man must not article but must assent and engage for performance of what is prescribed otherwise it will hear the nature of a Law but not of a Covenant It is true all men are bound upon tender from God to accept It was the sin of Jewish and heathenish people to stand out whensoever the Gospel was preached but they were no covenant-people till they gave their assent and then they were received as a covenant-people and baptized Exceptions cannot be taken against or challenge made of this definition of covenants in general nor of the covenant which God in particular entereth with man and these standing they will give us light and afford us singular help for a right understanding of the covenant of God entered with man in the several species and distinct wayes of administration of it CHAP. II. The Covenant of God entered with mankinde distinguished THere is a two-fold covenant which God out of his gracious condescension hath vouchsafed to enter with man The first immediately upon the creation of man when man yet stood right in his eye and bore his image the alone creature on earth that was in a capacity to enter covenant We have not indeed the word covenant till after man was fallen nor yet in any place of Scripture in reference to the transactions past between God and man in his state of integrity neither have we such expressions that fully and explicitely hold out a covenant to us but we finde it implied and so much expressed from whence a covenant with the conditions of it is evinced That Law with the penalty annext given to our first parents Gen. 2. 17. Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not âat for in the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die plainly implies in it a covenant entred man was in present possession of life that is according to Scripture phrase happinesse in his whole person full and compleat according to his present capacity This is to be continued aâ is there evidently implied till sinne dispossesse him of it Till he sin he shall not die As long as he persists in his integrity his life is to be continued of which the Tree of Life as is not to be doubted was a Sacrament The second God was pleased to enter with man upon his fall which was a covenant of reconciliation the most unhappy variance between earth and heaven having intervened The former is usually called a âovenant of Works the latter is called a covenant of Grace though indeed the fountain and first rise of either was the free grace and favour of God For howsoever the first covenant was on condition of obedience and engaged to the reward of Works yet it was of Grace that God made any such promise of reward to any work of man when man had done all even in that estate which was commanded he was still an unprofitable servant he had done no more then duty and no emolument did thence accrew to his Maker It was enough that he was upheld and sustained of God in the work to live in him
and upon him when the work was done he might have been justly annihilated If merit be taken in a proper sense Adam in innocency was too low for it all his work being an homage due no profit redounding to God and the work bearing no proportion to the reward But a more superabundant measure of Grace is seen in Gods entrance into covenant with man in his fallen condition and infinitely more savor is shewn in his reconciliation then in his preservation Therefore this by way of eminency hath the honour to be stiled the covenant of Grace the other retaines the name of the covenant of Works These two bearing these denominations have their respective agreement and differences which are to be enquired into but before I reach those it is necessary that somewhat be spoken to assert a covenant of grace in Gospel-times and to give us some further light for a right understanding of it CHAP. III. A Covenant in the proper nature of it between God and fallen man asserted BEfore I proceed any further in this work one great rub that lies in the way is to be removed otherwise not only all that which I have said but also all that which I shall speak on this subject will fall to the ground and that is their objection that say that God hath not entred any covenant properly so called with fallen man He hath by way of Sovereignty laid commands upon man Of free grace hath made rich and large promises by way of legacy bequeathed life and salvation to him but hath entred no covenant properly so called as these say with him which is purposely done to avoid those conditions which are asserted in this covenant If this stand the division before laid down of a Covenant into a Covenant of Works and a Covenant of Grace necessarily falls such a division must not be suffered where any one member of the division is not If therefore there be no covenant of God with fallen man nor no such thing as the covenant of Grace there can be no such division of the covenant and all agreement or differences assigned will be between an entity and a non-entity between that which hath a reality and a meer Chimaera A covenant therefore in the proper nature of it is to be asserted and the speedâest way to make this good is to prove from Scripture the name and the thing that the word Covenant is there and the thing in the proper nature of it which the words hold out and all of this respective to the transactions between God and fallen man The word we finde in places without number it were a needlesse labour to give instances when every Reader is able to furnish himself with such multitudes But when this cannot be denyed the impropriety of the speech is objected It is called by the name of a Covenant as is said when in strict propriety of speech it is no covenant But to avoid this the thing it self may be as easily proved as the word and when we have nomen and nominis rationem then we have a covenant not equivocally not yet analogically but properly so called And here I may deal liberally with any adversary and undertake to make proof not only of all the essentials of such a covenant in Scripture but the usual adjuncts not onely of all that makes up the nature but all accessories usually added to the solemnity of covenants The essentials or real properties of a covenant are contained in the usual definitions which afterwards we shall see laid down from several hands all of which are in short comprised in these words A mutual consent of parties with stipulation on both sides Parties consent and mutual engagement is all that is required to the same being of a covenant when two parties agree and either of them both have their conditions to make good there is a covenant or bargaine see it exemplified in several instances given Chap. 1. All of these we finde in that one place Deut. 26. 17 18 19. in the covenant that God enters with his people Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgements and to hearken to his voice And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his Commandments And to make thee high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God as he hath spoken There are the Covenanters God and his people There is consent on both parties Thou hast avouched the Lord hath avouched And there is a stipulation on both sides On Gods part To make them high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour On the peoples part To keep all his Commandments to be an holy people There are covenant-mercies from God to his people unto which of grace he engages himself and there are covenant-duties unto which man stands engaged Psal 103. 17 18. But the mercie of the Lord is from euerlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments The usual solemnities of a covenant are also found in the transactions between God and his people as well as the essentials of it 1. Covenants used to be written for memorial for posterity and so is the covenant between God and man as in Old so in New Testament-times These things are written that you might believe and that believing you may have everlasting life John 20. 31. 2. Covenants used to be confirmed with outward visible signes as the killing of beasts Gen. 15. Jer. 34. this was done in the old administration Exod. 24. Half of the blood was sprinkled upon the Altar to denote Gods entering of Covenant vers 6. The people also were sprinkled with blood to shew their voluntary entring into covenant vers 8. And in the new dispensation a new and unheard of ratification was used the blood of the Mediatour of the Covenant Math. 26. 27 28. This Cup is my blood in the New Testament which was shed for you and for many for the remission of sins This latter is a plain allusion to the former in which you may finde 1. A threefold agreement Either of both these were covenants 2. Either of both these had their ratifications and confirmations 3. Either of both were confirmed with blood 2. A threefold difference 1. The former was the Old covenant which was antiquated This is the New 2. The former was ratified and sanctified with the blood of beasts This is ratified and sanctified in the blood of Christ 3. That blood could never take away sin Heb. 10. This was shed for many for remission of sins Thirdly covenants use to be confirmed by seal so is
this covenant between God and his people which is to be spoken to elsewhere As the being of a covenant is thus plentifully proved by Scripture-testimony so we might as amply prove it by arguments drawn from thence The Churches of Christ are espoused unto Christ Hos 2. 19 20. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. 2 Cor. 11. 2. I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you to Christ and Spouses are in covenant with their Bridegroom The Churches of Christ are married to Christ Isa 54. 5. Thy Maker is thine Husband the Lord of hosts is his Name and thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called And wives are in covenant with their husbands Their sinnes against God are branded with the names of Adulteries Whoredomes and these are not barely dis-obedience of a Command or neglect of a favour but breaches of covenant The Churches of Christ are servants of Christ Levit. 25. houshold servants Ephes 2. 19. and servants are their Masters by covenant Their sinnes in this relation are not barely obstinacy stubbornness or ingratitude but they are charged with treachery falsehood dealing falsely in covenant and their hearts being not stedfast in covenant It is above me to conceive how man can be a covenant-breaker not alone respective to man but God as he is frequently charged when there hath past no covenant between God and him They may question whether there were ever any such thing as a covenant in the world that deny this to be a covenant in the proper nature of it some objections raised in their due place will be answered CHAP. IV. The Covenant of Grace is between God and man and not between God and Christ. HAving asserted a covenant in the proper nature of it it is necessary before I proceed further on to give differences between this covenant of Works and the covenant of Grace to speak something by way of Explication covenant being taken in so various and ambiguous senses or at least so many senses put upon it which I take to be a misunderstanding of the scripture-Scripture-covenant I shall lay down certaine Explicatory Propositions for clearing of the thing in question And the leading on shall be this The Covenant of grace is between God and man between God and those of fallen mankinde that he pleases to take into covenant God and man are the two parties in the covenant It is not made between God and Christ. This is so plain that a man might think there needed no words about it but that there are some that will have man to be no party in it and that it is entred onely with Christ on behalf of those that God hath chosen in Christ to himself To this I shall speak first by way of concession yeelding to them of this opinion these three things that follow 1. That there is such a covenant of which they speak which was entred between God and Christ containing the transactions which passe between the Father and the Sonne the tenor of which covenant we find laid down by the Prophet Esay 53. 10 c. and commented upon by the Apostle Phil. 2. 6. There we see first the work that Christ by covenant was to undergo To make his soul an offering for sinne that is as elsewhere is exprest to give his life a ransome for many and as he covenanted so he did He became obedient to death even the death of the crosse Phil. 2. 8. and that upon account of this covenant entred Christ himself speaking to it and of his work in it saith John 10. 18. This Commandment have I received of my Father Secondly the reward that he was to receive which is laid down by the Prophet in many words 1. He shall see his seed ver 10. As Isaac being received from the dead in a figure saw a seed had an innumerable posterity so the Lord Christ who was received from the dead in truth hath his seed in like manner beleevers innumerable which are called his seed in resemblance to the seed of man 2. He shall prolong his dayes not the dayes of his seed as some would have it making this one with the former and rendring the words videbit semen longaevum being delivered from death he shall live and reign eternally Revel 1. 18. 3. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand he shall irresistibly do whatsoever is the Fathers pleasure to be done in the work of mans salvation 4. He shall see the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied upon this work done he fully enjoys the whole of all his desires 5. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoile with the strong He obtains a perfect victory hath a plenary and full conquest over every adversary 2. We yeeld that the whole of these covenant-transactions between God and Christ was on our behalf Making his soul an offering for sinne he offers it for those that are fallen by iniquity All is as is there said for the justification of many Whatsoeve it is that upon the work done redounds to himself yet the reason of undertaking was for us Vnto us he was borne unto us he was given He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities he was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification He endured the mulct and we reap the benefit 3. We confesse that it is the work of Christ that we enjoy a being in covenant as it is his gift that we enjoy the blessing of Ordinances But when all these are yeelded the truth must be asserted that there is a covenant to which Scripture constantly speaks which is entred of God with man and not with Christ which me thinks with much ease might be made to appear 1. There are frequent testimonies of Gods entry of covenant with his people 1. With the leading persons in the covenant which stand as the root of many thousand branches which are their off-spring in covenant He entred covenant with Abraham Gen. 15. 18. Gen. 17. 2. The like he enters with Isaac Gen. 26. 3. with Jacob Gen. 35. 11. and therefore he is so frequently called the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And the covenant of God is alike known by the name of the covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. 2. He enters covenant with the whole body of the people of Israel Deut. 5. 1 2. Hear O Israel the statutes and judgements which I speak in your ears this day that ye may learn them and keep them and do them The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb the Lord made not this covenant with our fathers but with us even us who are all of us alive
this day And this whole visible body of Israel was not Christ 2. There are testimonies of Israels entrance into covenant with God Deut. 29. 10 11 12. Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God your Captaines of your Tribes your Elders and your Officers with all the men of Israel your little ones your wives and the stranger that is in thy Camp from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God and into his oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day Psalme 50. 5. Gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by sacrifice Deut. 26. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his ways 3. The particular time and place of Gods entrance into covenant with his people is in Seripture noted likewise In Horeb as we have heard which was the first yeare of their coming out of Egypt the third moneth Exod 19. 1. Again in the fourth year the eleventh moneth the first day Deut. 1. 3. Deut. 29. 10 11 12. compared This day saith the text Now there was no day in which the covenant of God with Christ was entred no day when it was not entred but it was from all eternity as all the works of the Trinity are ad intra 4. Covenant duties are imposed to walk before the Lord to be perfect to be an holy peculiar people Gen. 17. 1. Exod. 19. 6. These are not imposed upon Christ but upon Christians 5. The people of God have the praise of keeping and are under the blame of covenant-breaking which praise of faithfulness and blame of perfidiousnesse is ascribed to them and not to Christ Jesus 6. They that have the seals of the covenant given them are in covenant but man receives the Seales both of Baptisme and the Lords Supper as the people of God of old did Circumcision and the Passeover therefore man is in covenant 7. If the covenant were made with Christ and not with man then he is a Mediatour between God and himself and not between God and man This is plain in that he is the Mediatour of the covenant viz. between persons in covenant But he is not a Mediatiour between God and himself which were absurd to imagine but between God and man There is one Mediatour between God and men the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is only I think that one difficult text of the Apostle to be objected against this thing Gal. 3. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made He saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ from whence some conclude that the covenant was entred of God with no other of Abrahams seed but with Christ consequently not with man but with Christ only As this was not in my thoughts in my first Edition so I shall not now as I soon might weary my self and reader in wading into all the difficulties about it being such as have occasioned not onely the Jewes to insult as Calvin observes but Hierom the greatest Linguist among the ancients to speak words unworthy of such an Apostle which I shall spare to repeat and all upon the occasion of the Apostles words That the promises were not made to Abraham and his seeds as of many but his seed as of one on which the forenamed father says Running over the whole Scripture both with his eye and memory he doth not finde the word seed ever used in the plural number but alwayes in the singular whether it be in the better or worse sense But Gomarus on the words takes him up as being too short in his memory and quotes Samuels speech 1. Sam. 8. 15. to the contrary where the word is used plurally Rivet indeed Exercit 108. in Genes seemes to help him out though he do not mention him affirming that the word seed is never used in the plural number for the posterity of men but always collectively used in the singular number The place objected in Samuel speaking of the seed of the earth but Ravanellus on the Apostles behalf pleads That it is uncertain whether the word be only used of the Hebrews in the singular number for though it be not used plurally in the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament yet it cannot thence be gathered that the word hath onely the singular number and wants the plural when it is without all doubt that all the words which have been in use with the Hebrews are not to be found in the Old Testament Howsoever I am not the man from whom a satisfying Comment on these words may be expected others more able that have travelled in it may be consulted yet I doubt not but enough may be easily said to vindicate it from this glosse that is here put upon it and to make it appear that this text will not bear this doctrine that the covenant of grace is not entred with fallen man but with Christ only which may appear by these following Reasons 1. There is no safe opposing any one difficult text about which Expositors are at so much difference among themselves against so many that are full and clear against it The texts that are against it are as I may say without number and this I think stands alone with any colour for it Thus the Papists have adventured to fasten their purgatory on 1 Cor. 3. 13 14 and some few like difficult places 2. The word covenant is not in the text neither under the more proper word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã nor yet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã promises in the plural number repeated again verse 19. in the singular and a promise and a covenant as Paraeus on the words observes much differ 3. If they will needs understand by promises to a covenant with as every covenant is a promise though every promise be not a covenant they differ as the Genus and the Species yet there is that in the text as Master Bulkley in his Treatise of the covenant observes which makes against them they say this covenant is made with Christ and with none but Christ but in the text it is otherwise Abraham is made a party in the covenant as well as Christ which serves to overthrow their exclusive particle 4. Christ here in this place may be taken collectively as seed is usually taken and so the word is taken 1 Cor. 12. 12. As the body is one and hath many members all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ And so Mr. Bulkely Diodati Rivet Gomarus and our last Annotations upon the words expound it 5. Being understood of Christ personally which with submission to better judgements I confesse most satisfies me it must not be understood of Christ as a party in Covenant for blessednesse but as a Mediatour
making blessed There are many promises in Scripture made to Abraham and the seed of Abraham and there is much difference among interpreters to which of these promises this text refers The Reader if he please may consult Paraeus on the words and Junius in his parallels but to what text soever it is that these words do refer I am confident that the Apostle speaks not of any blessednesse received by covenant but a promise of making Nations blessed and this is not indeed to seeds as of many but to seed as of one which is Christ which I gather by comparing the words in hand with v. 8. of the same chapter and the Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith preached before the Gospel to Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed This is the promise that this Text holds out which is not a covenant for blessednesse but a promise to make blessed repeated againe verse 19. The Law was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made which is not Christ collectively or mystically but personally considered not entring covenant but as Mediatour of the covenant So that this text serves nothing for this purpose A learned Writer indeed sayes It is beyond my brain to conceive that God should immediately make a Covenant with us who were children of disobedience and of wrath who could not be capable of any such covenant and conditions That Christ hath a hand to bring us into covenant before was yeelded and how far he hath a hand further to carry on the covenant may be yet further considered but man is a party in covenant and as God may make promises and give good things to fallen man so he may enter covenant with him likewise CHAP. V. The outward and not the inward Covenant is a covenant properly so called WHereas there is an usual distinction almost in all that write or speak of the covenant of a double covenant between God and his people one external and the other internal one passing outwardly and the other inwardly kept and observed Or as Dr. Preston expresseth it a single and double covenant which I shall forbear to examine seeing I know there is a right meaning though I much doubt whether there be in the Reader a right understanding My second Proposition shall be that it is the external Covenant not the inward that exactly and properly is called by the name of a Covenant and to which priviledges of Ordinances and title to Sacraments are annext This Proposition occasioned by this received distinction is of three heads which in case the Reader please he may subdivide into three distinct Positions 1. The outward and not the inward Covenant is most exactly and properly called by the name of a Covenant which I thus make good 1. That covenant to which the definition of a covenant doth belong hath exactly and properly the nature of a covenant this none can deny The definition sets out the nature of the thing defined But the definition most actly belongs to the outward covenant not to the inward This is plain An agreement of parties on tearms and Propositions is the definition of a covenant Now the outward covenant is an agreement on tearmes and Propositions as I have abundantly declared in that covenant God engages himself to man for his happinesse and man engages to faith and obedience The inward covenant hath no tearmes or Propositions at all for man to make good upon account of his covenanting seeing the performance of the conditions of the Scripture-covenant is his very entrance into the inward covenant He that believes and repents keeps covenant nothing more is expected of God or promised by man But beleeving and repenting is the first closing with God in covenant according to them that speak of an inward covenant 2. A covenant to perform conditions is a covenant properly so called But the outward covenant not the inward is a covenant to perform conditions This is plain The conditions in the inward covenant are the covenant 3. That which confounds entrance into covenant and keeping of covenant is no covenant properly so called In a covenant properly so called these are distinct But the inward covenant confounds entrance into covenant and keeping of covenant and therefore in exact propriety of speech is no covenant 2. The outward and not the inward Covenant is most usually in Scripture called by the name of a Covenant which is plaine in that they that have no part or portion in the inward covenant are yet still spoken of in Scripture as people in covenant God calls all Israel his people and that upon covenant termes Deut. 29. 10 11 12 13. Al of those that thus covenanted with God were not in the inward covenant This people at their worst and the wrost among them are called the people of God as by those that were strangers to this covenant These are the people of the Lord say the men of Babylon and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36. 20. so also by the Lord himself Jer. 2. 32. Can a Bride forget her attire yet my people have forgotten me dayes without number How often doth God own Israel as his people when he yet brands them as a rebellious revolting stiff-necked treacherous and adulterous people They that forsake the covenant of God that break covenant that deale falsely in it upon whom God brings a sword to avenge the quarrel of his covenant are in the outward not in the inward covenant But such there be among Gods covenant-people as he frequently complaines that break covenant c. These are not then in his inward but outward covenant The great objection is and all that carries colour against this Jer. 31. 32 33. where the Lord differencing the Old and New covenant saith This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband to them saith the Lord But this shall be my Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people That is alone the inward covenant and the elect regenerate are alone within it The inward covenant then is called in Scripture a covenant and is in exact propriety of speech a covenant For answer I shall have further occasion to speak to this Text. In this place I shall only put some Queries 1. Whether those that carry this Text to an unconditionate covenant and restrain it alone to that which they call the inward covenant do not make the covenant in the time of the Law and that in Gospel-times essentially
different and consequently either make two covenants of grace distinct in kind or thrust all that were under the Old covenant out of all hope of salvation contrary to all Interpreters who make these covenants one in substance See the last larger Annotations on the words 2. Whether such an Interpretation do not utterly contradict New-Testament-light which holds out the New covenant in like latitude with the former in which many are called but few are chosen and where conditions are as explicitely and fully required as in Old Testament dispensations 3. Whether when Scripture speaks of things in opposition to mens erroneous conceits for a further Explanation of them and rectifying mens judgements in them it do usually lay down a full compleat and formal definition to which nothing is to be added or whether it doth not usually supply that in which men through mistake were defective and short And whether those Texts Esay 58 6 7. Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickednesse to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoak Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thy own flesh Jer. 22. 15 16. Did not thy father eat and drink and do justice and judgement and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy and then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord Jam. 1. 27. Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world are not parallel to this text in their way of delivery And in case we cannot finde a full definition of a religious Fast in that of Esay nor the whole of it that makes up saving knowledge in that of Jeremy nor the whole that makes Religion compleat in that of James why is it that we should earnestly contend that the full nature of a covenant is in this text exprest being fully parallel in the way of delivery to those other texts Thirdly it is upon the account of the outward Covenant and not the inward that men enjoy priviledges of Ordinances and interest in Sacraments Men that are so far honoured as to enjoy an outward covenant have just title to these priviledges It is in behalf of the Jew outwardly that the Apostle having so decryed his condition respective to the approbation of God puts the question What advantage hath the Jew what profit is there of Circumcision Rom. 3. 1. The Jew and Circumcision are there one A Jew outwardly and circumcision in the flesh go there in equal latitude He that by nature is a Jew as Paul speaks Gal. 2. 15. is of the circumcision And to these the Oracles of God are committed The instruments deeds and evidences of the covenants say the last Annotations It was the priviledge of Israel Psal 147. 19. Rom. 3. and then the priviledg of no other Nation Now it is the priviledg of all ingraffed in their stead This is confest even by a great part of those that understand the inward covenant or covenant keeping to acceptation almost whensoever they mention a covenant in that they baptize infants upon covenant grounds even all their infants that make a covenant profession and that upon just warranty It is further plaine in reason The outward covenant must have priviledges suitable to it self otherwise there is no manner of benefit or advantage of it This priviledge of the Sacrament is suitable being outward as the covenant is outward This is elsewhere spoken to at large and therefore I shall hear forbear I have indeed been challenged for this distinction of an outward and inward covenant as though I had been the sole Authour of it when all know that it is a distinction that of a long time among Divines hath been in common use and in case it had not been commonly received I should have forborne the use of it As I heard Mr. Ball once in discourse say that he denyed any such distinction of an outward and an inward call to the Ministery all calling being external unlesse the man called were a Prophet that which men terme an inward call being onely qualifications fitting for the work So that I deny in exact propriety of speech the inward covenant is any covenant but the answer of the soul unto that which the covenant requires And whereas it is said of me by way of conjecture It is probable that he thus distributes them from the blessings promised whereof some are inward and some outward for though he explain not himself fully yet I know no other sense that it will bear To this I say that I thus distinguish them to apply my self to the Readers understanding that hath been accumstomed so to call them and further I say that men that barely covenant and keep not covenant have onely priviledges that are outward They are visible Church-members and they have visible Church-priviledges and those who answer to covenant engagements which usually is called the inward covenant have priviledges both outward and inward A Jew outwardly had outward priviledges A Jew inwardly that is he that answered to his outward profession that worshipped God in spirit hath both those that were outward and inward It is further said It is evident that his outward Covenant hath no seal for it is a Covenant de sigillis conferendis If therefore it have a seal it is either the same which is promised or some other What this Authour means when he says it is a covenant de sigillis conferendis I am to learn If he mean that the seal follows the covenant and is put to after the covenant so it is in all covenants whatsoever He sayes they no where tell us what is the seal of their outward covenant me thinks we had no need to tell what the seal of that covenant was that the Jew entered was it not circumcision and did there not another follow viz. the Passeover Now I tell him that Circumcision and the Passeover were and Baptisme and the Lords Supper are seales of this covenant The Nation of the Jewes were in covenant as our Authour though he would yet must not deny They were not all in the inward covenant and yet they had these seales He says we are bound to give the seals to such Vocation which is effectual only to bring men to an outward profession of saving faith is larger then election and makes men such whom we are bound to baptize And such we say have right to them And to help him a little further Those men that he sayes the Church must baptize though without right we say are truely in covenant and have right when he knows what a childe he is to baptize he
totally cast off in Judah neither did God cast off Judah Ahaz was of the worst of Kings and yet his posterity was reckoned among the people of the Lord. Had the Jews at that time been as severe disputants against a covenant-state as are risen up now the Church of God had wanted an Hezekiah He had never lived much lesse wrought so happy a Reformation in the Church of God 2. Those that are lookt upon by men as in Covenant with God and so ordinarily judged as the people of Israel were by the Name that they bear their abode in the Church the profession that they make and so accordingly stiled are truely and really in Covenant A man may know a man to appertain to such or such a person because he sees him in his family hears him call him Master sees him sometimes at least in his work and knows him to have the repute of his servant Though to know him to be a faithful servant requires more diligence of enquiry and a stricter scrutiny So a man may be as easily known to appertaine to Jesus Christ The same Characters make him known all that is required to being in covenant is visible open evident but sincerity of heart in covenanting is invisible and secret And therefore the Jew outwardly Rom. 2. 28. is called by the Vulgar Vatablus Tremelius Arias Montanus and Castalio Judaeus in manifesto by Calvin Judaeus in aperto by Beza Judaeus in propatulo The Jew inwardly is called Judaeus in abscondito or occulto Their Church or covenant-station giving them those great advantages after mentioned was open and manifest Those that say Lord Lord as Mat. 7. 21. are of those that avouch God to be their God and God avoucheth them to be his people And therefore when they come with their sacrifices though in their sinnes and God upon that account testifies against them yet he sayes I am God even thy God It is confess'd by an eminent adversary that we must judge those that make profession to be in Covenant with God we must give them the name of Christians and men in covenant with God and we must use them as Christians in works of Charity and Ordinances and Church-communion and so must use their children as Christians children And seeing reason to judge so according to Scripture-character of men in covenant they are so Either in this we judge right or else we proceed upon mistake If we judge aright then all is well If we mistake then all in these proceedings is null Water hath been applyed to the child of such an one but no Sacrament dispens'd and according to a mans hopes thoughts or feares of his fathers regeneration are his hopes thoughts and feares of his own baptisme and consequently of his interest in Church-communion for this stands or falls according to his fathers interest or non-interest in the covenant A grand Rule is laid down by the said Authour That a serious Professour of the faith is to be taken for a true Beleever and this being laid down more are added If this Proposition were a Scripture-Maxime then it would have borne a farther superstruction but being neither found there nor any proof made that it is any way deduced thence mother and daughters may all justly be called into question and seeing he cannot but know that very many as to the thing for which it is produc'd which in order to admission to Ordinances will utterly deny it he might have dome well to have made some essay to have proved it I do yeeld that charity is to hope the best but but that we should put our charity to it or our reason either for probability or certainty when we no where so taught and have a more sure rule for our proceeding I see no reason I can scarce meet with a Minister that sayes and I have put the question to many of the most eminent that I know that he baptizeth any infant upon this ground of hope that the parent is regenerate but still with earnest vehemence professes the contrary I desire the Reader to consider Master Cobbets third and fourth Conclusions in his just Vindication page 46. 52. There is a bare external being in the Covenant of Grace saith he of persons who possibly never shall be saved Concl. 3d. The Church in dispensing ân enjoyned initiatory seal of the Covenant of Grace loâketh unto visibility of interest in the Covenant to guide her in the application thereof Nor is it the saving interest of the persons in view which is her rule by which she is therein to proceed Concl. 4th Visibility of interest and saving interest are there oppos'd See also Master Hudsân pag. 249. John Baptist did not in his conscience think they had all actually really and compleatly repented and reformed themselves whom he baptized but he baptized them unto repentance Matth. 3. 11. and they by receiving the same bound themselves to endeavour the practise thereof It were a sad case for Ministers if they were bound to admit none or administer the Lords Supper to none but such as were truly godly or that they judged in their conscience to be so or were bound to eject all that they judged were not so 3. Mans obligation of himself in covenant unto God upon the termes by him proposed necessarily implies Gods obligation to man Where God makes tender of the Gospel by his Ministers to any one out of covenant there he makes tender of the Covenant and where a person or people professedly accept that is engage themselves as myriads of thousands did through the Acts of the Apostles this person this people each man of them is in covenant As Scripture calls them by the name of Saints Disciples Beleevers Christians so we may call them Covenanters They have all a sanctity of separation which Camero sayes is real and arguments are drawn from thence to a right in Baptisme There is in most of them if not in all some graces that are real either common or saving and a covenant doth not wait till the termes be kept and the conditions made good before it hath the being of a covenant And whether these be every way sincere or any way dissembling yet it is acknowledged that they really oblige themselves And God howsoever dissembles not but is bound by himself upon his own terms which they profedly accept to confer all that the covenant holds forth so that wheresoever man is obliged there a compleat covenant is made up for Gods tender goes before and man is the last party and compleats the Covenant 4. Sinceriây and integrity of heart or fully reality in a mans intentions to stand to the whole of a Covenant is not of the offence and being of it Both parties stand engaged upon their respective termes though one part should have unsincere intentions A wife is a wise and the marriage is compleat when both parties have publickly express'd consent though she hold a resolution to be stubborn refractory
profuse c. A man consenting to serve whether in bare words or taking earnest as is most usual or by hand and seal as in the case of apprentices is a servant although he intend with Onesimus to purloyn or take his opportunity to be gone Some thinks it makes for their advantage to say that unregenerate men are unsincere in covenant but that concession utterly destroys them If they be unsincere or as the Psalmist speaks not stedfast in covenant then they are in covenant A propositione secundi adjacentis ad propositionem primi adjacentis valet argumentum If it be true that Catiline is a seditious man then it is true that he is a man that Peribomius is a vicious man then he is a man that Judas is treacherous and perfidious in covenant then he is in covenant A mans conviction that he is an unjust steward or an unfaithful servant doth not conclude him to be no servant or no steward but the contrary And whereas it is said The differences must be taken notice of between humane Covenants and ours with God or else all will be marred Men know not one another hearts and therefore make not laws for hearts nor impose conditions on hearts and therefore if both parties do confesse consent though dissembledly they are both obliged the Covenant is mutual But God offers to consent only on condition that our hearts consent to his terms and therfore if we profess consent do not consent God consenteth not nor is as it were obliged This were somewhat to purpose in case it could be made to appear that Scripture denies all being of a covenant between God and man where the all-seeing eye of God sees not all integrity and sincerity But Scripture-language which is the fasest for us to follow being as we have heard far otherwise there is nothing marr'd in non-observance of any such supposed difference See Psal 78. 34 35 36. When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God And they remembred that God was their Rock and the High God their Redeemer Neverthelesse they did flatter him with their mouth and they lied unto him with their tongues 5. There is a real and serious purpose in many unregenerate persons to serve the Lord and to come up to as much as they think he in covenant requires though with Austin they have a great mind to delay and often to put off the thought of their more exact and serious service and too ordinarily think that they keep covenant when they break it having not as yet any right knowledge either of their own hearts or Gods commands and in this posture in which they thus stand before they come up any higher yea though they never come higher they reach unto graces in themselves real true and good and all do the works which God commands There is a common grace which is not saving yet real and so true and good and so true grace as well as special grace which is saving saith Master Baxter Saints everlasting Rest Part. 3. Sect. 6. Which may be a faire answer to that which is objected against me that in my explication of Dogmatical faith I adde by way of exclusion though not affecting the heart to a full choice of Christ where he seems saith my adversary to imply though he expresse it not that the faith that he meaneth doth affect the heart to a choice of Christ which is not full But if so then 1. It is much more then assent or a meer Historical Dogmatical Faith 2. But is the choice which he intimateth real as to the act and suited to the object That is the real choice of such a Christ as is offered and on such termes If so it is justifying faith If not either it is counterfeit as to the act or but nominal as to the object and is indeed no choosing of Christ That which is real and true is neither counterfeit nor meerly nominal so far as they know either Christ or their own hearts they undissembledly choose and take to him as expecting to be happy in him and not in any other object though too often it is upon mis-information and when they come to a right understanding of the termes they are in danger to quit the way in which they might enjoy him It is further said That I think that there may be an undissembled profession which yet may not be of a saving faith But then I conceive saith one it is not an entire profession of the whole essential object of Christian faith viz. of assent and consent In which he doth but cast dust in his Readers eyes in confounding the intirenesse of the object and the integrity of the subject There may be an entire profession of the whole essential object of faith where the will is brought in to make no more full choice or consent then hath been said and the desired integrity of the subject wanting I am told It will be an hard saying to many honest Christians to say that a man not justified may believe every fundamental article and withal truly professe repentance of all his sinnes and to take God for his Sovereign to rule him and his chief good to be enjoyed to his happinesse and to take Christ for his Lord and only Saviour and his Word for his Law and Rule and the Holy Ghost for his guide and Sanctifer and the rest which is essential to Christianity I think it will be nothing hard for any honest Christian to say that a man not justified may believe every fundamental article as to assent and that he may be convinc'd of the necessity of such repentance and accordingly to make profession of it as Johns converts who were not all justifi'd did and were baptiz'd into it or that such an one may freely yeeld that God hath right of Sovereignty and rule and that he is the chief good to be enjoyed for happinesse and that he ought to take Christ for his Lord and Saviour c. and that this may be done truly not only as to reality of assent but as to reality of purpose to make this choice so farre as the man knows his own heart or the minde of God in this work though there be not that integrity to yeeld up himself wholly which yet by the power of Ordinances through the Spirit in Gods time may be done and through grace perfected Lastly God setting up a visible Church upon earth in order to that which is invisible will have those admitted that give assent to Scripture-doctrine and accordingly wake profession And this of it self in fero Dei brings them into covenant-right and visible Church-membership And therefore according to the minde of God and as Apollonius speaks jure Dei in this estate are to be received Though they shall hit or misse of the mercy of the covenant accordingly as by grace they come up to or by sin fall short of the Propositions contained
