of regeneration and the Lords Supper seals a further communion with Christ in his graces in his life and in his death in his death and in his resurrection what shall I say every Covenant Ordinance is instituted either for the begetting or for the increasing and perfecting of holinesse Nay let me adde one thing more every dealing of God with his people in Covenant it is to further holinesse his dealing in the way of promises is that by them that we might be made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. His dealing with them in his calling of them to Christ is that they might be new creatures 2 Cor. 5. 17. His dealing with them by his Spirit is that they might be born again John 3. 3. His dealing with them by afflictions is that their sinnes might be purged away Isa 27. 9. and that they may be partakers of his holinesse Heb. 12. 10. 7. The Covenant is very strict against all unholinesse against external unholinesse It is very strict against all unholinesse in Conversation and against internal unholinesse in affection or heart 2 Cor. 6. 17. Be ye separate and touch no unclean thing Jude ver 23. Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh 1 Thes 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil Rom. 8. 9. Abhorre that which is evil Psal 97. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil Titus 3. 11. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men ver 12. Teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit Gal. 5. 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Quest Now if you should demand why God makes a Covenant which is thus Why it must be a holy Covenant Because it must be sutable to his nature holy Sol. I answer first because his Covenant must be sutable to his own nature the which it were not if it were not holy His nature is holinesse it self and he will never set up a Covenant to make us unlike himself 2. He sets up a Covenant to shew and communicate his love unto us and Else he could not communicate his love to us therefore it must be a holy Covenant to purge away our sinfulnesse which he is of purer eyes than to behold and which his soul hates 3. He makes a Covenant with us that he and we might have a communion Else we cannot have communion with him together that we might have fellowship with the Father and the Sonne but what communion can there be 'twixt light and darknesse 4. He makes this Covenant to restore us again and to repaire his own The Covenant is to repaire Gods image in us image in us and to conforme us unto himself but our conforming unto him is by the transforming of our mindes by changing us into his own image from glory to glory by making us holy as he is holy 5. It would be infinite dishonour to God if his Covenant were not a holy Covenant Else it would be unworthy of him it would not be worthy of him God intended in making this Covenant to magnifie himself in praise and glory but he should lose all praise and glory if he had made a Covenant which were not holy ot which would dispense with holinesse unholinesse being the only dishonour to God and the pulling down of his glory God in this Covenant promiseth riches of mercy and grace and glory to his people but how absurd and dishonourable were it thus to do if his people should continue a vile and profane and sinful and sensual people if there were no difference 'twixt the precious and the vile 6. He makes a Covenant and brings people into it that so they may be Else not meet to be partakers of glory made meet to be partakers of the glory that is prepared and shall be revealed unlesse the Covenant were holy and did work holinesse we could never be fitted and prepared nor made meet for a glorious enjoyment of God and communion with him seeing that every one who hath that hope purifieth himself as he is pure 1 John 3. 3. And without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. And except a man he born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God John 3. 3. Vse 1 If the Covenant be a holy Covenant then no unholy person hath as yet an interest in the Covenant You are pleased in the having of all that mercy and of Then no unholy person hath as yet an interest in â—he Covenant all that goodnesse and of all that graciousnesse of all that happinesse in this Covenant O but you have no portion in God nor in any of these if you be unholy persons for all unholy persons are out of this holy Covenant I do not say that an unholy person is simply excluded from hopes of being brought into the Covenant but this I say if a person still remain unholy he is still out of the Covenant because all actually in Covenant with God are made holy they have a new heart given unto them There are two things shew persons are not in Covenant 1. Privative unholinesse 2. Counterfeit holinesse 1. Visible unholinesse shuts men out of this Covenant Now there are seven things which do shew that a man is as yet absolutely He is absolutely unholy unholy 1. When his heart doth secretly loath the Majesty and presence of holiness he Whose heart doth secretly loath the presence of holinesse Who loaths the generation of the Saints Who can reproach the beauties of holinesse Who will venture the losse of Gods favour rather than forsake his lusts Who opposeth the Ordinances because they presse holinesse Who counts it a disgrace to be holy Who lives in open profaness looks on holinesse as his enemy that would rent off his heart from sinful lusts which he doth infinitely prize and favour 2. When he loaths the generation of the Saints utterly declines their fellowship and can by no means agree with persons of holinesse even upon this account only because they are so but opposeth disgraceth reproacheth them and is glad if he can make them odious 3. Who can reproach the beauties of holinesse and offer despite to the Spirit of grace making holinesse the peculiar object of his scoffs and mocks and derision these are the Saints the holy ones c. 4. Who will rather venture the loss of Gods favour and mercy and the promises of salvation than that he will forsake his sinful lusâ—s and unholy wayes hates to be instructed and reproved and reformed 5. Who therefore opposeth and would subvert and supplant all the Ordinances of Christ because they press and urge holinesse and because they discover and reprove unholinesse and will not suffer him to go on quietly and desperately
Covenant with me by Sacrifice 2. The other is that they keep Covenant Psal 103. 18. To such as keep They keep Covenant with God his Covenant and this he expounds in the following words to those that remember his Commandements to do them When we enter into Covenant with God what is it that we do I suppose if we do understand our selves that we do then take him to be our God 1. In his Gracious Mercy 2ly In his Righteous Society that he and he alone shall be our Lord our King to Rule and guide and prescribe us laws and we will be his people to hearken unto him to be at his command to obey his voice and will Is any man so wild to make such a Covenant with God or to think that God will make such a Covenant as this with him I will have mercy and blessing from God but I will not obey him he shall be none of my Lord nor King or that God will yield to these termes I will be yours for all blessings but live as you list do what you please walk how you will serve your lusts regard not my Law Did God ever make such a Covenant as this Saith God to Abraham Gen. 15. 1. I am tby shield and thy exceeding great reward And Chap. 17. 1. I am the Almighty God I am able to do thee good and will do so but then he addes walk before mee and be thou perfect q. d. I will be a God to you for blessing and also a God over you for Ruling I expect that you should walk uprightly before me i. e. observe my wayes my Commandements and act them with sincerity of heart not willingly disobey and prevaricate So Exod. 19. 5. If ye will obey my voice in doing and keeping my Covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people And Verse 6. Ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation But a little more to demonstrate this truth unto you be pleased to consider these five particulars First Those several Relations which fall upon all people who come to be in The relations betwixt God and his people in Covenant require obedience Covenant with God and they are all such as lay obligations upon them to obedience to walking in his Statutes They are the children of God and have God to be their Father Now saith God to them that pretend to stand in this Relation but walk disobediently A son honoureth his Father Mal. 1. 6. And if I be a father where is mine honour They are the servants of God and God is their Lord and Master Now saith he in the same place a servant honoureth his Master And if I be a Master where is my fear should not a Lord and Master be feared and what is it to fear God but to have an awful respect to his Commandements and a tender care to do his will They are his subjects and he is their King he is the Lord that Reigneth over them gives Laws unto them and are not his Subjects a willing people in the day of his power Do not his Saints humble themselves sit down at his feet and receive of his words doth not the fiery Law proceed from his right hand for them whom he calls his Saints Deut. 33. 2 3. Secondly The Covenant mercies and blessings as their scope is to express the Rich bounty of God to his people so likewise the end of them is to quicken constrain And so do the Covenant mercies and indear them unto duty and obedience Psal 86 12. I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart I will glorifie thy Name for evermore Ver. 13. for great is thy mercy towards me Psal 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Deut. 10. 12. And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Luke 1. 74. That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear Ver. 75. In holiness and righteousness Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrificâ— holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Nothing more usual in the Scripture than to press the people in Covenant to obedience by and from the mercies of the Covenant The full and clear Revelation of the New Covenant takes in with it an express institution of obedience Tit. 2. 11. The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Ver. 12. Teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world The full and clearest Revelation of the new Covenant was when Jesus Christ himâ—elf appeared in the world and taught and dyed and rose again and ascended into heaven and even thence is obedience chiefly urged the Gospel all along pressing duties upon the people of God to love the Lord their God and to love their neighbour and to walk as children of the light Ephes 5. And to be obedient children 1 Pet. 1. 14. And to be holy in all manner of conversation Ver. 15. And to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called with all lowliness and meekness Ephes 4. 1 2. And to put off concerning the former conversation which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts Ver. 22. And to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ver. 24. And to walk circumspectly Ephes 5. 15. or exactly unto the highest pitch of holiness and obedience Fourthly The Mediatour of the Covenant concerning whom you And the Mediatour of the Covenant finde 1. That he professeth that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it 2. That he explicated the Law in the true and spiritual sense of it vindicating it from the false glosses of the Pharisees and pressing it in many branches upon us as you may see in Matth. 5. from ver 21. to the end 3. Himself to be under the Law and making special use of it in several parts aginst the temptations of Satan It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Matth. 4. 7. And it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve ver 10. 4. That he makes obedience the discovery of our real love unto him Joh. 14. 15. If you love me keep my Commandements Ver. 21. He that hath my Commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me Ver. 24. If a man love me he will keep my words 5. That it was one end of the giving of himself to deth for us Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good