in it A Scholar saith Mr. Hudson that is admitted into a School is not admitted because he is doctus but ut sit doctus and if he will submit to the rules of the Schoole and apply himself to learne it is enough for his admission The like may be said of the Church-visible which is Christs School Vindicat. pag. 248. The door of the visible Church saith Master Baxter Saints Rest Part. 4. Sect. 3. is incomparably wider then the door of heaven and Christ is so tender so bountiful and forward to convey his grace and the Gospel so free an offer and invitation to all that surely Christ will keep no man off if they will come quite over in spirit to Christ they shall be welcome if they will come but onely to a visible profession he will not deny them admittance This seems to me to speak the mind of Jesus Christ for their admittance and that in foro Dei as well as in foro Ecclesiae they stand in covenant-relation and have title to Church-membership Thus the Reader may see my thoughts in this thing and though I doubt not but that some will question much that I have said yet now at last I hope my meaning may be understood CHAP. VII The Covenant of Grace calls for Conditions from Man A Third Proposition which I shall here lay down is that Gods covenant with man hath its restipulation from man when God engages to man to conferre happinesse upon him he requires conditions from him This I know hath strong opposition by men of two sorts and they of different stamps and for different ends The first deny all Gospel-conditions all covenant-termes on mans part to the end they may assert justification before and without Faith Salvation without Repentance and Obedience which though it be contradicted by abundant testimonies of Scripture placing unbeleeving impenitent and disobedient ones in hell under the wrath of God yea such unbeleeving impenitent ones that have laid highest claime to Christ Matth. 7. 23. yet it seems wholly to follow and necessarily to be evinced from this absolute unconditionate covenant If Christ have wholly finished not only the work of mans redemption but also of his salvation upon the crosse without farther work of application as one in a distinct Treatise hath made it his endeavour to prove then we may as he there doth decry both our faith in Christ and Christs intercession for us Herein one of late according to his wonted weaknesse is very industrious and whereas the Scripture tells us Christ dwells in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3. 17. he would prove that Christ enters into us without us dwells in the unbeleeving and in reference to this opinion of his he makes it his businesse as to deny Faith in reference to Justification so all Gospel-covenant-conditions All other covenants besides this were saith he upon a stipulation and the promise was altogether upon conditions on both sides But in this covenant of Grace viz. the new covenant it is far otherwise there is not any condition in this covenant I say the new covenant is without any condition whatsoever And he further tells his hearers that he is on a nice point Faith is not the condition of the covenant Others utterly distasting the aforenamed opinions of Justification without faith or salvation without obedience or repentance which seeme to be the natural issue and necessary consequents of an unconditional covenant yet with great resolution do affirme the covenant to be without conditions joyning in the premisses with these heterodox teachers but peremptorily denying the conclusion Against both of these that oppose it either more desperately or more innocently I affirm and might quote a cloud of witnesses that the covenant of grace hath its conditions which to me is clear First by the definition of a covenant given in by the Authour before named a few pages before his assertion before mentioned It is a mutual agreement between parties upon certaine Articles or Propositions on both sides so that each party is bound and tyed to perform his own conditions It is in the definition and of the essence of a covenant in general according to him to have conditions yet this covenant in particular with him is without condition Here is a species that partakes not of the nature of the genus a particular covenant that wants the essence of a covenant which is the same as though he should finde us a man that is no living creature a Vine or Fig-tree that is no plant a piece of scarlet of no colour such a thing is this unconditional covenant If the essence of a covenant require it then this covenant is not without it Secondly by the expresse Texts of Scripture which lay down conditions of the covenant either in expresse words or those that of necessity imply a condition See John 8. 51. Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death Who sees not there First a Priviledge granted by way of covenant Secondly the condition on which it is to be obtained John 8. 24. If ye beleeve not that I am he ye shall die in your sinnes Heb. 3. 6. Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firme unto the end Who knows not If to be a conditional particle All pardon and justification if Scripture may be heard is suspended on mens not beleeving John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Mar. 16. 16. He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved and he that beleeveth not shall be damned Thirdly by Analogy with the covenant of Works entred of God with Adam in innocency Gen. 2. 17. This on all hands that I know is granted to have been conditional and who sees not in the Texts mentioned conditions as expresse in the Gospel as not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and euil to man in Paradise either both or neither must be conditional Fourthly from the nature of conditions in covenants A condition in a covenant is somewhat agreed upon by the Parties in covenant upon performance of which the benefit of the covenant is obtained and upon the failing of it the whole benefit is lost and the penalty whatsoever it is incurred In covenants between equals either indent and article what those conditions shall be upon defaylance of which the benefit is lost and the penalty incurred In covenants between superiour and inferiour the superiour doth prescribe and the inferiour doth yeeld In all covenants there are such conditions that upon performance or failing of them the covenant doth stand or fall such there are in the Gospel-covenant There we are enjoyned to believe and repent upon obedience to and performance of these we reap the benefit of the covenant Upon failing in them the benefit is lost and the penalty incurred He that
beleeveth not shall be damned Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish There are then conditions in this covenant Fifthly from the absurdities that will follow upon the denial of conditions on mans part in the covenant First then man is out of danger of being faulty in the covenant he can be no covenant-breaker He cannot be charged that his heart is unsteady in it This of it self is plaine He that is tyed to nothing fails in nothing he that is engaged to no servce neglects no service As God hath that glory that he keeps covenant so man hath that Priviledge that he is not in a capacity of breaking of it The Church might have spared that Apology for themselves that they had not dealt falsely in the covenant Psal 44. 17. seeing they were under no such engagement that they could falsifie or in any such capacity of being false but we finde God complaining against his People for breach of covenant Jerem. 11. 10. Isa 24. 5. Psal 78. 10 37. we finde him giving out his threats to avenge the quarrel of his covenant Levit. 26. 25. Master Baxters Questionist who seems contrarily minded thought it an exception of validity That it follows from his doctrine that the New covenant is never violated by any I am sure it follows from this doctrine that it is not in any capacity of violation Secondly then we may say as the Apostle in another case Our preaching is in vain at least to salvation vaine the Gospel in mans mouth is no power of God to salvation In faith or unbelief in a penitent or unrepentant condition in holinesse or disobedience God will save he looks neither at faith uprightnesse or any qualification when in a covenant-way he engages himselfe to conferre salvation In case God doth not regard it to what end is there any paines to work a people to it This I know some Assertours of this doctrine will disclaime but let them shew how they will avoid it CHAP. VIII A grand Objection against this doctrine answered HEre an objection of weight by reason of the difficulty of some Scripture-Texts on which it is grounded is to be taken into consideration It is true saith one that in covevenants usually there is a mutual contract and there are mutual performances to which persons are engaged thereby But for the thing it is certaine that however the words of foedus pactum in Latine ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Greek covenant in English be used the Hebrew Berith and the Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã used in the Old and New Testament do not alwayes import a mutual contract and mutual performances God is said to establish a Covenant with all living Gen. 9. 9 10. between whom and God there neither is nor can be a mutual contract and performance And the term rendred covenant is not only rendred Testament but also the holy Writers do illustrate the New covenant rather by the metaphor of a Testament then of a covenant 1 Corinth 11. 25. Gal. 3. 15. Heb. 9. 16 17. and where the Promises are set down without any reciprocal contract or duty exprest Heb. 8. 10 11 12. and 10. 16 17. Rom. 11. 26 27. This argument is against all being of covenants as well as the conditionality of them as indeed if conditions be denied all being of a covenant is destroyed and therefore it might have been well brought in where the covenant it self was asserted as militating against the very being of it But it cannot conveniently be held out in both places and therefore it must be considered here and for answer let us first take what is granted that usually in covenants there is a mutual contract and that these words Latine and Greek be used to imply such covenants in which there are mutual contracts and mutual performances and to which persons are engaged on both sides and then let us examine what is affirmed concerning those two words Berith and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the contrary And for the first who does not know that the word is sometimes used for a covenant improperly so called A bare command Jer. 34. 13. A bare Seal Gen. 17. 10. is as we have heard called a covenant And so a bare promise here in the place quoted is called a covenant likewise Not that beasts and birds can covenant but they shall be as secure from the judgement there mentioned as though there had past a mutual contract in the strongest engagements Eliphaz shewing the priviledges of the godly saith Job 5. 23. They shall be in league with the stones of the field the same word is in both places shall we now say that a league or covenant is no act of reason because man is in league and covenant with stones which are unreasonable creatures or rather shall we say with Master Caryl in his Exposition To be in League with stones is an improper and allusive speech stones are not capable of the formalities of a League So we say for God to make a covenant with unreasonable creatures with beasts birds and creeping things is an improper and allusive speech likewise Birds Beasts and creeping things are in an incapacity of covenant Gomarus handling that question of Universal Redemption in his Comment on Gal. 1. a Patron of the Lutherans as he calls him disputing for it from the form of the covenant of Grace as that Disputant stiles it Gen. 3. 17. where the seed of the woman is promised to break the Serpents head denies that those words containe the forme of a covenant because it is certain as he sayes that a Covenant properly so called containes an obligation of two parties with conditions on both sides which cannot be proved saith he in those words and therefore it is not a covenant properly so called From which learned hand we see 1. That a covenant properly so called is of two parties 2. That both parts have their conditions 3. That there is a covenant between God and man properly so called in which God and man are both obliged 4. That no Scripture-expression holds out this covenant that holds not out these conditions This is the proper acception for which we contend and improper acceptions as they do not hold forth the nature of a covenant so we confesse they do not imply mutual contracts or mutual performances So that the Argument is brought to this A covenant sometimes in an improper sense is said to be made with those that cannot make mutual contracts therefore a covenant is no mutal contract nor hath any mutual engagements We might as well argue that because a stone is called a witnesse Josh 24. 27. a heap of stones is so called Gen. 31. 48. which have neither eyes nor ears to see or hear what is done or said nor yet a tongue to utter it therefore there is no use of eyes or ears or of a tongue in any one that is brought for a witnesse As the Hebrew word Berith is improperly used
or at least used in a sense more large then to denote a covenant wheresoever it doth not hold out an agreement of two parties with engagements on both hands So the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whensoever it is used in that sense seemes to be taken improperly Seeing in its received signification according to good Interpreters it doth denote not a covenant but a mans last Will and Testament which never is of force but by the death of the Testator Heb. 9. 16 17. which is not true of a Covenanter his death is not required to make the covenant valid So Ravanellus Testament saith he in Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is taken 1. Properly for the declaration of a mans Will concerning that which he would have done after his death and is ratified by the death of the Testator for it is not of force while the Testator liveth Heb. 9. 16 17. 2. Improperly for a covenant which living men enter among themselves Rivet also Exercit. 103. in Gen. speaking of those words of the Apostle Gal. 4. 24. These are two Testaments Testament there he saith is not to be taken in a proper signification for that which is done by a dying man and ratified by his death but for a covenant-agreement or order as Pererius hath well observed Alsted in his Lexicon Theologicum having spoken to the sense in which translatours of the Bible sometimes use it as the same with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã resolves We must yeeld somewhat to custome After saith Testament properly signifies a just declaration of a mans Will concerning that which he would have done with his goods after his death The Greeks properly call it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Estius is very full setting out the Original denotation of the word together with the received signification of it For though ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith he if you look to the Etymologie of the word holds out no more then a disposing and with Greek Authours as Budaeus witnesseth in his Commeât on the Greek tongue signifies in general a covenant-agreement or promise yet the common and most received signification is the same as Testamentum in the Latine which is the declaration of a mans Will concerning that whith he would have done after his death The Apostles Application of a Testament properly so called to the covenant of God Heb. 9. 16 17. hath troubled many Interpreters Erasmus on this acount questions the Authors skill in the Hebrew tongue and Cajetan calls into question the authority of the Epistle Most conclude from hence that the Original of the Epistle was Greek in that there is not Hebrew words to hold out such expressions and the Syriack translator was put to it to keep the Greek word and put it into a Syriack Character For the clearing of this doubt it is not enough to say that these words are sometimes promiââuously used Berith for a Testament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for a Covenant as Camerarius notes out of Aristophanes a Greek Poet as Rivet observes Seeing the Apostle applies a Testament in the proper received sense to that which signifies a mutual agreement For the salving of which Estius reckons up several opinions which he rejects some of which others of good note follow and afterwards acquaints the Reader with his own thoughts in words drawn out to such a length that I shall refer the Reader if he please to the Authour himself Dixon on the words saith The Articles of the covenant also evince it to be a Testament and the promiser bound to make his word good and so to die For Jer. 31. The Lord Christ promiseth to reconcile his people to God to take away their sinnes and to be their God Justice required satisfaction of them before they could be reconciled satisfaction they could not make themselves therefore he who promised to make the reconciliation with God was found to make the satisfaction for them to God and if satisfaction for them then to under-lie the curse of the Law for them and so to die Gomarus says The covenant of the New Testament is both a covenant and a Testament It is a covenant because it is an agreement between God and man concerning salvation promised and faith owing by man And a Testament because it is established upon the promised death of the Son of God and an heavenly inheritance by it so that it may not unworthily be called a Testamentary covenant or a Testament-covenant by reason of the concurrence of both in one And after concludes Simply it is a covenant by reason of the mutual agreement between God and beleevers Respectively a Testament by reason of the way and manner of the chief and most eminent part in the covenant that is the promise of grace whereby God promiseth to be our God propitious to us and to give us everlasting life as an inheritance by the death of his Son Junius in his parallels undertaking to give satisfaction hath a remedy with me worse then the disease though learned Mr. Grayle endeavours his Vindication After a large discourse in what latitude the word Berith is taken The Apostle he saith shewes the limitation of it out of the Types and shadows of the Law in the fifteenth and following verses when he shews that the grace of God was herein more eminent and conspicuous in that he gave unto his not a covenant but a Testament giving in his reasons because a covenant must have contained mutual conditions which if either part did not performe the covenant were void but a Testament is an instrument of liberality and bounty by which men are called and made heirs without eying of any duty that is to be done by them Here by the way we see that in case it be a covenant according to him it hath mutual conditions and therefore he is together with Ravanellus Gomarus Vrsinus before quoted to whom may be added Peter Martyr on Judg. 2. giving the like definition wholly against those who make this inference That it cannot be proved to be of the general nature of covenants that there should be such a convertibility as that both must seal or contract or perform But for his position that God hath not given a covenant to his people I wonder how it slipt from him Such unwary expressions in a seeming tendency to advance grace from pious persons have made way for strange superstructions He might have said that those Types and Shadows of the Law did argue it to be more then a bare and common covenant being ratified by blood which led to the blood of the Mediatour And so Rivet as I understand him answers Paul in his Epistle to the Hebr. saith he chap. 9. doth not argue from the simple signification of the word but from the circumstances of the covenant But his denying it to be a covenant is that which I must oppose He is large indeed to shew in what latitude the word Berith
in some Old Testament Texts is used as also the Latine word Foedus in prophane Authors All of which shews no more but that the word in the exact denotation and largest sense of it imports no more then an ordination or disposition yet that hinders not but that as Interpreters generally render it so the received and accustomed use of it is to hold out a covenant bargaine or agreement As the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in its largest sense comprizes any Assembly even for civil uses Acts 19. 39. yea rude congregated routs verse 41. yet in the generally received sense it is taken for holy Assemblies So it is with Berith the word may admit of a large sense but the received sense is with more restriction The Jews had their covenants man with man Abraham with Abimelech Gen. 21. 72. Isaac with Abimelech Gen. 26. 28. Laban with Jacob Gen. 31. 44. And this was the word whereby they did expresse their covenants And as the word Church is sometimes used improperly for Church Members that make not up a whole Church The Church in Aquila and Priscilla 's house Rom. 16. 5. Sometimes for Church-officers Matth. 18. 17. Tell it to the Church who could not be the whole Church whereof infants are a part or as all must confesse women who yet are no competent judges so there are improper acceptions of the word covenant when the proper sense is that which hath been held out which is a mutual compact or agreement on terms and Propositions The learned observe that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã properly answers to the word Berith Ravanellus observes out of Hierome that Aquila and Symmachus did so translate it and Rivet on Genes Exercit. 135. saith That which the Septuagint and Theodotio call ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that Symmachus translates ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã pactum foedus which saith he is the proper signification of the Hebrew word Berith which word is not read in the Old Testament for the ordering of a mans Will or Testament Now it is not denyed but the word foedus and pactum in Latine ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Greek covenant in English do signifie mutual contracts in which there are mutual performances and so the Hebrew word Berith in like manner this being according to the learned the genuine signification of it And if this were not the received signification of it how did the Objection before mentioned ever come into any mans head that the Apostle did bewray ignorance in the Scripture-use of the word in applying it to a mans Will or Testament and what needed so much pains for his defence in it Hierome on those words Gal 3. 17. This I say that the Testament confirmed of God saith If any compare the Hebrew volumes and other Editions with the translation of the Septuagint he shall find that where Testament is written it doth not signifie a Testament but a Covenant which in the Hebrew tongue is called Berith And in case Gods whole dispensations and Gospel-communications as Junius would have it be a Testament onely and no covenant why is the world so abused with the word foedus pactum in Latine covenant in English By which all men understand that which we call a covenant no man understands a Testament why do we say covenant of Works covenant of grace if the former onely were a covenant properly and the other a Testament as though we should cal an Eagle and a Lion both by the common name of a bird perswading that a Lion were a bird as well as an Eagle yet if it were a Testament properly so called it would not overthrow the conditionality as Mr. Grayl out of Swynborn shews Testaments have their conditions How comes it to pass that Scripture holds out so frequently that similitude of a marriage Is 54. 5. Hos 2. 19. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Eph. 5. 32. to set out this transaction A marriage contract is not a mans Testament hath a wife barely a Legacie and doth she enter no covenant with her husband How comes it to passe that turning aside from God after other lovers is called in Scripture by the name of whoredomes adulteries which is the breach of a marriage-covenant and how is sin against God called a dealing falsely with God we cannot deale falsely in the covenant if it be not a covenant but a Testament men may carry themselves unthankfully but falsehood argues an engagement How is it that we finde in Old and New Testament-Scriptures mutuall engagements between God and his people of God to them of them to him in case God hath vouchsafed them a Legacie by Testament in the death of his Son and left them out of covenant And how is that without Covenant without Christ without God without Hope with the Apostle are one and the same when yet all people that have hope in Christ are out of covenant There be that say The holy Writers do illustrate the New covenant rather by the Metaphor of a Testament then a covenant These seeme to make it neither a Covenant nor a Testament Every one knows that a Metaphor is a figure whereby a word is carried out of its proper signification into some other that carries resemblance with it In case there be a metaphor in that expression then it is not proper but borrowed But as I beleeve that Abraham spake not by a Metaphor to God when he said Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Judge of all the world do right God absolving and and condemning the sons of men giving rewards and inflicting penalties is a Judge properly so called so I do not think that God spake in any Metaphor to Abraham when in the chapter before Gen. 17. 7. he saith I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee God is a Judge of all the earth properly so called and he hath entred a covenant with his people properly so called likewise It is true that we understand that relation of God to his people more clearly by the Analogy that it bears to Judges that are set up among men for absolution of the innocent condemning of the guilty And so we are holpen in our understandings of the covenant of God entred with his people by Analogy with the covenants that are among men but in neither of both of these is the word taken out of its proper sense and applyed to any other that it will not properly bear I finde indeed an eminent Divine affirming That a covenant is not so properly said to be with God and man as between man and man not denying the duty which man owes to God nor the engagement by which he is obliged but freely yeelding both and sticking only at the consent on mans part which among men he sayes is requisite and doth mutually concur to make the covenant valid But neither in the covenant of nature or grace is this consent anteceding the validity of the covenant required in man This I confesse
I am not able to reach Nothing with me is more plain then that consent is pre-required in both these covenants Adam I confesse as it is objected was bound to consent yea I will yeeld more that it is no more possible to conceive Adam to deny consent then the Sunne to be without light seeing in his natural motion he was carried in that way of full conformity to God that the Sun may as well be dark as Adam averse from the will or tender of God yet if we could conceive a dark Sunne it could not be a light to rule the day so if we could conceive Adam denying consent to God in the tender of covenant Adam had not been in covenant For fallen man it is clear what held the Pharisees out of the New covenant but their non-consent rejecting the counsel of God against themselves Luk 7. 30. as also those Jews Act. 13. who contradicting and blaspheming judged themselves unworthy of eternal life The covenant was tendered to all those Gentile Nations and Cities where the Gospel was preached and all were bound to yeeld assent but where there was assent of faith there the covenant was entered where assent is denied there they remained strangers from the covenants of promise in the same way of Gentilisme as though the Gospel had never been tendered or the Name of Christ held forth So that these things considered I doubt not but I have made it appear That there is a mutual contract and mutual performances to which persons are engaged not only usually in covenants but in all covenants And that it is of the general nature of covenants that there should be such a convertibility as that both must if not seal some contracts are without seals yet contract or performe and where a seal is vouchsafed must accept of it and that the definition of the covenant in the general is vindicated That God hath entred a covenant properly so called with man with fallen man in which there is a contract of this nature and engagements to mutual performances God condescending to it of grace and man obliged to it by duty yet accepting voluntarily Which as the former might be confirmed by the authority of Divines of eminency Mr. Ball speaking of the covenant of God in the general entred with man saith It may be thus described A mutual compact or agreement betwixt God and man whereby God promiseth all good things specially eternal happinesse unto man upon just equal and favourable conditions and man doth promise to walk before God in all acceptable free and willing obedience expecting all good from God and happinesse in God according to his promise for the praise and glory of his great Name And Vrsin in his Catechisme page 91. defining a covenant in the general nature of it as before he saith it is A mutual agreement between God and man whereby God confirmes to man that he will be merciful forgive their sinnes give them a new righteousnesse his holy Spirit and everlasting life in and by his son the Mediatour In like manner men tie themselves to God for faith and repentance that is by a lively faith to receive this mercy alone and to yeeld true obedience to God And Lucas Trelcatius in loco de foedere thus defines it The covenant is an agreement to God with man concerning eternal happinesse to be communicated to man upon a certain condition to the glory of God And then explaining himself he says When we say an agreement we understand a mutual obligation of God and man by a stipulation intervening that what is promised on both parts may be performed And farther saith There are two parties of the covenant 1. The promise of God concerning everlasting life 2. The obligation of man for performance of the condition prescribed of God the first is free the second is necessary And in conclusion such a bottome I believe is laid in the Introduction that will bear the whole fabrick that follows after Junius and Gomarus are as opposite as may be one to the other in this dispute about the covenant as may be seen in the Appendix to the first chapter But they both agree in this that every covenant of necessity is to have mutual engagements and performances Gomarus denies that the promise Gen. 3. 15. containes the covenant of grace because no conditions are there mentioned And Junius to avoid conditions denies that there is any such thing as a covenant between God and man for if it were a covenant he sayes it must have conditions Therefore according to them both if we grant a covenant we must grant conditions and the full nature of the covenant is in no Scripture laid down where we have not these engagements or conditions laid down likewise Some think to reconcile all this by the various acception of the word Sometimes it is soused in Scripture that the free promise of God is thereby signified and the restipulation of our duty withit God requiring man to engage by covenant to that which he might require did there no promise intervene yet sometimes in Scripture covenant doth signifie the absolute promise of God without any restipulation and of this kinde is that covenant in which God promiseth to give to his elect faith and perseverance to which promise there cannot be conceived any condition to be annexed which is not comprehended in the promise it self So Learned Camero de triplici foedere Thes 1. 2. For this absolute covenant here spoke to I desire the Reader to observe what the same learned Authour hath farther in his third Thesis This distinction of the Covenant doth depend upon the distinction of the love of God for there is a love of God to the Creature from whence every thing that is good in the creature hath wholly flowed and there is the acquiescent love of God in the creature and this the creature hath received not for any thing from it self but from God as it was loved with that first love of God that love for better understanding we call Gods primary or antecedent this Gods secondary or consequent love from that we say doth depend both the paction and fulfilling of the absolute covenant from this depends the fulfilling of that covenant to which is annexed a restipulation not so the paction for that we say depends on the first love This antecedent love is wont to be called Amor benevolentiae which can be no more then a purpose or resolution in God for good to man The second is wont to be called Amor complacentiae a love of delight or content How the former can be a covenant or any covenant properly so called depend upon it as preceding the latter I do not see First this goes before the giving of Christ the gift of Christ is an effect of it Joh. 3. 16. Now God covenants not with man without the Mediator as Camero himself acknowledges and therefore this that precedes can be no covenant made
Secondly a covenant plainly argues an agreement at least in tender from one and professed acceptation from the other party A covenant of parties at a distance either party holding his distance respective to that where the distance is held is the greatest absurdity Now in this absolute covenant as it is called there is not so much as a tender from God much lesse an acceptance from man and so as yet a distance held and therefore no covenant or agreement Thirdly this supposed absolute covenant Jer. 31 33. Heb. 8. 10. hath mercies of two sorts graces priviledges And though men contend that the promise of grace is absolute seeing there is nothing pre-required of us for the writing of this Law in our hearts yet the priviledge of remission of sins hath its conditions Act. 10. 43. Act. 13. 38 39. Act. 3. 19. Fourthly none can claim any interest in or take any comfort from this absolute covenant depending on the antecedent love of God preceding the conditional covenant depending on the consequent love of God before he hath entered the second which is conditional and performed the conditions and knows that he hath performed them This is clear it is made all say with the Elect now none can claime his interest till he knows his Election which is made sure only by our saith and new obedience by the knowledge that we have of our faith and new obedience But it is enough to me that a covenant comprizing a restipulation of our duty is here confest which is the Gospel way to salvation without which the acquiescent love of God is not attained As to that Text Heb. 8. 10. the Reader may see more elsewhere CHAP. IX Further Objections against the former doctrine Answered THe covenant of grace entred with fallen man saith one is called an everlasting covenant and Heb. 8. 12. God saith I will be merciful to your iniquities and your sinnes will I remember no more Now suppose there were conditions for man to performe and man did faile in those conditions what were become of the covenant Ans The conditions failing of the covenant is broke the everlasting covenant is broke which though it seeme a contradiction to some yet it is not so to the Prophet Is 24. 5. They have transgressed the Law changed the Ordinances and broken the everlasting Covenant It is said to be everlasting because it shall not be antiquated for another to succeed it or at least that man is not to put a period to it so Circumcision and the Passeover are Ordinances for ever not that non-entring into it never break or transgresse it The Elect of God Regenerate do indeed keep covenant so do not all that enter into it There are frequent Scripture-complaints of Breach of covenant Secondly It is said Man hath no tie upon him to perform any thing whatsoever with covenant as a condition that must be observed on his part let the covenant it self be judge in this case mark it in Jeremy Ezekiel or in Heb. 8. Answ In those Texts there are graces mentioned as Gods work on the soule and priviledges promised to be enjoyed Whatsoever is there set forth as Gods work upon the soul is also required of man as duty namely to be renued in the spirit of his mind Eph. 4. 23. To make him a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 18. 31. That the Word of Christ dwell in him richly in all wisdome Col. 3. 16. It will be hard for any to point out a promise of this nature but it may be answered with a command as an obligation unto duty As the precepts must not thrust out the promise nor duty shoulder out free grace So the promise must not destroy the precept In that of Jeremy conditions on mans part are included so as by the assistance of grace to be performed The tie lies upon us on pain of losse of all that the covenant promiseth and bearing all that-it threatneth Thirdly Suppose saith one there should be a fault of performing in this Covenant whose were the fault Answ The fault is his who is chidden in Scripture and beaten for it namely those that did flatter God with their mouth and lied unto him with their tongues whose heart was not right with him nor were sledfast in his covenant Ps 78. 36 37. They upon whom he will bring a sword to avenge the quarrel of his covenant Lev. 26. 25. are in the fault Fourthly if there be conditions then the covenant is not free gifts must be of absolute grace and bounty if a condition be required the freedome of the gift is destroyed Answ This is true of such conditions where there is merit in the condition whereby benefit accrues to him that engages by promise holding proportion with the reward But here is nothing indented by way of covenant but that homage which is naturally due which God may challenge from us as creatures without either engagement unto or exhibition of any reward at all for their paines and what he may require without reward when he covenants for it the reward is free If Abraham had made Eliezer of Damascus his heir upon his faithful service the inheritance had yet been a free gift and of grace conferr'd upon him Make the Proposition universal All conditions in promises destroy the nature of a gift in the thing promised and then it is to be denied A covenant of grace would then be a contradiction seeing it is no covenant as hath been demonstrated without a condition Then the Prophet doth contradict himself in the tender of a covenant in the most free manner as is possible Isa 55. 1 2. Ho every one that thirsteth c. even their conditions are required Incline your ear and come unto me Hear and your soul shall live Let the wicked for sake his way the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon Here are free promises with conditions Men who have not that sovereignty account their gifts free and yet require conditions from them on whom they are conferred An Alms-house is founded and endowed with revenue conditions are put upon the Almes-people to reside in such an house assigned to wear clothes of the colour and forme prescribed or whatsoever else the Founder please and yet the gift is free Finally God cannot covenant with man and keep up his sovereignty if we leave out obedience in the Articles of the covenant The covenant is upon equal termes if subjection be excluded to be a God in covenant and not require subjection is the highest of contradictions A Learned Writer after a large discourse held of the right that Redeemed ones have to the death of Christ before beleeving saith Here may be observed the mistake of those who winde up the merit of Christ as affecting God as I may so speak unto a conditional engagement viz. that we shall be made partakers of
be satisfied which how impossible it is for man to do and how injurious to the sufferings of Christ to attempt the doing of it let us guesse by the definition that Bellarmine gives of it Lib. quart de peniten cap. 1. Actio quâ is qui alierum laesit tantum facit quantum satis est ad injuriam compensandam sive is qui laesus est justè exigit All that we can suffer can never satisfie the wrong that our sinnes have done to the divine Majesty God may justly exact more then either on earth or in their imaginary purgatory any man can discharge As the sufferings of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed so neither do they match the evil that justly might be inflicted They are all just but not from Gods revenging justice In themselves they have the nature of curses but they are no part of the curse which upon the breach of the covenant of works and upon the transgression of the Law is menaced As a skilful Physician makes poison up into a medicine so doth God turne curses into blessings they serve not to kill but to cure his people 7. These sufferings are not yet barely as some use to speak from sinne but chastisements for sinne not only to prevent sin that it may not be committed but because men have allready sinned The Corinthians were chastened not alone least they should prophane the Lords Supper but because they had prophaned it God afflicted David not onely lest he should commit adultery but because he had committed adultery He threatens Eli and punisheth him not only lest he should be too indulgent to his sons but because he had been too indulgent to them It cannot be conceived how afflictions should prevent sin to come if they do not correct sin already past why are men afraid to sinne upon account of sufferings but because upon sin they have suffered Smart for sinne makes a childe of God watchful against sin The childe that hath seen his fathers frowne is afraid lest he should frowne againe that hath beene scourged knows what a father thinks of a fault and is afraid of a second It is here objected that it stands not with justice in this way to afflict beleevers seeing Christ in their stead hath made satisfaction and to punish one sinne twice is injurious Answ 1. These know that Socinians deny that Christ hath made any satisfaction and if these two cannot stand together viz. Christs satisfaction and beleevers correction they will soone assume that beleevers do suffer for which the Scripture is very full and therefore Christ hath not satisfied and so their dangerous errour will be supported 2. One truth must not be produced to the overthrow of another Christ satisfaction takes us out of the hand of condemnation and delivers from revengeful wrath but not out of the hand of discipline when God becomes a Saviour he doth not cease to be a Sovereign a father that is a Judge may lash his childe that he never intends to sentence If any will see further Objections raised and answered let him consult Mr. Burges of justification Part. 1. Lecture 5. pag. 33. CHAP. XIV Agreement between the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace HAving asserted a covenant of grace and premised such things that may contribute some light towards a right understanding of it I must proceed to enquire into the respective agreement and differences between these covenants The former is an easie work there being no controversie or dispute raised about it and therefore I shall briefly passe it over They agree 1. In the general nature of a covenant both are covenants strictly so called as hath already been demonstrated 2. They have one and the same authour that is God He proposed the termes of the covenant to Adam for himself and all of his posterity and he enters covenant with the posterity of Adam in their fallen condition 3. The parties in covenant are in both of them God and man God propounding man accepting though there be as we have heard that would have it otherwise 4. In either of both there is a tendency to mans happinesse Life is given in promise in both as we see Rom. 10 5 6 c. where both covenants are distinctly considered what difference or agreement there may be in the life promised will after be spoke unto 5. In both of them there is a restipulation from man as there is an engagement from God as God engageth himself for reward so man is engaged to duty the former was never doubted the later hath been largely proved 6. In either of both righteousness is called for from those that enter covenant For the first it is not questioned in that it is a covenant of Works Failing in doing was death Interest in perfect righteousnesse is required in the latter which is called the righteousnesse of faith and is the righteousnesse of the Law performed not by our selves but by another Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10. 4. Sincerity in inherent righteousnesse is required likewise both of these will be morefully demonstrated 7. Either of both are indispensable the conditions being not performed the penalty of the covenant in both is inflicted Adams posterity had experience of the one and all unbeleevers and impenitent ones will bear the other not believing not repenting brings death as sometimes not perfectly obeying That distinction of the covenant of grace calling for one thing and accepting of another afterwards will be considered 8. Neither of both covenants are personal as entered with any single person or persons and determined in him or them but both of them include posterity In the covenant of works it is not so expressly delivered but not to be doubted That covenant was entred with Adam for all his the latter is more expresse to the covenanters and their seed both in Old and New Testament-Scriptures which by a party is questioned but remaines largely to be confirmed CHAP. XV. Differences between the Covenants of Works and the Covenant of Grace HAving spoken to the agreement between these two Covenants I must now more largely enquire into the differences which will prove a work of greater difficulty there being so much opposition The first and leading difference is that being both of them between God and man they were entred into in a different estate and condition of man The first was entered in statu instituto in mans integrity when man had not at all by sinne incurred the displeasure of God or weakened his abilities for obedience Man then stood as he came out of Gods hand bearing in himselfe a lively resemblance of God The second was in statu destituto in mans fallen estate now in sinne under wrath dead in sinne and wholly disabled from yeelding obedience of this there is no controversie and therefore I need not make more words about it And from hence all
offering for sinne but when Christ is rejected there is no other sacrifice to be looked for In the covenant of grace God hath made known his whole minde concerning mans salvation by what means and upon what termes man shall be saved CHAP. XVI A further difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace ANother difference of great importance between these covenants and which necessarily as the two former flows from the first is That the first covenant between God and man was immediate no Mediatour intervening no dayes-man standing between them to make them one But for the second man being fallen by sinne a Mediatour was necessary that God and man now in that distance should be reconciled I know some have contended that not only man in integrity but the Angels themselves stood in need of Christs mediation producing their grounds for their assertion and then this difference between these covenants falls neither of both are immediate both standing in need of a Mediatour The grounds are First Obj. That the obedience of man and Angels was imperfect and stood in need of pardon and for the righteousnesse of Christ which he performed to the Father was accounted perfect quoting that place of Eliphaz in his speech to Job Job 4. 18. Even his Angels he charged with folly If Angels stood thus in Gods eye under such a charge then much more man as Eliphas there argues But I would demand of these concerning this supposed imperfection in man and Angels thus supplied by Christs perfection whether it were properly and of its own nature a sinne If not then there is no place for pardon If it were then it must be divolved on Christ and laid upon him to expiate and so man fell or at least lay down groveling before his fall and the good Angels by reason of sin are evil as well as those that are fallen but these are absurd In that of Eliphaz therefore if it must be understood of Angels of glory sin is not charged or implied but only defect standing in comparison or competition with God an imperfection negative is yeelded they match not God in perfection but in his presence cover their faces with their wings Isa 6. 2. but no imperfection privative they want no perfection of which they are in any capacity and whereof they have any necessity God made no creature in such a necessity of sinning or in such a being that needed pardon A second ground is Obj. That though a Mediator was not necessary by way of reconciliation yet he was necessary by way of preservation in righteousnesse The second fully overthrows the first in that which it grants and I know not how that can be proved that it affirms Man was not preserved and therefore it appears that he had no such Mediatour appointed for his preservation And it seems according to this opinion man could not have stood unlesse Christ had been incarnate and so his fall was not from the freedome of his will but the principles of his creation For the Angels how they can be said to stand by grace received from Christ a Mediatour I know not they being no fellow-members with us though fellow-servants And howsoever accidental benefits come to the Angels by Christ in their joy to see lost man restored and reconciled as to God so also to their fellowship and communion according to that of the Apostle Ephes 1. 10. Col. 1. 20. in their experimental knowledge also of the wisdome of God in this great mystery 1 Pet. 1. 12. Ephes 3. 10. yet I doubt not that it was for man whose nature he assumed that Christ was incarnate and that he is a Mediatour between God and man 2 Tim. 2. 5. and not between God and Angels and that for fallen man and not for man in his integrity Therefore I conclude the first covenant was immediate no Mediatour intervening all the blessings of the first covenant flowed from the whole Trinity as the Creation it self without respect to Christ incarnate there was no revelation of that high mystery to man in innocency In which the Reader may consult Gâmarus in Colos 1 20. The covenant of grace is by a Mediatour mans fallen condition in so great a distance from God necessarily calling for it Two cannot walk together unlesse they be agreed Amos 3. 3. That fallen man may walk in covenant with God it is necessary that a way of agreement be found This the second person of the Trinity by covenant with the Father hath undertaken and therefore he is stiled The Mediatour of the New Testament Heb. 9. 15. A Mediatour of a better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. The Mediatour of the New Covenant Heb. 12. 24. Many obstacles were in the way of mans covenanting with God and attaiment of the mercies and grace of the covenant all of which lay on the Mediatour to remove that God and man might once more be at one All of these Christ undertakes and effects and so is the Meditatour in this work CHAP. XVII Works incumbent upon the Mediatour of the Covenant of Grace THis work of Christ in his Mediatourship I suppose may fitly be reduced to these heads First to bring man into a capacity of covenanting with God Secondly to bring man into the bond of the covenant professedly to accept it Thirdly to enable those whom he brings to glory to perform the duties of the covenant to be steady and upright in it Fourthly to crown those with glory whom by grace be brings up to the terms of the covenant 1. He is to bring man into a capacity of covenanting of which sinne had made mankinde uncapable for though it should be granted that God in absolute justice is not bound to punish sinne wheresoever he findes it and that it is not against his Essence as some would have it to pardon sin without satisfaction yet his ordinate justice is thus bound That law of his being presupposed The day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die he cannot recede from it the penalty of this Law must be born in order to reconciliation and justice satisfied for mans transgression which must be done by such a one that can answer the claime of divine justice The beasts of the Forrests and cattel of a thousand hills which were yet often given to God in sacrifice could not do it The Apostle tells us that it is impossible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sinne Heb. 10. 4. They were never guilty and they are no valuable consideration nor yet the Angels who are above mankinde as the bruit creatures are below Man had sinned and a sacrifice from among man-kinde is to be found Neither can man in sin and under the taint of it be accepted all that he can suffer is due for himself and therefore can be no other mans discharge In the payment of my own debt I set free no other debtor Neither can any that is meer man go
the argument seems of force We vindicate Gods justice in commanding works though to us now impossible seeing once we had power to reach the highest of his precepts and his command is no rule of our empaired strength but of our duty But if men never had that power and the Law never required it it is injustice according to all parties to exact it Answ Let those that fall to the Arminians in this tenent that they may make the Law an imperfect rule and an insufficient direction see how they can avoid it how they can vindicate Gods justice thus impeached But the Orthodox party have still maintained that Adam had in his integrity that faith that doth justifie though then it performed not that office of justification as he had that faculty whereby we see dead bodies though then there was no possibility of such sight there being no dead bodies to be seen And that faith in Christ is commanded in the first precept of the Law is manifest There we are commanded to have God for our God no Interpreter will deny that the affirmative is contained in that negative Thou shalt have none other gods but me Now God is the God of beleevers Heb. 11. 16. No man can have any communion with God but by faith in Christ And so consequently this faith is there required what Expositor of the Law doth not put trust and affiance in God within the affirmative part of the first commandment as well as fear love and obedience And without Christ there can be no affiance or trust If we conceive the moral Law to reach no farther then the duties expressely there named or the evils forbidden we shall make it very scant and narrow we shall see small reason of that of the Psalmist Thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psalme 119. 96. But in case we take in all that by necessary consequence may be inferred according to the approved rules of interpretation then scarce any duty is more clearly laid down then this of faith in Christ And whereas one faith A man cannot preach Faith in Christ out of the Moral Law I say a man out of the Moral Law may evince the necessity of Faith in Christ unto every one that lives in Gospel-light to whom Christ is tendred The Law requires the duty and the Gospel discovers the object no man out of the Law could have evinced Abraham that he must offer his sonne nor that he must have left his countrey but when Gods minde was made known to him the Moral Law did binde him to obedience and he had sinned against the Moral Law in case he had refused There is no command given of God to any man at any time of an nature whatsoever but the Moral Law ties him to the observation of it not immediately explicitely but upon supposition of such a command intervening Therefore ye shall observe all my Statutes and all my judgements and do them I am the Lord Levit. 19. 37. Faith in Christ being commanded of God I John 3. 23. the Moral Law obliges to obedience of it See Molin Anatom Arminianis cap. 11. Respons Wallaei ad Censuram Johannis Arnol. Corvini cap. 11. Ball on the covenant page 105. Burges Vindiciae legis page 117. A farther difficulty here offers it selfe Obj. and an obstruction laid against that which in this Treatise is after intended If the covenant or second covenant as opposite to that of works be in Christ and grounded on the work of reconciliation then it is commensurate with it and of no greater latitude and only the elect and chosen in Christ the called according to Gods purpose being reconciled only these are in covenant when the Scripture as shall be God willing made good confines not this covenant within the limits of the invisible Church known only to God But it is as large as the Church visible To this I answer Answ that the Prophetical office of Christ as Shepherd and Bishop of our souls and so much of his Kingly office as consists in a legislative power hath its foundation as well as the covenant in this work of reconciliation Had not this been undertaken by Christ for mankinde man had never enjoyed that light man had never had an Oracle or an Ordinance as the fruit of his Prophetick office yet these Ordinances are not commensurate with reconciliation nor of equal latitude with election So neither is the covenant but either of both in order towards it As Ordinances therefore are Christs gift from heaven as the fruit of his death and resurrection when yet all that partake of these Ordinances do not yet die or rise with Christ So is the covenant when yet all in covenant are not stedfast in it nor obtaine the graces of it Therefore I know not how to admit that which a Divine singularly eminent hath laid down That all the effects of Christs death are spiritual distinguishing and saving Seeing gifts of Christ from his Fathers right hand are fruits of his death yet not spiritual distinguishing and saving That they are in some sort spiritual I dare grant that is in ordine ad spiritualia if I may so speak they have a tendency to a spiritual work That they are distinguishing from the world as it is taken in opposition to the Church visible I yeeld for I do not enlarge the fruit of Christs death to all man-kinde assenting to Master Owen and Master Stalham in the grounds that they lay of Gods respite of the execution of the whole penalty on man with the continuance of outward favours not to be upon the account of Christ but for other reasons yet I know not how to affirme that Ordinances which yet are fruits of his death are all saving spiritual and distinguishing seeing they neither conferre salvation nor saving grace on all that partake of them So that Christ is a Mediatour of this covenant and yet those enter into it that have not reconciliation by Christ Jesus The Ephesians that were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Ephes 2. 13. that is brought into a visible Church-state in the fruition of Ordinances made free of that city whose name is The Lord is here Ezek. 48. 35. CHAP. XVIII Farther differences between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace A Farther difference of importance between these covenants is in the conditions annext unto either of them and here the difference is brought to the height This alone so diversifies them that they are not barely in circumstance and way of administration but in substance two distinct covenants The least difference in conditions diversifies bargains and agreements on what part soever the difference is Conditions of the covenant between God and man are of two sorts either such in which God engages himselfe or in which man is engaged either the stipulation on Gods part or else the restipulation on the part of man The former unto which God is engaged are either rewards in case of
covenant-keeping or punishments in case of covenant-breaking The one the Lord promises The other he threatens I finde no material difference in the conditions on Gods part in these covenants Life is promised in both in case of covenant-keeping and death is threatned in both in case of covenant-breaking Some indeed have endeavoured to finde a great difference in the life promised in the covenant of works and the life that is promised in the covenant of grace as also in the death that is threatned in the one and the other and thereupon move many and indeed inextricable difficulties What life man should have enjoyed in case Adam had not fallen And what death man should have died in case Christ had not been promised From which two endlessely more by way of consectary may be drawn by those that want neither wit nor leisure to debate them In which the best way of satisfaction and avoidance of such puzling mazes is to enquire what Scripture means by Life which is the good in the covenant promised and what by Death which is the evil threatned Now for the first Life containes all whatsoever that conduces to true happinesse to make man blessed in soul and body All good that Christ purchases and heaven enjoys is comprised under it in Gospel-expressions I am come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly John 10. 10. He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life 1 John 5. 12. On the contrary under Death is comprised all that is injurious to man or mankinde that tends to his misery in soul and body The damnation of Hell being called death the uttermost of evils being the separation of soul and body from God John 8. 51. 1 John 3. 14. Sinne which leads to it and is the cause of it is called death in like manner Ephes 2. 1. And the separation of soul from the body being called death sicknesses plagues are so called in like manner Exâd 10. 17. Now happinesse being promised to man in covenant only indefinitely under that notion of life without limit to this or that way of happinesse in this or that place God is still at liberty so that he make man happy where or how he pleaseth to continue happinesse to him and is not tied up in his engagement either for earth or heaven And therefore though learned Camero in his Treatise de triplici foedere Thes 9. with others makes this difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace In the covenant of Works which he calls nature life was promised and a most blessed life but an animal life in Paradise in the covenant of Grace a life in Heaven and spiritual And Master Baxter in his Aphoris of Justification page 5. saith that this life premised was only the continuance of that state that Adam was then in Paradise is the opinion of most Divines Yet with submission to better judgements I see not grounds for it seeing Scripture no way determines the way and kinde of this happinesse promised and in case that we take liberty to say that when long life is promised upon earth in many texts of Scripture that the promise is made good though it faile on earth in case it be supplied in heaven life being the marrow of the promise much more then is it made good when it is indefinitely promised without limit to a man whil'st on earth in case it be made good by his translation into heaven And indeed there are strong probabilities heaven being set out by the name of Paradise in Christs speech to the thief on the crosse and in Pauls vision in that rapture 2 Cor. 12. if we may make such a supposition of mans standing now he is fallen that he should not have continued a life of immortality on earth but have been translated into heaven He had that blessing from God as other living creatures to be fruitfull and multiply Gen. 1. 28. and how the world could have contained all those individuals at once which to eternity man should propagate cannot be imagined And to conceive that an end in time should be put to propagation when an animal life in the use of the creature should be continued is scarce consistent with reason But a thousand of these God can expedite when we are at a stand He promised life and he could have made it good and we see he limited not himself where or how to conferre it And what I have said of life promised the same I say of death threatned in case man upon sinne be brought into a state of misery Justice is done and the threat takes hold where and howsoever this misery be suffered whether it had been in sorrows and horrours on earth in separation of the soul first for torments and the body to follow or in a speedy dispatch of soul and body to hell Gods way of execution after the sinne committed on those that are not by Christ ransomed does not argue that the penalty in the covenant necessitated him to it might not he at once have poured out the whole of his vengeance on vessels of wrath when yet we know that he takes time for the execution of it A Learned Writer enquiring into this death that was here threatned saith that the same damnation that followed the breach of the second covenant it could not be When I suppose it rather should be said that in substance and kind it can be no other Infidels that were never under any other covenant then that of works and covenant-breaking Christians are in the same condemnation there is not two hells but one and the same for those that know not God and those that obey not the Gospel of Christ 2 Thes 1. 8. Neither is there any Limbus or distinct place for infants in original sinne and out of the covenant of grace Neither can I assent to that speech To say that Adam should have gone quick to hell if Christ had not been promised or sinne pardoned is to contradict the Scriptures that makes death temporal the wages of sinne It were I confesse to presume above Scripture but I cannot see it a contradiction of Scripture A burning Feaver a Consumption Leprosie Pestilence c. are in Scripture made the wages of sinne yet many go to hell and misse those diseases And if it be said Scripture so makes death the wages of sin that all must suffer it I answer Those Scriptures are all of them leges post latae appointed of God as his way upon mans fall neither absolute justice nor yet the penalty threatned necessitating him to that way of proceeding He takes the same way where his justice hath already satisfaction Those that are priviledged from death as the wages of sinne thus die God tied not up his own hands as States do their Judges and ministerial officers to one way of execution and this his way with the unbeleeving is voluntary and
know not their Election it is not as yet made sure by them So that as to us it is without any determinate object None can say my interest is in this Promise These were delivered to the whole body of Israel when not one in many did reap the benefit of them Mr. Baxter therefore makes them Prophecies De eventu Prophecies of what shall happen I suppose they may be fitly called the declaration or indication of Gods work in the conditions to which he engages and of the necessary concurrence of the power of his grace in that which he requires As Austin and others have interpreted that which is affirmed of our Saviour That he is the true light which enlightneth every man that comes into the world John 1. 9. not to be so understood that all in the world are enlightned by him for many are in darknesse but that all that are enlightned have light by his light explaining it with this similitude Such a Schoolmaster teacheth all the children in a Town that is all that are taught he teacheth Some go to no School at all so these Promises I will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed All of their seed that are circumcised in heart he circumcises and so in all the other none of all these are done without his special work This was little heeded by the generality of the people of the Jews if they minded duty it was well they little thought of assistance through grace Tugging it out by their own strength and looking for no more from heaven than that which they had in hand Therefore entring Covenant and walking in their own strength they brake Covenant and were never able to rise to the duties of it as is hinted in that of Jeremy Therefore God promises a new covenant in which there shall be a full discovery and right understanding of the meaning of the Covenant I will write my Law in their hearts I will put it into their inward parts So that as the commandment of love was a new commandment so this covenant was a new covenant both given of old both a new cleared for a right understanding There was nothing wrong saith Mr. Dixon in the former Covenant but it was imperfect and all things in it were not expressed clearly Annot. on Heb. 8. 7. That which was chiefly defective as it seems was this here mentioned and therefore Mr. Baxter sayes well that this place doth comprize but part of the covenant not the whole though he be taken up by another for it in these words God saying expressely this is my Covenant to say it is not is not to interpret the Word but to deny it God sayes to the People of Israel Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickednesse to undo every burden If any one should interpret that Text would he say the whole of a Religious Fast is there exprest and a full definition of a Fast laid down or would he instead of interpreting deny that Scripture So also that of James Jam. 1. 26. Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this To visit the fatherlesse and the widow and to keep a man unspotted of the world Will any say that the whole of Religion is set out in that Scripture or will he be put to it to deny the Scripture I suppose he would rather say that that which those Jews to whom Isay speaks did in use to do Religious Fasts with supply of that which Isay calls for in which they were defective makes up a Religious Fast compleat That which the scattered Tribes did in Religion with what James further calls for would render a man entirely Religious So also that of Jeremy 22. 15 16. Shalt thou reigne because thou closest thy self in Cedar Did not thy father eat and drink and do justice and judgment and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy and then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord Will any say that that was all the knowledge that Josiah had of God or will he say rather that this was an evident proof of the sincerity of it so I say that which the Jews already understood to be in the covenant together with that which those places of Jeremy and the Hebrews further hold forth set out the entire nature of a covenant and so in all of them Scripture is interpreted not denied And whereas one affirmes that there is no condition on mans part in those texts in question an adversary of all conditions on mans part in the covenant replyes If you mean such conditions that God requireth of us yet worketh in us it is there punctually exprest As Gods work it is there indeed exprest but not as our duty which lame understanding of the covenant hath wrought as much mischief in our age setting up free grace without any eye upon his sovereignty looking at Gods work and not at all on mans duty as their looking at duty in that age without eye had to the power of grace to enable for it Hence are those desperate counsels Sit still do nothing doing undoes you and that not toward Dilemma Art thou out of Christ thou mayst break thy heart in working and profit nothing Art thou in Christ then all is wrought to thy hands And so doing still is vain and Mr. Baxters Questionists like demands How can you make it appear that according to the new Covenant we must act for life and not only from life or that a man may make his attaining of life the end of his work and not rather obey it out of thankfulness and love To which I suppose he hath received a satisfying and if throughly weighed a sadning answer Appendix p. 78. 79 c. Fifthly This appears in that differencing work which is seen among men here in the flesh There is a great difference between those that are of God and those that are in the world that lies in wickednesse This is from the power of grace enabling to answer to that unto which God in covenant calls and not from the different improvement of any power of man or the exercise of that freedome of will which together with the whole species of mankind he hath received The Apostle puts the question Who hath made thee to differ 1 Cor. 4. 7. In which he intends to stop all mouths from boasting as appears in the next words If any therefore shall answer in Grevenchovius his words as I have seen them quoted or in any words that hold out or inferre the same thing I make my self to differ The Apostle will not sit down by it He expressely tells us It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom 9. 16. If grace makes the difference and not man then grace enables man to go higher than his own power and to go higher than any power that can
be in any other Seclude this differencing grace and the praise will be wholly mans That any have power and possibility for good according to these Divines may be of God but that any is better than another it is from self that makes to differ Bradwardine hath to this purpose a notable similitude If a son saith he being a souldier should receive from his father a commission and armes together with natural abilities for war and fighting stoutly should be puffed up and grow proud How may this pride saith he be beaten down and humility planted If any one should say to him Let not any souldier glory in the sight of his father for what he is in armes he is from him So that he that glorieth let him glory in his father for what hast thou that thou hast not received He might very well and rationally answer saith our learned Authour why should not I glory of my atcheivments in armes I have received natural abilities indeed from my father for none doth beget himself I have received a oommission from him for none may put himself into any such power I have received also armes from him for neither I nor any other souldier was born armed neither am I any armourer But the right use of all these which is above all I had from none but my self and not in any other and so every souldier of Jesus Christ Brad. De causa Dei lib. 2 cap. 23. ad finem That is he may vapour against God upon such supposal as this souldier vapours against his father If acts of grace make to differ and stop the mouth of all boasting then it is grace that enables unto these covenant-duties and engagements Sixthly This appears by the absurdities that will follow upon denial of this doctrine of the concurrence of grace in the work of mans salvation 1. Man being left to the power of his own will to answer to the termes of the covenant so that all shall be suspended according to mans improvement to will or nill to be active or idle willing or disobedient when the event in all even in the Elect must rest doubtful when Christ hath done all in the work of mans salvation it might notwithstanding all such work of his so fall out that he had effected nothing He might have been a Saviour and not one man in the world have been saved He might have been a Head without any one member a Shepherd and not a sheep in his flock a Lord and never a one to have done him any service It might have so fallen out that he might never have been able to have said to the Father I and the children that thou hast given c. This is evident As some have withstood so might others As the most withstand so might all Yea it would have been no otherwise If Gods Ministers should go forth and the hand of the Lord not with them to work men to beleeve Acts. 11. 21. But this is full against Gods covenant with Christ which must stand firme and inviolably remain He shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Isa 53. 10 11 Therefore it is of grace that it may be sure not of man that it should be doubtful 2. Then it will also follow the work of mans salvation begins in an act not in an habit in somewhat that a man does respective to God and not in any thing that God does in and upon man The first beginning work will be ascribed to him that wills and runs not to him that shews mercy But this is contrary to all Gospel-Revelations concerning the way of our change I will circumcise thy heart that thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart c. Deut. 30. 6. I will write my Law in their hearts and put it into their inward parts as Jer 31. 33. No man can come to me except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. I will take away their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh Ezek 36. 26. If man were alone in the work or had the priorety before any power infused there had been none of these undertakings 3. This will make vain and void the prayers of the people of God which in the Scripture is put into their mouths Draw me and we will runne Cant. 1. 4. Turn thou us O Lord and so shall we be turned Lament 5. 21. Create in me a clean heart and renue a right spirit acknowledging their own weaknesse to do and a necessity of grace to effect what in order to their salvation is called for 7ly If the Apostle may be heard his authority will put it out of question Exhorting to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling which is done no other way than in coming up to that which God calls for in covenant he gives in his reason for encouragement It is God that works in us the will and the deed The special hand and power of God concurring in this works is our encouragement from the Apostle to set upon it How can he encourage to this work upon this account that God works in us to will and to do if there were not a work of God upon us before there be any such work done by us We work but he sets us on working We will but he sets us on willing Let all the glosses that have ever been put upon these words to promote the will and work of man and enervate the free grace of God in the great concernments of salvation be examined and they will all fall of themselves before this Text of the Apostle See Dr. Ward in his Sermon called Gratia discriminans CHAP. XIX Objections against the former doctrine answered BUt some say Absurdities and those not a few follow upon this Doctrine Object 1 Then salvation in this new Covenant is as impossible for a man as in the old had he still remained under a Covenant of Works If we can no more rise up to the termes of the Covenant of grace than we can to the Covenant of works where then is the difference To which I answer Answ that a man void of grace can no more be saved by the Covenant of Grace than a man under an impossibility to work can be saved by the Covenant of Works will easily be granted By grace we are saved Ephes 2. 8. not of our selves It is still equally impossible in both to be self-savours Here is the difference Grace raises us unto that to which the Gospel calls us in a self-denying way through faith but works us not to that self perfection in those degrees of inherent righteousnesse as to be saved by works Secondly This doctrine layes man as low as a stock or a stone a dead carcasse nothing is done by him but what is done in him and so must needs be injurious to man Object 2 To this I answer First it layes him no lower than sin hath
cast him nor doth it make him worse than sin hath made him Answ and the Word of God doth discover him and that is dead till grace quicken and raise him His heart is of stone till grace take it from him and in enmity against God till grace circumcise and work that change to love the Lord with all the heart c. Secondly This is not an absolute death in which man is through sin and therefore the similitude holds not that equals a stock stone or dead carcasse with him It is only a death respective as to spiritual obedience he is dead There is in him a life natural able for all actions and motions of the life of man as man There is in him also a moral life able to improve naturals to a civilized conversation That to which feare or hope can work a man thither he may raise himself by the freedome of will this puts no new life into him nor works any chang of nature in him He is also able for those works which God sanctifies as his instrument for the work of a spiritual life He ãâã read and hear the Word hath power to know much in it and retain it Thirdly he is a subject susceptible slands in a capacity of a life of grace of spiritual actions and motions having an understanding will affections wanting not any faculties in their substance The new man attaines not a new soul but only renewed qualifications which yet are of more glory than the faculties themselves carrying such a glorious resemblance of God Better know nothing than not know God to desire nothing than not to desire good The want of this turned Angels into Devils and so man stands in a vast difference from stocks stones and those to whom he is thus injuriously compared This doctrine is not injurious to man as it is traduced Object 3 Thirdly some say This will render preaching vaine all mans-paines for Conversion of soules will then prove uselesse and to no purpose we may let men alone till God work and when he hath begun his work they will set on working This indeed speaks hard to a sort of men in our times that deny any previous working in the soul for regeneration or any preparatory work to conversion So that all uncoverted stand equally distant from the grace of it in so much that it can be said of no one rather than another which Christ said to the Scribe Thou art not far from the Kingdome of God Mar. 12. 34. I see not how these can make the preaching of the word of any use Our Brethren that went into America and offer the Gospel to savage Indians there may as well finde Christ there as bring him thither The dark places of the earth may be equally happy with those where light is in most glory if light contribute nothing to the work of change and the happy frame of Christ in us But those that have learnt that infused habits are wrought in the soul in the same manner as those that are acquired may easily return a satisfying answer That opinion that the soul is by an immediate creation infused how generally soever it is received yet never was thought of force to render the way of marriage uselesse for procreation God infuses not a soul by creation into any but an organized body an Embryo fitted to receive it Neither can this opinion of the power of grace in the work of Conversion render in vain the labours of those that are spiritual Parents Conviction is in order before Conversion and men must see themselves necessitated to do what they do before ever they enter upon it The soule knoweth what it doth when it first beleeves and sees a necessity to accept Christ before it receives him which is the work of the Word in the soules of those that are brought to Christ Jesus It is not in vaine for God to send his Ministers to shew the mysteries of the Kingdome of heaven to those that are blinde when this is the way of God to open their eyes and give them sight It is not in vain that he sends them to those that are without strength when this is his way to enable them with power It is not in vain that Paul plants and Apollos waters when yet it is God that gives the increase when God will use Paul and Apollos for the increase that he gives Ministers should perswade and people improve endeavours as though they were Pelagians and no help of grace afforded They should pray and beleeve and rest on grace as though they were Antinomians nothing of endeavour to be looked after So the injury that the Pelagian doth to grace and the Antinomian to our endeavours will be on both hands avoided CHAP. XX. Farther differences in the conditions in the Covenant of Works and the conditions in the Covenant of Grace 2ly THe conditions on mans part in the Covenant of Works kept man within him self for righteousnesse That righteousnesse in which he was to stand in Gods sight was inherent wrought by himself co-natural to him flowing from the principles of his creation in conformity to God And therefore properly his own as now a mans reason will and affections are properly his He needed no other nor no more righteousnesse than that in which he stood Though he had that faith which now serves to justifie yet it needed not nor could be improved to take in any other righteousnesse without himself for justification Man stood then on his own bottome His dependance was on God for being but that being which God pleased to communicate was in that integrity and purity that he needed not any farther But the conditions of the Covenant of Grace carry man out of himself He must be righteous with a righteousness extrinsecal or else he will never be able to stand in judgment Paul was as high as he that was highest in that righteousnesse which he could lay claime to as his own wrought by himself as well before conversion as after Before conversion he was as high as a Pharisee or a Jew according to the letter could reach either in priviledges or duties as we may see in that gradation of his Phil. 3. Circumcised and therefore of the body of the people of God and no alien from the Common-wealth of Israel Circumcised the eighth day and therefore born of Parents in the same Church-communion Of the stock of Israel and so the seed of Abraham and not descended of ancestors that had been Proselytes Of the Tribe of Benjamin of that part of Israel that held the truth of worship of whom was salvation and not of the Apostated tribes An Hebrew of the Hebrews and therefore had not forgotten the language of Canaan As touching the Law a Pharisee a man of no vulgar account but of the most exquisite Sect Concerning zeal persecuting the Church therefore not luke-warme or cold in the faith As touching the righteousnesse that is of the
Law blamelesse therefore of a conversation exact walk up to his principles After conversion he knew nothing by himself 1 Cor. 4. 4. His heart condemned him not He exercised himself continually to have a conscience void of offence both to God and man Acts 24. 16. Yet he durst rest in none of these I am not saith he hereby justified 1 Cor. 4. 4. What things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Philip. 3. 7 8 9. The ignorance of this was the bane of the body of the Jewish Nation The Gentiles which followed not after righteousnesse have attained to righteousnesse even the righteousnesse which is of faith But Israel which followed after the Law of righteousnesse hath not attained to the Law of righteousnesse wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9. 30 31 32. For they being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves unto the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 3. And still it is the undoing of a great part of the world Man being naturally inclined to look after a righteousnesse of his own and extreamely opposite to this righteousnesse which in the covenant of grace is tendered and by which in a Gospel-way he must be saved The righteousnesse of the former covenant was wrote in the heart by nature and such remainders left that the man that minds any righteousnesse alone looks after it But this is onely of Revelation He must have light without him to lead to this righteousnesse which is not his own nor inherent in him What naturally he did not know he is naturally ready to oppose and refuse Men know not how till they be taught of God to see a reason of it or to understand that it is of any use A man may be wise with another mans wit strong with another mans strength learned by another mans knowledge as well as righteous as they conceive by another mans righteousnesse Hence are the scornes that are put upon it and the Treatises that are wrote against it Vain man would faine be somewhat as wise Job 11. 12. so also righteous This takes all from man strips him of all in which he may glory as Romans 3. 27. This which man so opposeth the covenant of grace establisheth And that which he so advanceth the covenant of grace disclaimes 3. The conditions on mans part in the covenant of works were for mans preservation in statu quo in that condition in which he was created To hold him in communion with God which was his happinesse he expected not to be bettered by his obedience either respective to happinesse no more is promised than in present he had nor yet in his qualifications respective to his conformity to God in righteousnesse and true holinesse What improvement he might have made of the habit infused by the exercise of obedience I shall not determine But no change in qualifications was looked after or given in promise The conditions of the covenant of grace are serviceable to man in his return to God for his recovery as to his state of happinesse lost so to the repaire or new frame of his qualifications depraved and spoiled This is plain of it self and will be further explained in that which follows Other differences there are assigned by Divines to difference these two covenants some of which fall in with these that I have mentioned and some to which I cannot in all things consent See Camero de triplici foedere 1 Thes 9. * These I thought to be most material and with these I shall rest satisfied CHAP. XXI Faith is a condition of the Covenant of Grace HAVING asserted conditions in the covenant of grace and held forth several differences between the conditions in the covenant of works and in the covenant of grace we are now further to enquire what these conditions are that are called for in this covenant on which we treat Those Divines that with concurrent judgments acknowledge this covenant to be conditional are not yet so unanimous in their assignation of them For a full discovery some things are to be premised as truths taken for granted rather than disputed 1. That God covenants with man and engages himself to him not onely for justification but also for salvation Not onely for pardon of sinne but everlasting life and glory Not onely to be reconciled to him but to conferre eternal happinesse upon him 2. Whatsoever God requires of man in order either to his justification or salvation without which he is not justified or saved and man engages unto in order to his justification or salvation this is a covenant condition This I take to be clear in case there be any such thing as a condition in any covenant and it is also granted by a professed adversary of all conditions in the covenant of grace faith and repentance are saith he means of our enjoying the comforts of the covenant but not conditions going out of the nature of a covenant for every means is not a condition though every condition be a means but when a means is by stipulation and contract appointed for the acquiring of any thing then it is a condition Whatsoever then we can finde thus required of God in this way of contract and stipulation is a condition by the confession of our adversaries 3. Whatsoever is required of man in order to his justification is a condition of his justification and all that is required in order to his eternal salvation is a condition of salvation God making tender of both and man engaging himself to seek both whatsoever is required in order to either respective to that is a condition 4. That which is a condition of justification is also a condition of salvation in that salvation presupposes a justified estate but it holds not on the contrary that which is a condition of salvation is not therefore a condition of justification More is required to hold us up in constant communion with God then to bring us into a state of actual reconcilement to God This being premised the work will be more easie to assigne conditions in this covenant The condition immediately serviceable for mans return to a reconciled state with God and consequently of his justification is faith which almost all acknowledge to be a condition and Camero with several others makes it to be the sole condition of the covenant A condition it is as is above contradiction John 3. 15 16. God so loved the world that he gave his
onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that thorough his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sinnes Acts 13. 38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you forgivenesse of sinnes And by him all that beleeve are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 16. 31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy whole house Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth In all these texts and several others faith is required of men in covenant and if men did not engage to beleeve they could not be so much as professed covenanters This is in reason further evident 1. That which gives us interest in the Mediator of the covenant without which we have no title to him or portion in him is a condition of the covenant This is plain of it self without interest in the Mediator of the covenant we are as though no covenant were entred and the former distance held up But it is faith that gives us interest in Christ the Mediatour He dwells in us by faith Ephes 3. 17. He is set forth a propitiation through Faith in his blood They that believe receive him John 1. 12. Others hold a distance from him To as many as received him to them he gave power to be the sonnes of God even to those that beleeve in his Name 2. That which receives all that grace gives must needs be a condition of the covenant of grace This is as plain to be under a covenant of grace and void of the gifts of grace is a vain entrance upon it and the reception of the gift is a condition necessarily requisite But Faith receives all that grace gives It is of Fath that it might be of grace Rom. 4. 16. God gives nothing at least tending to eternity but he puts it into the hands of Christ He is the Fathers treasury and store-house Col. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwell And that of his fulnesse we should all receive Joh. 1. 16. And faith receives al from him He that believeth out of his belly flowes rivers of living water Joh. 7. 38. 3. That which interest us in and gives title to all priviledges of a people in covenant with God through Christ is a condition of the covenant This is plaine the end of the covenant being to conferre those priviledges upon us But Faith interests us in and gives title to all these priviledges Paul is sent to the Gentiles to turne them from Satan to God to bring them out of Satans kingdome and to bring them in a covenant-way into Christs Kingdome That they may receive forgivenesse of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified saith Christ by faith that is in me Christ is the object of a Christians faith on whom it is terminated Faith which is in Christ receives that leading priviledg forgivenesse of sins without this priviledge we are strangers to all other priviledges Being under sinne we are heires of wrath and in no capacity of mercy Faith interests us in this Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 13. 39. And by him all that beleeve are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes that are past through the forbearance of God Faith interests us in the consummating priviledge an inheritance among them that are sanctified He that believeth hath everlasting life John 6. 40. Faith interests us in all intermediate priviledges which a man in covenant can enjoy in the way to this inheritance Adoption of sonnes is this way obtained John 1. 12. Gal. 3. 26. Pacification of Spirit Serenity and tranquility of minde Isa 26. 3. Rom. 5. 1. Boldnesse at the throne of grace Ephes 3. 12. There is no priviledge bottomed on Christ that hath foundation in him but Faith receives Faith then must be a condition of the covenant 4. That which puts into a capacity to receive the mercies of the covenant held forth in Promise is a condition of the covenant and the want of it strips off all hope and expectation of it But Faith puts into a capacity to receive all the graces of the covenant given in promise Said I not unto thee if thou wilt beleeve thou shalt see the glory of God John 11. 40. God exerts and glorifies his power in great things for good unto those that exercise the grace of Faith Paul saw the Creeple had faith to be healed Acts 14. 9. Sure if there be such a thing as a condition in any covenant in the world any such thing as a conditional covenant then sure faith is a condition of the covenant of grace Some conceive an absolute covenant made of God for grace as Jer. 31. 33. This with me is very disputable and I have given my reasons But the covenant made to grace must needs suppose grace There is no covenant for happinesse made with any creature but upon termes and conditions For further clearing of this point we must know that faith is considered under a double notion First as an instrument or if that word will not be allowed as the way of our interest in Christ and priviledges by Christ Secondly as an inherent grace or Christian duty to which both the Law and the Gospel call The radical grace from which others flow though not in their being yet in their farther growth and encrease I speak of Faith now in the first acception Neither as a part or any way a working cause of the farther progresse in inherent righteousnesse so it will come in the second place but as interesting us in another righteousnesse and so I say it is a condition in the covenant of grace immediately serviceable for our returne to God and reconciliation in Christ For clearring of which I shall clear it in some propositions First God will by no means justifie a wicked person no man in sin shall stand and live in his sight He that hath made a Law to forbid it ordained hell for the punishment of it will not justifie the person that is convinced and found guilty of it Some say it is against his essence The justice of God which is God ties him to take vengeance sure I am it is against his declaration of himself
change out of it and they instance in our conceptions of and resolutions about things Kekârman p. 107. A transient act is not terminated within the subject but hath its effect and is terminated upon some other object Now if by way of analogy we may apply these to God for we otherwise can reach none of his actions it is easie to conclude that justification of a sinner is a transient and no immanent act It works man from a state of wrath to a state of friendship and love of a vessel of wrath brings man into favour and esteeme which though it work no Physical change in man yet the whole effect is terminated in him That act of Pharaoh had as real an effect upon Joseph and was terminated in him in his advancement out of prison for rule in Egypt as though a Physician in case of sicknesse had wrought a cure upon him Though I were not able to hold it our that justification were a transient act but according to our conception of the actions of man it should rather appear to be an action immanent in God so in him that it had no effect out of him yet I must follow the Scriptures that make justification an act in time not from eternity Paul having mentioned a state of sinne under which the Corinthians were saith such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified 1. Corinth 6. 11. Once they were not but now they are in a state of justification It hath its ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in which it is acted a season in which it is vouchsafed It is affixed to faith Acts 13. 38. Now faith is not from eternity it comes by hearing A Ministery is continually employed for reconciliation and pardon of sinne 1 Cor. 5. 19. John 20. Which were in vain if justification were as election from before the foundation of the world They work them not to election but only call upon them to make their calling and election sure There are seniors and juniors in this priviledge one obtains it before another Andronicus and Jânia were in Christ before the Apostle Rom. 16. 7. These evident proofs would take with my faith above a thousand such subtilties But herein the Schools in their application of these acts to God speak according as to the point in hand to the minde of Scriptures Fourthly Object It is farther objected that Christ is the Lamb slaine from the beginning of the world His death hath been of efficacy in the Church through all ages And he bore our sinnes in his body 1 Pet. 2. 24. All our sinnes did meet in him Isa 53. 6. and therefore from the beginning we were justified I answer Answ it profited all those and only those in each age to whom it was revealed and by whom it was applied and not those that have no interest in him Over and above the Decree of God for mans salvation there was a necessity of the death of Christ for our redemption which Christ in the fulnesse of time paid on the Crosse And over and above the death of Christ there is a like necessary of the application of it to our soules for life The work of redemption was finished on the Crosse when Christ triumphed over principalities and powers But much of the work of our salvation was behinde Election did not overthrow Christs redemption but did establish it Redemption doth not overthrow our application but doth establish it likewise There is a farther work of Christs to be done his intercession in heaven being one part of his Priest-hood which he is gone to discharge as the High Priest into the holiest of holies A farther work to be done by man through believing Not to have interest in Christs death is all one as though he had not died He that beleeves in him shall not perish See Baxter of Justification Aphorisme 15. Davenant de morte Christi cap. 5. p. 58 c. Lastly it is said by another If Faith be a condition of the Covenant of Grace Object then it can be no instrument of our justification If it be a condition in this Covenant it justifies as a condition and then it cannot justifie as an instrument and so I pul down what I build and run upon contradictions I answer Answ I should rather judge on the contrary that because it is a condition of the covenant in the way as it is before exprest that it is therefore an instrument in our justification God tenders the gift of righteousnesse to be received by Faith He covenants for this Faith for acceptation of this righteousnesse By beleeving then we keep covenant and receive Christ for justification We as well do what God requires as receive what he tenders We do our duty and take Gods gift and thereby keep covenant and receive life and so Faith is both a condition and an instrument Here I might by way of just corollary infer that a justified man reconciled to God in Christ is a man fitted for every duty unto which God calls which he is pleased to require Faith is his justification the instrumental work of his reconciliation to God and all things are possible to him that beleeveth Mark 9. 23. There is not a duty commanded but a beleeving man through Christ is strengthned for it The Word works effectually in thâse that believe as 1 Thes 2. 13. We see the great works that were atchieved by those of ancient time both in doing and suffering Heb. 11. and all of those are ascribed to Faith what Christ can do as in reference to duty that they can do to acceptation They can do all things through Christ that strengthens them Phil. 4. 13. Christ overcomes the world John 16 33. And this is their victory whereby they overcome the world 1 John 5. 4. Christ treads down Satan Rom. 16 20. And they resist him strong in the Faith 1 Pet. 5. 9. A man of Faith is for universal obedience He is a man for dependance on God for the fruition of all promises A word from God is enough for Faith He knows how to rest upon him for the good things of the earth he is above anxious thoughts what he should eate what he should drink or wherewith he should he clothed knowing that godlinesse hath the promise of this life 1 Tim. 4. 8. and therefore Though the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no heard in the stalls yet he will rejoyce in the Lord he will joy in the God of his salvation Hab 3. 17 18. he knows how to rest upon him for spiritual priviledges for adoption of sonnes for evelasting salvation He rests upon this that he that liveth and beleeveth in Christ shall not die for ever He knows how to manage all states and conditions he knows how to
be full and how to be hungry he can beare prosperity and not be puffed up He can be under adversity and not be cast down In the worst of times the just lives by faith Hab. 2. 4. He can make use of every Ordinance for his spiritual advantage The word preach is for his benefit Being mixt with faith when he receives it Heb. 4 2. He knows how to improve the Sacraments for his spiritual growth those seales of the righteousnesse of Faith Rom. 4. 11. Abel by Faith exceeded Cain in sacrifices Heb. 11. 4. and so do these exceed all unbeleevers in their performances All of these might be farther and more fully enlarged but that it is done at large by better hands Master Ward in his Life of Faith Master Culverwel especially Master Ball in his elaborate treatise on that subject CHAP. XXIII Repentance is a condition of the Covenant of grace THe condition immediately serviceable for mans reconciliation to God we have seen that which respects his reparation in his qualifications to hold up communion with God follows which is Repentance The end of Christs coming in the flesh being to save sinners He saves them not in their sins but from their sins and therefore calls them to repentance and engages all to it that he receives into covenant As God will have a self-outed and beleeving people So he will have an humble and an holy people So John Baptist the forerunner of the Mediatour began his Ministery Repent giving in this as his reason The Kingdome of heaven is at hand that is a New Testament-state in which the covenant of Grace was to be opened and the glorious priviledges of it made manifest Matth. 3. 2. With the self-same words Jesus the Mediatour of the covenant begins his Ministery Matth. 4. 12 17. verses compared From that time Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand To this he resolves to engage those that he receives So it was with the twelve that were men employed to bring Nations into covenant They thus began their Ministery Mark 6. 12. They went out and preached that men should repent Neither let any make these two Faith and Repentance or Faith and Obedience which is comprised under Repentance one and the same and old project to introduce justification by works The Scriptures evidently distinguish them Paul makes them two distinct heads in the Ministery when he preached either to the Jews or Gentiles Acts 20. 21. Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ They are two distinct heads of Catechisme in the Apostles times Repentance from dead works and Faith towards God Heb. 6. Repent ye and beleeve the Gospel Mark 1. 15. There are those acts in Scripture attributed to Faith that will by no means be ascribed to love or obedience as the taking in of the priviledges before mentioned If Faith work by love as the Apostle speaks Gal. 5. 6. And love be the end of the commandment out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. then faith is a distinct thing from love If by Faith the Worthies of old wrought righteousnesse then righteousnesse may be distinguished from it Heb. 11. 33. As Faith and Hope make two Graces so Love a third 1 Cor. 13. 13. It is not the Gospel way to confound them together They must not be divided but they are to be distinguished In this of repentance which is a Gospel-grace and condition of the covenant we may observe First A necessary pre-requisite to it Secondly The essential parts of it A necessary pre-requisite to this of repentance as to the other of Faith is Conviction Compunction Remorse Unto which the name of repentance is often given though it be of farre more narrow comprehension than the whole work yea it reacheth not unto any thing which is of the essence of it Called repentance as some say by a Synechdoche the part for the whole but I rather take it to be a Metonimy Sorrow is rather an adjunct than a part of it yet such an adjunct that still accompanies it and makes way for it as the needle as the Ancients use to expresse it enters the cloth not to stay but to let in the thread An Officer enters an house to throw out one inhabitant and to let in another but not to stay himself It hath its name from paine grief or trouble which affects the soul for sin which must needs follow when once we look upon it with shame and wearisomnesse Who can imagine a man to have his eyes opened to see that through his whole life he hath risen up in hostility and opposition against God hath taken off that stamp which God in creation put upon him run his soul upon everlasting hazard and all of this without sense of shame fear or trouble Who can imagine that the soul can leave so ugly a path as that of sin formerly so pleasant and desired without any grief or trouble of minde that he hath so long held it Or that any will make out for help in a Saviour till they see themselves through sinne in a lost and undone condition I speak not of infants who neither act faith nor repentance but of those of growth whom God works for himself by his Ministers As they have their call by the Word So the Word hath its efficacy in some measure of soul-shaking by the Lawes discovery by which is the knowledge of sinne as Rom. 3. 20. Evangelical allurements on which by some the whole of the work is laid can never I suppose work on the soule without Law-convictions If these Gospel allurements draw to Christ they must draw from sinne and how shall any be drawn from what he does not know nor ever understood either to be evil or dangerous It is with me no lesse a Paradox that a man may be drawn from sin without the discovery of the Law as to be drawn to Christ without the light of the Gospel And to say the Gospel discovers sin as well as the Law taking the Gospel in opposition to the moral precepts as here it must be taken is the greatest absurdity Exem gr If it be questioned whether to take up armes be a sin whether to fight a duel be a sinne whether usury be sin or to marry within the Levitical degrees forbidden be sin shall I determine this out of a Gospel-promise That Jesus Christ came to save sinners That the blood of Christ takes away all sin That in him all that beleeve are justified A thousand of these will contribute nothing to the expediting of these or like questions or the conviction of any under guilt The work must be brought to the rule the action to the line for discovery Upon the Laws convictions there may follow Gospel-aggravations But conviction is the work of the Law as an instrument of the
Spirit This conviction unto change is hardly without compunction remorse and terrours in the soul It was not the single case of the Corinthians but common with other Christians as the natural work of godly sorrow that it worketh repentance not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7. 10. I will not stand to diââââ whether any ever are exempted from this preparatory work I question not Gods prerogative I am upon enquiry after his usual method I know some instance in Matthew who being called suddenly followed Christ and we heare nothing of any work upon his spirit to trouble But who knows whether Matthew a Jew were not called by grace before this call to an Apostleship and if not in grace whether it necessarily followed in that instant The like is objected of Lydia The Lord opened her heart that she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul Acts 16. 14. without any sorrow or trouble in spirit is mentioned Neither is there mention of any joy or rejoycing in spirit and she by many is believed also to have been a Proselyte Yet this of godly sorrow must be understood with some limit 1. An equal degree of sorrow and preparative work is not necessary in all One mans terrours and heart-breakings are no necessary precedent for all others to reach 2. An high degree is not necessarily required of any God can come sooner in with Gospel-cordials after Law-convictions unto one than another 3. No man hath reason to quarrel his conversion because his sorrow hath not been like some others each man hath not like paine in cure of a like malady 4. None should beg of God overwhelming and amazing shakings and humiliations of Spirit God better knows their frame than they understand themselves 5. None can judge of the truth of their repentance by the greatnesse of their trouble It may possibly end in horrour and work nothing better than it self It may only have its present work to cast hell in the face and then the person returne to his old byasse to his sinful pleasures his worldly advantages as Saul to his Musick Cain to his building of Cities yet when God thus plowes it is a hopeful signe he intends sowing and men in this case must not reason themselves to be such soyle on whom no good can be done as though they were past all husbandry of the Lord He can take away a heart of stone and turne a rock into a fruitful field This is Gods method do not dispute but believe 6. Then it is in a degree sufficient when it effects the work for which it serves when it brings the soul out of love with sin takes it out of the paths of sinne when it so works to an apprehension of dangers that it works the soul to cast it self on Christ Jesus When horrours work desires not of ease but of grace of Christ and of whole Christ of pardon of sin and power against sin there is a true work For the essential parts of this grace which I make a Gospel-engagement and condition of the covenant they are privative or positive Privative is the destruction of what hath been Positive is the introduction of what is not Every change hath two termes The one is terminus ad quem which is endeavoured The other is terminus à quo which is left and so in this change which grace works and to which the covenant of grace doth engage The privative part which we are to leave is sin the work of Satan The positive part which we are to endeavour is that which stands in full opposition Forsaking of sin we must follow after righteousnesse and turning from Satan we must turne to God and therefore the Ministery which findes men out of covenant and works them into it is to bring them from darknesse to light from the power of Satan to God Acts 26. 18. The privative part is frequently enjoyned as that which bindes at all times and to all times A man in covenant with God is to have no more to do with sin Cease to do evil put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes Isa 1. 16. Be ye separate touch no unclean thing 2 Cor. 6. 17. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience In the which ye also walked sometimes when ye lived in them But now you also put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth lie not one to another seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds Col. 3. 5 6 7 8 9. Old things with Christians are to be done away This is the duty of all those that pretend to Christ Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. All that is in Christ is wholly against it His Prophetick office leads us from it and gives us light to avoid it In his Kingly office his Law is against it and his Priestly office is to redeem from it They that are in Christ and learn him as the truth is in Christ Jesus attaine to it Ephes 4. 22. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts It is the character of a man in Christ Gal. 5. 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And this upon peril of bearing their sinne Ezek. 18. 30 31. Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel No man in sinne is for glory 1 Cor. 6. 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleannesse lasciviousnesse idolatry witchcraft hatred varience emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkennesse revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Upon these termes it is that they obtaine pardon of sinne Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Grace is no where more freely tendred than there Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not hearken diligently unto me and eat you that
they are our conditions They are conditions on our part and therefore they cannot be Gods That they are ours is made known of God as by the beame of the Sun in his Word And I shall not stand to distinguish of an absolute and conditional covenant that so making the whole in the absolute covenant to be Gods and in the conditional covenant this part to be ours which I know not whether exactly understood the Scripture will beare but in plaine terms deny that they are Gods conditions and affirm them to be ours I know what God speaks in his Word concerning these works That he will write his Law in our hearts and put it into our inward parts That he will take away the heart of stone and give an heart of flesh which implies this work of which we speak I know likewise what in particular is affirmed of Christ that he is the authour and finisher of our faith Heb. 12. 2. that he gives repentance Acts 5. 31. that God grants to the Gentiles repentance to life Acts 11. 18. And I have not forgot what I have said before of the concurrence of grace in the performance of every Gospel-work Yet all this rises not up hither to make them formally Gods act not ours Whose acts they be his conditions they are this is evident But they are our acts We beleeve We repent It is not God that believes It is not God that repents That is an absurdity which Arminians have laboured to charge upon us to render that which we hold of the necessity of the concurrence of grace in these works odious But it is that which the Orthodox party have still disclaimed The Apostle calls upon the Philippians Phil. 2. 12. To work out their own salvation the work is their own as the salvation They are a Beleevers own act and not barely a spontaneous act on which he is carried as a Bird in preparing a nest for her young and Bees in preparing honey for their subsistence in which Phylosophy tells us that they aime at no end but they are voluntary actions of choice done out of choice aiming at salvation as his end The mercy in the Covenant being on these termes tendred With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse Rom. 10. 10. The just lives by his faith Hab. 2. 4. They to turne to the Lord with all their heart Joel 2. 13. They obey from the heart the form of Doctrine whereunto they are delivered Rom. 6. 17. They do the will of God from the heart Ephes 6. 6. Faith and Repentance are mans work which man in covenant does respective to salvation in the covenant tendered Object not Gods But the Apostle some may say in the next words tells us that it is God that works the will and the deed vers 13. There he seems to take them from us and ascribe the formality of them to God In this co-operation of God whether they be formally our works or Gods let Esay determine Isa 26. 12. Thou hast wrought all our works in us When God hath wrought it the work is ours we have the reward of it and we shall beare our sinne in case it be neglected and let the Apostle explaine himselfe Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them God hath ordained good works as a Christians way and walk They are charged upon man as is plain in the context in order to salvation They are the way that we hold in our passage on to that salvation which God of grace vouchsafes and we are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus for these ends Our dexterity in holy duties is from the frame into which grace put us So still the work is ours though power for action is vouchsafed of God And the conditions are ours for discharge of which we have yet divine assistance That faith and repentance are our conditions and not Gods take these arguments 1. Those conditions that are not mentioned in the proper conditional covenant as from God but required of God from us are not Gods conditions but ours in that Covenant This is cleare Being there expresly required of us and not so much as mentioned as from God they cannot be his engagement but ours to performe But Faith and Repentance are not mentioned as from God in the proper conditional covenant but required of God from us Therefore Faith and Repentance are not Gods conditions in the proper conditionall Covenant but ours 2. The conditions of a covenant are his that performeth and not his that imposeth This proposition is cleare in reason and confessed by the adversary But we perform and God imposeth Faith and Repentance They are therefore our conditions and not Gods in this covenant 3. Covenant-conditions are theirs that are charg'd with falshood in case of failing in them and non-performance of them This is plaine in all covenants To make conditions and to faile in them is to be false to them But in case of failing in Faith and Repentance man is charged and not God God fails not but man deals falsly Therefore they are mans conditions and not Gods 4. Covenant-conditions are theirs who upon failing in them and not performance of them suffer as covenant-breakers This is clear Israel covenanted to dismisse their Hebrew servants and dismissed them not and Israel suffered for it Jer. 34. But upon failing in Faith and Repentance God suffers not so much as in his Name as a covenant-breaker He is not charged with mens unbelief and impenitence Men themselves suffer Therefore Faith and Repentance are mans conditions not Gods 2. There are objections peculiarly against repentance as it comprises the whole frame of obedience Object as before held forth to disable it from being any Gospel-condition By this means the covenant of Grace will be say some a covenant of works Repentance in this latitude to which we have spoken containes the whole of obedience and being made a condition of the Covenant of Grace Works are introduced and a Covenant of Works re-established As there was grace in the first covenant Answ as you have heard which we call a covenant of Works So works are not wholly excluded from this covenant which we call a covenant of Grace God still keeps up his Sovereignty as you have heard and how this can be done when he leaves man at that wilde freedome not so much as to call for homage from him cannot be conceived his rule even in this covenant is to reward men according to their works Behold I come quickly and my reward it with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. Works then are not excluded from this covenant yea Christ the Mediatour of the covenant aforehand tells us Except our righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven Matth. 5.
because their sanctification and good works have some imperfect agreement with the Law of Works This and much more to assert a personal perfect inherent righteousnesse as is said all which as it is here held out to me is new and I must confesse my self in ignorance all over I never took imperfect righteousnesse to imply any such contradiction no more than imperfect holinesse Isaiah I am sure saith All our righteousnesse are as filthy rags Esay 64. 6. No greater charge of imperfection can lie against the most imperfect holinesse than the Prophet lays upon our righteousnesse Neither do I understand how holinesse should be imperfect taken materially and righteousnesse perfect taken formally in reference to a rule We may for ought I know as well make holinesse formal and refer it to a rule and righteousnesse material in an absolute consideration without reference to any rule at all And in such consideration I do not know how there can be perfection or imperfection either in holinesse or righteousnesse it is as they come up to or fall short of the rule that they have the denomination of perfection or imperfection Pauls Gospel-frame whether you will call it righteousnesse or holinesse is set out Rom. 7. full of imperfection yet all this as in reference to the rule as it answered or fell short in conformity to it verse 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man And whereas a charge of ignorance is laid even upon learned Teachers that commonly understand the word righteousnesse and righteous as it referres to the old rule I professe my self to have little of their learning but I am wholly theirs in this ignorance I know no other rule but the old rule the rule of the Moral Law that is with me a rule a perfect rule and the only rule The perfection of this holiness and righteousness in mans integrity stood in the perfect conformity to this Law and the reparation of this in our regenerate estate in which the Apostle places the image of God must have reference as to God for a patterne so to his Law as a rule As an image carrying an imperfect resemblance of its samplar is an image So conformity imperfectly answering the rule is conformity likewise A perfection of sufficiency to attaine the end I willingly grant God condescending through rich grace to crown weak obedience in this sense our imperfection hath its perfectnesse otherwise I must say that our inherent righteousnesse is an imperfect righteousnesse in an imperfect conformity to the rule of righteousnesse and without thir reference to the rule there is neither perfection nor imperfection in any action See Doctor Davenant disputing against justification by inherent righteousnesse upon the account of the imperfection of it de justitia habituali pag. 349 and how fully he was perswaded of the imperfection of this righteousnesse appears in sentences prefixt before two Treatises as may be seen in the margent In the last place I shall conclude that sincerity in the way and work of God which Scripture also calls by the name of truth integrity simplicity uprightnesse perfectnesse an heart in the work of God whole and unfeigned is that which the covenant of grace doth require and that which it accepteth This God in covenant gives in charge and this he rewards and crownes The Law stands as a rule and the charge in it is the highest top of perfection without the least indulgence in any case of failing suitable to the abilities that once were put into our hands God in Gospel-condescensions will have this rule eyed with a single and upright heart universally eyed and observed both in our returnes from sin and in our application to God in new obedience This doing of the will of God from the heart with good will-doing service Eph. 6. 6 7. Serving with a willing minde 1 Chron. 28. 9. This preparing the heart to seek the Lord God of our fathers Ezra 7. 10. This delight in the Law of God in the inward man Rom. 7. 22. though it be in much weaknesse and with strength that is little Rev. 3. 8. by reason of inward corruptions Rom. 7. 23. Gal. 5. 17. enemies without Ephes 6. 12. is required of God in covenant and through grace accepted And as faith which as we have heard is the other new covenant-condition brings us into communion with God So this of a sincere heart and walk holds in communion Faith gives accesse to God in grace and through sincerity we walk with God in grace to glory Both of them are called for of God both accepted with God and both of them crowned with glory That in this degree obedience is both required and accepted in the Gospel is evident This where oever it is God observes and eyes 2 Chron. 16. 9. For the eyes of the Lord runne to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him Herein thou hast done foolishly therefore from henceforth thou shalt have warres These have letters testimonial from heaven Job 1. 8. Hast thou not considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil Gen. 7. 1. Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation According to the degree of this higher or lower they have praise 2 Chron. 29. 34. The Levites were more upright in heart to sanctifie themselves than the Priests yea where there is integrity in a single act this God notes Yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thine heart Gen. 20. 6. These God protects with his omnipotence preserves 2 Chron. 16. 9. The eyes of the Lord runne to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly Prov. 2. 7. In these God takes pleasure I know my God that thou triest the reines and hast pleasure in uprightnesse 1 Chron. 29. 17. Unto these God speaks peace Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly Mich. 2. 7. This the people of God plead with God as an argument to finde favour in his eyes Psalme 26. 1. Judge me O Lord for I have walked in my integrity 1 Chron. 29. 17. As for me in the uprightnesse of my heart I have willingly offered those things Psalme 18. 23. I was also upright before him c. This hath been the high ambition of the servants of God in their most sad troubles to reach David begging mercy saith to God Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts Psal 51. 6. This hath upheld the souls of the Saints in their greatest difficulties with all joy and consolation 2 Cor. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simpliciây and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we
have had our conversation in the world Yea this is a mark of him who is entirely the Lords professedly and really his When the question is put Who shall dwell in Gods holy hill Who shall abide in his Tabernacle answer is returned He that walks uprightly and worketh righteousnesse Psal 15 1 2. And when a like question is put Isa 33. 14. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire Who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning We have the like answer returned in the words that follow He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly And Jesus seeing Nathanael saith John 1. 47. Behold an Israelite indeed There are many Israelites in name but here was an Israelite indeed and this is his character in whom there is no guile His inside was the same with that without In the discharge of this the Saints of God have promised to themselves upon good grounds all happinesse Psal 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments The want of this renders all that is done void and vaine as to the acceptation of God when the heart glances aside and is not right with God in worshipping him doth not seek him Math. 15. 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is farre from me Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit to himself Hos 10. 1. Their heart is divided therefore shall they be found faulty verse 2. Amaziah did that which was good in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. 25. 2. Judah hath not turned unto me with their whole heart but feignedly Jerem. 3. 10. Psal 78. 34 35 36 37. When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God and they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer neverthelesse they did flatter him with their mouths and they lied unto him with their tongues for their hearts were not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant By all which I suppose it is evident that God in covenant calls for obedience requires integrity of heart in it will not accept where sincerity of heart is wanting and where it is he crowns it with happinesse and glory And from what hath been spoken a full definition of the new covenant may be thus given A gracious Covenant of God with fallen man whereby God engages himself upon faith in Christ and returne to God in sincere obedience to confer on man remission of sinnes and all whatsoever that tends to everlasting happinesse They that professe to beleeve and returne to God are in Covenant They that do beleeve and sincerely returne enjoy the blessings and mercies of the covenant This Arminians make the decree of God and will have no other than such conditional Election not an Election unto faith and obedience but because it is foreseene that men will beleeve and persevere in sincere obedience in which they are opposed by the Orthodox See Moulins Anatomy of Arminianisme chap. 12. Sect. 10. This is the covenant of grace published and promised in the Gospel which Arminians would make one with Election confounding the Will of Gods Decree with the Will of his Command and Promise He that would see more into the nature of sincerity that he may answer to that which God in covenant doth require may peruse Ball on the Covenant chap. 11. and Doctor Preston on Gen. 17. 1. CHAP. XXVI The necessity of a Ministery to bring men into Covenant with God and to bring them up to the termes of the Covenant FRom hence several Corollaries may be drawn and Inferences made 1. Of the necessity of a Ministery a constant standing Ministery as to bring men into covenant with God so to bring them also up to the termes of the covenant to a lively saving faith and sincere obedience God works not man into covenant by immediate voice Neither doth he use the Ministery of Angels in his ordinary way of working of it But when he would take in the Nations of the world into covenant with himself he sends out his Ministers for that work giving them a Commission with gifts and abilities suitable to disciple all Nations Matth 28. 19. Where a Ministery comes not there that people remaine out of covenant in the state of the Ephesians before their call as it is set out by the Apostle Ephes 2. 12. without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world And where the Gospel-covenant is tendered and not received there that people continue out of covenant rejecting the councel of God against themselves Luke 7. 30. and rendering themselves unworthy of everlasting life Acts 13. 46. This was the case of the people of Athens There Paul preacht yet there he setled for ought we read no Church of beleevers though he had there some particular Converts Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris with others Acts 17 34. Where the word was delivered and there received there was a people in covenant with God as at Ephesus Corinth Philippi Thessalonica c. Those Ministers had the honour of planting of laying the first foundation of preaching where Christ before had not been named Rom. 15. 20. A people thus brought into covenant do not alwayes come up to the termes of the covenant All covenanters keep not covenant their hearts are not steady in it Therefore there is no lesse necessity of a Ministery in established Churches to keep up a people in Covenant with God through the termes of the covenant to bring them to the happinesse promised Theirs is the work of watering of building on anothers foundation of preaching Christ where Christ before at least was known by name and in some sort professed That there was such a Ministery in the Church of the Jews to teach Jacob his Laws and Israel his judgements to require what God in covenant called for is not denyed that a Ministery was necessary in the Primitive Apostolique times to work men into covenant and for the plantation of Churches is confest likewise But when the Apostles left the world then this order as some say sell with them all Ministerial power died with them We are made to beleeve saith one because the Apostles were ordained by God to be Teachers of the people and endued with gifts for that end that therefore there is a like divine though secret Ordination from God in the making of our Ministers Compassionate Samaritane page 24 25. But if the Scriptures may be heard this may soone be decided I shall therefore by arguments make it appear First that God hath established a Ministery and appointed it through all the ages of the world to be perpetuated Secondly I shall give reasons to manifest the necessity of such a Ministery to be thus established and
of Israel After those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them even unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their inquity and remember their sin no more This Text is frequently produced for several purposes Answ as to assert an unconditional covenant that all lies on Gods hand and we are engaged to nothing so to decry all Gospel-Ordinances all use of a Ministery to teach the good knowledge of the Lord Some make use of it for one of these ends and confesse it will not serve for both It will set up an unconditional covenant but it will not destroy New Testament-Ordinances Others will have it serve both when the truth is aright understood it serves for neither The two first branches of the former answer will give satisfaction here If Old Testament-Prophecies are to be understood according to New Testament-Interpretations then no unconditional covenant will here be established nor yet Gospel-Ordinances decryed seeing in the New Testament covenant-conditions are clearly and undeniably held out and a Gospel-Ministery established which already in both parts is fully cleared A Ministery is set up with instructions to require faith and repentance and that upon those termes that without them there is no remission of sins no salvation 2. As to that for which it is here produced it rather serves for overthrow of mutual conferences Christian communion for mutual edification than the Ministerial power The Text is not that ye shall have no more Teachers in publick But they shall teach no more every man his brother and every man his neighbour for every one shall know him c. The Apostles charge Col. 3. 16. flies full in the face of this Interpretation Let the Word of Christ dwell in you plenteously in all wisdome speaking to one another This Prophecie is so streined that there is no need of such admonition nor any use of brotherly exhortations Certainly neither of these inferences from this Prophecie were in the Apostles thoughts when he exhorted the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5. 11. Comfort your selves together and edifie one another even as also ye do adding in the next verses And we beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake c. The councel had been more sutable to have bid them to have ceased this mutual consolation and edification And as for thâse that were over them that distinction of over and under was Antichristian that they must cease to honour and make it their businesse to level them But above all it is wonder how those that are high in setting up all for Teachers and will have liberty of prophecie promiscuous can with face urge this Text The letter of it being against brother and brother neighbour and neighbour teaching one another and not against a Ministerial way for edification 3. For the full interpretation of the words that of King James must be acknowledged In mystical prophecies it is farre more easie to confute an absurd interpretation than finde out a true one One that joynes in the former part to establish an unconditional covenant against New Testament-light yet leaves them in the latter and says The not teaching one another there spoken of is meant of that obscure teaching which was under the Law I wish that his party would here heed him and that himself would consider that when he would have them to recede from the rigid adhering to the letter of this part of the prophecie for overthrow of all helps for knowledge whether he have not equal cause to recede from that which he would with like rigour fasten upon it I shall undertake as clearly from the New Testament to hold out conditions in the covenant of Grace as any other man shall finde either warrant or Ordinance for publick or private admonition or exhortation They shall not have so much need of teaching as formerly say the Annotations on that place and it is plaine that that is often spoken in Scripture negatively that is meant comparatively I will have mercy and not sacrifice Hos 6. 6. When he would have both mercy and sacrifice though mercy preferred above sacrifice Calvin hath fully spoken to this objection satisfying both his Adversary and his Reader giving them a full refutation and the Text a good interpretation In that some phantastick spirits saith he take occasion from hence to abolish all outward preaching of the Word as though in the Kingdom of Christ it were superfluous their madnesse may easily be answered This is their objection saith he After the coming of Christ a man ought not to teach his neighbour let an outward Ministery then be gone and give way to an inward in piration But they passe that by saith our Author that in the Prophet which is chiefly worthy of observation The Prophet doth not deny that one should teach another but these are his words They shall not teach one another saying Know the Lord as though he should say such ignorance should not possesse the minds of men as heretofore that they should not know who the Lord is for we know there is a twofold use of teaching First That those that were altogether ignorant may begin with the first elements and afterwards that they that are thus entered may make a farther progresse Therefore when Christians as long as they live ought to learn there is none so wise but need to be taught so that a teachable disposition is not the least part of wisdome and what our way to profit is if we will be Christs Disciples Paul sheweth in his Epistle to the Ephesians chap. 4. 11. He gave gifts unto men some Pastours some Teachers c. Whence it appears that nothing else came into the Prophets thoughts than to spoile the Church of so great a benefit Thus far judicious Calvin on Heb. 8. verse 8 9 10 11. In case these words not only might be supplied as some would have it men shall not only teach one another Know the Lord but all shall know me giving instances of the like of necessity to be supplyed in other Scriptures then the whole scope of the place were cleared For the Jews as they did make use of the teaching of men so for the generality they rested in it Here they are taught that which they never minded the necessity of the concurrence of Gods teaching with mans that when man discovers the object God should put in frame the Organ Certain it is that when other prophecies foretell in New Testament-times mens zeal to stirre up one another in the knowledge of God as Isa 2. 3. Zech. 8.