obedience the Lord requires of me suppose it be to mortify sin or to walk in some parts of new obedience and I finde my self insufficient and without strength thereunto hereupon I do by faith 1. Apply my self unto Jesus Christ in whom is fulness and who filleth all Lord Jesus without thee we can do nothing and if thou be pleased to strengthen me I can do all things O give strength unto thy servant Simile thou art my head and the head is to give help and strength to the members of the body for all the works which they are to do I rely upon thee thy grace is sufficient let thy power be made manifest in my weakness Why such an act of faith as this such a living by faith on Christ will finde strength to cause us to do the work which God requires at our hands 2. Unto the Promise of God wherein God hath graciously engaged himself to be an alsufficiency unto his people and to be their strength and to strengthen them and to work all their works in them and for them Hereupon the weak Christian goes to God when he is to perform any work of obedience and he relies upon him by faith my God will help me I have his promise to subdue iniquity and I have his promise to cause me to walk in his Statutes and to do them Lord faithful art thou who hast promised and thou art able and willing to perform whatsoever thou hast promised I have no might nor power to do this which thou commandest but in the Lord there is righteousness and strength O Lord remember thy promise Remember thy word upon which thou hast caused thy servant to hope Be thou the help and strength of my soul work in me to will and to do of thy good pleasure Psal 119. Upon this the Lord hears and answers his servants and fulfills their desires and becomes their strength and alsufficiency Thirdly By meeting them in their way and work with special Evidences and Testimonies and fruits of Love and Peace and Acceptance and Joy Isa 64. 3. Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy wayes 56. 7. I will make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar Joh. 14. 21. He that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him Now when the travailer in the wayes of Gods Statutes meets with these sweet fruits and tasts and manifestations of love and peace and joy they do make a strong impression upon his heart they do contribute a speciall strength unto him to walk on in those good wayes Nehem. 8. 10. The joy of the Lord is your strength Psal 116. 2. Because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live Fourthly By holding out unto them and assuring them of the great reward of happiness for all who do walk on in his Statutes Beloved three things are certainly true 1. That there is a Reward for the righteous God will render eternal life to them that continue patient in wel-doing Rom. 2. 7. 2. That it is lawful for the Christian travailer to look at the great Reward Moses had respect unto the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 26. What God doth promise freely to give unto his people upon that they may lawfully look 3. That great Reward propounded and promised and assured hath an influence upon their hearts it doth work strongly upon their heart that they faint not that they give all diligence unto the end that they take heed unto their wayes that they keep on in the path of life it makes them to run and to strive that they may obtain an incorruptible crown 1 Cor. 9. 25 26. and that eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. Fifthly By Revealing his Arme in his Ordinances and blessing them with Power and Strength unto his people David speaking of the Ordinances saith Psal 84. 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are the wayes of them Ver. 7. They go from strength to strength You finde many Attributes given to the Ordinances of God they teach and direct us they enlighten and convert us they uphold and strengthen us they quicken and comfort us they animate and encourage us they raise and revive us they edifie and build us up all these effects they do produce when the Lord is pleased to accompany them with his presence and blessings And experimentally we finde them unto our souls God teacheth us by his word heales us by his word helps us by his word revives and quickens and enlargeth and strengthens us by his word we walk in the light of it and run in the strength of it and conquer in the power of it and renew our might in the comfort of it and hold up by the promises of it and are still more and more able to do the work of God by the several influences from the word of God The ordinances of God do weaken our corruptions and strengthen our graces and comfort our consciences and bear down all discouragements and oppositions they do enable faith in God and inflame love to God and preserve fear of God and kindle zeal for God and increase our delight in God and all these do cause us to walk in the Statutes of God and still to do them 4ly How far forth God doth in his promises engage the strength How far God engages himself to keep his people to walk in his wayes of his grace and help to cause his people to walk in his Statutes and do them To this I thus answer When God doth promise to cause his people to walk in his Statutes and to do them he doth thus far engage himself First To shew them his wayes and to teach them what they are to do and how they are to walk Esa 2. 3. Many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his wayes Psal 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners in their wayes Ver. 9. The meek will he guid in judgment and the meek will he teach his way 32. 8. I will instruct theâ— and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go I will guid thee with mine eye Esa 30. 21. Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying This is the way walk ye in it Nay he teaches in particular what they are to do Titus 2. 11. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Ver. 12. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world Nay and he teaches them not only
Reconciliation in respect of all men yet it is the pleasure of God not effectually to bestow salvation on them all Nor is God as to the event and issue of this at all unjust seeing that he leaves them only to wrath and condemnation who do continue unbelieving and impenitent 2. But secondly Neither will that follow that the condition of some men i. e. unbelievers must be the same with that of the Divels without any hope of salvation if Christ not dye for all For First The Divels had no Mediatour at all given unto them in respect of their kind for one or other but so mankind had forasmuch as Christ took part of the nature of mankind Heb. 2. 14. Secondly The Divels all of them are in an estate of actual damnation they are every one of them actually damned but so is not every man no nor yet every one that believes not in Christ 3. The Divels have their damnation so sealed upon them that every one of them doth know there is no hope of salvation at all for them but thus it is not with any particular unbeliever living for though the unbelieving person doth deserve eternal damnation yet he hath the means offered to escape that damnation yea he doth know that if he continues unbelieving he shall not escape the wrath of God yet he doth not know whether God may not give him grace to change his unbelieving heart after a long time of unbelief Neither can we say of any unbeliever nor can any unbeliever say of himself God will never give him grace that he may be converted and believe and therefore it is not true that the unbeliever is in the same hopeless condition with the Divels Thirdly This Assertion that Christ did not effectually dye for all men is no more apt in the nature of it to cause any to despair than these expressions of Christ Matth. 20. 16. There are but few which are chosen And Matth. 7. 14. Narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that finde it Would or may you argue from these expressions of Christ that these who do not belong to the number of those few must now despair and they are in the same condition with the Divels why then will you reason thus from Christ not dying for all and every man And yet fourthly we may add this to all the rest That those sinners who continue who live and dye impenitent and unbelieving these do in the event cut off themselves from all hope of salvation As Paul spake of the Gentiles lying in their natural condition That at the same time they were without Christ and 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. that we may safely say of all obstinate impenitent and unbelieving persons living and dying so they are without Christ and without hope and shall go into that hell which is prepared for the Divel and his angels in the event their condition will not be different Argument 5 Once more they argue thus If Christ did not die for all and every man Then no man can certainly conclude that Christ died for him and that he shall be saved by Christ For such a conclusion must be raised either upon some particular word Christ died for thee or upon some general word Christ died for all but you have no particular word that Christ died for you personally And if you deny a general word that he died for all then you have no word certainly to conclude that Christ died for you and so you are left without any certainty and comfort of salvation by Christ Answered Sol. It is well that the Arminians are so tender for the certain knowledge of any mans salvation by Christ they leave God to an uncertainty of any mans particular salvation notwithstanding the death of Christ for all men yet they will say This death of Christ for all men as a ground of certainty unto us wherein yet they deal 1. Very fraudulently with us for though they say that Christ dyed for all yet they expresly teach that the application of Christs death for actual salvation is only for them that believe 2. Very falsly for according to this Doctrine no man can ever be certain of his salvation untill the very last gasp of his persevrance in grace and that many perish eternally for whom Christ died Secondly but let us see whether according to their Doctrine of Christs dying for all men one may certainly conclude to the satisfaction and peace and comfort of his conscience that Christ died for him Let the ground for certainty be drawn up thus Christ died for all men but I am a man therefore certainly Christ died to save me Or Christ died to save all sinners but I am a sinner Ergo Christ died to save me I think any understanding Christian would find miserable ground of satisfaction and certainty from this in the time of a perplexed conscience But we have another way and far surer from the Scripture to conclude our certainty of Christs dying for us and to save us Jesus Christ dyed for all Believers effectually to save them this the Scripture expresly affirms but I do truely believe in Christ and therefore I certainly conclude that Christ did die for me to save me And thus I have gone through this great Controversie about the latitude of Christs death where I find thus much that it is necessary for every man to get faith who will indeed be the better for the death of Christ it shall therefore be our wisdom to leave disputing and humbly to beg of God to give us Faith that so we may believe on Christ to the salvation of our soules SECT IX 2. Quest I Shall now proceed to a second Question viz. Whether any man can Whether any man can know that his particular salvation was intended in the death of Christ attain to the knowledge or certainty of the particular intentions of Christs death in the benefits of it unto himself i. e. whether any man can certainly know that God intended his particular salvation in the giving of Christ and that Christ died for him and made peace for him and purchased remission of his sins and eternal salvation for his soul Answered Sol. For the resolving of this Scruple be pleased to consider a few places 1. There is a difference 'twixt a general assent and 'twixt a particular knowledge and Application It is one thing to know and acknowledge this general Truth that Christ came into the world to save sinners and that whosoever believes shall besaved and that whosoever repents shall have his sins pardoned and it is another thing by faith to know that Christ died for me that his blood was shed for the remission of my sins that I am reconciled by his death and that I shall be saved by his life to say of Christ as Paul once did
spiritual trouble no conflict is to be found in his heart What lack I yet said that desuded covetous young man in the Gospel And I was alive once without the Law said Paul Rom. 7. And I stand in need of nothing said Laodicea Rev. 3 All is well and all is safe and all is quiet sin is no enemy to it self Simile Cold doth not contend with cold nor darkness with darkness all contention or conflict ariseth from contrariety and the flesh is not contraâ—y to the flesh it is the Spirit which is contrary to the flesh c. Thâ—rdly Enmity to godliness in the power of it and to grace in the life of Enmity to godliness it and holiness in the practice of it Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Eph. 4. 18. Being alienated from the life of God Joh. 3. 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the light Prov. 29. 27. He that is upright in his way is abomination to the wicked Amos 5. â—0 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly Psal 2. 3 Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us This is an evident sign of a wicked heart of an heart far from renewing grace Thou childe of the Divel thou enemy of all righteousness said Paul to Elymas Acts 13 10. and Cain hated his brother c. Why do you not love such a child as well as the other and countenance such a servant as well as the other and regard such a one of your Kindred as well as another and why do you not speak evil of such a neighbour rather than of another Live they not as peaceably and as inoffensively and deal they not as justly and squarely O but he is godly he is religious he will not run with us to the same excess of Riot he will not Swear and Drink and play the Good-fellow c. Fourthly Bondage unto sinful lust spiritual slavery is a real testimony of Bondage to sinful lusts an old heart when a man is held fast with the cords of his sins when he is a servant to sin obeys it in the lusts thereof hath an heart that cannot cease to do evil doth project for sin and is at the commands of it and will not forsake it but takes pleasure in unrighteousness his heart and sin are joyned and matched together as it were by Covenant he will reject Christ and renounce mercy and be contented to forfeit salvation and venture to damn his own soul rather than he will forsake his sin and come under the power of changing and renewing grace Unchangedness of Conversation Fifthly Vnchangedness of Conversation when the Leopards spots continue and the Blackmores skin remains and the scum of a vain graceless life departs not but a person walks still in the paths of unrighteousness and ungodliness what he was that he is as he hath lived so he dyeth and so he will live and dye hates to be Reformed scorns to be a Changeling is Proud still is a Drunkard still a Whoremonger still a Sabbath breaker still a Swearer still a Scoffer still c. 2. The woful misery of persons continuing in their old sinful condition The misery of such I will but mention the sum of their misery First Certainly they are out of Covenant and therefore God is none of theirs he neither doth nor will own them for his and if God will not own them then mercy will not own them Secondly They belong not to Christ at all for in 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature O how cursed is the sinner who hath not Christ to redeem him from the curse Thirdly They shall never be saved for Hebr. 12. 14. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Fourthly They shall certainly be damned 2 Thes 2. 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness SECT III. Vse 2. DOth God promise to give unto all his people in Covenant a new heart Try our selves what newness is in us and a new spirit then let us search our hearts and look what newness God hath wrought there We find new fashions upon the backs of persons and we find new opinions in the heads of persons and we find new changes in the Civil State and we find new afflictions upon our persons and we find new fears in the hearts of men and we find new and strange dispensations of Gods Providence but where is this new heart one looks after a new place and another after new preferment and another after new pleasures and another after new friendship and another after new safety but who looks after the old truths the good Christ and the new heart who of us can say in a spiritual sense what he spake in a corporal sense One thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see Joh. 9. 25. May it be affirmed of us what Paul spake of the Ephesians Ye were sometimes darkness but now ye are light in the Lord Eph 5. 8. Or what he spake of some of the Corinthians Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified c. 2 Cor. 6. 6. And what he spake of the Romans Ye were the servants of sin but you have obeyed from your heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you Rom. 6. 17. And being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness Ver. 18. Object But will some reply we are much deceived if that we have not new hearts and changed spirits Sol. I answer ye may be deceived and in nothing sooner than in your own hearts Our hearts may deceive us in this the Prophet saith that the heart is desperately wicked and withal he saith it is deceitful above all things Jer. 17. 9. Nothing so wicked and nothing so deceitful as mans heart and as in many other things it may deceive us so especially in this one thing of newness it may make us believe that it is changed and renewed by grace when indeed there is no such matter which may arise 1. Partly from the Ignorance in us what newness of heart is 2. Partly from Self-love and self-flattery we are apt to make the most of what makes the most for us as we are apt to make the least of what makes against us 3. Partly from a slothfulness of spirit to take pains to search and try the truth of our spiritual conditions 4. Partly from the partial resemblances which some things have with that which is called newness of heart or renewing grace and yet they differ from it toto coelo Now because this is one of the greatest and commonest grounds by which persons do deceive themselves I shall therefore insist the more fully upon it There are four things which have a resemblance lesser and greater
with renewing Four things have a resemblance with renewing grace which yet is noâ— it grace and yet renewing grace is quite another different thing from them 1. Civil Righteousness especially if joyned with the true Religion 2. Restraining grace in the forbearance of sins especially notorious and flagitious 3. The presence of common gifts which man had not before 4. The powerful effect of an awakend conscience 1. Civil Righteousness especially if conjoyned with Profession Civil Righteousness of true Religion What do men generally repute for renewing grace and for godliness but this if they be no Papists if they hold no Errors if they keep their Church and deal fairly and justly with their neighbours why they conclude their hearts are good and their estate is sure and what can men have more But now give me leave to say two things unto this First Civil Righteousness is good and so is external profession of the true Religion Civil righteousness is good God requires that and this Matth. 7. 12. All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Mich. 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God To do justly is one of the things required The like may be said for external profession as we must believe with the heart so we must confess with the mouth Rom. 10. 11. And we must hold forth the word of life Phil. 2. 16. Secondly Nevertheless newnesse of heart or renewing grace is a quite different Yet newness of heart is differing from it quality from their civil Righteousness and one may be civilly righteous and honest who never had his heart renewed by grace nay whose heart doth extreamly loath and oppose it Now civil righteousness and heavenly newness of heart doth differ in six They differ in six things things First Civil Righteousness is of a low and inferiour birth or original there are Civil righteousness is of an inferiour birth three things which may be sufficient to make a man civilly righteous 1. One is the light of nature which hath some notions and principles of common equity and honesty 2. A second is the power of edification Parents and Tutors may so represent the honor of just dealing and the forbid unworthiness of unrighteous dealing that young and tender natures may take in a savour and taste of them all their dayes though they never act upon any knowledge that God enjoyns them 3. A third is the influence of example beholding such a course and way of Righteousness in Parents and Superiours in Friends whose examples we are ready to imitate because their persons we do love and reverence But newness of heart or renewing grace is wrought by a higher hand than the dictates of nature or counsels of friends or examples of men it is the birth of the Spirit of God every regenerate or renewed person is born of the Spirit the immediate power of the holy Ghost is put forth in the creating of a new heart Secondly Civil Righteousness either totally confines us to the duties of the second Civil Righteousness confines to duties of the second Table Table as if we had none to eye and please but our neighbour or if it gives way to the duties of the first Table it is but to a formal and superficial observance The civil righteous man though he is strict in duties to man yet is irreligious in all his religious performances He saith a Prayer but he knows not how to pray in the Spirit and with Faith and he hears a Sermon but it is as if he heard it not sleeping and waking with running and roving distracted thoughts on the world he talks of a Sabbath but he knowes not how to keep a Sabbath and is weary of it and counts the strict observance of it a Jewish burden But renewing grace brings in the heart to all the will of God it enables to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods to be righteous with good men and to be upright with God to serve him with love and fear Thirdly Civil Righteousness may look at some outward easie ordinary actions of It looks only at outward easie duties Religion but it leaves the heart destitute of the great inward actings of Religion When did you ever see a person only civilly righteous lay the Axe to the root of the tree searching of his heart and judging the corruptions of his heart and humbly mourning and lamenting under the sence of his wicked heart and hungring after Jesus Christ and importunately wrestling for grace and mercy striving to crucifie the lusts of his heart He is so farre from these that he thinks them either superfluous or impossible But renewing grace doth chiefly act upon the heart there it sets up the Throne and gives the Law and exerciseth Authority and Rule c. Fourthly Civil Righteousness rests mostly in negatives I am not as other men said he if the civilly righteous man doth not swear this is enough although he It rests mostly in Negatives should likewise fear an Oath if he doth not take away the life of another if he doth not do wrong that 's enough although he ought also to do good But renewing grace comes off to Positives as well as Negatives it teacheth us to cease to do evil and it learns us also to do good Isa 1. 16 17. It teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts And also to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 12. Fifthly Civil Righteousness it will allow such things which renewing grace will not It will allow us It must have its indulgence 1. To associate our selves in a way of familiarity with the enemies of God and holiness and rather with these than those that are good 2. To omit many personal and family duties 3. To deferre repentance and making peace with God 4. To mispend his time day after day week after week year after year in vain pleasures and sports dicings cardings c. 5. To conform and fashâ—on our selves to the world and perfidiously to flatter persons in their sins only to keep up a correspondency and interest it must have indulgence in sinful thoughts vile affections petty Oathes But renewing grace makes the heart to tremble at these things and to loathe and abhorre them It alters not one sinful quality Sixthly Civil Righteousness alters not one sinful quality in the heart nor gives it any new spiritual ability notwithstanding it the heart is as ignorant and malicious and unbelieving and impenitent and hardned and earthly and vain and proud as ever and cannot deny itself in any delightful way of wickedness c. II. Restraining grace by which a person forbears many sinfull
no good on your child If a Master hath a Servant or an Apprentice who after all his care and pains to instruct him in his Trade yet remains unapprehensive and stupid and perhaps vicious he longs to be rid of him If a Parent hath a childe that is naught and stubborn and will not hearken nor be reclaimed the Parent is weary of him and casts him out of doors or sends him into another Countrey Thus none but God will bear with a hard and stubborn heart God I say who is most provoked by it therefore unquestionably his patience is exceeding great it is wonderful towards sinners Vse 3 Is there a stony heart in every man this may then informe us of three things Informs us The conversion of a sinner is a miraculous work First That the conversion of a sinner is even a miraculous work We wonder that so few persons are converted by the Word nay but we should rather wonder that any person is converted by it because there is such a stony and hard heart in every person which is so unsensible of its own miserable condition which is so uncapable to be taught the knowledge of the matters of salvation which is so opposite and averse and unyielding and resisting as to all the means and ways of grace where there is a blind and proud judgement that will not be perswaded whereâ—â— there is such a stubborn will that will not be made willing and whereâ—â— there are so many vile affections which wâ—ll not be tamed and awed and subdued It is matter of greater wonder that any one sinner is brought in by grace than if all sinners should fall into hell Secondly That it is from grace and from that alone if any sinner be converted â—â— is from grâ—â—e that any are converted it is from the freeness of Gods grace and from the power of Gods grace not from any thing at all in the person converted And my reason is this because the heart of every sinner is naturally a stony heart a hard heart and a stony heart is not only an impotent heart but also a resisting heart to grace Verily the best man may and must confess that it is only of the Lords mercy that he was not consumed and that his present life and estate in grace was never of himself who is called but only from the favour and power of the grace of God who did call him What I am I am by the grace of God said Paul 1 Cor. 15. 10. Our hearts were hard hearts and therefore contradicting and opposing untill beaten down and conquered by the love and might of divine grace Thirdly That God is most righteous in all his judgements here on earth God is righteous in all his judgements and in all those future and eternal punishments of sinners in hell for sinners have hard and hardned hearts Why if sinners will not hearken to God if they will not obey his voice if they will stop their ears and withdraw their shoulders if they will not receive his Laws if they will not receive instruction and take warning if they will not know the day of their visitation if they will not know the things which concern their peace but harden their hearts it is righteous with God to reject them who do reject him to cast them off who do cast him off to abhor them who abhor him to punish and plague and destroy them who harden their hearts against him Object We have many amongst us who do wonder at Gods judgements abroad in the world and at all the changes and miseries which they have seen and perhaps felt Sol. And why do ye wonder at them rather wonder at the hardness of your own hearts which under all the judgements of God continue so proud and so scorning at holiness and so hating to be reformed and so manifestly irreligious and profane it is righteous with God to punish hard-hearted sinners Who ever hardened his heart against him and prospered Job 9. 