most perillous times 2 Tim. 3. 3. How much more then will God and man have in detestation those that have entred covenant in an immediate way with God for faith and obedience and to stand out in opposition to sinne and Satan yet making defection from God by sinne and unbeliefe stand up in rebellion against him Is the dreadful Majesty of the great God of no more regard than to pretend to him engage with him and then stand up in hostility against him Is there any thing so lovely or honourable in sin to allure men to run upon the wrath of God that they may welter in it or any thing so unpleasing in the wayes of God that neither the dread of his name nor the blisse held forth in promise can perswade to embrace them A viler thing cannot be named than a Christian in sinne a Christian in wayes of unbeliefe and wickednesse Were the name of a Christian off and no covenant bonds engaging to the Lord then there were no more than a creature in rebellion and that were bad enough the work of Gods hand to strive with its Maker But standing vested in this covenant-relation honoured with this glorious Name here is an addition of Hypocrisie Apostasie and defection We hate none more than those that are false to us and we may well conclude that God hates none more than those that are false to him and therefore challenges his people whether they have found any iniquity in him Jerem. 2 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone farre from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain A servant doth not use to quit one Master and betake himself to another but he gives some reason of his change One that hath been engaged for the ways of God as all are that are called by the Name of God and dignified with the title of a Christian would be hard put to it to give a reason of his revolt from God When God and vanity are set in competition that God should be refused and vanity chosen when the fountaine of living waters that never can be drawn dry is left and cisternes broken cisternes chosen that are alwayes running dry How does the holy Ghost set out these 2 Pet. 2. 22. The dog is turned to his own vomit againââ and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Can the sow find no other place than filth nor the dogge no other food than his vomit A returne to sinne is more loathsome than these and such are all the wayes of all men in sinne of all of a Christian profession that are seen in ungodly ways Nothing so glorious as a Christian that holds to his principles that answers in conversation to his profession Nothing so inglorious as a Christian in sin A Jew outwardly and a Heathen inwardly a face for God and a heart for iniquity When such as these came out of the holy land for Babylon they there said in way of reproach of their God These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36. 20. Rom. 2. 24. Insomuch that God is put to it for his vindication not to suffer them to carry their sin with impunity Ezek. 39. 23 24. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies so fell they all by the sword according to their uncleannesse and according to their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them This falsehood in covenant draws present sufferings National plagues I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant Levit. 26. 25. Every Christian Nation under sufferings may sadly reflect upon all that they groan under and say their iniquities have procured these things unto them But this breach of covenant with God hath greater evils even unto eternity following upon it Men of sinne and unbeliefe that lie in distrust and disobedience can claime no interest in the grace and mercy of the covenant God in covenant engages to Faith and Repentance these as we have seen are his termes when men come not up to them they dis-interest themselves and disengage God from any tye of conferring blisse and savation upon them Their own folly and madnesse puts a barre to their own happinesse and glory They cannot be self-saviours yet they will not go out of themselves for salvation by another when they have received the sentence of death in themselves they will not come to Christ that they may have life He may worthily bear his own debt that in pride of spirit refuses anothers bounty Christ offers himself as a Surety in our stead to make payment for us in his own person The unbeleever will stand on his owu bottome and make pay out of his own store or perish Having heaven and hell set before them the tender of the one and the terrour of the other quitting heaven and all the glory of it and happinesse in it they make choice of that fire that is prepared for the Devil and his Angels covenant-breaking having the certaine doome of destruction fastened upon it Assurance of salvation cannot be gained but in a way of covenant-keeping yea the conditions of the covenant are the basis and never failing bottome of our Evidence and Assurance It is gathered thus He that believes and repents shall be saved This is evidently laid down in Scriptures A man void of saving faith and impenitent may give his assent to it Then the sould is to assume to it selfe but I beleeve and repent therefore I shall be saved These two as at large hath been shewn are the conditions of the covenant these we must finde wrought in our souls or else all Evidence is wanting and when these are concluded an undeceiving interest in salvation follows There is a twofold work to be done on the soul that is in sin in order to bring it to salvation There is a third to be done for assurance of salvation The first work is to set the soul free from Hell to deliver it from the sentence of Death to which by the rule of justice man stands condemned A man must be fetched out of prison before he can be for any preferment or place of honour This is done by the blood of Christ Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace This is the price of our ransom Being redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1 18. Secondly to make a man meet for heaven A man so vile as sinne makes is a man fit for nothing but hell and must have a change wrought before he be meet for heaven Upon this ground the Apostle is
so large in returning praise for the Colossians Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. As alone the blood of Christ sets free from hell so alone the Spirit of Christ makes fit for heaven This is done by a double work 1. Of regeneration or first implantation of grace which is called the birth of the Spirit John 3. 5 6. 2. By acting improving carrying on this work of grace which is properly sanctification so that when the Spirit is gone thus farre here is a certainty of the object It is sure nothing more sure than this that a regenerate sanctified man shall be saved But here is more required for a certainty of the subject Here is certitudo de re but more is required to attaine certitudinem de se If Peter do beleeve and repent he shall be saved is out of controversie But that Peter doth beleeve and repent is not alwayes so soone discovered And this is the Spirits work as the former It is not my businesse now to hold out what is the Spirits whole office in concluding our Assurance but to shew that the conditions of the covenant are the bottom ground not of salvation but of our evidence of interest in salvation We must know that we do beleeve and repent before we have assurance and we must first beleeve and repent before we know that we beleeve and repent If before faith and repentance there can be no salvation then before we know we beleeve and repent we cannot be assured of salvation But without faith and repentance there is no salvation Mark 16. 16. He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Luke 13. 3. 5. I tell you may but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Therefore before we beleeve and repent we cannot be assured of salvation And how assurance can be gained without a practical syllogisme and how a syllogisme can be framed with any other medium than the conditions of the covenant is above my understanding Man is so far from abilities to conclude salvation without faith and repentance that be must conclude himself to be in faith and that he doth repent before he can conclude any interest in it The covenant of God is the ground of our salvation if that be waved all is lost and we must make good our part in the Covenant Grace must assist to answer what the covenant requires or no salvation How is it a covenant if nothing be required and why is it required if it must not be performed To gather up assurance from the conditions of the covenant is a businesse of greater consequence even the highest pitch of Christianity It is a great work to beleeve and repent a greater work to know that we savingly beleeve and repent The work it selfe is difficult no businesse of a lazy soul but to know that the work is aright done is a greater difficulty but that it must be gathered from the conditions is easie to resolve I know some finding the seal of the Spirit and the witnesse of the Spirit mentioned in Scripture in order to assurance will have the whole of the work of Assurance to be carryed on alone by the Spirit and that all is done in us without us They expect a secret whisper from God that we are Gods and no more This witnesse they say must be heeded and our faith and repentance in the work not at all regarded But I would know of those if the Spirit be a seale whether the soul doth not bear the impresse and what this impresse is but the graces of the Spirit The Seale sealing and the impresse made fully answer one the other Sometimes it may dimmely answer where the wax or clay or whatsoever is sealed takes not a full impression but if it answer not it is no Seale The graces that the Spirit works are its impresse and these are the conditions of the covenant and so instead of an objection we have a proofe For the witnesse of the Spirit I desire to know whether it be a single witnesse giving testimony to us without us or a witnesse concurring with our spirits The Text is cleare Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God Our spirits bearing witnesse are our consciences Rom. 2. 5. Their consciences also bearing them witnesse and therefore Master Baxter rightly affirmes That the testimony of the Spirit and the testimony of our consciences are two concurrent testimonies or causes to produce one and the same effect But every conscience cannot witnesse thus with the Spirit or joyne in a concurrent testimony It is the witnesse of a good conscience 1 Pet. 3. 21. Baptism saves saith the Apostle by the resurrection of Christ Explaining himself not the putting away the filth of the flesh not the bare outward act of administration which is worthily set out by the most undervaluing termes when it is put in opposition to the inward work but the answer of a good conscience towards God Baptisme is a seal of the covenant and it engages to what the covenant requires which as we have been still catechized is to beleeve in God and to forsake our sins and when conscience answers that this is done Baptisme is a seale that Christ saves The seale of the Spirit is an impresse of those graces and the witnesse of the Spirit is a clearingup of these graces and giving in testimony to the truth of them opening our eyes to read the characters which it selfe hath made 1 Corinth 2. 12. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God So that in vaine do men talk of the Spirit that have not on their own hearts the impresse of it or of the witnesse of the Spirit when a renewed conscience cannot concurre in testimony that these engagements are answered in faith and repentance let that Text of the Apostle be considered 1 John 3. 24. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us I know there are some that admit of all this and freely yeeld that this is a safe way to conclude Assurance from Sanctification Confessing that the Spirit never witnesseth with an unsanctified heart yet they contend for a farther and immediate teste of the Spirit without any consideration had of inherent graces wrought or any reflection made by the the soule upon it selfe in review of any gracious qualifications Yet here they confesse danger and limit this doctrine of theirs with diverse cautions as I have met with some from an eminent hand in a manuscript 1. This is extraordinary as they say very seldome seene or known it is no common way of
the Spirits witnesse 2. It is for the most part in or upon performance of some duties or conscientious employment of a mans selfe in the way of his calling 3. After some great abasement of a mans spirit and more than ordinary soul-humiliations and self-denials 4. After some great adventures made for God and the advancement of his Name 5. After some great combate and conflict with temptation in which God gives in his Spirit as an honorarium or glorious reward upon victory obtained First by way of concession it is not to be denied that God in a more than ordinary measure doth many times manifest the gift of his Spirit for this work of Assurance and that upon these occasions here laid down the soule hath many cheering consolations nigh unto raptures The Spouse hath not like converse with the Bridegroome at all times Sometimes she walks with him in the Galleries Sometimes she is with him in the wine-sellers Sometimes she can say in a way of exultation My beloved is mine and I am his But these limits in the instances before laid down seem to me to be a full denial instead of proof that it is thus immediate without all reflex upon our graces These being means sanctified of God to stir up the habit of grace by his Spirit wrought within us and to bring them forth into action which God then farther honours with a greater measure of light to discerne his own work wrought in us Our spirits being got into such a posture are in an aptitude to witnesse with us and God is then pleased to come in by his Spirit to joyn in Evidence So that still the conditional promises are not only a safe but the alone way in which through the help of the Spirit we get Assurance that we shall be saved They that go about to assert an immediate teste will never secure the soule from delusion Satan will soon finde an artifice to counterfeit this testimony and bear witnesse in the Spirits stead and when we think we have the Spirit of truth to assure we shall have the father of lies to deceive A gappe will be opened to all licentious presumption Children of disobedience will soone heed vain words Object that the wrath of God shall not come upon them Neither will it be to purpose to demand how the Prophets were assured that it was the word of the Lord that came to them and no delusion and to affirme that the same way we have assurance of the truth of the Spirits witnesse seeing Gods extraordinary way of discovery of himself in visions dreams or what other way himself pleased to chuse is not the same with his ordinary way of discovery unto us we no more understand that way of discovery than we do the way in which by power received they wrought miracles As for Doctrines which men are apt to obtrude upon the Spirit so for testimonies in order to our adoption and salvation we must go to the Law and to the Testimony The Law and Testimony lead us for Assurance to our own hearts excusing or condemning in the particulars mentioned And if our hearts condemne us not then have we confidence towards God and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight And this is his Commandment that we should beleeve on the Name of his Son Jesus-Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment 1 John 3. 21 22 23. And if the stresse of all had not lien here Christ had never compared the Professor that hears and does not to the foolish builder that raises his hopes of salvation on a sandy foundation upon a bare title of an empty profession without any well grounded interest and the Professor that heares and does to the man that builds on a rock and so layes his hopes of salvation on a foundation that never will deceive Neither would the Psalmist have concluded that he shall not be ashamed his hope would not make him ashamed when he had respect unto all Gods Commandments Psalme 119. 6. And howsoever our doing does nothing by way of merit yet our doing through grace in which beleeving is comprized which is the command of God 1 John 3. 23. does all taking in the Spirits help to cleare the integrity of these works by way of Assurance And though it be no foundation of our subsistence in grace and therefore the Apostle durst not rest on that bottome nor will be found in his own righteousnesse yet it is the foundation of our evidence The Apostle gives it in command to Timothy Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertaine riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate giving this in as the end of all Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6. 17 18 19. God hath ordained these that we should walk in them Ephes 2. 10. and walking in them we are pronounced blessed Psalme 11 9. 1 2. The efficient cause of our happinesse is grace the free favour and good will of God towards man Being justified freely by his grace Rom. 3. 24. The formal cause is the imputation of Christs righteousnesse without ours when we fall short of the righteousnesse of the Law Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnesse Rom. 10. 3. Therefore the Apostle observes that David describes the blessednesse of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousnesse without works that is wherein his blessednesse doth consist saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinnes are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Rom. 4. 6 7 8. The instrument or hand applying is Faith Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth for propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3. 24 25. But the subject on whom this blessednesse rests is the godly righteous man The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself Psalme 4. 3. The man that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworne deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation Psal 24. 4 5. There is a concurrence of sundry causes in mans happinesse but all falls upon the head of him that is stedfast with God in covenant that comes up to the termes and conditions of it He is pronounced and shall remaine for ever blessed and without holinesse no man shall see the Lord. It is questioned by some whether it be the truth or the degree of these graces which are conditions of the Gospel covenant upon performance of which we may
conclude our Assurance of happinesse but the determination of that being thus put is easie No man in true grace shall go to hell or misse of heaven God doth not adorne man with that glory to reject him The Apostle exhorts to love not in word nor in tongue but in deed and in truth and for a motive adds Hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him 1 Joh. 3. 18 19. But the minimum quod sic when it is that grace may be accounted true is not so easie to determine It is not every faintish desire that is the work on which all this glory rests It must be a work of farther power and efficacy on the soul for satisfaction of which I shall referre the Reader to the learned labours of my much honoured neighbour Master Anthony Burgesse in his spiritual refining CHAP. XXXI The distribution of the Covenant of Grace into the Old and New Covenant with the harmony and agreement that is found between them BY Gods assistance we have been thus farre carried on in the work in hand to finde out the nature of a covenant and Gods way of entring covenant with man And for the more clear discovery of both we have held forth the agreement which is found between the covenant of Works which God entred with man in his state of integrity and the covenant of Grace entred of God with man in his fallen condition as also their respective differences So that all that is essential in this covenant and necessarily required to the attainment of the priviledges and mercies promised in it hath been made known and a compleat definition given with such corolaries and inferences that have been judged necessary Now this covenant thus entred with man in his lapsed estate and hitherto cleared admits of distinction and is distinguished in Scripture by the names of the Old and New Covenant Heb. 8. 13. The first and second covenant Heb. 8. 7. The first some call and not unfitly a covenant of Promise under that covenant Christ was known in promises only and not manifested in the flesh Others call it a subservient covenant being to lead in the second in its full lustre and glory which alone they call a covenant of Grace and make it a third covenant But I shall content my self with the Scripture-termes calling the first Old not because it was first in being but because it is to be abolished and another to succeed the later New because it is never to be antiquated as the Apostle Heb. 8. 13. explains himself Now it must needs contribute much to the clear understanding of the covenant as well of the termes of it as the mercies in it and be a great advantage for the better understanding of sundry both Old and New Testament-Scripture in case the agreement between this Old and New covenant together with their true differences be rightly assigned and those imaginary differences assigned by some erroneous on either hand to the great prejudice of either of the covenants be throughly examined A work of difficulty but were it well followed of singular profit On this by the help of Gods grace I shall adventure and in the first place lay down their agreement afterwards their respective true and real differences and then proceed to examination of such differences which some have assigned which I reserve to the last place seeing in the two first I shall be brief The last will be found a businesse full of tedious difficulty and trouble In several things there is a full agreement between these covenants 1. In the Authour propounding God is the Authour of them both God is the God not of the Jews only who were in the first covenant but of the Gentiles also taken through grace into the second covenant Rom. 3. 29. 2. In the party accepting as specifically considered they are both entred with man Neither Angels nor any other creature articles or is articled with in it and hitherto there is an agreement of both with the covenant of works 3. In the motive or impulsive cause Both of these are of singular grace entred with fallen man in his lost condition there was no hint of this grace before the fall nor any need or use of it being not for mans preservation but his restitution 4. In the Mediatour Christ Jesus who was one and the same in both For though Moses have the name of Mediatour Gal. 3 19. Receiving the lively oracles and giving them to the people Acts 17. 38. as the Judges in Israel had the name of Saviours Nehem. 9. 27. and thereupon Camero makes this difference between the Old and the New covenant That Moses was Mediatour in one Christ in the other Thes 68. yet he confesses that that mediation by the benefit whereof men are truly and effectually united to God belongs only unto Christ De trip foedere Thes Moses work was only to deliver the way of the worship of God in those times and that not in his own name but as a servant Heb. 3. 5. He that Moses did serve of whom he wrote Joh. 5. 46. that Prophet like unto Moses whom God promised to raise Deut. 18. 15. in all ages was Mediatour 5. They agree in the conditions annext Both these covenants have one and the same conditions on Gods part Remission of sins and everlasting happinesse as after shall be shewed more fully They are the same on mans part Faith and Repentance The just then did live by faith Heb. 2. 4. And without faith it was then impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his name whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive remission of sins God then called for returne to himself and sincerity in our returnes accepting those that were sincere Ezek. 18. 31. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect before him 2 Chron 26. 9. 6. They agree in the unity of Church-felloship constituting one and the same Church of Christ The Church in those dayes in which the Fathers lived is one and the same Church with this in Gospel-times In Gospel-times men come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of heaven Matth. 8. 11. One and the same Kingdome receives both Their Faith was terminated upon Christ as well as ours Abraham saw his day and rejoyced John 8. 56. Moses bore his reproach and esteemed it greater then the treasures in Egypt Heb. 11. 26. They did eat the same spiritual meat and did drink the same spiritual drink they drank of the Rock that followed them and the Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10. 3. The same not among themselves but the same with us They are saved by the same free grace and mercy as we Jews by nature are justified by the same faith in Jesus as
sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. 15 16. All these identities evidence one and the same Church ours and theirs Therefore say I unto you the Kingdome of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Matth. 21. 43. The same Kingdom was taken from them and given to us was taken from the Jewes and given to the Gentiles where Sem left there Japhet took possession Gen. 9. 27. Sems Tents are Japhets These speak the covenants into which we have successively entred to be one and the same in substance A covenant entred by the same parties upon the same termes and propositions on either hand is the same covenant Such is the Old covenant entred with the Jewes and the New covenant entred with Christians they are therefore one and the same in substance CHAP. XXXII Differences assigned between the Old and New covenant THese covenants are not in that manner fully and entirely one but there is difference in the way of administration They are one in substance constituting one Church one Kingdome but different in circumstances Upon which account they are distinguished by the names of the Old and New the first and second Covenant Some have made it their ambition to rise as high as may be in the number of differences and have assigned several where there is a full accord and perfect agreement I shall lay down such where the difference is clear and afterward take view of those imaginary differences upon which any controversie of moment hangs 1. They differ in the agents employed in administration of these respective covenants entred of God and upheld and continued with his people The Old covenant was administred and held forth by Servants only Prophets Priests and such as God pleased to appoint whether by ordinary call as those of the Tribe of Levi who were appointed among men in things appertaining to God Or extraordinary to whom he spake in visions and dreams God in sundry wayes and manners as the Apostle to the Hebrews observes then speaking to his people Heb. 1. 1. The New covenant is held forth by the Son as in the same place the Apostle witnesseth He was the Angel or Messenger of the covenant Upon that errand he came from the Father clothed with our flesh This is that great salvation which first began to be spoken to us by the Lord Heb. 2. 3. And this he carries on by his delegates and deputies whom from the right hand of the Father he gifts and qualifies 2. They differ in their extent and latitude as to the Nations taken into covenant The Old covenant received only the Jews To them appertained the Adoption the Glory and the Covenants Rom. 9. 4. Circumcision the Seale of the covenant was proper to them with some few of other Nations that forgetting their own people and their fathers house joyned themseves to them whilest other Nations were known by the name of uncircumcision being without title to that Seale and were without Christ aliens to the common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of Promise Eph. 2. 12. Therefore the Apostles before the vaile was taken away had that restraint upon them Matth. 10. 5. Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not The lost sheep of the house of Israel being in covenant onely were in their commission That was a valley of vision All other people were in darknesse They were a people of God Others were no people The New covenant takes in all Nations respective to the covenant no Nation hath any barre put to it but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him Act. 10. 35. Christ having taken away the partition wall the Apostles have a commission for the discipling of all Nations so that in Christ Jesus There is neither Jew nor Greek Scythian nor Barbarian Col. 3. 11. 3. They differ in their duration or continuance The Old covenant had but its date of time which being expired it must give way for the New to succeed Thus the Apostle reasons from the Prophets prediction of a New covenant Heb. 8. 13. In that he saith A New covenant he hath made void the Old now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away This was to stand till times of reformation Heb. 9 10. This second covenant must remaine till the end of time These are called the last dayes in that after these there must be no change of Ordinances The Ministery now established is to remaine to the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. and the Sacraments until Christs second coming unto judgement 4. They differ in the way of dedication or consecration The Old covenant was dedicated and purified with the blood of Bulls and Goats and other Sacrifices which according to the Law were slaine and offered as the Apostle to the Hebrews observes from Exod. 24. 7 8. Heb. 9. 19 20 21. When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the Law he took the blood of calves and goats with water and Scarlet-wool and hysope and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying This is the blood of the Testament which God hath enjoyned you Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the Tabernacle and all the vessels of the Ministery But in the New Testament the dedication is in the blood of Christ This is my blood in the New Testament shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Where we see 1. An agreement Either of both are Testaments and covenants Either of both have their dedication Either of both are dedicated in blood 2. An answerable difference and opposition The first was the Old Testament to be antiquated The second the New to succeed in place of the Old The first was dedicated in the blood of Bulls and Calves The second in the blood of the Mediatour in my blood saith Christ The first had no possible power to take away sinne as the Apostle presently shews chap. 10. 4. But this is shed for many for the remission of sins The Apostle in the words immediately before these quoted gives the covenant the name of a Testament though a covenant and a mans last Will and Testament really differ seeing herein they agree that the covenant had its validility as a Testament by the death of him that made the covenant Heb. 9. 16 17. 5. They differ in the way of exhibition of Christ the glory and grace of the covenant And upon a threefold account here there is a difference 1. In the Old covenant we have Christ only in a Promise to be incarnate to suffer and to rise again and to be received unto glory Under that covenant light was by way of prophecie In the New covenant he is evidently set forth as come in the flesh Having been dead and now alive Rev. 1. 18. Having suffered in the flesh risen again and entred into glory To us
it is not a prophecie but a Gospel 2. In the Old covenant all was held out to the people under types figures shadows All about the Tabernacle and Temple Persons Uâensils Sacrifices did lead to Christ all of these darkly holding him forth They had a shadow of good things to come and not the image of the things themselves Heb. 10. 1. a little of reality in a great bulk of ceremony In the New Testament the truth of it is clearly and manifestly without figure or type held forth unto us 3. In the Old Testament knowledge was dim and obscure It could be no other when it was wrapt up in prophecies and types A prophecie is a riddle till it be unfolden and little is known of a man by his shadow comparative to that which is seen in the man himselfe Therefore though the state of the Jewes in Old Testament times was a state of light comparative to the darknesse that was with other people and their land was called a valley of visions Isa. 22. 1. yet it was little more than darknesse comparative to that light which in Gospel times is revealed Christ was a Minister of circumcision and when he began his Ministery in the land of Zebulon and Nepthali the Text says The people that sate in darknesse saw a great light Mat. 4. 16. Circumcision therfore in different respects was both a Priviledge and a Bondage A Priviledge Rom. 3. 1. It was a great mercy to have light let in at any crevice promises any way sealed and ratified to us A Bondage Acts 15. 10. To live in so dim a light and to be laden in so burdensome a way was a heavy yoke So that as the Apostle putting the question What advantage the Jew had and what priviledge there was of circumcision above and before the Gentile Rom. 3. 1. answers Much every way and gives in his reason of the preheminence So in case the question should be put What advantage hath the Christian and what priviledge there is of Baptisme above and before the Jew Answer may be made Much every way and the reason given of the preheminence in Gospel-times in the particulars above mentioned So that the New covenant is a better covenant established upon better promises Heb. 8. 6. Promises are more full and clear Though it must be confest that a Christians preheminence above the Iewes doth not equal a Iewes preheminence above the Gentile The Iew was in covenant with God and was heire of the Promise The Gentiles were aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world Ephes 2. 12. The Iew was in the same covenant in his time as Christians are in Gospel-times There is not a promise in the New covenant whether it be for priviledges conferred upon us or graces wrought in us but by the help of that light we may finde in the Old covenant the same held out as after will be more clearly manifested The betternesse is in the greater ease being freed from that bondage of the ceremonial yoke and in their more distinct clearnesse The glory of all that the covenant doth tender being in so clear and full a way held out in Gospel-times that he that is least in the Kingdom of God under the glory of the New Testament-revelation is greater in the way of Gospel-Mysteries then John Baptist who was the greatest of Prophets greater than a Prophet Those Prophets that did foresee and foreshew the Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascension of Christ the triumphant conquest of his enemies his glory at the right hand of his Father the spreading of the Gospel the call of the Gentiles did not themselves see it as now the meanest that are in Christ do understand it no more than they who now preach through Christ the Resurrection of the dead the everlasting blisse of glorified Saints in their eternal fruition of Gods presence are able to understand it in that measure as the meanest that then shall have the happinesse to enjoy it 6. They differ in the Seales annext for either of their ratification and confirmation for howsoever they are of the same use leading to one and the same thing signified the Jewes had Christ in their Sacraments 1 Cor. 10. 4 1 Cor. 5. 7. and we have no more in ours yet they differ in the outward stamp or effigies as I may so speak as well that of initiation as that of corroboration The initiating Sacrament of the Jewes which gave them the denomination of the people of God was that painful circumcision in the flesh signum vile incivile yet those that would be the Lords did and must submit unto it All of Abrahams seed with him received that signe And all of those that with him would joyne unto the Lord. This was to be the leading Sacrament He that was not circumcised in the flesh might not eat of the Passeover Exod 12. 48. And when a stranger shall sojourne with thee and will keep the Passeover unto the Lord let all his males be circumcised and then let him come neer and keep it and he shall be as one that is borne in the land for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof A full Text against all that plead for unbaptized persons admission to the Lords Table God will not suffer that disorder that the leading Sacrament should come after The initiating Sacrament with Christians is that of Baptisme no sooner was a man brought into covenant but he was streight baptized assoon as he made profession he had this sealing engaging signe the application of water which is of an abstersive cleansing nature implying our staine and guilt and leading us thither where purification and freedome is found the Spirit and blood of Jesus Christ The following Sacrament in the Old covenant was that of the Passeover a Lamp without blemish to be eaten in the place and way that God prescribed That in the New Testament is the Supper of the Lord in ordinary common useful and necessary elements Bread and Wine which are of a strengthning cheering nature Ps 104. 15. Implying our fainting feeble estate our disconsolate and sad condition and leading us where we may find both strength and consolation CHAP. XXXIII Positions tending to clear the first covenant under Old Testament-dispensations BEfore I proceed to the examination of those supposed differences which some have brought in to the prejudice of both covenants I shall lay down certain positions to give some light for the more clear understanding especially of the Old covenant and to help us if it may be in our judgements of them both as well in their agreement as their severall differences First Position God delivered unto Adam in Paradise not only a Law or Rule of life but also a Covenant as was before shewed So Moses in Mount Sinai delivered unto the people of the Jews not a Law or rule only but a covenant likewise This might be
partakers of the covenant of Grace He should rather have said that the ten commandments had been a covenant of Grace but sometimes by an accident or especial occasion had become a covenant of Works which yet could not have held The covenant of Grace and the covenant of Works are two distinct and opposite Species They have one and the same univocal Genus of whose nature they equally partake Therefore as an Oxe can by no occasion or accident be a Horse or a Horse a Sheep or a Sheep a Lion or a Lion a man so a covenant of Grace can by no occasion or accident be a covenant of Works one and the same thing intended for one end may occasionally and accidentally have another event as the Ministery intending salvation may prove an aggravat on of condemnation but no occasion or accident can change the nature of any thing into that which is of a kind opposite to it and different from it And in such cases where the event is hindred and another happens the denomination is and must be from the primary intention The Apostle calls the Gospel the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16. The word is called the word of Life though to some through their obstinacy it turns to condemnation and to death If our author in this question take liberty to differ from all as himself professeth I hope he will not be displeased if all differ from him Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim Sixthly In Moses time and under his administration commands were frequent and full as well ceremonial as moral as also menaces The directive and maledictive part of the Law were clear and open for discovery of sinne to work to a sense of danger to put them in a posture to look for and long after the Messiah But the promises more obscure I mean the promises of eternity scarce known any otherwise then as they were shadowed out in temporal things This as the Apostle shews was figured by that vaile which was before Moses his face when he spake with the people upon the renuing of the Tables Moses his face upon his converse with God in the Mount shone with that glory that Aaron and all the children of Israel were afraid to come nigh Exod. 34. 30. Afterwards he speaks to the people and talks with them And till he had done speaking with them he put a vaile before his face verse 33. Whereupon the Apostle having entred comparison between the Ministers of the Law and the Ministers of the Gospel alludes to this vaile before Moses his face 2 Cor. 3. 12 13 14. in these words Seeing then we have such hope saith he we use great plainnesse of speech and not as Moses which put a vaile over his face that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished but their mindes were blinded Upon which Diodati saith Moses Ministry kept the people under the shadows of ceremonies without contemplating the mysteries which were figured by them to the bottom which was reserved for the time of the Gospel Heb. 10. 4. Whereof was a figure that vaile on Moses his face Not saith he that that was the end of that act of Moses but of that which the Apostle saith may be allegorically understood thereby namely of the obscure dispensation of the Law Which obscure dispensation meeting with that blindnesse that was in the judgements of that people held them in such ignorance that they saw little of Grace in that covenant but rather through their blinde mistake looked upon it the generality of them as a covenant of Works And this the Apostle signifies in the place before quoted as also Rom. 10. 3. They being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves to the righteousnesse of God This caused them so tenaciously to hold to the precepts of the Law especially to the ceremonial part which though more burdensome yet was easilier fitted to their corruption that they refused Christ the end of the Law for righteousnesse sake to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10. 3. Seventhly There was yet so much of grace and Christ held out in this covenant that they were not only left without excuse that were under it but convinced of sin if they saw not Christ and the grace of the covenant in it Christ in his contest with the Jewes who would not receive him but stood in opposition and raised persecution against him appeales to the Scriptures Old Testament-Scriptures Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me and in them you think to have eternal life Iohn 5. 39. Where we see a double encomium of the Scriptures 1. From the Iewes own acknowledgement In them eternal life may be found 2. From the testimony they give of Christ In them upon search Christ may be found There are such discoveries there that hold him out and eternal life in him to those that search them And they suspecting by that intimacy of communion that he profest to have with the Father and the heavy charge that he laid upon them that he was about to accuse them to the Father Christ puts it off from himself and puts it upon one that they had least in suspition even Moses Moses in whom they trusted in whom they pretended to repose confidence It is he that is ready to accuse them not of breach of the Law or transgression of any command of his which they could easilier have beleeved but of unbeliefe of Moses You have one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust for had ye beleeved Moses ye would have beleeved me for he wrote of me Unbelief in Christ set forth in Moses is a sinne which Moses his writings shall charge upon them So also in that speech of Christ to the two disciples in the way to Emmaus O ye fools and slow of heart to beleeve all that the Prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered those things to enter into his glory where we see them charged with sin in that they understood not Christ in the Prophets Christ in Moses as follows there in the next words Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe Luke 24 25 26 27. They that dwell at Jerusalem and their Rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they fulfilled them in condemning him Acts 13. 27. Eightly There are those phrases in Moses which are ordinarily quoted as holding out a covenant of Works and in a rigid interpretation are no other yet in a qualified sense in a Gespel-sense and according to Scripture-use of the phrase they hold out a covenant of Grace and the termes and conditions of it To instance in some few Deut. 4. 1. Now therefore hearken O Israel unto the statutes and unto the judgements which I teach you to
rather than confesse a truth But they say Object This was a seale to Abraham of the righteousnesse of faith that he might be the Father of all them that beleeve c. But only Abraham is such a father Answ This priority of receiving the Faith and the signe and seale is proper to Abraham each one could not be first but father and childe both received it and both had the righteousnesse of Faith sealed in it If Bellarmine please so well I shall referre to Bellarmines opposites Chamier de Sacramentis in genere lib. 2. cap. 9. Ames Tom. 3. more especially Whittaker praelectiones de Sacramentis page 22 23. Hâc desperationis c. So that which way soever they take truth fastens upon them and the friends of truth flie in their face and all to make it appear that a pure Gospel was preach't to Abraham and that the first covenant was not mixt but truly Evangelical CHAP. XXXV The Covenant of Grace in Gospel-times admits Christians in a state of unregeneration and is not limited in the bounds of it to the Elect regenerate THe two former supposed differences did lay the first covenant too low not vouchsafing it the honour of a Gospel-covenant or at the best a mixt Gospel Two others follow which will hold us longer that put too great a limit to the second covenant in respect of the latitude and extent of it A third difference therefore assigned by some is that the first covenant took in all the seed of Abraham by Isaac and Jacob as many as professed themselves to be of the Faith and that were willing to joyne in the worship of the God of Abraham The New Covenant they affirm admits no more than Elect Regenerate persons The Gospel strips us of all relative Covenant holinesse of all holinesse that is not real and intrinsecal and God ownes none as his Covenant-people but Elect regenerate persons In the first place we shall take what is yielded or at least not gain-sayed and after proceed to the examination of what is affirmed In Old Testament-times the covenant was made with Israel in the uttermost latitude and extent with all that bore the name of Israel as we may see Deut. 29. at large held forth There is a covenant entred and the words of it exprest 1. With Israel verse 1. 2. With all Israel verse 2. 3. With them to whom God had not given an heart to perceive eyes to see and eares to hear ver 4. viz. with unregenerate persons 4. It is made with Captaines of Tribes Elders Officers little Ones Wives Strangers Hewers of wood Drawers of water vers 10 11. 5. With them that were present and with them that were absent verse 14 15. All this clearly shews in how great a latitude this covenant is entred No Israelite of any Sex Age Rank nor any that joyned themselves to that body are exempted Which also farther appears in those innumerable places of Scripture where God owns that people generally promiscuously as his people professing himself to be their God and he is the God of none but a covenant-people of his own covenant-people others are without God Eph. 2. 12. He was the God of all that came out of Egypt Exod. 20. 2. I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of Bondage Of all that whole family Amos 3. 1. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against thee O children of Israel against the whole family which I have brought up from the land of Egypt Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord Deut. 6. 4. Yea Isreal at the very worst is thus owned as Gods in covenant Hear O my people and I will testifie unto thee O Israel if thou wilt hearken unto me but my people would not hearken to my voice Israel would have none of me Psal 8 8 11. The Oxe knows his Owner the Asse his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Isa 1. 3. Therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge Isa 5. 13. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge Hos 4. 6. And when they entred into the Heathen whither they went they prophaned my holy Name when they said unto them These are the people of the Lord Ezek. 36. 20. This is brought as a motive to withhold Israel from sin Ye are the children of the Lord your God ye shall not cut your selves nor make any baldnesse between your eyes for the dead for thou art an holy people to the Lord thy God Deut. 14. 1 2. This is pleaded as an aggravation of sin You have I known of all the Nations of the earth and therfore you will I punish for all your iniquities Amos 3. 2. This is brought as a motive to prevail with God under misery for mercy Behold we beseâch thee we are all thy people Isa 64. 9. Yea this covenant takes with God for national mercies The whole of the Nation then is in covenant Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember and will remember the land Levit. 26. 42. The Apostles authority puts it out of question Reckoning up the priviledges of Israel according to the flesh nine in number Rom. 9. 4. This is one The covenants Israel then after the flesh was in covenant All Israel were the covenant-people of God There were many not Elect not Regenerate but there was not a man not in covenant not owned of God as visibly his Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his people Deut. 26. 17 18. This was the state of the Church of old But now as is affirmed it is far otherwise God is not so large in his priviledges nor so ample in his munificence none have honour to be in covenant in Gospel-times but real beleevers men truly sanctified and regenerate And here it cannot be denied but there are many expressions ordinarily found in many Orthodox Writers and like passages frequently heard in Sermons from godly Ministers seemingly implying if not asserting it and restraining the covenant onely to the elect and regenerate As when they give Marks and signes of mens being in covenant with God this must needs imply that some professing Christians are in covenant with God and some without which is yet farther evidenced when they conclude that in case a man be in covenant with God then happinesse and salvation follows But when these men fully explain themselves they yeeld up again to us that which seemingly they had taken from us and ordinarily do distinguish of an outward and inward covenant acknowledging the outward covenant to be made with every member of the Church and the Parents with that hear and professedly accept the promises and their children But the inward covenant as they say belongs to
sealing them as Gods in covenant So John 4. 1 2. When the Lord know that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples then John though Jesus baptized not but his Disciples Here John made Disciples and baptized them being made The Disciples of Iesus made Disciples and baptized them being made An outward work then to make profession of the faith is sufficient to make one a Disciple and to bring him within the verge of the covenant Secondly That which a whole Nation in Gods ordinary way of administration is in a capacity to attaine and enter into is a covenant onely professed visibly entred upon and doth not require any inward change or work upon the soule to the being of it this is plaine It cannot be expected in Gods ordinary way that a Nation should be brought forth at once all really holy and sanctified Such a field hath not been seen without tares Such a floore without chaffe Such a draw-net without any fish that is bad Such a Feast and no one without a wedding garment But whole Nations are in a capacity in Gods ordinary way of working to enter into this covenant as is plaine in the Text The whole of the Nation is in their commission where they come and in many Nations it hath had happy successe Whole Nations without exceptions unlesse strangers so journing have been brought within covenant One would faine fasten another interpretation on those words and make the commission to sound not according to the letter of the words nor yet according to the successe by grace attained but to his liking and therefore is put to it to change the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã into ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and then all Nations must either be put by apposition ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or with the Preposition ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and so instead of disciple all Nations it will be make disciples in all Nations This he thinks is very tolerable because to disciple and to make disciples is all one But though they may be one in themselves yet it makes a maine difference in the phrase and with the addition of his preposition inverts the whole meaning of the words as to the thing in controversie which is such a violence offered to the Text as is not to be endured in him that is about to draw a Logical argument for his advantage against an adversary And as it is against the letter of the Text so it is plainly against our Saviours scope and end in giving this commission This enlargement unto all Nations in this place was in opposition to the restriction Matth. 10. 5. as by the adversary is confest Now in that Nation to which there they were limitted the whole of the Nation was in covenant all the land was the land of Immanuel Esay 8. 8. and consequently so it was to be in other Nations by vertue of this happy enlargement or else the opposition is utterly taken away the meaning of the words clouded and the Apostles at a losse for the understanding of them Having before spent their paines in a Nation all Disciples and now having a commission for the discipling of all Nations how shall they understand the words unlesse the whole of the Nation where they come are to be discipled And hereto accord the prophecies of Scripture for the calling of the Nations of the Gentiles God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem Gen. 9. 27. Sem was wholly in covenant not by pieces and parcels but universally in covenant Japhet is to come in succession into covenant in like latitude Psalme 2. 8. Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession It is not some among the Nations of the Heathen that are to be the inheritance âf Christ but the Heathen To which agrees Rev. 11. 15. The Kingdomes of the earth shall become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ Immanuel of old had one now he shall have more Kingdomes and they become his no other way than by discipling Gods Ministers are his men of warre for subduing and captivating them 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. and Kingdoms are promised them not some onely in Kingdoms Alexander would not sit down with such a conquest neither will Christ Jesus If to possesse some in a Kingdome be to possesse a Kingdome then Antichrist of long hath had this Kingdome All Kings shall bow down before him all Nations shall serve him Psal 72. 11. All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name Psal 86. 9. Thou shalt call a Nation which thou knowest not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee Esay 55. 5. There God calls the Nation and the Nation doth answer Gods call In that day Israel shall he a third with Egypt and with Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord of Hosts shall blesse saying Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my inheritance There Egypt and Assyria are in equipage with Israel all three sister-Churches Israel without any preheminence Either Israel then was not a Nation of Disciples a Nation wholly within covenant or else these are to be National Churches the whole of the Nation to be discipled and brought into covenant Passing by other Scriptures in silence one tells me that he marvels that I am not ashamed to produce Psalme 72. 11. Psalme 86. 9. to prove that the whole of the Nation even infants must be included Matth. 28. 19. As if saith he it were foretold that the whole Nation even Infants should come before God and worship But it is strange if he be ignorant that propâecies in the Od Testament of the glory of New Testament-times are in Old Testament-phrases by way of allusion to the worship of those times set forth to us It was the practice of the people of the Jewes for their males of growth and strength to appear before the Lord and neither females nor Infants as Ainsworth on Exod. 23. 17. observes yet they appeared in the name of females and children and their females and children were in covenant together with them Deut. 29. 11. so that as the rest of the prophecies to which he hath nothing to say so these two prophecies against which he excepts speak fully for the discipling of Nations in New Testament-times The successe of these Prophecies hath happily answered in many Nations which may well serve as a cleare Comment both of these Prophecies and the commission granted by the Lord Jesus though by the working of the man of Sinne and other Hereticks the glory hath been much dazeled yet in most of the Nations of Europe it hath been happily effected Let any man finde equal Reasons for the variation of the words as I have done for keeping to the
letter of the Text then I shall hearken to him in the meane time all indifferent men may well challenge their reason that heed him A second Text holding out the covenant in its ancient latitude we have from our Saviour Christ Matth. 20. 16. and 22. 14. Many are called but few chosen The close of two several Parables The one of the labourers hired into the Vineyard where some claimed a more large pay upon merit The other of the Parable of the Wedding-feast where one intruded without a Wedding garment whence our Saviour inferres Many are called are of the number of guests at the wedding feast are of the labourers in the Vineyard but few are chosen from whence I thus argue If there be a call from God in the times of the New Testament in a farre greater latitude than the grace of Election that of many called few only are elected then the covenant in New Testament-times is not to be restrained to the elect and regenerate but containes all that professedly accept the termes of the covenant and visibly appear a people of God This is evident seeing the call is into covenant all at the Feast were called ones all the hired labourers were covenant-servants To conceive men to be called of God and not to be in covenant with God is a full contradiction The call hath its terminus à quo and its terminus ad quem a state which upon call they leave and a new state on which they enter They are upon this call in a nearer relation to God than the rest of the world otherwise they were the same as ever and not called at all they are not in so neare a relation as men borne of the Spirit so they were elected They have a call by the Word and ministerial outward Ordinances to which they yeeld a professed subjection They have not attained the inward working of the Spirit to a real Sanctification Now for the Assumption that there is a call in New Testament-times in this latitude in a far greater latitude than the grace of Election our Saviour evidently shews in the Text quoted There are those at the feast that are not accepted There are those that are taken into the Vineyard that at the evening of the day do displease there are those therefore that are called into covenant with God and yet are rejected of God a full and a clear Text for covenant-holinesse This is farther evident in those Parables of our Saviour Christ of the field with Wheat and Tares Matth. 13. 24 25. of the draw-net with fishes good and bad Matth. 13. 47. of the floore with chaffe and Wheat Matth. 3. 12. of the great house where there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earth and stone some to honour and some to dishonour 2 Tim. 2. 20. In which parables by the floore the field expressely compared to the Kingdome of Heaven and the great house the Church is understood which stands in covenant-relation to God and containes those that are in covenant with God A man in the Kingdome of Heaven is a man in covenant with God unlesse he stood in a covenant-relation he could have no standing there and the comparison were very strangely drawn if this Kingdome thus set out had all that were good none bad in it But of this more when I shall speake to some Corolaries that follow from this Assertion Another Scripture in which the covenant in the ancient latitude is held out is Rom. 11. thoroughout a great part of the chapter There is as all know a large discourse of the Apostasie of the Jews and the call of the Gentiles of the rejection and breaking off of the one and the taking in and ingraffing of the other which I shall presently have a further occasion to open when I shall speak to another pretended difference between the covenant as it stood then and as it stands now In the meane time this is clear into the same Church-state and covenant-latitude from which the Jews fell Gentiles were taken in and do still continue This cannot be denied we being graffed in their stead come in upon like termes as they left They fell from a visible Church state and that latitude of covenant which did receive regenerate and unregenerate justified and unjustified That covenant-latitude then still remaines in the Churches of the Gentiles in Gospel-times Nothing here that I can see can with any colour be objected unlesse any will say that the invisible Church is there spoken to and not the visible that the Jews fell from the invisible body and that the Gentiles in their call are generally taken in into the same fellowship Which as I think few will affirme so I shall have presently occasion to examine If any shall further say that they have this title in Foro Ecclesiae and not in Foro Dei as to men they have so far right that Ministers may not refuse them or in their administrations deny them admittance but in the sight of God who knows their unregenerate unjustified condition they have no title at all I shall refer them to the whole tenor of that chapter where they shall see this engraffing of theirs ascribed to the power of God that it is done by the election of God and mentioned as his gift and choice mercy to that people All of which speak the mind of God in it and his approbation of it This is farther clear in that Text of the Apostle Heb. 10 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Sonne of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace Where we see those that are sanctified with the blood of the covenant do tread under foot the Son of God and count his blood an unholy thing have an esteeme of it as that which is common and never devoted at all to God These must needs be granted to be wicked ye cannot be denied to be in covenant being sanctified with the blood of the Covenant There is indeed a threefold interpretation of this Text One of the Arminians and those of that party enemies to perseverance in Grace and they understand by sanctification in this place an internal change and renovation of the soul from whence by Apostasie such persons fall They that will embrace this tenent may indeed say that in the state of sanctification they were in covenant but falling from sanctification they fall from covenant But this is not affirmed by those with whom I have to deale and therefore I shall not lanch out into this controversie Two other interpretations are given by those that are adversaries to this way and make it their work to vindicate this text from these mens glosses The first refers sanctification not to those delinquents that tread under foot
themselves to the true God and given their name to Christ and do professe him and his Religion whether it be done before God truely and sincerely or only before men so the people of Israel although they were not all truely holy yet they are all called holy so Paul calls all those Saints who had given their names to Christ so Peter 1 Pet. 2 calls all those Christians to whom he writes a holy Nation and a royal Priesthood And Laurentius 1 Pet. 1. 1. page 6. distinguishing of a threefold election 1. To any function civil or ecclesiastical 2. To the external communion of divine worship or the outward Church or people of God 3. To salvation and eternal life brings for proof of the second acceptation Deut. 7. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 9. both which Texts with him there are parallel and taken in the same sense that I understand them Ravanellus in verbum election quotes divers Texts of Scripture in which election is taken for the adoption of any Nation and puts this of 1 Pet. 2. 9. in the last place adding these words And this election is general as hath been said nor are all that are made partakers of it necessarily saved Rom. 9. 6. but respective to this general election he is said to be chosen of God who is called to the participation of his free covenant or a people whom God adopts to himself for a people So also in verbum Sanctus which he sayes is taken three wayes 1. By separation or segregation 2. By imputation 3. By inchoation of holinesse in this life He there gives many instances of the first acception of holinesse by separation distinct from the two other and 1 Pet 2. 9. for one So Salmero as I finde him quoted to my hand understands it of election distinct from that which is to eternal life and calls it an election to faith and all know that they mean no more than their Catholick faith which according to them doth not necessarily entitle to eternal life A Lapide with whom my adversaries in these controversies frequently joyn is also wholly on my part in his Comment on these words so that it needed not to have been said that no approved authour joynes with me Let the Reader judge as the strength of reasons given will perswade CHAP. XXXVIII Arguments evincing the Covenant of Grace in Gospel-times in that latitude as before is asserted THe first Argument shall be borrowed from those titles which undoubtedly and undisputably imply a covenant and yet in Scripture are still attributed to all that professedly accept the termes of the covenant and professedly appear as the people of God Those titles before mentioned by Peter from Moses are confessed to be such that argue a people in covenant and therefore adversaries are so shie to confesse them to belong to visible Professours But titles as high as these and as undeniably implying a covenant are given to visible Professours those then even according to them are on this account in covenant with God And these are all of those titles wherwith the people of God are honoured In New Testament-Scriptures which are especially foure Beleevers Saints Disciples Christians He that is a Beleever a Saint a Disciple a Christian he is a man in covenant with God But all visible Professors that accept the termes of the covenant are Beleevers Saints Disciples Christians so they are still stiled in New Testament-Scriptures Beleevers from the Faith that they professe Saints from the Holinesse to which they stand engaged or from the holy God to whose service they are separated Disciples from the Doctrine which they professe to learne and Christians from him whose they are whom they serve and from whom they expect salvation I know some have inured themselves to that language that those that are thus dignified are necessarily concluded by them to be Elect Regenerate persons It is grown I know the Dialect of the times but not of the Scriptures To begin with Beleevers He is in Scripture a Beleever that is a visible Professour that puts himself into the number of those that expect salvation by Christ Jesus So it is through the History of the Acts where account is given of the Converts made by the Apostles Ministry Acts 4. 4. Many of them which heard the Word believed and the number of the men was about five thousand They that are thus numbred by the poll are visible Professours that outwardly embraced the Doctrine of Faith This might be seene and the names of such taken They are not all Elect regenerate Christians such could not be visibly known The generality of men and women in Samaria beleeved Acts 8. 12. But that they were Elect Regenerate in that universality cannot be conceived Simon Magus is an example to the contrary of whom the Text sayes that he did beleeve vers 13. and yet his heart not right in the sight of God vers 21. He was with those Israelites Psalme 78. 34. in covenant yet his heart was not stedfast in Covenant A great number of the Grecians beleeved upon the preaching of those that were scattered upon the persecution raised about Stephen Acts 11. 21. yet Barnabas whom the Church of Jerusalem sent to them well enough knew that there was no certainty little hopes that all of these were Regenerate persons therefore he exhorts them that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord. He was afraid that the work might be overly and superficial of which the Church in every age hath sad experience he desires and endeavour that they may be rooted and established Only those hearers which are compared to the good ground are Regenerate persons But those compared to bad ground beleeve Luke 8. 13. Regenerate men who alone are invisible Church-Members have their hearts more right with God than to love the praise of men more than the praise of God but many beleevers are thus censured as we see John 12. 42 43. Regenerate persons make no shipwrack of Faith They are borne of incorruptible seed the seed of God abideth in them Yet there are beleevers that thus suffer shipwrack 1 Tim. 1. 19. Myriads of thousand of Jews beleeve Acts 21. 20. yet not all Regenerate The Apostle 1 Cor. 7. satisfies a case of conscience put to him by the Corinthians that if any brother hath a wife that beleeveth not if she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away If the beleeving brother here be only a Regenerate man then the unbeleeving wife is an unregenerate woman So the question will be whether a Regenerate sanctified man joyned in marriage to a Professour of the true faith not of those hopes for the truth of sanctification may dwell with her A case that never yet was disputed or doubted The unbeleever is a worshipper of idols one that sacrifices to devils and not to God The Beleever is a Professor of the Faith one in name a Christian and not a Heathen Saint is taken
Tribes from Hosea 1. 10. Hos 2. 23. is there applied to the call of the Gentiles into a Church-state and condition Neither is that of force against it that is objected from verse 23. where the Apostle saith That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory God sets up visible Ordinances and calls to a Church-state as is there prophecied that he may there work to himselfe a people of invisible relation that thereby he may make them vessels of mercy having afore prepared them unto glory So likewise Rev. 18. 4. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues All Professours of faith and worshippers of the true God are there included in that exhortation to quit Babylon so all Ministers of Christ are to urge and presse it Men therefore of visible Profession have this title in compellation from GOD of my people It is yet objected Jeremiah 31. 31 32 33. Behold the dayes come saith the LORD that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband to them saith the Lord. But this shall be my Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people Here is a third purpose or interest for which this Text is produced to serve The first was to assert an unconditionate Covenant in the dayes of the Gospel which we examined chapter 25. when the Gospel expressely holds out Covenant-conditions more expressely than the Covenant of Works which is confest to be conditional The second to overthrow a publick Ministery and all private mutual exhortation which we spake to chapter 26 when the New Testament doth establish both And to set up this Prophecie in a third particular against all New Testament-light none must be of the called of God into Covenant for fruition of Church-priviledges but those that are regenerate Men in Old Testament-Covenant broke Covenant as is there exprest Men in the New Covenant shall keep covenant and these are only the Elect and Regenerate To this I might have many things to say No such sense must be put upon this one single Text as to restrain the covenant only to those that are stedfast in it and carefully observe it when other New-Testament-Scriptures clearly and unanimously hold it out in that latitude to comprehend those that are transgressours of it no more than it must be brought though there be like colour for both to overthrow Gospel-Ordinances private and publick exhortations when in the New Testament there is a clear and full establishment of them There are those that are in the faith so farre as to enter Covenant that make shipwrack of the faith 1 Tim 1. 19. Disciples of Christ that go back and walk no more with him Joh. 6. Men sanctified by the blood of the Covenant that tread under foot the blood of the Son of God and do despight to the Spirit of grace Heb. 10. 29. There are that escape the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled and overcome Those that have known the way of righteousnesse that turne from the holy Commandment To whom it happens according to the true Proverb The dogge is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2 22. It is farre easier to returne answer to this Scripture held out by way of Prophecie what shall be than to give answer to all these Scriptures and far more than these setting out what is in New Testament-times 2. That we may interpret and not commit Scriptures finde out the sense of all and not create differences in any we may observe that though it be granted that those that have the Law written in their hearts and put into their inward parts do enter covenant and not break it yet it is not said none shall enter covenant and transgresse it There may still be an outward covenant according to Interpreters that may be broken as well as an inward covenant that shall be observed If it be said that these are two distinct covenants one succeeding the other one abolished when the other takes place according to that of the Apostle Heb. 8. 13. In that he saith a New Covenant he hath made the first Old now that which decayeth and waxeth Old is ready to vanish away then it will follow this being the characteristical difference that as none in New Testament-times enter covenant but they keep covenant so none in Old Testament-times were in covenant but they did transgresse it at least that the covenant that then was was wholly transgresseable and the covenant that now is is not in any possibility to be transgrest But the contrary is evident there were those that kept covenant in Old Testament-times Psal 44. 17. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotton thee neither have we dealt falsely in the covenant Psal 103. 17. And also there are those that break covenant in New Testament-times 1 Tim. 5. 12. Having damnation because they have cast off their first faith The Law was written in mens hearts and put into their inward parts in the dayes of the Old Testament and some were as it is called in an inward Covenant Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soule that thou mayest live Psal 37. 31. The Law of his God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide Psal 119. 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sinne against thee Encline your eare and come unto me hear and your soule shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of Dââid Isa 55. 3. And so by consequence it fairly holds notwithstanding this Text that there is as hath been proved an outward covenant in the dayes of the Gospel The oldnesse to be abolished is only in circumstances wherewith one and the same covenant that now is was then clothed 3. The covenant then spoken to by Jeremy in the place quoted is not a covenant properly so called or at least as Master Baxter observes not the whole of the covenant So there must be two distinct covenants one in being when the Prophet wrote and another to have its being in the time of which he prophesied one covenant made with the Jewes and another covenant distinct from it made
with Christians and so of necessity there must be two distinct Gospels If that spoken of by Jeremy be a covenant properly so called holding out the whole nature of the Gospel-covenant and that New distinct from the former then the old covenant must needs in the whole nature of it be a distinct covenant likewise In what sense Jeremy is to be understood according to the genuine meaning of the Text I have endeavoured to clear as in my answer page 105. 106 107. So also chap. 26. of this Treatise and whether I have answered the objection which some divine that I cannot without enervating the Argument for effectual grace and perseverance in it I must appeal to the impartial Reader I am sure none can build effectual grace and perseverance on that Text making it a distinct Covenant from the first without the overthrow of effectual grace and perseverance in Old Testament-times CHAP. XL. Professed believers are under a Covenant of Grace and not a Covenant of Works IT necessarily follows by way of Corollary from that which hath been delivered that no professed believer that is a member of the Church visible is under a Covenant of Works but eo nomine that he professedly gives his name to Christ he is under a Covenant of grace That a man cannnot be under two Covenants respective to the same thing I suppose is agreed upon on all hands A man that holds by one title if he accept a second makes void the first whether his former title were better or worse whether it tends to his prejudice or benefit thus to make change of it As it is with covenants among men so it is in the Covenant between God and man If the New Covenant make void the Old where both Old and New are substantially the same and the difference only circumstantial as the Apostle sheweth that it does Heb. 8. 13. much more then in those covenants which are essentially differing as are the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of grace Some that would limit the Covenant only to the regenerate and men of justifying faith as to the just latitude of it make use of this Maxime that the same man cannot be under two Covenants which is indeed a right way of arguing from principles granted on both parts Now they assume that all unregenerate and persons not justified are under a Covenant of Works This they take for granted when it rests to be proved and so conclude that these are under no Covenant of Grace but a Covenant of Works I assume on the other hand that so many of them as are Christians though not Regenerati but Regenerandi as Pareus speaks are under a Covenant of Grace and therefore they are not under a Covenant of Works Here to avoid mistakes some things are to be premised 1. That many of them have not any explicit knowledge of either Covenant either that under which originally they were or that under which through grace they are They are the people of God and therefore under a saving Covenant with God though not emproved for salvation that perish for lack of knowledge Hos 4. 6. all that bear the name of believers in primitive times were not got up in knowledge to the first principles 2. As to their present qualification and condition they are in no better an estate than if the obligation of the Covenant of Works were still upon them A man dealing falsely in the Covenant of grace is in as sad a condition as he that is under that hopelesse and destructive Covenant of Works yea his condition admits of many sad aggravations in that treachery is above rebellion and perfidiousnesse exceeds bare disobedience They were a people in Covenant that God owned as his to whom he said Ezek. 16. 48. As I live saith the Lord God Sodom thy sister hath not done she nor her daughters as thou hast done thou and thy daughters Blessednesse is no where in Scripture said to be on the head of all those that are in covenant unlesse it be meant comparatively or respectively only but on such as keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them Psal 103. 18. And if all that were in covenant did keep covenant there would not be so much complaint as there is in Scripture of breach of covenant nor could men be under that charge that their hearts are not stedfast in covenant 3. They are yet in a more desirable estate and in fairer way towards happinesse than those that are as the Apostle speaks strangers from the covenant of promise Eph. 2. 12. As the Jewes were a people nigh to the Lord Psal 148. 14. So they are Eph. 2. 13. Salvation is of these though they be not as yet by a thorough work of grace in a saving state There are of these that shall be saved Acts 2. 47. and so there is not for ought that Scripture speaks among those that are without covenant such are in Scripture-language without God without hope Eph. 2. 12. under the wrath and indignation of God Jerem. 10. 25. Psal 79. 6. When the Apostle therefore had spoken much against the Jew outwardly and the circumcision of the flesh that is men circumcised in flesh and not in heart Rom. 2. upon the question put yet concludes that these Jewes have This circumcision hath much profit every way much advantage and the advantage is as he expresses it especially the Oracles of God which are the covenant-draughts and if they were utterly out of covenant I would desire any to shew where the advantage lies That they are in covenant with God and in a covenant of grace appears therefore 1. In that they have the Oracles of God To them that is to the Jew outwardly these Oracles were committed as the Apostle tells us Rom. 3. 1. They were committed to them as their inheritance Deut. 33. 4. They were possest of them in order to everlasting life John 5. 39. And these Oracles being Covenant-tables Covenant-draughts the professed believer that by favour from God stands possest of them is in Covenant with God 2. They have the seals of the covenant Covenant and right to the seale where seals are appointed cannot be severed as shall be shewen They are in covenant as Abraham was and they have the seales of the covenant as Abraham and his seed had Those were circumcised and these are baptised and that it may appear that they had not this honour barely from man without approbation from God as some seem to hint in their distinction of Forum Dei and Forum Ecclesiae as though the Church received them when in the sight of God they had no right to be received we finde 1. That the Spirit of God in the Scripture still calls them in way of honour by the name of circumcision and men may but God will not thus give an equivocal or nick-name to them As they were circumcised in the flesh so it was the minde of God that they should beare in
narrative of the work but onely doctrine given in charge which they were to deliver which least of all speaks the order in which the duties specified must necessarily be practised All that can be collected is that we must in Gods ordinary way of conferring salvation have both Faith and baptisme though there be not the like absolute necessity of baptisme as of Faith baptisme being necessary necessitate precepti Jesus Christ having instituted it and commanded it but Faith is necessary both necessitate medii and praecepti seeing Christ not only commanded it but salvation at no hand can be obtained by men in capacity of it without it And therefore it hath been well observed that in the words following the like stresse is not laid on Baptisme as on Faith not he that is not baptized but he that beleeveth not shall be damned 2. Let Peter where he speaks of salvation by baptisme interpret these words Baptisme doth now also saith he save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 3. 21. and then explaines himselfe Not the pntting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God This answer or restipulation unto the outward administration of baptisme is that which follows upon baptisme but justifying Faith is that restipulation at least a principal branch of it and therefore there is no necessity that it go before but a necessity that it must follow after baptisme It is true that in men of yeares justifying faith sometimes goes before baptisme as in Abraham it went before Circumcision but it is not of necessity required to interest us in a right neither of baptisme nor circumcision Thirdly Object That faith to which the promise of Remission and Justication is made it must also be sealed to or that faith which is the condition of the Promise is the condition in foro Dei of the title to the seal But it is onely solid true faith which is the condition of the promise of Remission Therefore it is that onely that gives right in foro Dei to the seal Here is an Argument first proposed Answ secondly in a parenthesis paraphrased for the proposition I say faith is not sealed to but remission of sinnes or salvation upon condition of faith A professour of Faith that goes no farther may engage himself to a lively working faith and upon those termes God engages for and puts his seale for Remission and Salvation For the parenthesis That faith which is the condition of the Promise is the condition in foro Dei of the title to the seale I judge the contrary to be undeniable That faith which is the condition of the Promise is not the condition in foro Dei of title to the seale An acknowledgement of the necessity of such faith with engagement to it is sufficient for a title to the seale and the performance of the condition of like necessity to attaine the thing sealed To promise service and fidelity in war is enough to get listed as to do service is of necessity to be rewarded Fourthly as for the Argument ad hominem framed against those who make initial or common faith sufficient to entitle to Baptisme and yet affixe remission of sins to all Baptisme even so received without any performance of farther engagement I leave to them to defend who maintaine such doctrine and to speak to the absurdities that follow upon it Fifthly that of Philip to the Eunuch seems to carry most colour The Eunuch must beleeve with all his heart before he be baptized and I have known it troublesome that are fully convinced that a dogmatical faith gives title to Baptisme satisfying themselves with this answer That howsoever Philip called for such a faith which leads to salvation yet did not expresse himself so far that no Faith short of this gives title to baptisme It may be answered that a dogmatical faith is true faith suo genere as well as that which justifies therefore I know not why men should give it the terme of false faith seeing Scripture calls it faith and such as those beleevers and the heart in such a Faith as to an entire assent is required If we look into the Eunuchs answer on which Philip did rest satisfied and proceeded upon it to baptisme it will take away all scruple his answer is I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God There is no more in that then a common faith this is beleeved by men not justified yet this faith entitles to baptisme and upon this confession of faith the Eunuch is baptized CHAP. XLIV Impenitence and unbelief in professed Christians is breach of Covenant 4. IT yet follows by way of consectary that men in impenitence and unbelief that lie in sin and live in neglect of the sacrifice of the blood of Christ live in a continual breach of covenant They engage by covenant to believe in Christ and forsake their sin when yet they lie in unbelief impenitence are convinced that they are Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate abusers of themselves with mankinde thieves covetous drunkards revellers and extortioners These do not only transgresse the Law which on the severest penalty forbids these wayes but break covenant with God and so are shut out of the Kingdome of Heaven the reward upon covenant to those whose hearts are upright For howsoever I fully assent to learned Master Baxter that all weaknesses are not covenant-breaches and therefore with him judge it to be their mistake who in their confessions acknowledge that we break covenant all that we do yet those men in the list mentioned having given their names to God and entred covenant with him walking in these forbidden wayes are found covenant-breakers and therefore the Psalmist deservedly sayes to them Psalme 50 16 17. What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behinde thee that is to claime any mercy or favour by vertue of Gods grant in covenant as appeares in the context Engaging to him and thus flying off from him they desert the mercies which they might receive from him As a wife by adultery so they by sin forsake the covenant by which they stand betrothed and by consequence it must needs follow that Christ died for breach of the covenant of Grace as well as for breach of the covenant of Works unlesse we will say that all men by name Christian and found in any of these sinnes are in a lost and unrecoverable condition joyning with them that have said that there is no grace or pardon for those that fall into sinne after baptisme That he died not for their sinnes that live and die in final impenitence and unbelief may be easily granted and that rises to no more then that he died not for those that finally and unrecoverably break covenant with him It is granted by a learned adversary that final unbelief and impenitence are violations