4. If we will never be instructed to repent God will certainly destroy us Prov. 29. 1. SECT III. Vse 4 IS the heart of every man a stony or hard heart then let every man as he loves his soul Strive all that he can to be cured of the stone in the Labour to be cured of this hard heart heart i. e. to use all spiritual means to be delivered from hardness of heart And for this let me propound unto you 1. Some Motives which possibly may work on you Secondly Some means for the cure of it 1. The Motives to look after the cure of a stony or hard Motives heart are these First The Consideration of those sins which are included in this one sin of hardness From the sins included in hardness of heart Stupidity of heart which make it to be exceeding sinful What sins will you say There are three sins in this sin 1. Stupidity and senslesness of spirit O how dangerous there are three very dangerous qualities A Seared Conscience this is the worst of all Consciences A Reprobate Mind this is the worst of all Minds A Sensless Heart this is the worst of all Hearts tanto pejior quanto insensibilior This is to be at the farthest distance and hope of conversion Vicinior saluti dolor poenitentis quam stupor non sentientis saith Austin Simile This is a condition worse than that of Judas who was sensible and cryed out I have sinned nay in some respect worse than that of the Divels who do believe and tremble Isa 6. 9. Go and tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not and see you indeed but perceive not Ver. 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Contempt of God 2. Contempt of God O what a child is he who will not hearken to his father and what a sinner is he who will not hearken to his God Simile yet every hard heart refuseth to hearken unto God and what is this but to displease the Lord and scornfully to set him at naught q. d. What tell you me of God or of his will I care not for him what care I what he saith I will follow mine own hearts lusts I will not be guided and commanded by him 3. Desperate wickedness I will be sinful still and I will go on in my Desperate wickedness sinful ways though I lose mercy and heaven yea though I shall be damned for ever O Lord What a condition is this yet this is the condition of hardness of heart Secondly The Consideration of the Losses unto which you will certainly The losses you are exposed to expose your selves if you get not the cure of your hard and stony heart There are six losses which do and will befall you by it 1. You lose the benefit
THE BOWELS OF Tender Mercy SEALED IN THE Everlasting Covenant WHEREIN Is set forth the Nature Conditions and Excellencies of it and how a Sinner should do to enter into it and the danger of refusing this COVENANT-RELATION ALSO THE Treasures of Grace Blessings Comforts Promises and Priviledges that are comprized in the Covenant of Gods Free and Rich Mercy made in JESUS CHRIST with BELIEVERS By that Faithful and Reverend Divine Mr Obadiah Sedgwick B. D. late Minister of the Gospel in Covent-Garden London Perfected and intended for the Press therefore corrected and lately revised by himself and published by his own Manuscript allowed by himself in his life-time by those whom he intrusted with this work for that purpose LONDON Printed By Edward Mottershed for Adoniram Byfield and are to be sold by Joseph Cranford at the Sign of the Castle and Lyon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1661. To the Reader Good Reader HAD not the Reverend Author of this Book requested our Attestation unto all the Pieces which after his death should be printed in his Name there would not have been any need to preface this Treatise with an Epistle The Title Page suggesting the subject matter of the ensuing Discourse may be sufficient to encourage the real self-studying Christian to peruse it especially such who have been experimentally acquainted with the many practical Pieces which have been heretofore sent unto the Press from the same hand The Bowels of Tender Mercy sealed in the Everlasting Covenant How full of sweetness is this one short Sentence Every word hath its weight and worth When aged dying David upon the Review of his own Condition and Relations had mentioned the Everlasting Covenant made with himself ordered in all things and sure He addeth This is all my salvation and all my desire 2 Sam. 23. 5. Who knoweth all the Treasures of Grace and Comforts which are comprized in the Covenant of Gods free and rich Mercy made in Jesus Christ Is there any spiritual want which may not be supplied or any soul-discouragement which may not be conquered yea or any concernment wherein the humble believing Christian may not be much advantaged by the improvement of this Covenant thus grounded and thus confirmed As nothing is so sweet as Gods tender mercy unto a sin-sick soul so there can be no such confirmation unto feeble faith as the unchangeable engagements of the Almighty through Jesus Christ Therefore prize with thanks and improve with diligence this and such-like holy helps which Divine Providence putteth into thine hand By so doing thou shalt glorifie the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ and advance the power of Godliness with peace and joy in thine own heart through him in whom we are Thy Friends and Servants Humphrey Chambers D. D. Edmund Calamy Simeon Ash Adoniram Byfield THE BOWELS OF TENDER MERCY Sealed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant The First Part. CHAP. I. Isaiah 55. 3. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David 〈…〉 In the words you 〈…〉 1. The matter of the 〈…〉 with you 2. The Amplification of that Covenant or if you please the qualification of that Covenant An everlasting Covenant The sure mercies of David You see the words give me occasion to speak of the great mystery of godlinesse wrapt up in the Everlasting Covenant the nature whereof I shall especially apply my self to open to you This Proposition or Doctrine lies clear and full in the Text. Doct. That theris a Covenant which God makes between himself and all who believe in Christ I will make a Covenant with you For the explication of this I shall speak There is a Covenant betwixt God and believers Of a Covenant in general 1. Of a Covenant in general 2. In special 1. Of a Covenant in general where I will shew you First What it is Secondly That there is a Covenant betwixt God and Believers Thirdly Why God makes such a Covenant with them SECT I. Quest 1. WHat A Covenant is What it is Answ 1. A Covenant in General is a compact or mutual Described agreement betwixt parties in which they binde each other to the performance of what they do by agreement promise to each other Conference and conference proposals and proposals offers and offers arguings and arguings simply do not constitute a Covenant Things may be propounded and yet rejected Nor doth the liking of what is propounded do it Approbation and consent of one party no nor yet his obligation can formally make up a Covenant but there must be actus mutuus a mutual consent a mutual promise a mutual agreement a mutual engagement or obligation and this makes up a Covenant as to the substance of it As to the Covenant of Marriage it is not speaking nor liking not promise by one party but the liking and consent and promise must be mutual else it makes not up the Covenant of Marriage so it is in this 2. Covenants are either Covenants are Sinful 1. Sinful They have made a Covenant with death and hell Isa 28. 18. How do they make a Covenant together They engage themselves in the service of sin and expect to be as secure from death and hell as if they had made a formal Covenant and Agreement with them 2. Civil Which are the binding arguments betwixt man and man in matters Civil of a worldly consideration for goods wares lands peace or the like as the Covenant betwixt Abraham and Abimilech and betwixt Ahab and Benhadad c. 3. Sacred As the Covenant betwixt God and man Sacred Betwixt God and man It is observable that there was no state in which man was at any time but God made a Covenant with him as soone as he was created and as soone as he fell God made a Covenant with him And Gods Covenant with man I speak only in the general doth consist in a In what it consists free promise on Gods part with a stipulation of duty on mans part There is a Susception on Gods part and an engagement on mans part God promiseth some good and man promiseth obedience Their concurrence in these or their obliging Agreement in these make up the Covenant God promiseth life and all good to man and man promiseth all obedience to God God promiseth what he pleaseth and requireth what he pleaseth and man promiseth unto God what God requireth And here by the way note that in every Covenant betwixt God and man the whole draught of it depends upon the Soveraigne will and pleasure of God who proposeth what rewards he pleaseth and imposeth what termes he pleaseth and draws up the Covenant in what termes he pleaseth And the reason hereof lies in the absolute power and authority of God over man who is infinitely inferiour to God and wholly subordinate to him and therefore man may not indent with him by proposing Articles of Agreement but he must accept what the Lord is pleased to propose either by way of duty
1 John 2. 1 2. 7. The Covenant of works if we could attain unto it would now be matter The one would be matter of glorying in our selves of glorying in our selves If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory Rom. 4. 2. The elder brother who represented these work-men how did he boast himself These many years did I serve thee neither transgressed I at any time thy Commandment c. Luke 15. 29. I am not as other men said that proud Pharisee you might have challenged life by a debt by the Covenant of works To him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of grace but of debt Rom. 4. 4. You might have earned happinesse if I may so speak at your fingers ends and might have demanded your wages after you had done your work But the Covenant of grace cuts off all boasting and glorying The other cuts off all boasting in our selves Where is boasting then it is excluded by what Law of works nay but by the Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. And Jesus Christ is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption That according as it is written he that glorieth might glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. You cannot glory in your wisdome for that you have from Christ nor in your sanctification for that you have from Christ c. you have all from Christ therefore all your glorying must be in Christ There is a twofold glorying one in the Testimony of conscience this you may have who are under the Covenant of grace 2 Cor. 1. 12. Another is A twofold glorying in the confidence of our own works This the Covenant of grace doth utterly exclude God forbid that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. All is of grace by the Covenant of grace all is given and freely given Christ is given and grace is given and mercy is given and life is given and salvation is given and therefore all boasting and glorying in our selves is excluded by the Covenant of grace 8. They differ thus The Covenant of works breeds terrours and fear and The one breeds fear and terror despair If a man expect life by it his heart must sink within him considering how short he is of that righteousnesse therein required for life as also that abundance of unrighteousnesse in himself exposing him to wrath from a just God But the Covenant of grace is a ministration of life and peace and joy and The other is a ministration of life boldnesse you have here a sure refuge to fly unto a sure Rock to stand upon and a sure Anchor to trust unto 9. There are many other differences between them as the impossibility of Other differences summed up life by the one as the case now stands and the certainty of life by the other and the diversity of life promised in the one from that in the other and a difference in respect of the seals for the one and for the other And a difference in respect of extent The Covenant of works was with all men but this with believers only And a difference in respect of Appeals though you may appeal from the Covenant of works to the Covenant of grace yet there is no appeal from the Covenant of grace c. But I shall not stay any longer upon this first particular only by the way make some few Uses from the consideration of both these Covenants 1. Use In what a miserable condition are all unbelievers and impenitent persons who are strangers and forreiners to the Covenant of grace enemies to Christ and therefore utterly disinterested in the Covenant of grace Surely In what a miserable condition are all unbelievers mercy is not to be found in any other Covenant but in this In the Covenant of works you are condemned and accursed by reason of transgression your lives are forfeited you are under the curse cursed is every one c. Neither doth the Covenant of works mitigate or reverse or alter the sentence It admits of no mercy at all Mercy which is the only remedy against it is found only in the Covenant of grace There is the Throne of grace set up and there is the Mercy-seat to be found But unbelievers because they refuse Christ and impenitent sinners because they choose their sinnes exclude themselves from Christ and from this Covenant of grace and therefore they shall live and die accursed and condemned men 2. Vse See and admire the infinite goodnesse of God in making this Covenant Admire the goodness of God in making this Covenant of grace of grace not insisting on the other Covenant of works not holding us unto it to take us as it were out of the hand of justice and to put us into the hand of mercy not to sue the old bond but to make a new treaty that so he might pardon our former transgressions What infinite goodnesse was this Oh! this was exceeding pity and exceeding kindnesse and exceeding goodnesse to take off the yoke of bondage and to bring us into the bond of a new Covenant to set up a Mediatour to make another Covenant where we might yet find life mercy and peace not to deal with us in justice but in mercy not according to the desert of our doings but according to the riches of his grace in Christ 3. Use Here is singular support unto troubled consciences unto all who are Here is support for troubled consciences wounded with the sense of their sinnes and of their own inability to satisfie Gods justice and of their utter unworthinesse of mercy Indeed if you look into the Covenant of works in this condition there is no comfort for you no help for you no hope for you That Covenant speaks not one word of grace of mercy of peace of hope at all but if it sends you sinners it pronounceth you cursed Yet in this case if you look to the Covenant of grace there is hope and help The Covenant of grace looks not at the righteous but at sinners and it holds out a satisfaction made by Christ which could never be made by the sinner and as it hath mercy for sinners so it communicates that mercy freely unto every mourning broken-hearted penitent and believing sinner yea it doth not only comprehend mercy but every grace which makes us capable of mercy and that to be freely given by God to them that seek him 4. Use Take heed of resting upon your own works of seeking life and justification Rest not upon your works from them and for them this is to set up the Covenant of works and this is to seek life and justification in a way where it is impossible for a sinner to find it and you utterly overthrow the Covenant of grace by it The Covenant of works by which if you will be justified supposeth personal perfect and stedfast righteousnesse neither admits it of any
repentance nor will it make a new composition with you after your sinnings but as it will clear and acquit you upon perfect and stedfast righteousness so it will unalterably condemn you for any unrighteousnesse 5. Vse By no means sleight nor neglect Christ any longer but hearken Sleight not Christ any longer to his voice consider and embrace his offers he is the door at which you must first enter if you would be interested in the Covenant and by him you must be delivered from the Covenant of works Grace and truth mercy and peace love and life are by Jesus Christ CHAP. IV. The proper nature of the Covenant THe proper nature of the Covenant of grace in the absolute consideration thereof this I shall lay down in this description of it The Covenant of grace is a new compact or agreement which The Covenant described God made with sinful man out of his own meer mercy and grace wherein he promiseth that he will be our God and that we shall be his people and undertakes to give everlasting life and all that conduceth thereunto unto all who believe in Christ There are divers things considerable in this description which I desire And opened to open 1. This Covenant is a new compact and agreement betwixt God and man There was another agreement before this a Covenant of another nature and upon other It is a new Covenant with man termes and considerations and for another end But man stood not to that agreement he did voluntarily transgresse it and thereby deprived himself of all the benefits promised in that Covenant and fell under that death and curse which God had threatened for the breach and transgression of it Now the new Covenant is as it were a plank after that ship-wrack It is another Indenture for life it is not the same agreement renewed nor the former Lease or Bond renewed but a new one of another kind and nature made with man in another condition and capacity and upon another condition God presently made a new Covenant or agreement with fallen man different from the former made with created righteous man If he had not done so If it had not been so All man-kind had been lost 1. All man-kind had been eternally lost Sinful man could never have been recovered never have been restored to life but by a Covenant of grace nothing but grace can recover the lost sinner Rom. 3. 19. Every mouth must be stopped and all the world become guilty before God Ver. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sinne 2. The Lord had lost all the glory of his mercy if he had left us to the sentence God had lost all the glory of his mercy of the first Covenant Indeed there his justice and wrath and severity had been exceedingly magnified but his mercy had not risen and appeared at all unto us had not God made this new Covenant with us being become sinners and so fit objects of his mercy Now the intent of God was to exalt his mercy and that man should know the greatnesse and exceeding riches of it and therefore God was pleased to make a new treaty this Covenant of grace 3. There had been no news of a Christ nor thought of him else As Christ There had been no news of a Christ is never effectually given unto any but unto the lost so he was never made known untill the fall of man And remember it That as Christ was not so he could not be revealed in a Covenant of works whil'st life was held by that tenure Christ is not to be found there where life is claimed by a righteousnesse of our own he is only to be found in a Covenant of grace which gives life unto sinners upon the righteousnesse of another Rom. 3. 21. But now the righteousnesse of God without the law is manifested Ver. 22. Even the righteousnesse of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe These are the principal reasons why God made a new Agreement another Covenant a Covenant of grace with sinful man namely because he would not lose all man-kind nor leave them despairing and Because he would exalt his own mercy and likewise give his Son Jesus Christ and lay upon his shoulders the Redemption and salvation of his people 2. This Covenant is such an agreement with sinful man as springeth and riseth â—is Covenant springeth from the mercy and grace of God from the mercy and the grace of God Hence you have these expressions According to his mercy he saved us Tit. 3. 6. By grace ye are saved Eph. 2. 5. That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ ver 7. This Covenant may be considered Mercy and grace appears in this Covenant several wayes and in all of them you may see the meer mercy and grace of God 1. In respect of the constitution of it Nothing out of God and nothing in God but his meer mercy and his own grace laid out and appointed this In the constitution of it Covenant of grace with sinners Grace was the foundation of it 2. In respect of admission It is the meer mercy and grace of God which In admission to it opens the door and takes in the sinner into this Covenant with himself I will love them freely I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy 3. In respect of dispensation All the communications from it and all the In the dispensation of it impartings of the treasures of it are the flowings of mercy and the overflowings of the grace of God But I am now only to speak of the mercy and grace of God as the foundation Mercy is the foundation of it For the causa impulsiva these alone are the moving cause why God made this new Covenant For 1. There could be no cause or reason in us we were become sinners we were There could be no cause or reason in us become miserable Ezek. 16. 6. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Ver. 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee Behold thy time was the time of love and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakednesse yea I sware unto thee and entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine saith the Lord. This was our condition a sinful polluted loathsome condition when God set his love upon us and entred into a Covenant with us 2. There was sufficient and pregnant cause on our part why the Lord should There was cause in us to the contrary never have looked after us or accepted of us any more Jer. 3. 7. They say
God is al-sufficiency and this is engaged Gen. 17. 1. i. e. I am an infinitely perfectâ—fulness to my self and of my self I am absolutely enough and need or want nothing and I will be enough I will be a fulness to you you shall not need any other but my self to supply you with any good which you shall want or to secure you from any evil which you fear This is al-sufficiency To be enough and to be without any want and to be enough to us and to fill up all our wants and this al-sufficiency God doth â—ngage himself to be unto every one with whom he is a God in Covenant Gen. 15. 1. Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward What is that It is as much as if he had said I am thy al-sufficiency and will see unto thee that thou shalt have enough thou shalt not want any thing Psal 23. 1. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want Psal 34. 9. There is no want to them that fear him Psal 84. 11. The Lord God is a Sun and shield The Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly Now this is the comfort belonging to you That your God is al-sufficiency and he is your al-sufficiency all that you have comes from him and all that you want shall be supplyed by him and he hath enough of his own fully to help you in any condition and at any time and he alone is enough unto you Consider any want whatsoever whether spiritual or temporal whether inward or outward your God will be an al-sufficiency to you Do you want grace do you want peace in conscience do you want the joy of the holy Ghost do you want strength against corruptions or against temptations God is sufficient for them all He can and will give more grace Jam. 4. 6. He can and will speak peace unto his people Psal 85. 8. He can and will give you fulnesse of joy Psal 16. 11. Exceeding joy like that in harvest Isa 9. 3. and in Isa 12. 3. With joy shall ye draw waters out of the wells of salvation and he can and will be sufficiency against your corruptions Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are under grace Rom. 6. 14. And against your temptations Mâ— grace is sufficient for thee and my strength is made perfect in weaknesse 2 Cor. 12. 9. And for any outward want My God saith Paul in Phil. 4. 19. shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus Bread shall be given him and his water shall be sure Isa 33. 16. The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof If all the earth can help you you shall not want any good nay if the earth or meanes do faile God himself will not fail you but will create good and help and salvation for you 2. God is mercifulnesse The Lord the Lord God merciful c. Exod. 34. 6. The Lord your God is merciful 2 Chron. 30. 9. Turn unto the Lord your God God is mercifulnesse for he is gracious and merciful Joel 2. 13. Mercifulness or mercy doth especially denote two things in God 1. One is tender compassion and therefore the mercies of God are frequently Mercy denotes in God Tender compassion stiled his bowels Psal 25. 6. Remember O Lord thy tender mercies or thy bowels of mercies So Psal 51. 1. According to the multitude of thy bowels of mercies and so in the New Testament Through the bowels of the mercy of our God Luke 1. 78. It is remarkable that the same word in the Hebrew Chalde Syriack and Arabick which signifies bowels is used for mercy which notes two things 1. That the mercies of God to his are most inward tender affectionate compassions like the bowels of a father and of a mother to his dearest children being in misery 2. That not only the effects of mercy are the portion of Gods people but the very heart of God acts towards them and yearns over them when he shews mercy to them mercy comes from his very heart and bowels 2. Another is forgiveness of sinnes that essential propension in God to pardon sinne to pass by transgression to blot out iniquity and never to remember Forgivenesse of sins sinne any more This is the Attribute of God which is his great glory and his great delight and our only hope and life There is a depth in this mercy more than that in the Sea and a height in this mercy above all the thoughts of men and a bredth in this mercy it can pardon many sins great sinnes abundant sinnes and a length in this mercy it is everlasting and endures for ever This is the mercy or mercifulness of God! And to enjoy God in this Attribute as our merciful God as pitying as pardoning us as forgiving and forgetting all our sins and never remembring them any more O what a comfort what a settling what a joy and a rest is this Consider 1. It is the great care and the great desire almost of every man especially in distresses of conscience and times of sickness and death Be merciful unto me O Lord Lord be merciful unto me a sinner O that my sinnes were pardoned and how shall I get my sinnes pardoned He that doth not regard the holy doth yet prize and esteem very much the merciful God Every sinner doth like and long for mercy 2. All Controversie is at an end when mercy pardons sinne Now enmity is slain and wrath and curse go off for these follow sinne as unpardoned but if sin be pardoned all punishment is pardoned and God is reconciled and your souls are graciously accepted and clasped with love and favour 3. When mercy pardons sinne then conscience is at rest The broken bones are at ease and rejoyce Psal 51. True peace follows full remission of sinnes and then joy comes into the heart Be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiveâ— And then confidence of access unto God comes into the soul and then hope of salvation is raised in the soul Now mark what I say If God be your God then he is your merciful God And God is your merciful God Heb. 8. 10. This is his Covenant I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people Ver. 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sinnes will I remember no more Isa 40. 1. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God Ver. 2. Speak ye comfortably to Hierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned Jer. 33. 8. I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me Micah 7. 19. Thou wilt cast all their sinnes into the depth of the sea Ver. 20. Thou wilt performe the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham Six comforts to those who have God their merciful God