of this covenant but no other impenitence or unbelief but that which is final and for this as is affirmed Christ never died To this I say If unbelief and impenitence be not breaches or violations of covenant properly so called then final unbelief and impenitence is no breach or violation of covenant properly so called This is clear Final perseverance in unbelief and impenitence is no more then a continuance of the same posture or state of Soul God ward in which they before stood in impenitence or unbelief As Perseverance in faith and repentance is the continuance of faith and repentance If then final unbelief and impenitence be a breach of the covenant of grace then all unbelief and impenitence denominating a man an unbeleeving and impenitent person is a breach of covenant likewise CHAP. XLV The question stated concerning the Birth-Priviledge of the issue of Beleevers A Fourth difference supposed to be and assigned by some between the first and second covenant is That the first Covenant was in that latitude to comprize not alone unregenerate men professing the worship of the true God but the whole of the seed of those that made such profession But the second covenant is entred personally and so vested in them that make actually profession of it that it is terminated in them and none of their seed are taken in with them Here I cannot be so clear in my method as in the former some have so mudded the way that it is not easie to proceed in any faire and cleare order As to the latter branch concerning the New Covenant their opinion is fully and clearly enough held out All beleevers according to them are in covenant and onely those that actually beleeve They entitle themselves but cannot interest their seed in any title to it But as to the first Covenant some make it to consist meerly of carnal promises and Circumcision they answerably make a carnal badge and so their opinion is clear that the first descends to posterity but not the second The seed is included in the first carnal covenant but excluded from the second But one undertaking a full Comment upon those words of the Covenant Gen. 17. 7. I will be a God to thee and thy seed distinguishes of the seed of Abraham and saith it is many wayes so called and by his distinction instead of clearing much darkens the thing in question 1. Christ is called the seed of Abraham by excellency Gal. 3. 16. 2. All the Elect Rom. 9. 7. all Beleevers Rom. 4. 11 12 16 17 18. are called the seed of Abraham that is the spiritual seed 3. There was a natural seed of Abraham to whom the inheritance did accrue this was Isaac Gen 21. 12. 4. A natural seed whether lawful as the sons of Keturah or base as Ishmael to whom the inheritance belonged not Gen. 15. 5. Here by the way he much mistakes himself 1. In casting Ishmael out of Covenant in that manner that all the time of his Circumcision he had not any title to it as afterwards he more fully explaines himself to that end that he might make were it possible the Covenant and the Seale distinct of themselves without any relation one to the other Conceiving some to be sealed that were never in Covenant and some to be in Covenant that were never sealed But Ishmael was in covenant as was Esau also at his Circumcision and his circumcision were there no more arguments doth witnesse it Gen. 17. 11. Ye shall Circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin and it shall be a token of the Covenant between me and you Circumcision was bottomed on the Command we grant had there been no institution no man might have presumed to have signed it with such a Seale but the Command had relation to the Covenant Men in Covenant were the adequate subject of Circumcision and are of Baptisme Gen. 17. 9 10. God said to Abraham Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore thou and thy seed after thee in their generations This is my Covenant which you shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every man-childe among you shall be circumcised He was indeed after cast out with his seed as was Esau not by a Church-censure as Master Cotton affirmes Holinesse of Church-Members Church-censures fall not so heavy as to reach all posterity but by divine prerogative as the Apostle Rom. 9. abundantly declares His casting out sufficiently argues that he was once in and when he received the token of the covenant he was in covenant 2. He does ill in laying upon Ishmael the brand of bastardy as though he were a sonne of whoredomes to faithful Abraham Concubines in Scripture have the name of wives and their seed was ever accounted legitimate neither will this serve his purpose at all to argue Ishmael out of Covenant It was the case of Dan and Nepthali Gad and Asher out of whose loines a considerable part of Gods Covenant-people did issue as well as Ishmaels And could he fasten that ignominy on Abraham and Ishmael to make it an illegitimate issue yet this would not cast Ishmael out of covenant It was the case of Pharez Zarah Jephthah and yet they were all in Covenant with God 2. He makes applicat on of this distinction and saith Of the three former kinds of Abrahams seed the promise recited is meant but in a different manner thus That God promiseth he will be a God to Christ imparting in him blessings to all the Nations of the earth to the spiritual seed of Abraham in Evangelical benefits to the natural seed inheriting in domestick and political benefits So that it evidently appeares that he casts out all the natural seed of Abraham legitimate or base as he calls them inheriting or not inheriting from any title to that Covenant save in domestick and political benefits Here I shall undertake a Position in full opposition that that Covenant in those words exprest 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 unto thee and to they seed after thee Gen. 17. 7. in their fullest latitude as they are there spoken in the largest comprehension which according to Scripture they can be taken are entred with all the natural seed of Abraham by Isaac and Jacob. But before I come to the confirmation of it which is a matter of ease if any give me leave as well for the help of the Reader as satisfaction of the Adversary to premise some things to avoid all misunderstandings being necessitated to it by the foul miscarriage of some in their stating of this question First we take not in all the natural seed of Abraham as the Position plainly expresseth but the seed by promise which I understand not of the Elect or Regenerate seed but of that seed which God by miracle according to promise gave to Abraham by Sarah when she was past years of
child-bearing The natural posterity which was the birth by Promise we only understand And so the Apostle explaines it Rom. 9. 7 8. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called That is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are counted for the seed Where children of God is taken in the same latitude as Adoption ver 4 comprizing all the visible body of the Jewes as it is also taken Deut. 14. 1. Only those that are borne by Promise are included and all the sonnes of Ishmael and Keturah though their parents were once in Covenant are by Gods special command shut out Neither are all these included for as God cast off Ishmael and his seed so he also cast out Esau and his posterity Therfore the Apostle having brought the former distinction of seeds rests not there but addes verse 10 11 12 13. And not only this but when Rebecca also had conceived by one even by our Father Isaac for the children being not yet borne neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to Election might stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated And therefore the denomination of the seed is in Jacob sirnamed Israel Therefore when the head or if you will the root of the covenant is mentioned in Scripture it is not barely Abraham but Abraham and Isaac to exclude all Abrahams seed of any other line not barely Abraham and Isaac but Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The natural seed of Jacob then not according to ours but Gods own limits is included in that covenant in the full latitude and extent of it Secondly we do not say that this covenant was entred with Abraham as a natural Father nor his seed comprehended as natural children we well know that quâ tale is omne then all natnral parents were in Covenant in that they had natural children and all natural children were in Covenant because they were the natural issue of their parents Abrahams Father was a natural father and Abraham was his natural son yet neither of them upon that account were in covenant we say it was entred with Abraham accepting the termes of it from God for himself and his natural issue all his natural issue not by God himself excluded were in covenant He that made the covenant according to his good pleasure might put limits to it Abraham may be considered 1. As a man the Son of Terah of the race of Adam 2. As accepting of Gods call and receiving his tender for him and his 3. As a faithful and an upright man regenerate and stedfast in covenant It is not as man that God enters covenant in this latitude for Abraham himself was not thus in covenant If he had been in covenant as a man then no man had been out of covenant Neither is it as an upright man before God and keeping covenant for those of his posterity whose hearts were not stedfast were in covenant and did hand it over to their seed But as a professour of the Faith accepting the covenant taking God for his God in contradistinction to false gods he accepted it for himself and for his seed his natural posterity And all that professe the faith hold in the like tenure are in covenant and have the covenant not vested in their own persons only but enlarged to posterity Thirdly we entitle the seed of Abraham as before to spiritual mercies and so the seed of all that hold in the tenure of Abraham to saving grace and life eternal not by an absolute conveyance infallibly to inherit we know though Israel be as the sand of the sea yet a remnant only shall be saved Rom. 9. 27. but upon Gods termes and conditions in the Gospel held out of God to his people Salvation is made over by vertue of covenant to all thus in covenant in that sense as Christ speaks John 4. 22. Salvation is of the Jews In that sense as Christ useth it of Zacheus family This day is salvation come this house Luke 19. 9. In that sense as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks of it where he sets out the danger of neglecting so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. In that sense as I conceive the Apostle speaks of it where he saith that upon the cal of the Jews All Israel shall be saved Rom. 11. 26 They shall enjoy those priviledges in which salvation upon Gods terms may be obtained and this is all that can by any means be squeezed out of their words that say the covenant of Grace was made of God with Abraham and his natural seed or with beleevers and their seed It is even irksome to read the large businesse that is made to find out our meaning about the covenant of God made with Abraham and his seed and we must per force confesse that we mean it of a covenant infallibly absolutely to conferre grace and consequently salvation To be so in Covenant as that a man cannot fall from it To this end words of mine are produced that I never uttered and several arguments produced against this supposed tenent and authorities multiplied out of Protestant Writers Beza Twisse Wallaeus The Annotations on the Bible Ames Paraeus Downham I am content that all these Worthies shall still stand up in their honour and that this shadow should fall with shame as well as I am that Bellarmine Stapleton a Lapide Becanus Estius should fall with it whose arguments in this controversie one after other have been brought against me To draw all up towards a conclusion All that is necessarily included in Gods entrance of covenant with a people engaging to be their God and taking them for his people is here by this grand Charter of Heaven made over to Abraham and his natural issue by Isaac and Jacob. All their posterity are branches of this root by nature simply considered and they are holy branches by vertue of this covenant which necessarily implies priviledge of Ordinances the fruition of Gods Oracles which are his covenant-draughts without which no people are in Covenant but all are strangers And this priviledge of Ordinances implies also all Priviledges leading to and accompanying salvation and salvation it self upon Gods terms in his word revealed and so before the disputation the Reader hath my supposition CHAP. XLVI Arguments concluding the natural issue of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to be taken into Covenant MY first Argument is taken from the addition annext to this covenant in the words immediately following The Lord having made a covenant in full words with Abraham and his seed he addes and I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and
all children but in Isaac shal thy seed be caled that is they that are the children of the flesh those are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed But saith he the children of the promise are children born after the Spirit whether they descended from Abraham and Isaac or no with much more to this purpose We have drunk up the Protestants poison and their great care is to preserve their party by the Jesuites antidote They are wholly beholding to them for the receipt what probatum est they can write upon it must be examined And that they may not deny but in the examination of this triumphing Argument they have square dealing I shall give you the Authours words at length I deny not saith he but there was some other promise included in that objection to wit some promise made to Israel or the house of Israel probably that Jerem. 31. 33 36 37. For so the words verse 6. They are not all Israel which are of Israel do intimate But without question the promise made to Abraham Gen. 17. 7. was one which was included in that objection Beza Twisse Ames and others answering Arminius call it the Covenant of God with Abraham which was that Gen. 17. 7. and the very phrase of Abrahams seed in Isaac shall thy seed be called verse 7. The children of the promise are counted for the seed verse 8. Sarah shall have a sonne as verse 9. do evidently shew that the promise objected to prove that if the Jews were rejected from being Gods people then God failed in making good his word was that promise to Abraham I will be thy God and the God of thy seed whereto I may adde that the answerers of Arminius and the cited Remonstrants to wit Baine and Ames do say it was the word of promise not of the Law as Arminius conceived for the word of promise saith Ames Animadv in Remonstran Script Synod de praedest Cap. 8. Sect. 4. is distinguished and opposed to the words of the Law Gal. 3. 17 18. Now the word of the promise there is to Abraham and his seed verse 16. and this is there called by him verbum foederis the word of the Covenant now let us consider how the Apostle answers it He denies that Gods Word made to Abraham did fall though the Jews were rejected because that promise I will be thy God and the God of thy seed as it comprehended saving grace was never meant by God of all Abraham posterity or of any barely as they were descended from Abraham by natural generation but of the Elect whether descended by natural generation from Abraham or not And this is apparent both from the words vers 7. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called vers 8. It is expounded thus that is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed Whence it is apparent that the same are not always the seed by calling which are the seed of Abraham by natural generation and that the children of the flesh are not the same with the children of the promise and that the Apostle conceived this the right may of answering those that objected the falling of Gods word upon the rejection of the Jews by restraining the promise of being God to Abrahams seed only to the Elect whether of Abrahams natural posterity or not with so little respect to any birth-right-priviledge that he not onely rejected Ishmael and took Isaac but also loved Jacob and hated Esau by prophecie declaring his minde The elder shall serve the younger and in this the Apostle acquits God from unrighteousnesse in that he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens notwithstanding his promise made to Abraham and Israel or any Birth-priviledge they could claime Yeelding that this Text in that place is brought into question by the Apostle Before I come to the Apostles words themselves I have divers Queres to put 1. How Baine and Ames come to the name of Remonstrants I had thought they had been on the party that are called Contra-Remonstrants 2. Where it appears that Arminius conceived that the covenant there spoken to was the word of the Law and not of Promise I am sure in his Analysis on this Chapter to the Romans he speaks in another manner even in our authours own Dialect as though the ones Comment had been spit out of the mouth of the other The sons of the flesh with the Apostle saith he are those that by the works of the Law follow after righteousnesse and salvation The sinnes of the promise are those that seek after righteousnesse and salvation by faith in Christ and he thus frames the principal Syllogism of the Apostle for confutation of the Jews arguing from the rejection of the Jews Gods failing in his promise If the word of God comprehend only the sonnes of the promise shutting out the sons of the flesh then it follows that the word of God doth not faile though the sons of the flesh be rejected But the word of God comprehends only the sons of promise shutting out the sonnes of the flesh Therefore the word of God doth not faile though the sons of the flesh be rejected Armin. Anal. Cap. 9. ad Ro. p. 781. Let any now judge whether he can interpret this of the Law and not of the promise 3. When he affirmes that to be borne after the flesh is all one with the Apostle with legal justiciaries as he doth which is Arminius his Interpretation how then can he by that distinction of children of the flesh and children of the promise shut out the natural seed of Abraham are the natural seed of Abraham and legal justiciaries one and the same 4. If the Apostle exclude all the natural seed of Abraham from this Covenant of God as Stapleton argues and from him the Anabaptists and takes in only his spiritual seed how can he be reconciled to himself in the words immediately before this objection he speaks of the Jewes as his kinsmen according to the flesh which were the natural seed of Abraham and saith To them pertaine the Adoption the Glory and the Covenants c. How then can his distinction be interpreted to throw them out of Covenant when in expresse termes he had affirmed that they were in covenant How can he deny that these are children vers 7. when he had affirmed that to them pertaineth the Adoption vers 4. Which may be confirmed by abundant other Texts of Scripture Ye are the children of the Lord your God Deut. 14. 1. Out of Egypt have I called my Sonne Hosea 11. 1. It is not meet to take the childrens bread and cast it unto Dogges Matth. 15. 26. where all that were not Gentiles all to whom Christ was sent are called children
Ye are the children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with your Fathers Acts 3. 20. Doth the Covenant appertaine to them and they stiled the children of the Covenant and yet are they out of Covenant Are they children to whom the Adoption pertaines and yet no children When they have given any faire answer to these Quere's especially the two last we shall conceive some probability of truth in their Glosse on the Apostles words in the meane time we cannot but look upon it in full opposition and contradiction to that which the Apostle expressely delivers For the Text of the Apostle it will be besides my purpose to make any full Comment upon it it will be sufficient to take it out of their hands and vindicate it from that which they would assert from it and to let the Reader know the Apostles scope in that place which is not to make a full Comment on those words Gen. 17. 7. but only to free it from an objection which the unbeleeving Jews might raise from it God hath made a Covenant with them to be their God and the God of their seed If he now cast them off as the Apostle doth affirme the Covenant then is broke and the word of God is of none effect The Apostle denies that this follows and shews that the terme Israel or children of Abraham admits of distinction and produces a Scripture vers 7. where one distinction is implied viz. Gen. 21. 12. In Isaac shall thy seed be called and so a numerous company by Ishmael is excluded who were Abrahams seed after the flesh and only the sons of promise by Isaac are accounted the seed vers 8. that come from Isaac borne by miracle And verse 10 11 12 13. seconds it with others concerning the children of Isaac Esau and Jacob. As then there was a distinction of seed so also now one member he had laid down before viz. Israelites according to the flesh vested in all those priviledges there reckoned up ver 4 5. These they pleaded and the Apostle yeelds them And these men according to the discovery of these times deny them The second member he after falls upon the eternally beloved and chosen of God and largely amplifies In these Abrahams seed may continue though the other be cast off to whom yet God hath continued in successive generations a God in covenant and continued to them the priviledges of being his people though now he was upon the rejection of them And that it may appear that I go not alone I shall give an Exposition of this Text from a more able Penne above the suspition of an Arminian which is here charged namely Gomarus who having in his Analysis on that Chapter spoken to the Jews objection and the Apostles answer makes this inference From whence saith he the Apostles conclusion in which he denies that Gods word concerning the Covenant with Abraham and his seed and the blessing and salvation by the promised Messiah Gal. 3. 17. did fall or become void is manifest though the greatest part of the Jews be shut out from Christ and accursed And this he proves by distinguishing Israelites and the seed of Abraham and thereby shews that the promise of God respective to the efficacy of it is indefinite and therefore particular not universal and so an universal promise cannot rightly from thence be concluded for though the Israelites for a great part perish yet that the promise of God is not thereby made void appeares in that it hath its efficacy in the Elect for as he saith verse 6. All which are of Israel borne according to the flesh are not true Israelites to whom not only the tender of the Covenant of Grace with condition of duty to be performed but the heavenly possession and inheritance only belongs as in ver 7. and Rom 2. 28 29. is more fully shewn Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they therefore all children or heirs of that blessing and partakers of the same grace and glory as Rom. 4. 12. Gal. 4. 28. For though these things seem contradictory to themselves and to that also which was delivered before where the Apostle affirmes that the unbeleeving Jews are Abrahamites and Israelites not only by reason of their birth after the flesh but also by reason of acceptance of the Covenants and promises yet there is no contradiction For though the Fathers and Adoption and Covenants and Promises belong to all the Israelites yet all are not therefore true children and heirs of salvation For these things which are objected viz. The Jewes great priviledges are attributed by the Apostle to the unbeleeving Jewes by vertue of their outward call because salvation is revealed and offered to them under condition of obedience and that offer sealed with Circumcision from whence all Israelites are promiscuously called children of the covenant as Acts 3. 25. and not by reason of their inward call according to the purpose of Election effectual because salvation is not only outwardly under condition of a lively faith revealed and offered in the word and sealed in the Sacrament but also inwardly and efficaciously the condition that is faith being given them is conferred by the Holy Ghost For this belongs not indifferently to all but only to the genuine Sonnes and true elect Israelites Thus farre Gomarus in which we have these three things 1. This objection wholly sâlved 2. The Apostle reconciled to himself And 3. The Doctrine of Covenant-holinesse from the Apostle fully established which when they have well considered with that which was spoke before having the whole current of Scripture against them they will have little list to make this one Scripture their asylum It is farther said Object that when the Pharisees and Sadduces came to Johns Baptisme and were about to plead this Birth-priviledge John beats them off it and takes that plea out of their mouths Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our father Matth. 3. 9. that plea could not stand when the men were carnal I answer First when those that were no better than these make the same plea John 8. 33. We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any Christ yeelds it vers 37. I know that ye are Abrahams seed he allows them all that upon this account they can claime And for Pharisees he doth not barely yeeld them to be Church-Members but also Church-Teachers Matth. 23. 2. 2. I say John Baptist doth not deny what Christ yeelds but lets them know that this plea will not serve to avoid wrath while they live in impenitence They may perish notwithstanding this plea and yet Gods Covenant with Abraham hold being able of stones to raise up children unto Abraham to make good what in Covenant he had said He no where sayes that they are not entitled to priviledges of Ordinances and thereby interessed in the prerogatives of Gods visible people What Paul Rom. 9. 4 5. so largely yeelds
dwells in us by Faith so we in Christ Ephes 3. 17. 2. All ingraffing is into that which gives sap and juice to the ingraffed as the stock from the root to the syens Now Christ gives sap to the Elect beleeving not the Church and therefore it is not into the Church but into Christ 3. If saving faith ingraffe the branch into the Church invisible then the Church invisible is the proper object of such Faith but the Church is no such object of Faith but Christ 4. That supposed ingraffing into the invisible Church is either known to the body invisible or unwitting if know then it is no invisible They have no light to discerne an invisible work if unknown then there could not be such a dispute about the new ingraffing of Gentiles nor complaint of breaking off of the Jewes all being done by an invisible translation and so the subject of the question is taken away To dispute whether ingraffing into the Church be into the Church-visible or invisible is to dispute whether the Mount of Olives be a Mountaine of Earth or Aire I shall assoon finde a Mountaine of Aire in Geography as this ingraffing into the invisible Church in Divinity And here I tie not any up to the word which I conceive in reference to any Ecclesiastical or Spiritual station is not elsewhere used in Scripture but to the thing All that accesse to the Church from Gentile Nations which is so large fore-prophesied in the Old Testament and Historically related in the Acts of the Apostles was an ingraffing into the Church visible and this ingraffing here mentioned The visible Church did immediately receive these new branches and so the whole body of Jews and Gentiles professedly beleeving Ephes 2. 15. became one new man The visible Church communicates sap and juice which is the fatnesse of the Olive in Ordinances This is known by the Church visible they were sensible of and full of praises for the new addition to this number Argument 4. Fourthly That ingraffing is meant verse 17. whereby the wilde Olive is co-partaker of the root and fatnesse of the Olive-tree as is asserted there But such is only Election and giving of Faith Ergo. The minor I prove by considering who the root is and what the fatness of the Olive-tree is 1. Negatively the root is not every beleeving parent Answ I suppose I may answer for my self that I never said that every beleeving parent is the root I willingly yeeld that every beleeving parent is not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the root but I affirm that every beleeving parent is a root I cannot reach this mystery that Abraham can be a root of all the branches in Israel reaching down to the Apostles times no intermediate rootes intervening no more then Adam can be a natural root of mankinde to this time without intermediate fathers of our flesh deriving us from him as Jacob with Rachel and Leah was a root from whom Israel sprang as branches of an Olive so Judah and Tamar Boaz and Ruth were roots likewise They built up the house of Israel Ruth 4. 11 12. The house of Israel was this Olive-tree these several Metaphors expressing the same thing the building of the house and bringing out the branches are one and the same All builders are roots these are builders therefore roots Abraham may be called the builder laying the first foundation so the root from whence every branch was derived yet every particular Beleever that had issue a builder a root Those Israelites that had no holinesse of inhesion but only of relation that were members of the Church visible not invisible were fathers by way of communication of this holinesse 1 Cor. 10. 1. All our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea It is as necessary to have intermediate fathers between us and Abraham as to have intermediate mothers between us and Eue. Eve may as well be the mother of all living and no other mother between us and her as Abraham can be the father of the Faithful and no intermediate father to derive from him and communicate to us But his proof is very well worth the hearing that every beleeving parent is not the root For then all the branches should be natural the childe of every beleeving Parent is a natural branch from his father But here Apostle makes the Gentiles branches and a wild Olive graffed in besides nature and the Jews only natural branches growing from the root verse 21 24. The Apostle makes them wilde onely at their first ingraffing and so was all Terahs race wilde likewise till that change of Faith wrought in Abrahams call and the covenant of God entered with him We now are natural as they were and cannot be called wilde but in our first Original Positively he sayes the root is no other then Abraham that Abraham onely is a holy root or at most Abraham Isaac and Jacob. If this have any face of Argument it runnes thus If Abraham be the root and not every beleeving Parent then the ingraffing is by Election and Faith that justifies The truth is the sequel is undeniable on the contrary If Abraham be the root then the ingraffing is not into the invisible Church which he strangely calls by Election but onely into the visible This Master Blakwood saw and faine would have maintained that Christ is the root for ingraffing into Christ and not into Abraham makes a member of the Church invisible If the ingraffing be by a saving Faith only to derive saving Graces personally inherent as a fruit of Election from Abraham then it must needs be that we are Elect in Abraham Abraham may say Without me ye can do nothing and he that beleeveth in me out of his belly shall flow forth rivers of living water and we may say The life that we live in the flesh we live by faith in the sonne of Terah This must necessarily follow if Abraham be the root not only respective to a conditional Covenant but to the grace under condition covenanted It had been more safe for our Authour with Master Blackwood though in contradiction to himself to have made Christ the root when these consequences must follow To which he answers If I made Abraham a root as communicating Faith by infusion or impetration mediatory as Christ this would follow But I make Abraham a root as he is called the father of all them that beleeve Rom. 4. 11. Not by begetting Faith in them but as an exemplâry cause of beleeving as I gather from the expression verse 12. That he is a father to them that walk in the steps of our father Abraham which he had yet being uncircumcised A root not by communication but example an ingraffing not to have any thing communicated from the root but to imitate it is such a Catacresis as may well make all Rhetorick ashamed of it and if the Sun ever saw a more notable piece of nonâsense I am to seek what sense is A
or reasons he may enjoy his liberty He sayes the touch mentioned was in order to healing but I shall rather believe the Evangelist that referres it to blessing Mark 10. 16. Thirdly These were infants of such parents that were in covenant with God as appeares in that Christ who now was in the Coasts of Judea was sent alone to them of Judea in covenant with God Matth. 15. 24. And was a Minister of the circumcision Rom. 15. And we see how facile he was to them when his carriage was otherwise and of another sort when a Canaanitish woman comes for her child Mat. 15. 26. This further appeares by that which they requested for these infants This seemes to be yielded They came saith one to Christ upon the conceit that he was a Prophet and so they might bring children to him to be blessed and further sayes if this reason prove any thing it is that the childrens parents were Jewes which is all that we contend for the Jewes as yet were in Covenant with God To this is said if it be meant of all the Jewes and of the covenant of grace in Christ it is palpably false contradictory to the Apostles determination Rom. 9. 7 8. I am sure Rom 9. 3 4. Proves it to be above all contradiction true and that Rom. 9. 7 8. hath nothing against it I have largely shewed which is past by in silence Fourthly These infants themselves were in covenant and stood in relation to Christ bearing his name and being of his people and were not as heathens in their present state without Christ aliens from the Common-Wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise This is evident by their free admission by Christ and the reason by him given of such is the Kingdome of heaven After some personal reflections which I am resolved to wave I am told of the often complaint of the use of the word covenant in so various senses or rather sometimes none-sense by the Paedobaptists and again of their non-sense or proper gibberish which language I resolve to bear being the least of many thousands that herein I suffer Fifthly They were admitted upon a common right equally belonging to all infants of covenanting parents and not by vertue of any extraordinary priviledge peculiar to them and not common to others This is plaine 1. By the general admission which he gives to infants on this occasion suffer little children to come unto me and extraordinarium non facit regulam communem Here is a general rule all have admission and therefore there is nothing extraordinary it is objected these present infants onely were admitted but though one say it me thinks another should not be found to beleeve it of such little ones is the Kingdome of heaven therefore let these little ones come and onely these 2. It was such a right that the Disciples of Christ ought to have understood as plainly appeares by Christs sore displeasure conceived against them for forbidding their admission to him and that must be a known right and not secret One indeed sayes They were not admitted out of any known right common to others but a peculiar priviledge as being elected for which Piscator is quoted when as Piscator sylogistically concludes the contrary His evasion of this argument is very well worthy of animadversion The reason of Christs anger was their hindring him in his designe not the knowledge they had of their present visible title this is but a dream afterwards he saith the truth is this thing was done to these infants not by reason of any visible title they had or to enter them into any outward Church priviledge but to accomplish by his blessing their interest in the invisible Kingdom of God by election I would demand whether the Disciples did understand Christs designe or whether they were bound to know it or were their sinne not to know it whether they knew these infants to be elect or whether they were bound to know their election Neither of these having any ground election being of the secrets of heaven and Christ had not made known any such designe Christ who condemnes anger without a cause as a breach of the sixth commandment Mât. 5. 22. would not himself have been angry where there could be no sin the alone just ground of anger It is now confest that the Disciples of Christ ought to have understood that they were to be admitted but it was either because they heeded not some particular intimation of his mind concerning those infants or some general truth concerning Christs office and his readinesse to do good to all sorts of persons as there was oppertunity offered from which he ought not to be hindred by them when Christ himself assigns an open known reason of such little ones is the Kingdome of heaven they that will may heed opposite conjectural reasons It is confest that elect infants might be baptized were they known but in this case Christ may be as sore displeased at mens non-baptizing elect ones as he was at his Disciples for forbidding the admission of these little ones And let them take heed upon this account lest they suffer more from Christs displeasure in not admitting elect infants to Baptisme than they can imagine that we shall suffer in the Baptisme of those that are not elected I am told that I have just cause to fear the displeasure of Christ for admitting to Baptisme those that are neither known to be elect nor beleevers but infants of parents who are manifestly children of the devil covenant breakers If they be covenant-breakers as is here confest then they are covenanters for none out of covenant breakes covenant and I here professe that I will baptize none of whom I have not all assurance that they are the children of God As to that Adoption which is to the inheritance of priviledges as those were Ezek. 16. 20. Sixthly They are here admitted by our Saviour Christ to a Church-priviledge proper to Church-members the Israel of God They are admitted to a blessing Mar. 10. 16. Blessing is a Church-priviledge Num. 6. 22 23 c. to the end of the Chapter The Lord spake unto Moses saying speak unto Aaron and his sonnes saying on this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying unto them the Lord blesse thee and keep thee c. And they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel and I will blesse them They are therefore admitted to a Church-priviledge the Israel of God are under the blessing little ones are ordered to receive this blessing little ones therefore are of Israel The Lords portion is his people Jacob is the lot of his inheritance Deut. 32. 9. These are the blessed of the Lord upon this account Jerem. 31. 23. As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the Cities thereof when I shall bring again their captivity The Lord blesse thee O habitation of justice and mountain of holinesse Children are within
both those This is proved because our Saviour from their estate inferres a likenesse to them in others for the same estate Apolog p. 150. This Argument what colour soever it carries yet it is not conclusive It may be taken more largely in Christs argumentation and in a more restrained sense in his words of Instruction or Application as in a place much parallel I shall shew 1 Cor. 6. 1 2. There we have the Apostles reproof vers 1. and his reason vers 2. as in the Evangelists we have Christs assertion confirming his reproof ver 14. and his application ver 15. Now Saint in the Apostles reproof is taken more largly than it is taken in his reason A visible Saint is meant in the first place a real and glorified Saint in the second visible Saints may judge in small matters for real Saints in glory shall judge the world shall judge Angels and so it may be here infants have their present title to the visible Kingdome and men qualified as infants shall only enter the Kingdome of Glory His second reason that Christ directs his speech to the Disciples already in the visible Church and therefore speaks not of the Church visible I know not how to make up into a reason If I understood it I would either yield or answer it The third reason that the speech Mark 10. 15 Luke 18. 17. is like Mat. 18. 3 4. but there it is meant of the Kingdome of Glory Ergo so here is answered already If Mark 10. 15. Luke 18. 17. be like Matth. 18 3 4. yet Mark 10. 14. Luke 18. 16. which we have in question is unlike to Matth. 18. 3 4. Thirdly Were it granted him that the Kingdome of Glory must be understood both in Christs reason and application yet he is nothing holpen Infants have right to the Church visible militant because they are in a capacity of entrance into the Church triumphant Acts 2. 47. The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Not necessarily saved but now having entered Covenant with God they were in a capacity and therefore added as visible Church-members Infants standing in this capacity ought to have admission likewise It is said that if this proposition were granted that they have right to the Church visible militant who shall be of the Church triumphant yet this right cannot be claimed but by those who are elect and therefore from these Scriptures so expounded it cannot be proved that any other than elect infants are to be baptized Answ If election or non-election must steere us in admission to Baptisme this were to purpose interposed but when there is nothing that can be objected against them as hindring their salvation it is sufficiently proved that it may not hinder their Baptisme That must not be pleaded against any as a barre to hinder their admission into the Church on earth that will not hinder their admission into the Church in heaven CHAP. LIV. Reasons evincing the Birth-priviledge and Covenant-holinesse of the issue of Beleevers HAving already so largely insisted upon by Scripture proofs that children are in covenant with parents and that priviledges of Ordinances which necessarily imply a covenant do descend to posterity I shall lay down certain grounds some of them making way towards and others necessarily inferring of themselves the conclusion First This is of the nature of those things which descend from Parent to childe from Ancestors to Posterity which is in their power to convey to their issue There are those things indeed which are personally inherent in men and proper to them so that they cannot convey them to their issue there is no deriving of them to others by succession As 1. Individual accidents of the body wounds scarres or comelinesse of feature these are so in the Parent that they are not conveyed to their children 2. Habits or proper gifts whether acquired by pains or infused The son of a learned man inherits not his fathers gifts The son of an Artificer is no such Artist The son of a Prophet hath not by vertue of birth the gift of prophecy nor is the son of a regenerate man endowed with saving grace for that reason There are on the contrary those things that passe from Parent to childe which the Parent by nature or special priviledge hath power to convey As 1. The essential or integral part of a Species with the natural properties that do accompany it so one brute beast brings forth another one brid brings for another and man brings forth one of mankind 2. The priviledges or burdens which in Family or Nation are hereditary they are conveyed from Parents to Posterity from Ancestors to their issue As is the Father so is the child as respecting these particulars This none have questioned and these things in hand being of the same nature it is a faire propable ground of it self if evidence to the contrary from Scripture be not cleare that they are thus still transmitted Secondly It is so in Kingdomes Common-wealths Cities in Corporations Families The son of a Noble man is Noble of a Free-man is Free Acts 22. 28. As the sonne of a bond-man where by the Law of Nations they are bond men is a bond-man likewise Exod. 21. 4. Now we know that in Scripture the Church of God is frequently stiled by these names By the most honourable of them Mat. 8. 11 12. Mat. 21. 43. Ephes 2. 19. Hebrewes 12. 22. Ephesians 3. 15. to let us understand that as Cities Kingdomes Families have their priviledges so the people of God in covenant have theirs âikewise But we are told Object You do very carnally imagine the Church of God to be like civil Corporations as if persons were admitted to it by birth whereas in this all is done by free Election of grace and according to Gods appointment nor is God tied or doth tie himself in the erecting and propagating his Church to any such carnal respects as descent from men Christianity is no mans birth-right Protestant Divines are taken up by the Jesuites in the self same way for this very thing A Lapide on 1 Cor. 7. 14. saith Hence Calvin and Beza have drawn their opinion of a birth-righteousnesse and say that the children of Beleevers are holy and saved without Baptisme because on this account that they are Beleevers children they are reputed to be born in the Church within that Divine covenant I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Gen. 17. 7. As children in the civil Law are accounted free whose parents are either of them free but saith he they are deceived and gives his reason The Church is not a civil Common-wealth but supernatural and there is no man born a Christian but spiritually new borne and is made holy not civilly but really by faith hope and charity infused into the soul So Stapleton on the same words in his Antidotum applying the Spiritual Antidote against Calvins Carnal Poyson saith