1. Because he works where and on whom and when and how he himself pleaseth he blowes where he lists Joh. 3. 8. 2. And he is a â—ree Spirit in as much as all spiritual freedom and liberty is received of us from him hence the Apostle 2 Cor. 3. 17. where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 4. The good Spirit by Spirit is good â—sa 143 10 Thou gavest them of thy good Spirit The good Spirit Neh. 9. 20. The Spirit is essentially good and counsels good he is indeed a good Spirit unto us All the good thoughts in us and all the good desires in us and all the good we have or shall receive from God in Christ is handed to us by this good Spirit yea and all the sweet sights of God himself that ever we enjoyed and all the tasts that ever we have had of Jesus Christ and all the joyes and contentments in our souls we are beholding unto this good Spirit for every one of them though in some respect you are not beholding unto the Spirit for dying and suffering and satisfying and reconciling and purchasing for you yet this I may safely affirme that for all the enjoyments of all the sweet comforts depending on the sufferings of Christ you are singularly beholding to the good spirit for them you never could have partaked of Christ nor of any one good purchased by Christ had it not been for this good Spirit 5. The powerfull or mighty Spirit The Spirit of the Lord is called the Spirit of The powerful Spirit might Isa 11. 2. The power of the holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. the power of the Spirit of God verse 19. the power of the Highest Luke 1. 35. It was the power of this Spirit which did convince you of your sins and which did break your heard harts and did rescue and deliver you from the power of darknesse which doth subdue your iniquities and pull down your strong bolds It was and is this powerfull Spirit by whom the Ministrations or Ordinances of the Gospel have been and still are of power with you The Word is called the sword of the Spirit Ephes 6. 17. The Ministrations of them selves are weak it is the concomitant presence of the Spirit which makes them powerful and lively for your conversion comfort and salvation you had laine in the same condition and darknesse and bondage and death with other men had not the powerful and mighty Spirit of God put forth the greatnesse of his own strength to the alteration of your hearts by his own grace 2. The Spirit is yours in respect of his gifts and fruits You read in 1 Cor. 12. The Spirit is ours in respect of his gifts or fruits 14. of diversities of gifts of the Spirit for edification or to profit withall ver 7. and you read of the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8. 23. and of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. The Spirit of God as to these gifts and fruits is called the Spirit of grace Zach. 12. 10. and the Spirit of wisdome Isa 11. 2. and the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and the Spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4. 13. and the Spirit of love 2 Tim. 1. 7. and the Spirit of supplication Zach. 12 10. the fruit of the Spirit saith the Apostle in Gal. 5. 22. is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith and ver 23. meeknesse temperance There are six things which I would briefly observe concerning the graces or fruits Six things concerning the graces of the Spirit They are the beauties of a Christian They are necessary to salvation of the Spirit 1. They are the Beauties Glories Ornaments Chains Pearls Jewels of a Christian you have no excellencies till you partake of them but are dead loathsome polluted and vile These are the very image of God 2. They are necessary unto salvation No man can be saved without them They are the way to the kingdom though they be not the cause of reigning in the kingdom without holinesse no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. 3. They are pledges of salvation therefore called the first fruits which were They are pledges of salvation the beginnings and the pledges of the full harvest and also the earnest of the Spirit which he leaves with us to assure us of that glorious happinesse which we are to receive shortly in fulnesse 4. They are given to none but unto such as shall be saved There are the common gifts of the Spirit which are for the edification of others These they may have They are given to none but such as shall be saved who shall perish like those who helped to build the Ark and yet were drowned But there are the special gifts of the Spirit which are for Renovation of the soule and for the preparation of it for glory These are given to none but unto such who are elected unto salvation As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Act. 13. 48. Matth. 11. 25. Hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes 5. Every gift or grace which accompanies salvation is by the Spirit given Every grace accompanying salvation is given to every child of God to every child of God to every one who hath God to be his God in Covenant every one of them hath every saving grace of the Spirit 1. The spirit of grace I will poure upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace Zach. 12. 10. 2. The Spirit of knowledge They shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them Jer. 31. 34. 3. The Spirit of wiâ—dâ—me The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give unto you the Spirit of wisdome Eph. 1. 17. 4. The Spirit of faith We have the same Spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4. 13. You are all the children oâ— God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 26. To them that have obtained like precious faith with us 2 Pet. 1. 1. 5. The Spirit of love 2 Tim. 1. 7. Ye your selvâ—s arâ— taught of God to love one another 1 Thes 4. 9. What should I speak of godly sorrow repentance humblenesse meeknesse patience c. whatsoever gift is necessary to our salvation the Spirit doth certainly work in every one of the people of God although not in the same measure proportion and height yet to the same truth and for the same efficacy unto their salvation Every child of God hath the same Spirit of grace and faith and love and though one Christians graces may fall short of anothers for the quantity yet they do not fall short for the present quality nor for the future glory The weakest grace of the Spirit is able to change the heart and save the soul 6. The Spirit doth cherish and preserve and keep all those saving gifts of his The Spirit doth cherish and prese ve all those saving gifts in
a happinesse is all this to know Jesus Christ and as present in my soul To know the love of God in mine heart To know the exceedingly exceeding weight of glory prepared and prepared for me and to know all that God hath freely given me in order unto that exceeding glory This c. 4. He fits us for that salvation which Christ hath purchased for us As the He fits us for that salvation which Christ hath purchased for us blood of Christ did purchase our salvation so the Spirit of Christ doth fit us for the enjoyment thereof He makes us meet to â—e partakers of the inheritance of thâ— Saints in light The Apostle speaking of this salvation under several expressions in 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3 4. he addes in the fifth verse Now he which hath wâ—oughâ— us for the self-same thing is God who hath given unto us the earnest of his Spirit And this fitting work of his upon us for the salvation purchased by Christ he doth execute Partly by cleansing and purifying ouâ— sinful hearâ—s and mortifying those lusts which otherwise would render us unfit and uncapable of that glorious salvation Partly by endowing and beautifying the soul with Christ and his righteousnesse and his graces that thereby an enterance may be made for us into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 11. Partly by leading and upholding us in all the wayes of Christ untill we come to receive the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls 5. I will adde but one work more of the Spirit on your behalf which is this He works all our works in us and for us He works all your works in you and for you Consider your works either of faith or obedience your works of faith in reference to the promises of God and your work of obedience in reference to the precepts of God although you are the persons who do believe the one and obey the other yet it is the Spirit of Christ which is the cause and the powerful principle of those in you He it is who doth make your hearts to believe and who doth cause you to walk in his Statutes and do them Ezek. 36. 27. 4. The Spirit is yours in respect of his help or vertue The Spirit helpeth our The Spirit is ours in respect of his help and vertue infirmities Rom. 8. 26. And there are six things wherein the Spirit is an help unto all the people of God 1. In all their Communions with God 2. In the weaknesses of all their graces 3. In the actings of every grace 4. In the conflicts of grace 5. In the darknesse upon their spirits 6. In the 〈◊〉 of their souls 1. The Spiri◠〈◊〉 them in in all their communions with God in their Meditations He help them in all their communions with God of God in their hearing of the Word of God in their addresses of prayer unto God and as to this the Apostle gives a special instance in that Rom. 8. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered When we are to pray there is in us sometimes an infirmity of ignorance we know not what to pray for either for the matter or for the manner and there is in us sometimes an infirmity of deadnesse and dulnesse we cannot pray with that fervency as we should or as we would But now the Spirit helps these infirmities by way of instruction Teaching us what especially to pray for and by way of causation in making intercession for us that is in quickening and enabling us to pray with groanings that is with such full and strong affections of heart as cannot be uttered or expressed by words Our streightened and narrow and barren hearts are many times by the influence and assistance of Gods Spirit enlarged and opened and filled with a Spirit of supplication with such an ardency with such an earnestnesse with such a copiousnesse that after we have long insisted with God yet we have not opened half our minds and desires unto God it excites all our graces and sets them a work such an help is the Spirit unto us in praying unto God 2. The Spirit helps them in the weaknesse of their graces He waters the plants In the weakness of their graces and blows upon the buds and draws on his works of grace towards perfection He doth as it were Nurse them up and breed and brood them up He helps your â—imme knowledge by adding light unto light and opening more and more the eyes of your understanding to know the things of God in Christ He helps the weak and staggering faith by adding faith unto faith in answering your doubts and evidencing your grounds and interests in Jesus Christ He is the wind which blows upon your garden and makes the Spices there of to flow out Cant. 4. 16. 3. The Spirit helps them in the actings of every grace You know In the actings of every grace the distinction of gratia praeveniens gratia subsequens gratia operans gratia cooperans It is the Spirit which works grace in us and it is the Spirit which makes grace wrought in us to work You are not able of your selves to use the graces given unto you when you please without the influence and assistance of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 15. 10. By the grace of God I am that I am and his grace bestowed upon me was not in vain I laboured yet not I but the grace of God in me Can you trust when you will and mourn when you will and fear when you will and command your thoughs and passions when you will and patiently bear the hand of God when you will The light if it were cut off from the influence and presence of the Sunne would not be light nor give light at all The arme if it were cut off from the body it could not stirre at all Though the arme be grafted into the body yet it stirres by influence from the head No grace that we have could move or act at all were it not acted and moved by the Spirit of Christ and therefore when you are to believe he helps you to believe and when you are to repent he helps you to repent and when you are to blesse he helps you to blesse and when you are to suffer c. His hand is upon your hand his strength is upon your strength his grace is upon his own grace As all your graces have their being from his power of life so they have their working from his power of influence too He it is who worketh in you to will and to do 4. The Spirit helps them in the conflicts of grace when inward temptations arise In the conflicts or grace out of your own hearts and when outward temptations 〈◊〉 in from