That Jewes carnally descended from Abraham or the children of Christians may be made partakers of the Covenant entered of God with Abraham Birth according to the flesh does nothing So also Bellarmine speaking of the covenant with Abraham saith It descends to us not by carnal but spiritual generation So that these men have sucked the spiritual meaning from the Jesuites and Master Marshal holds to the carnal imaginations of Protestant Reformers They produce many Texts of Scripture where this Birth-priviledge in their thoughts is evidently set forth Jesuites contradict it and upon this account it is a carnal imagination to conceive it The Apostle knew not saith one that God had so by promise Object or other engagement bound himself but he was free as he said to Moses after the promise made to Abraham to have mercy on whom he would Rom. 9. 15. If this be meant of any engagement of God to confer saving graces or habitual qualifications on the natural seed of Beleevers the words then carry reason with them But neither he nor his great friends will learn to distinguish between Gods conditional covenant contained in priviledges of Ordinances and habitual saving graces otherwise they know from Moses that God exercised this freedome in making choise of Israel above all Nations and that the Apostle knew and in the same Chapter lets us know Rom. 9. 4. that to them pertained the covenants and that this was their prerogative for Birth-priviledge Rom. 3. 1. We say the son of a Free-man is Free the son of a Noble-man is Noble we never said that the son of a Learned-man is Learned we say that the son of a Christian is a Christian as to interest in Ordinances We never said that the son of a Regenerate man is Regenerate It is further urged Object If this were true that the covenant of Grace is a birth-right-priviledge then the children of Beleevers are children of Grace by nature for that which is a birth-right-priviledge is a priviledge by nature And if Christianity is hereditary that as the child of a Nobleman is Noble the child of a Free-man is Free the child of a Turk is a Turk of a Jew a Jew the child of a Christian is a Christian Then Christians are born Christians and not made Christians and how are they then children of wrath by nature which whether it may not advantage the Pelagians and deniers of Original sinne it concernes those that use such speeches to consider To this I answer It concernes those that presse these objections to see how Chamier Paraeus and other Protestant Writers answer them when they are in their very words urged by Jesuites If they can reconcile Galat. 2. 15. with Ephes 2. 3. then they have an answer The Apostle was by birth of the people of God in covenant and yet by nature a childe of wrath It is further said Object To conceive that it is in Gods Churches as in other Kingdomes and after the Lawes of Nations is a seminary of dangerous superstitions and errours It is well that they have learned an Artifice from these superstition-hating Jesuites to keep out the inlet of superstition among us if there were no parallel held betwixt the Church of God and other Kingdomes after the manner of the Law of Nations but such that are Seminaries of superstition they may do well to acquaint us how it comes to passe that the Curch in Scripture hath the name of a City Family Kingdome Similitudes ever carry some resemblance If this were the alone ground on which the Birth-priviledge of Christians were bottomed they had said something but being only an illustration of it and nothing more they are over lavish in their censure Similitudes indeed may be over-stretched beyond their reach and if they had laid down rules to declare where the Similitude holds and where it holds not as I have done in the Birth-priviledge and made it appear that it holds not in that for which I produce it they had said somewhat to the purpose Read Mal. 1. 6 8 14. and tell me whether there be any ground laid for dangerous superstitions Thirdly It is so in all other Religions they keep up their priviledge of interest in the worship of their Ancestors The childe of a Turke is a Turke the childe of a Pagan is a Pagan the child of a Jew is a Jew And it is the Apostles Argument in like case respective to Ecclesiastical communion that because Sacramental communion rendered them one Ecclesiastical body with Christians so communion in worship will make one body with those of other Religions 1 Cor. 10. 17 18 19. See Paraeus on the words and Cudworths True notion of the Lords Supper There are common principles that are the same in all Religions and we must beleeve them to hold unlesse Scripture hold forth a difference Fourthly God ownes children born in the Church as by birth his his servants Levit. 25. 39 40 41 42. If thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor and be sold unto thee thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant but as an hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubile And then shall he depart from thee both he and his children with him and shall return unto his own family and unto the possession of his fathers shall he returne For they are my servants Root and Branch Parent and childe are servants of God As they were the servants of their Master when they could do them actually no service by reason of their relation to them so they are the servants of God on the same account And as he owns them as his servants so also he ownes them as by birth his children Ezek. 16. 20 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy sonnes and thy daughters whom thou hast borne unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy Whoredomes a small matter That thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to passe through the fire for them If there were no Birth-priviledge how had God this property in Infants and this David pleads Ps 116. 16. O Lord I am thy servant truly I am thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid because he was borne in Gods house and was a childe of a servant of his he pleads his interest Fifthly If the child be not in covenant the parent and childe are heterogeneal and respective to Church-relation in the most opposite condition the Parent in the Kingdom of God by vertue of the faith that he professes the childe in the Kingdome of Satan by reason of his non-interest in the Promise and want of title to Covenant-relation But Scripture makes them still as one Jewes children are Jewes by nature Gentiles children are sinners that is Gentiles by nature The Root being holy the Branches are holy Parents not sanctified children are unclean but Parents
as above 3. Brings arguments sor the negative which I shall here take into consideration First The infant that is to be baptized if we consider it in it self as abstracted from the parent gives no reason for it selfe why it should be baptized This we willingly yield the infant hath no independent title the right claimed is in relation to the parents and thence I inferre the infants right is somewhat that parents can transmit to their children that gives the title otherwise they might have regeneration from parents as well as Baptisme It is not then inherent graces that we must look after respective to the childes interest but covenant-priviledge covenant-holinesse A second ground is inferred from the former All children then saith he are baptized by vertue of the parent one or both ever considering the childe in relation to the parent being the branch of such a root and so I take in the childe together with the parent Hence we say commonly they must be children borne in the Church that is of such parents as are members of the Church being a society of visible Saints joyned together by way of covenant to exercise an holy communion with God in Christ and so one with another according to the order of the Gospel for I presume none are so sottish to understand a Church to be that place which by a Metonymy of the subject we call a Church nor the Parishes that men live in which never were of Ecolesiastical constitution I am utterly to seek what is meant by that place which by a Metonymy of the subject we call a Church our meeting places seeme to be intended but few children are borne there and the Authonr speaks of a Church where children are borne For the covenant of which he speaks one with another according to the order of the Gospel which he seemes to understand of a Congregational Church constituting covenant and puts into the definition of a Church this should not have been premised but proved His adversaries in this thing know no such explicite covenant If an implicite one will serve then the Parish inhabitants which he sayes were never of Ecclesiastical constitution are all in covenant Men that professe God in Christ and by vertue of conveniency of habitation joyne in one in the worship of God in the use of Ordinances tacitely and implicitely are in covenant together and we take it to be no sottish thing to esteeme these as Churches If this be his meaning to assert onely an implicite covenant where he sayes page 3. This rule warrants any Minister comfortably to administer that Ordinance Here is a parent one or both visibly in covenant with God and a visible member of Christs Church I do therefore administer the seal of the covenant unto this infant by vertue of this parent according to that Command given to Abraham the father of believers with whom when the Lord entered into covenant and laid the foundation of the Church visible in his family he took his seed into covenant with him and commanded that they with him should keep that Seale of his covenant we freely consent and then the question is determined in the affirmative I am sure the Church of the Jewes took in such by circumcision that some would exclude from Baptisme In case he meanes an explicite church-Church-covenant over and above the covenant of grace as the Jewes had no such way so neither had the Apostles or primitive Christians Those converts Acts 2. did not that first day of their conversion before their Baptisme set up Congregational Churches with officers they dwelt in many remote places at great distance whither they were to returne to their respective families and therefore could not in this way embody themselves in one distinct society for exercise of discipline Assoon as the Eunuch by Philips preaching of a Jewish proselyte is made a Christian Disciple he saith to Philip See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized Acts 8. 36. Had Philip understood a necessity of confederation into a Church-way over and above the covenant of grace before Baptisme he had doubtlesse informed him and as Christ sent the Leper that he had cleansed to shew himselfe to the Priest and offer the gift that Moses had Commanded Matth. 8. 4. so Philip would have observed the Gospel-order appointed and have sent him to some particular constituted visible Church upon his covenant to have been received and not hand over head upon his bare profession that he beleeved that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God baptized him When the Gentiles had received the Holy Ghost Peter said Acts 10. 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we had there been any such rule of a Church-covenant orderly to have preceded he might easily have seen that any man upon that account might have forbidden it Paul had made much more haste as I may say than good speed Acts 16. In baptizing the Jaylour and his houshold in case Jesus had set down an order of a preconfederation into a particular Church-society Master Bartlet in his model of the Congregational way saith that those particular instances which are produced by divers reverend Divines of the Eunuch Centurions Jaylours Baptisme though not belonging to any particular Church against what we have laid down are of little force and validity in regard that which was done to those persons was by the hands of extraordinary officers that were not tied to particular Churches as ordinary Pastours and Teachers were then and still are But these persons whom they thus baptized were not persons in any such extraordinary capacity and they must come in in a Gospel-way This might have priviledged the Leper cleansed by Christ from offering his gift appointed by Moses as well as it could priviledge these new Converts from any covenant-way appointed by Christ and the Eunuch saith What doth hinder me to be baptized without mention of any special priviledge of an officer extraordinary in a way otherwise irregular And the like we may observe in the speech of Peter 2. They should shew us where when and by what authority any ordinary Pastours and Teachers tied themselves to such an order to bring men into a Congregational Church-way and to baptize into such particular Church Congregational and not into the universal Church visible 3. Those of his judgement may do well to give us their thoughts of their own Baptisme They had no independant right all their right was in relation to their parents Their parents were not as we conceive thus in any particular Church federation perhaps they were no fit persons in their judgement for admission neither were they baptized by the hands of extraordinary Officers If their Baptisme was null then they are yet to be baptized if valid they had then title to Baptisme and others in their condition are entitled 4. Then it is in the power of man at
all visible Church-Members not under the sentence of Excommunication to the Lords Supper As one from the suspension of Parents from the Lords Supper would conclude the suspension of infants from Baptism So the other from the admission of all infants without difference to Baptism would infer not onely a just warranty but also a necessity of answerable admittance of their Parents to the Lords Supper Let our Independents saith he answer Why do you allow a Syntax in the service of God besides and bring in a Quae genus of Anomales and Heteroclites onely at this Ordinance let some of our Presbyterians answer how can we admit of children as members of the visible Church being borne of Christian parents unto Baptisme and yet turne away the parents of those children from the Sacrament Those that have gone about to answer this had better haply have said nothing for our free course of Baptisme and a denial of this is such a seam-rent as will never be handsomely drawn up though stitcht together neverthelesse in yielding the one they have granted the other As to this passage I first marvel how this is laid to the charge of Independents that they allow a Syntax in the whole service of God besides and bring in Anomalaes and Heteroclites onely at this Ordinance namely the Lords Supper when it is plain that they have as many Heteroclites in Baptisme as the Lords Supper And in both the Sacraments as to those that they judge admittible they keep the form as whole as himself contends it ought to be kept how many rents soever they may make besides The same latitude that they hold in admission of parents to the Supper they hold in admission of children to Baptisme And for Presbyterians their admission of infants to the one will by no meanes conclude them under any necessity of admission of the parents to the other Sacrament Nor on the contrary will their suspension of parents conclude any necessity of like suspension of infants Every tub must stand on its own bottome every one must beare his own burden when parents divolve a covenant-title they do not divolve a covenant-breach upon their children And I desire to know how he will keep up any such uniformity that he contends for according to that which I conceive to be his own opinion Persons under Excommunication are confessed to be uncapable of the Lords Supper I desire to learne whether that sentence cut off from the Church root and branch Whether it be a sentence personal or hereditary I much mistake my Authour in case he will maintaine the latter that that sword is held out with so keen an edge to lop off both parent and child If he admit the former than the same rent is made of which he so much complaines Presbyterians that keep those persons from the Sacrament as a degree of punishment in order to that sentence of Excommunication as they use to speake whom they judge to be in a way deserving it and admit their infants to Baptisme make no other manner of rent in the worship of God than those that keep back persons under actual excommunication and give the like admission to infants The state of Parent and childe respective to the covenant is homogeneal If the root be holy the branch is holy and so è contra yet the parent by his misdemeanour may incur that censure of which his infant is not deserving His argument should run thus If the guilty parent be debarred of a priviledge then the innocent childe ought to be debarred likewise me thinks a difference might be put between a scandalous parent that is active and an innocent childe that is passive a parent that cannot will not improve it to his comfort but to his judgement and a child that cannot mis-improve it My Argument saith he runs upon the first supposition that the childe brings nothing with it considered as abstracted from the parent but it is the parent gives the right And the parent conferres right in covenant Though he breakes covenant yet conferres not the transgression of it the Argument were as good that the childe must necessarily be admitted to the Lords Table because the father did worthily receive it If it be said the father is worthy so is not the childe so we say the father is unworthy of the one i.e. tenders himself unworthy and so doth not the child of the other The second Argument Such parents as if they themselves were now to be baptized ought not to be baptized cannot justly challenge Baptisme for their children neither are we bound to administer it But such parents as the Question mentions if they now were to be baptized ought not to be baptized Ergo. This argument is of the same stamp with the former and needs no other answer The parent hath contracted a great load of guilt of which the infant is innocent This argument well followed home might unbaptize a great part of those that are of this judgement and render all their priviledges in Church-Ordinances fruitlesse for want of a previous Baptisme The third argument If Ministers in baptizing are bound to hold to their Commission then the children of such parents as the question mentions are not to be baptized But the Antecedent is true none will deny that Ergo. The consequence is true Ministers by their Commission Matth. 28. 19 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are bound to baptize Disciples but these are no Disciples Ergo. My argument tends to this If the parent be not a Disciple the childe is none But such a parent is none Ergo. his childe is none Here he sayes the Anabaptists triumph and well they may if there be any strength in this argument But saith he we can easily distinguish and I say we can distinguish as easily Distinctions sufficient may be seen chap. 38. where it is sufficiently made good that these in question are Disciples Disciples as to the participation of Ordinances Even a truantly untoward boy is of the number of Scholars and as he well deserves the lash so he hath the priviledges of the School The fourth argument To administer the Seale of the covenant of grace to a child by vertue of him who is visibly in covenant with Satan must needes be a prophaning of the Ordinance But to administer Baptisme to a childe by vertue of such a one as the question mentions is to administer the Seal of the covenant of grace to a child by vertue of one who is visibly in covenant with Satan Ergo. The minor is thus by him proved A person grossely ignorant in the fundamentals of Religion his course of life his trade is to live in sinne scandalous c. What shall we say of such a one though he doth not formally make a covenant with the Devil c. To be visibly in covenant and formally enter no covenant is little lesse than a contradiction put the argument into form To administer the Seale of the covenant of Grace
to a childe by vertue of him that is formally in covenant with God and really does service to Satan must needs be a prophaning of the Ordinance and then the weaknesse of his argument will appeare visible and no visibility of a covenant with Satan found I do not know a man or woman in the world whose childe I could refuse on this account Those to whom our Saviour speaks in the sharpest language Joh. 8. 44. You are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will do were men in covenant with God and had their children initiated with the signe and seal of the covenant he farther saith I wonder how Ministers pray when they baptize the childe of such a one they cannot but have some eye to Gods covenant and do we not mention so much to the Lord that he having taken the parent into covenant with himselfe he doth also the seed of the parent and so we plead the covenant and a blessing c. but when a godly Minister shall carry the parent in his heart thus doth not his heart check him trouble him in the thought of the parent They may well pray that God will make his Ordinances through his Spirit of power that the infant of a covenant-breaking father may be a covenant-keeping childe that such an Abaz in covenant and breaking covenant may have an Hezekiah keeping covenant such an Ammon a Josiah and this without the least check of conscience This is frequently heard of God and prayers for the children of godly parents frequently denied David hath an Ammon and Absalom Jehoshaphat a Jehoram and Josiah a Jehoaz Their conscience would infinitely more check them if the word regulate their consciences when providence conferres priviledges of Ordinances on such an infant to be received where salvation is upon so weak and as to Scripture unheard of plea as his fathers transgression to keep it out For a fifth Argument He hints two things which he would have seriously taken into examination though he sayes he will not put them into form 1. How exceedingly this Ordinance is sleighted abused through this heedlesse administring of the Ordinance for we see persons never minde the Ordinance beforehand nor after But come let us have our children baptized and that is all if they can make a feast and drink after it that is well This is the argument of Anabaptists against infant-Baptisme Because some Reverend Divines complaine that few improve their Baptisme received in infancy to any spiritual advantage to their souls therefore it is in vaine to Baptize infants One is like the other in Ordinances of God to reason from the abuse to the casting of them aside Nonsingers of Psalmes which himselfe professes to oppose may reason in this sort and upon like ground some have warned men out of Christ not to pray they ought to forbeare till they are in Christ And when a natural man blesses God for a good crop that it were as good that he cursed him If men were disposed to wrangle here doubtlesse were more colour against such mens performances of duties in which onely themselves are interessed than against parents tender of their infants to an Ordinance in which of right they are entitled though they lay not to heart a right and pious way of performance of it Besides saith he it is strange to see how we jumble the most holy and prophane men together If Master Greenham Master Perkins Master Rogers Master Dod or whom you will should come and bring their children to be baptized let the most ignorant sot drunkard swearer uncleane person scorner of godlinesse c. come he shall have his childe baptized as well as they Have they their children taken into covenant so have I sayes the drunkard swearer c. shall we owne all these men alike under the covenant so as to give the seale of the covenant a like to all This many a time hath been in my thoughts and in nothing did I ever receive more full satisfaction Not one of these holy men would have made any such complaint and in case the children of such should meet in this Ordinance I could as easily difference them by their visage and features as I could respective to their several interests or priviledges Parents are in covenant with God as long as they keep up the name and profession of Christians the one with all care walks up to the termes of the covenant and the other are as loose and carelesse in it Master Greenham Master Perkins could not transmit to their children their graces Neither do these transmit their personal wickednesse Look into the Common-wealth of Rome and call out the most deserving Patriots set against them Verres Catiline or who you will freedome of birth interest in native priviledges is like to the issue of either and so it is in the Church of God the Common-weale of Israel and it can be no otherwise if there be any priviledge divolved from parent to childe And when this falls infant-Baptisme falls together with it nothing in the childe as our Authour well observes without relation to the parent can give any interest CHAP. LX. The application of the whole in several inferences TO winde up the whole of this discourse of the birth-priviledge of the seed of Beleevers in some practical application First All possible engagements and obligations unto all holinesse of conversation necessarily follows and flowes from this royal priviledge and high advancement of birth-holinesse If we contend for their dignity and minde them not at all of duty of the honour of their birth and call them not to a suitable life In the neglect of duty they may soon make forfeiture of their dignity and turn this singular mercy into the highest aggravation of their misery we blame those of noble and generous birth that betake themselves to sordid and ignoble wayes Thus degenerating they are a blot to their families a disgrace and reproach to their race no birth equal in honour to that of Christians Theodosius worthily esteemed it a greater honour that he was a Christian than that he was an Emperour None degenerate so foully and blame-worthily as they when their conversation is unchristian wayes of sin are for sinners of the Gentiles a way proper for Turks and Pagans let the holy seed be holy their demeanour suited to their honour Sardanapalus the King may with lesse infamy spin among women or Domitian the Emperour spend his time in catching of flies works farre below their dignities than a Christian may sin with a Heathen The Martyrs in Primitive times being moved to swear by the fortune of Caesar thought that the answer was full and fair to say they were Christians Such answer should he have that would tempt to ungodlinesse should such a one as I fly saith Nehemiah Nehem. 6. 11. his honour would not suffer him to be so base should such a man as a Christian the least of whom is greater than
250 Salvation Put for saving Ordinance p. 299 300 Schooles See Vniversity Scholar The name of Scholar is applied to man of learning justified p. 176 c. Scruple Corinthians had their scruples about their unequal marriages p. 350 They had their scruple concerning their issue upon such marriage ibid. Their scruples arose not from the Apostles words 1 Cor. 5. 9. p. 352 In all probability from Ezra 9 and 10 Chap. p. 354 The Apostle brings not formal concluding Arguments to prove the lawfulnesse of such marriage-society but removes scruples concerning their state with their issue p. 360 c. Seal Title to the seal necessarily followes from interest in the Covenant p. 422 Separation In what cases necessary p. 280 c. In what cases unwarrantable p. 283 Members of particular Church-congregations ought much rather to endeavour the reformation of abuses than to make separation p. 276 Corruption in conversation scarce admits of separation p. 283 Corruption in Discipline scarce admits of separation p. 284 Old non-Conformists thoughts about it p. 285 Master Cottens indulgence towards it p. 286 Togather Churches out of Churches in a way of separation unwarrantable p. 288 Sorrow A prae-requisite to repentance p. 137 Cautions concerning it p. 139 Sovereignty Held up of God in mans estate of grace In keeping up his Commandments p. 54 In exercise of Discipline p. 77 Spirit It s office in the work of Assurance p. 197 The immediate test of the Spirit questioned p. 198 Cautions that some have put to it overthrow it ibid. T. Tradition Distinguished p. 418 Not the bottome of infant-baptism p. 419 U. Unclean IS not Bastardy 1 Cor. 7. 14. p. 357 Universities In order to a gifted Ministry necessary p. 173 174 Reasons assigned ibid. Examples of them in Old Testament-Scriptures and Ecclesiastical Writers p. 174 175 Objections answered p. 174 175 W. Weaknesse All weaknesses not Covenant-breaches p. 294 Will-worship Infant-Baptism no will-worship p. 437 c Work Of mans salvation begins in an habit not act p. 112 Works In what manner called for in the Covenant of Grace p. 146 Wrath. Covenant-interest without coming up to the termes of the Covenant delivers not from wrath p. 315 316 A Table of those Scriptures which are occasionally cleared briefly illustrated or largely vindicated in this Treatise Genesis CHap. Verse Page 1. 28. 101. 2. 17. 9 100. 3. 17. 37. 9. 9 10. 36.  27. 237 204. 17. 1. 2.  7. 43 422.  8. 301.  9. 423  7 9 10. 422. 301 297. 23. 15 16. 3. 27. 34. 4. 48. 14. 186. Exodus 12. 48. 209. 13. 14 15. 228. 19. 25. 213. 20. 18. 213. 21. 2. 2. 24. 6 8. 12.  7 8. 206. 34. 7. 122.  30 33. 214. Leviticus 1. 4. 186. 8. 10. 187. 24. 14. 186. 25. 39 c. 405. Numbers 6. 22 23. 397. 20. 12. 78. Deuteronomy 4. 1. 216.  13. 30 2110 c. 5. 1 2. 15.  33. 216. 6. 4. 232.  24 25. 216. 7. 7 8. 343. 9. 26 27. 303. 10. 16. 228. 12. 5. 68. 24. 16. 469. 26. 17 18. 11 15 210.  18 19. 7. 29. 1 2 3 c. 230 231.  1 4. 166.  10 11. 15. 30. 6. 107 2116.  16. 216. 33. 10. 176. 34. 9. 186. 1 Samuel 8. 15. 17. 11. 12. 3. 19. 20. 174. 2 Samuel 1. ult 83. 12. 8 9. 13 84 85. 2 Kings 6. 1. 174. 2 Chronicles 34. 22. 175. Esther 6. 13. 7. Job 4. 18. 91. 5. 23. 2. 37. Psalmes 2. 8. 237. 4. 8. 7. 16. 35 c. 26.  45. 26. 24. 5. 48. 44. 17. 152. 50. 1. 15 294.  16 17. 141. 72. 11. 238. 74. 7 8. 442. 78. 8 10. 255.  34. 234.  34 c. 159. Chap. Verse Page 79. 12. 48. Psalmes 86. 9. 238. 94. 19. 7. 105. 12 13. 48. 106. 35 36. 453. 110. 3. 131. 119. 6. 159.  12. 218. Proverbes 3. 11 12. 78. 5. 12. 167. 20. 2. 217. Canticles 1. 4. 105. Isaiah 2. 3. 54. 4. 1. 25. 24. 1 2 3 c. 253 254. 26. 12. 145. 42. 6 7. 2. 53. 10 c. 14 112. 54. 5. 13. 55. 1 2. 49.  5. 238.  7. 141. 58. 6 7. 21. Jeremiah 2. 5. 193. 14. 14. 181. 22. 15. 21.  15 16. 109. 23. 13 14. 175. 27. 15. 181. 31. 31 32 33. 20. 170.  32 33. 259.  33. 2 107. 34. 12. 2.  15 16. 192.  18 c. 253. Ezekiel 13. 22. 189. 16. 20 21. 406 26. 35. 25 c. 107. 39. 23. 81.  23 24. 194. Hosea 2. 18. 3.  19. 12.  19 20. 247. 4. 14. 80. 6. 6. 172.  Joel  2. 28 29. 168 319. Amos. 3. 1 2. 224. 7. 14 15. 169. Habakkuk 3. 17 18. 135. Zephaniah 3. 2. 142. Zechariah 1. 4. 446. 13. 12. 169.  5 6. 180. Malachi 1. 11. 162. 2. 6. 179. Mathew 3. 2. 136. 4. 12 17. 136. 5. 20. 147.  48. 153 c. 8. 11 12. 305. 10. 42. 413. 11. 13. 75. 16. 5. 206. 19. 13. 186.  14. 393. 21. 23. 170.  31 32. 432. 22. 21. 437. 28. 19. 235 162.   412.   473.  20. 163. 22. 14. 239 267. 20. 16. 239. Mark 6. 5. 186.  12. 136. 11. 7. 170. 10. 14. 393. 12. 34. 114. 10. 16. 186. 9. 41. 413. Luke 7. 5 9. 441 442.  29 30. 433. 10. 16. 75. 14. 27 33. 252. 18. 16. 393. 20. 21. 170. 24. 25. 416.  25 26. 215.  44. 55. John 3. 16. 34. 5. 39. 215.  46 47. 211. 6. 44. 105. 7. 37. 128. 8. 51. 34. 10. 10. 100. Chap. Verse Page 11. 40. 12. 26. 31. 12. Acts. 2. 16. 168.  38 39. 426 c. 318.  39. 415. 3. 19. 190.  25. 412. 5. 31. 190. 7. 51 52. 466. 8. 17. 186. 10. 43. 190.  47. 460. 11. 12. 95. 13. 2. 186. 14. 23. 183. 15. 17. 128.  18. 132. 16. 14. 139. 18. 7. 441. 20. 7. 415.  21. 136 137.  29. 167. Romanes 2. 22. 439.  28. 37. 3. 1. 22.  19. 123.  20. 138.  21. 123.  21 22. 218.  31. 56. 7. 1 2. 58 59. 9. 1 2 3. 394.  6 7 8. 298 309 c.  9 10 11 12. 298.  25. 258. 10. 3. 117 214. 11. throughout 304.  1 2. c. 323.  6. 126.  28 29. 334. 1 Corinthians 2. 6. 155.  12. 198.  14. 166. 4. 7. 110. 5. 5 6. 287.  11. 449. 7. 14. 349 c. 403 464. 9. 5 6. 443.  9. 74.  13 14. 164. 10. 3. 229.  17. 415.  26. 163. 11. 28. 414.  30. 79. 12. 12. 18.  28. 184. 14. 21. 54.  34. 56 57. 15. 58. 143. 2 Corinthians 3. 12 13. 214. 6. 16. 258.  17. 140. 10. 7. 78. 13. 11. 153 154. Galatians 1. 12. 182. 2. 15. 305 306. 3. 8. 18.
him away And that it is not only a misery that must be repayredây a change of Pastors but also a sin which must be reââest by the change of your lives For if your uâworthinesse have driven your teacher is to a corner and you sinn'd him into his grave your Repentance and Humiliation must raise another out of his ashes So great so saa so generall is this losse that I am ready to excuse my self and think it more reason then passion if in my solitary mournings and retired complaints I cry out My Father my Father the horsemen of England and the Charriot thereof To tell you of his worth in a measure proportionate to my experience would require too long a discourse from your Infant-Orator And to tell you of your losse I have said too much already which although it do not answer many of your expectations yet I hope may conduce to the affecting of you to an aâtention to him whose eloquence can represent your losse and whose wisedome can teach you how to make the best use of it ERRATA Pag. 1. line ult for And read In. p. 2. l. 24. a Ruler r. the Rule p. 5. l. 16. for This r. Thus. l. 17. for This r. Thus. p. 12. l. 11. for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã l. 13. for Art r. out p. 20. l. 28. dele and wise The Authours dissent from some â AdvertisemeÌâs to the Reader concerning the present work A double request made to the Reader Dissertatio de morti Christi Cap. 1. pag. 1. Figurative acceptions of the word Covenant Requisites in a Covenant Distinctions of Covenants Mutus pactio disarum partium quâ altera alterise ecritis conditionibus obligar ad aliquid faciendum dandum aut accipiendum adhibitis signis Symbolis externis ad solennem testificationem confirmationis causa ut promissio sit inviolabilis Sic Ursinus Reasons why God deals with man in a Covenant-way The Covenant between God and Man defined God entered Covenant with man in his estate of integrity Grace is the fountain and first rise of every Covenant of God with man In the usual accessories on solemnities Arguments evincing a Covenant in the proper nature of it The outward and not the inward Covenant is properly a Covenant The outward Covenant is most usually in Scripture called by the name of Covenant Men enjoy priviledges of ordinances and interest in Sacraments upon account of the outward Covenant Posit 2. Posit 3. Posit 4. Posit 5. Posit 6. The Covenant of Grace calls for conditions from man Arguments for a conditional Covenant A grand objection against the conditionality of the Covenant of Grace answered * Antecedens falsâ âititur hypothesi quâsi verbis illis formula foederis gratiae contineretur Contrà verò foedus propriè obligationââ duaâum partium certis utrinque conditionibus complecti certum est qualem hoc loco extare probare non potest ideoque nec foedus propriè est a Testamentum Grace ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sumitur 1. Propriè pro suprema animi seu voluntatis nostrae ãâã de eo quod post mortem nostram fieri cupimus sic Testamentum morte testatoris ratum est nondum enim valet cum ãâã testator 2 Impropriè prâ paectione ãâã foederè quod viventes inter seiuire solent b Nomen Testamenti sumi non debet iâ proprie ãâã pro eo quod fit ab ãâ¦ã sed pro foedere ãâ¦ã ut bene animadvertis Pererius c Aliquid dandum est consuetudini Testamentum propriè justam voluntatis ãâã de eo quod quis post mortem de ãâã suis fieri velit Graeci propriè ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vocant d Quamviâ enim ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã si vocis eâymoâ attendas non plus sonet quà m dispositionem apud authores Graecos Baeudaeo teste in commentariis Gracae linguae significet in genere pactum conventum pollicitationem constaâ tamen vulgarem ãâã ejus significationem esse quâ denotes idem quòd apud Latinos Testamentum id est voluntatis decretum de co quod quis post mortem suaâfierâ velit e Foedus N. T. foedus est quia est mutuum inter Deum homines salutis promissae obedientiae fidei ab hominibus debitae pactum simul Testamentum est quia hoc foedus promissa filii Dei morte per eam haereditate crelesti à Deo sancitum est adeo ut non iââmerio ut foedus Testamentarium Testamentum foederis ob concursum utriusque queat appellari Indè constat simpliciter quidem esse foedus ratione pacti mutui Dei fidelium sed secundùm quid esse Testamentum ratione modi partis ac potioris in foedere nempe promissionis gratiae quâ Deus nobis promittit se fore Deum nostrum propitium vitam aeternam daturum tanquam haereditaâem merito obedicntiae mortis Filii sui f Circumscriptionem hujus nominis ex typis atque umbraculis legis demonstrat paulò pùst ver 15. sequentibus Apostolus Cùm omnino statuit Dei gratiam eo luculentiorem heminibus explicatam esse quòd suis non foedus sed Testamentum dederit Quia foedus conditiones mutuas fuisset habiturum quas si altera pars non praestet foedus est irritum Testamentum verò liberalitatis gratiae citra ullam conditionem instrumentum est ex quo hoeredes vocantur instituuâtur citra contemplationem ullius officii quod ab ipsis proficisci possit g Non hoc voluit Paulus in Epistola ad Hebraeos cap. 9. ex simplici vocis significatione arguere sed ex ipsius foederis circumstantiis h Quod Lxx. Theodotio ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã dixerunt Symmachus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hoc est pactum vel foedus vertit quae est propria significatio Hebraicae vocis Berith Quae vox non legitur in V. Tâ pro dispositione Testamentariâ i Foedus Dei est mutua pactio inter Deum homines quâ Deus confirmat hominibus se futurum eis propitium remissurum peccata donaturum justitiam novam Spiritum Sanctum vitam aeternam per propter Filium Mediatorem vicissim homines se obligant Deo ad fidem poenetentiam hoc est ad recepiendum verâ fide hoc tantum beneficium ad praestandam Deo veram obedientiam k Foedus est pactum Dei cum homine de foelicitate aeterna certâ conditione ci communicanda ad Dei gloriam Pactum cùm dicimus intelligimus mutuam Dei hominis obligationem ex stipulatione intervenientem ut utrimque reddatur quod promissum est Duae ergo sunt partes foederis 1. Promissio Dei de vita aeterna 2. Obligatio hominis ad observationem conditionis a Deo praescriptae Prima est libera secunda est necessaria Further obctions against the conditionality of the Covenant answered Mans fall by sin was no
terrenae foelicitatis Promissio terrâna erat annexa carnali Circumcissioni hac sola ad vetus Testamentum pertinebat contrarium asserere quod facit Calvinus nihil est aliud quam ex lege Evangelium facere omnia confundere Bellar lib. 2. de esâec Sac. Cap. 17. The several interests for which the assignation of this difference serves 1. To decry all Old Testament-Scriptures 2. To take all Infants out of Covenant 3. To keep Infants from Baptisme Testimonies evincing the spirituality of Old Testâment-promises Imperium Turcicum quantum quantum est mica est quam pater familias projicit canibus That expression of a mixt Covenant under which the Fathers are supposed to live untoward ãâ¦ã quodam sensu fuisse eâiam ãâ¦ã promissiones remissionis peecââm ac vita âternae ad nos pertinere Circumcision was a Seal of spiritual mercies of the same that Baptisme sealeth a Plurima sunt ejusdem testimonia exquibus constat persuasum olim fuisse Christianis non fuisse admodum diversan circumcisionis rationem Baptismi Cur bodie mutatum quidem in Papistarum gratiam ââidem ad arbitrium Jesunarum Sol. A third supposed difference between the Old and New Covenant All of Israel were in Covenant in Old Testament-times Some Divines seem to put too great a restraint upon the Covenant in New Testament âim â Distinctions holding forth the meaning of these Divines in these expressions Esse in foedere dicitur dupliciter vel quoad jus foederis vel quoad foederis beneficia Est in foedere vel qui obtinet beneficia foederis quae sunt remissio peccatorum adoptio regeneratio salus vel qui tantum habet jus vel symbolum foederis externum ut socius foederis non alienus censeatur New Testament-Scriptures holding out the Covenant of Grace in its full and just latitude Matth. 28. 19 The literal grammatical sense of the words vindicated Confirmed by the relation that this more enlarged Commission hath to that which was restrained to Israel onely By Old Testament-prophecies By the happy successe that in many Nation hath followed upon it 2. Mat. 22. 14. Mat. 20. 16 3. Those several Parables Mat. 13. 24 25 Mat. 13. 47. Mat. 3. 12. 2 Tim. 2. 20. 4. Heb. 10. 29 A threefold interpretation of the Text. * Erat sanctificatio apostatarum non interna sed externa professione fidei et participatione Sacramentorum externa consistens Erant sanctificati hoc est à Judais Paganus professione segregati pro veris Christianis habiti 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Arguments carrying this Text to the Church as visible 1. Titles given to men in covenant and in Scripture applied to unregenerate men prove it Unregenerate persons as to the name and outward priviledges are Beleevers Unregenerate persons as to the name and outward priviledges are Saints Unregenerate persons as to the name and outward priviledges are Disciples Unregenerate persons as to the name and outward priviledges are Christians Sol. The absurdities that follow upon the restriction of the Covenant to the Elect Regenerate do evince it First Corollary 2. Corollary Ubi foedus ibi ecclesia a Debuit Bellarminus probare in Ecclesia Caâholica quae est corpus Châisti esse tam malos quà m bonos tam reprobos quà m electos Hoc ut probaret affert hanc parabolam de area inqua triticum palea est At per aream hoc in loco non Catholica sed particularis quae que ecclesia intelligitur in qua nos fatemur tam malos quà m bonos esse plerunque plures malos quà m bonos b Sensus parabolae manifestus est sic in Ecclesia evenire solere cùm Evangelium praedicatur ut cùm verriculum in mare projicitur ad pisces capiendos Primò non omnes pisces qui sunt in mori capiuntur Secundò non omnes boni sunt qui capiuntur sed multi inutiles Tertiò non separantur mali pisces à bonis donec verriculum ad terram extractum fuerit Sic in Ecclesia cum Evangelium praedicatur non omnes homines accedunt non omnes qui accedunt sunt boni non separantur boni à malis ante finem mundi Falsum esse internas virtutes requiri à nobis ut aliquis sit in ecclesia quoad visibilem ejus statum 2. Coroll a Competentes non sunt admittendi in ecclesiam quia competunt sine ulteriore satisfactione b Phariseos baptismum petentes ad baptismum indignos nonadmisit inquit Paraeus c Baptismum petierunt inquit Aretius at baptizatos fuisse nullo modo videtur judicare Positions concerning particular visible Churches where nothing is wanting to the being of a Church yet much more may be required for the well ordering and regulating of it A people in a vicinity or neighbourhood ought to associate according to their best convenience for participation of Ordinances Professing Christians upon tender of themselves ought to be esteemed members in the places where they inhabit Reformation of abuses in Churches is much rather the work of Christians in Churches than separation from Churches A Church is pure where the pollutions and taints are not soule Foully polluted and defaced it is a Church reâains a being though polluted and erroneous Purity or impurity in doctrine especially gives Churches dânâmination Errours in doctrine are either in the foundatiâu or superstâuction Errours have their estimate accordingly as they rise up against Christ and obscure his glory Separation in some cases necessary Corruption in conversation hardly admit of separation Aut de fatuis virgiuibus es aut de orâdentibus si de âatuis Conâregatio tibi necessaria est si de prudentibus tu congregationi Corruption in discipline hardly admits of separation a Scelestus igitur blasphemus eorum error est qui sic ab hac ecclesia desiciunt quasi Christus hinc proâsus exularet nec ulla spes salutis manentibus esse posset Cogitent hîc Christum convivantem cum suis An puâbit eos illic discuââbere ubi vident Christum non pudere An illo sanctores mundiores erâât Sed quare se non coâvincunt suo ipsorum usuâ Non possunt iâficiari quin pâiùt in Christum crediderint quâm fecerunt nobis divortium unde haec illi fides Annon expraedicatione in nostra ecclesia Nuâquid autem praedicare quis potest nisi mittatur Rom. 10. 13 Quid ââgo verbum propter labem âliquam externae vocationis tam pervesè rââpuunt cujus vim divinam in âorâibus senti ãâã Quamobrem redite ad unitatem ecclesiae quae vos genuit aluis si fugiatis hunc Christum quì cum electis in nostris coetibus coenat ac eos vicissim excipit profecto nusquam invenietis To gather Churches out of Churches to make up one Congregation out of many is unwarrantable Sol. 3. Corollary Arguments evincing the title of men professing faith to