of mercy and forgivenesse but it is the Spirit c. It is the peculiar office of the Spirit to make all the Gospel effectual and effectual to the elect of God to the people of God There is not one part or branch of the Gospel but the Spirit is virtute officii to make it effectual to you He is to give you sufficiency of strength for all Evangelical obedience and he is to open and apply unto you all the good in Chrâ—st and all the comforts in the attributes of God and promises of God and he is to make out unto you all the mercy and blessings and happinesse sealed in Baptisme and the Lords Supper And as Christ never failed in any Office which he undertook so the Spirit will not fail but perform and accomplish all and every thing that belongs to his Office and therefore you shall have all the good intended to you in any Gospel-Ordinance whatsoever 2. Another is To witnesse unto us our present standing in grace and relation To witness our present standing in grace unto God you read this plainly in Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God 1 John 5. 8. Thâ—re are three â—hat bear witnesse in earth the Spirit and the Water and the Bloâ—d A Witnesse is one who gives in a Testimony against a man or for a man and he is of use in all doubtful and litigious cases in all suits and trials Satan puts it many times in debate by his accusations Thou art not right thou art not the child of God thou presumest thou deeceivest thy self In this or such like cases there are two Witnesses for the Christian 1. One is his own Spirit 2. The other is Gods Spâ—râ—t Saith conscience this is the spirit of man I know that his heart is â—ight and that he belongs to God And saith the Spirit of God who searcheth the heart aâ—d knows me and all which himself hath wrought in the heart and I know that he is born again for I regenerated him and I know that he is a child of God for he hath received the Spirit of Adoption whereby he cryeth Abba-Father Aâ—d verily a greater Testimony and surer witnesse cannot be had then the Testimony and Witnesse of the Spirit of God who knows all â—hings and is truth 3. A third Office of the Spirit is to seal us in respect of our future happinesse To seal us in respect of our future happiness and this also the Scriptures expresly deliver Eph. 1. 13. In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise Verse 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption The sealing of the Spirit is that assuring confirmation unto the hearts of believers that the heavenly inheritance purchased by the blood of Christ is theirs and that they when this day of full Redemption comes shall assuredly possess and enjoy it Beloved what can be said more to expresse the happinesse and comfort of the people of God in having God to be their God the Father is theirs the Sonne of God is theirs and the Spirit of God is theirs theirs in his graces theirs in his comforts theirs in Offices witnessing their present condition in grace and assuring them of their future inheritance in glory what more happinesse can be enjoyed on earth than this 7. Lastly The Spirit is yours in respect of his presence Joh. 14. 17. The Spirit He is ours in respect of his presence of truth dwelleth with you Rom. 8. 11. By his Spirit that dwelleth in you 2 Tim. 1. 14. By the holy Ghost which dwelleth in us It is observable concerning the presence of the Trinity that every one of the persons is said to dwell in believers God the Father doth dwell in them 2 Cor. 6. 16. The Sonne doth dwell in them Christ dwells in our hearts by faith Eph. 2. 17. The holy Ghost likewise dwells in us O happy soul who art made such a Temple wherein God the Father and God the Sonne and God the holy Ghost dwells what canst thou want what dost thou enjoy how great is thy excellency how perfect is thy beauty how full is thy glory Dwelling notes a special presence and it notes a constant and permanent presence and truly such is the dwelling of the Spirit of God in the children of God it is a gracious residence and it is an abiding residence he never leaves you John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Can you reach this comfort of the perpetual presence of the Spirit in you and with you Let me tell you The bodily presence of Christ is not comfortable without the presence of the Spirit The absence of Christ is made up by the presence of the Spirit The presence of the Spirit makes all to be present with us You are safe and sure with whom the Spirit is 1. The presence of Christ I mean his bodily presence only was not comfortable without the presence of the Spirit It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing so Christ Joh. 6. 63. 2. The absence of Christ now in heaven is made up unto us by the presence of his Spirit now within us here on earth The Spirit only supplies his absence and makes our condition as good and as happy as if Christ himself were present with us 3. The presence of the Spirit makes all to be present with us all are present by the presence of the Spirit God comes to be present and Christ comes to be present and joy and salvation come to be present by the presence of the Spirit 4. And are you not safe and sure with whom the Spirit of God is and will be alwayâ—s present He is present with your souls with your faith with your graces and he can give you present strength and present help and present victory and present comforts SECT X. 5. A Fifth singular comfort unto you who have God to be your God in Covenant There is a conjunction of the whole Trinity in all the businesses of our eternal blessedness is this viz. A common conjunction of the whole Trinity in all the businâ—sses of yoâ—r etâ—rnal blessedness This is an exceeding high point and of exceeding comfort unto you that there is an union in the Trinity of persons in their gracious respects unto your salvation There is an union or common conjunction of the persons of the Trinity First In respect of love Secondly In respect of consent and in respect of A conjunction of the three persons purpose Thirdly In respect of operation Fourthly In respect of Relation Fifthly In respect of engagement Sixthly In respect of Communion 1. In respect of love what is that That is every
Rom. 6. 14. Here you see expresly that there is a freedome from the dominion of sinne even upon this account that we are under the Covenant of grace Though you be not totally freed from the inhabitation of sinne for sinne doth dwell in us whiles we dwell on earth and though you be not totally freed from the rebellion of sinne for peccatum hostis est quamdiu est The flesh lusteâ—h against the spirit Gal. 5. 17. and there is a law in our members warring against the law of our minds Rom. 7. 23. yet you are totally freed from the dominion of sinne which consists in the effectual Rule Command and Sovereign strength of sinne and a free and full and willing subjection or obedience unto the Law and authority of sinne and verily this freedome or deliverance is a wonderful mercy and happinesse unto the people of God whither you consider 1. The great and utmost distance twixt you and God 2. The basenâ—sse of servitude in which every one lives over whom sinne hath dominion for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage 2 Pet. 2. 19. You were but very slaves to your lusts and to the devil whiles sinne did rule over you 3. The height of enmity As you were the basest of slaves so you were the worst of enemies living not only as aliens without God but as desperate enemies opposing and fighting against God 4. The superfluity of naughtinesse a full contrariety your whole hearts and your whole lives were nothing else but a constant dishonour unto God and contradiction to his Will and Glory 5. The certainty of destruction which would infallibly have attended you had not the mercy and grace of God rescued and delivered you I say certain destruction to your souls as there is a certain destruction to the life of our bodies if we fall into the sea and lie under it 6. The sweet and immediate communion 'twixt the deliverance from the dominion of sinne and admission to the Kingdome of Christ It is a translation from death to life The Apostle joins these together in Colos 5. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdome of his dear Sonne 3. They have immunity or freedome from the damnation meritoriously depending upon the guilt of sinne As salvation depends upon the merits of Christ so From damnation for sinne doth damnation depend on the merit of sinne There is so much merit in sinne as to render us obnoxious not only to temporal destruction but also to eternal destruction for the wages of sinne is death even that death which stands in opposition to eternal life Rom. 6. 23. But from the effectual redundancy of this damnation upon your persons you are every one freed who are in Covenant with God For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life John 3. 15. And the ground of this your immunity from the damnation due unto you for your sinnes is the satisfaction which Christ hath made for your sinnes unto the justice of God and thereupon the obtaining of riches of mercy from your God who according to his Covenant with you blots out and forgives all your sinnes and never remembers them any more For this is a sure truth that remission of sinnes and actual damnation for sinnes are incompatible or inconsistent Now whether this be any cause of comfort that you and your sinnes are parted and that you and hell are for ever separated I leave it to any one of you to judge for mine own part I do look upon four things as very great mercies 1. That I am delivered from the power of sinne 2. That I enjoy the pardon of sinne 3. That I shall never be damned for sinne 4. That I shall be saved notwithstanding all my sinnes 4. They have immunity or freedome from justification by the Law from all legal From justification by the Law tryals for life Although you are not freed from the Law as it is a rule for life yet you are freed from the Law as it is a Covenant of life although you are not freed from the Law as it is the image of the good and holy will of God yet because you are under the Covenant of grace you are freed from the Law as it is a reason of salvation and justification The Covenant of grace takes you off from that Court and that Bar which pronounceth life upon your own good works and pronounceth death upon your own evil works Rom. 3. 28. We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law Gal. 3. 11. No man is justified by the Law in the sight of God for the just shall live by faith As the Law calls for perfect and personal righteousnesse of our own so the Law will not justifie you it will not give life unto you unlesse it finds that righteousnesse in you you live not if you be not perfectly righteous absolution is pronounced upon your own perfect innocency and condemnation is pronounced upon any defect or breach And verily upon this account no man living can or shall be justified therefore here is comfort that being in Christ and in this Covenant of grace ye are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses See the Apostle Acts 13. 39. Your life doth not lie now in your own righteousnesse but in the righteousnesse of Christ nor doth it depend upon your own works but upon the obedience of Christ That expression of Luther is an excellent expression Christus solus me justificat contra mea mala opera sine operibus meis bonis Though my works have been very good yet not those but Christ doth justifie me and though my works have been very ill yet the righteousnesse of Christ can and will justifie me my evil works shall not damne me and my good works cannot acquit me it is Christ it is Christ and not the Law which justifies me 5. They have immunity or liberty from the rigour of the Law The Law in the rigour of it exacts of us a most absolute obedience a most exquisite and full obedience From the rigor of the Law it will not abate us the least grain or scruple if it be not every way adequate for matter and manner and measure your obedience will not passe nor will it be accepted according to the rigour of the Law Cursed is every one who doth not continue in every thing that is written to do it But when once you are under the Covenant of grace when once God is your God and you are his people neither you nor your services are judged by the exactnesse of your services but by the sincerity of your hearts Though much be wanting which the Law prescribes yet if that be present which your merciful God and Father
God doth look upon the humble and contrite spirit and he will hear the desire of the humble He will prepare their hearts and cause his ear to hear Ezek. 16. 61. Thou shalt remember thy wayes and be ashamed c. ver 62. And I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. 4. If you would have God to be your God in Covenant then you must get Get faith faith for God is a God in Covenant only with believers and there are three degrees of faith necessary unto this work one is a faith of acceptance a second Three degrees of faith necessary is a faith of dependance a third is a faith of reliance I will explain my self in all these 1. A faith of acceptance is necessary to put us into the Covenant and to finde A faith of acceptance God to be our God that is we must have so much faith as to accept of Christ and to unite us unto Christ for in that union twixt us and Christ in this relation of God to us is he to be found By him we have accesse unto the Father Ephes 2. Out of Christ you shall never finde God to be reconciled unto you nor to be your God As to Christ God first is a God in Covenant and Father in Covenant so to us God becomes our God and our Father upon our being in Christ Christ received the Covenant for himself and for all who are his he is as it were the head and the principal in the Covenant all his come into Covenant under him as in relation to him 2. A faith of dependance upon Christ particularly for his great satisfactions A faith of dependance unto God that is we must depend upon the blood of Christ and by faith offer that up as a satisfaction for all our sinnes and transgressions which have all this while kept God and us at distance and difference his blood is the sacrifice by which Gods justice is satisfied and truly untill divine justice be satisfied for our sinnes there is no hope of a Covenant to be made 'twixt God and us and therefore by faith look upon the blood of Christ and offer up that blood by faith Lord here is the blood of the Covenant here is the blood of Christ to satisfie for my sinnes and to expiate my sinnes now in this blood of his become my God in Covenant 3. A faith of reliance upon the mediation of Christ as the atonement and A faith of reliance peace and reconciliation Christ did make peace by his blood and he did reconcile us by it Colos 1. 20 21. And we who were sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Ephes 2. 13. I know not a more exact way to get God to be our God than by getting into Christ in whom alone our re-union with God is to be found and by whom alone God and we are knit together again not without cause is he called the Mediator of the new Covenant who undertakes between God and us as you shall hear ere long he undertakes to take away all which may keep up the difference 'twixt us and he undertakes to present all which may make a reconciliation betwixt us he doth make the way so open and so clear that our entrance into Covenant will certainly follow if once we were possessed of him by faith his blood being shed for the remission of our sinnes and likewise to procure a reconciliation 'twixt God and us and therefore above all things strive for faith to unite you to Christ and then by faith plead out the reconciliation purchased by Christ 5. Apply your selves unto the Ordinances of Christ which are the means to work all these things in you and particularly this faith which is so necessary and so immediate Apply your selves to the Ordinances of Christ to our admission into the Covenant Ephes 1. 13. In whom you also trusted after that you heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your salvation the Gospel is that Ordinance by which God makes known the Covenant of grace and by which faith is wrought to bring us into Christ and by him into Covenant with God and by which our faith is so enlarged and confirmed that at length we come to know that God is indeed our God in Covenant 6. I will adde one direction more as an help to bring us into the Covenant Seriously meditate and taking of God to be our God and that is a serious meditation of God himself and of the nature of this Covenant of grace 1. A serious meditation of God there is nothing in him to discourage you Of God from coming into Covenant with him and there is all in him to encourage you 1. There is nothing in him to discourage you from coming into Covenant with him There is nothing in him to discourage us He doth not in this Covenant treat with you for any personal satisfaction for the wrong which you have done him neither doth he insist for any goodnesse that you should work in your own hearts nor doth he except against you for any unworthinesse in you nor doth he distinguish you away for the greatnesse of your former transgressions nor yet doth deny you hope and accesse although you have a long time denied him audience unto his gracious offers nor doth he capitulate with you in your own name but by a Mediator who is most pleasing to him and prevalent with him 2. There is all in and from him to encourage you to come into Covenant There is all in and from him to encourage you with him for he doth expresse himself to be a merciful God towards sinners to be a gracious God to the sinners that come to him to be a tender God easily moved at the tears and cryes of those who would be his people to be a willing God to accept of you and to close with you and therefore he first makes known this Covenant and he first offers to treat with you about this Covenant and he makes the termes of agreement as fair as grace it self can frame them and he out of his own cost provided and sent Jesus Christ to be both the Messenger of the Covenant and the Mediator of the Covenant and besides all this he affords unto you the Gospel to work faith in you that so you may become the people of his Covenant and moreover he makes promises unto you of every thing which belongs to the making of a people to be the people of his Covenant yea and he promiseth his own Spirit to them that ask him by whose mighty operation we come indeed to be his people Truly a serious meditation of all this might conduce much to perswade our hearts to come in unto him and take him for our God in Covenant A second meditation of the nature of this Covenant of grace both as to the Of the nature of
pitied thee to do any of these unto thee to have compassion on thee but thou wast cast out into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born Ver. 6. And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Ver. 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee be hold thy time was the time of love and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakednesse yea I sware unto thee and entered into Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine Yea and the Apostle tells us what persons they were whom yet God took into Covenant Titus 3. 3. We our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another Ver. 4. But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared Ver. 5. Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us In these places we see that there can be nothing found in us either as to our natures or as to our works which might move God to take us into Covenant but enough in both for him to reject us and yet notwithstanding both he is pleased to enter into Covenant with us and save us This must needs be grace and mercy 2. Consider the perâ—ons taken now into Covenant in their former respectivenesse of state and actions towards God The Apostle saith That whiles we were In their former respectivenesse of state and actions towards God yet enemies Christ dyed for us And when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne Rom. 5. 8 10. Surely mercy shewn to enemies must needs be free mercy and to receive enemies into favour this must be gracious favour yet to do this to enemies even in theiâ— hostility for God to take his enemies into his hands of mercy and become a singular friend to them even in the time of their raging and fighting against him this must needs be of grace It was remarkable favour in David to spare the life of Saul his enemies much more in God not only to spare the lives of sinners and enemies but to give them their souls and his Christ and his mercy and his salvation You read of those in Acts 2. 23. they were men who had by wicked hands crucified and slaine the Lord Jesus and verse 13. at the present were â—â—â—â—king at the Apostles as if they had been a company of drunkards These men are full of new wine Yet these men and at this time and in this posture God laid hold on by his grace and convinced them and humbled them and gave them faith and brought them into this Covenant with himself as you may see from verse 37. to 47. The like you read of Saul when he was raging and waxing â—â—d and breathing out persecutions against Christ and against the Church of Christ Being in this woful wretched posture the Lord takes hold of him and left him not untill he had brought him into this blessed Covenant of grace and mercy 3. Consider persons comparatively with other persons you shall finde that the Comparatively with other Persons taking of any person into Covenant is gracious and free in comparing of persons with persons ordinarily God passeth by those on whom we should six admiration and look at some cause and reasons of pre-acceptation and chooseth those and brings in those in whom nothing at all is to be pre-supposed Sometimes he passeth by the greater persons and takes in the meaner persons he passeth by the wise and takes in the foolish he passeth by the mighty and takes in the weak he passeth by the noble and takes in the base 1 Cor. 1. 2â— Not many wise after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called Ver. 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world and the weak things of the world Ver. 28. and base things of the world and things which are despised and things which are not Ver. 29. that no flesh should glory in his presence So sometimes of persons whereof some are more notorious and wicked and vile and others are not so abominable he is pleased to leave the lesser sort of sinners and to bring in the vilest of sinners Publicans and Harlots were brought in into the Kingdome of God when the superstitious and righteous Pharisees were excluded Paul the chiefest of sinners was taken in and others were left Mary Magdalon was brought in and others past by and why doth God do this but that men should acknowledge that it is no worthinesse of the sinne that brings him in nor any unworthinesse of the sinner that shuts him out but all springs from the grace of God alone that he brings not in any sinner upon his own account but onely upon the account of free grace 3. Lastly the Covenant is free as to the dispensations and donations of it what Free as to the dispensations and donations of it is that that is all that drops out of this Covenant all that good flowing from it and running down upon us are only gracious flowings only free bounties and gifts The Papists talk of a meritum de congruo whiles we are in the state of nature and of a meritum de condigno after we are in the state of grace But we know no merit but that of sin which deserves damnation and the merit of Christ which deserves salvation All our standing and all our expectation it the grace of God that is the reason of all our enjoyments God doth not give us Christ because we deserve a Christ but because he is pleased freely to bestow Christ upon us God doth not forgive our sins for our own sake but for his own Name sake God doth not love us for any thing in us but he loves us freely because he is pleased to love us God doth not save us for any works of ours but he saves us for his mercies sake God doth not blesse us for our goodnesse sake but he blesseth us only for his Christs sake and his promises sake God doth not justifie us for the sake of our own righteousnesse but he justifies us freely by his own grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Romans 3. 24. Objection But some may say God is not free in doing of his people good because he hath by promise bound himself to do them good Solution I answer 1. It was the freenesse of his grace to make all those promises 2. Though he bindes himself in promises to do us good yet he doth not accomplish those promises upon the reason of our goodnesse or deserts but upon the account of his own mercifulnesse and goodnesse and graciousnesse Obj. But he promiseth many things conditionally and lets
them out upon such and such conditions and herefore not freely Sol. I answer 1. Every kind of condition is not opposite to grace as I shall shortly demonstrate unto you 2. Whatsoever condition he makes with his people for the enjoyment of any good he doth freely give and work that condition in them 3. No condition on our part hath any reason of merit in it which is the thing opposite to grace but it is only a means by which we come certainly to enjoy that which God is pleased graciously to give In this respect we are said to be justified by faith and to be saved by faith and yet we are also justified by grace and saved by grace Faith you see is put in as a condition and yet it excludes not grace Nay because by faith therefore by grace for our faith and Gods grace can well agree though Gods grace and mans deserts can never agree Now le ts make a little Use of all this Vse 1 Is the Covenant which God makes with us a gracious Covenant O what cause have we poor and unworthy sinners to blesse God for all this O Beloved Blesse God for this it is grace which is the life of this Covenant and which is life to our souls it is not all the love that is promised in the Covenant it is not all the mercy that is promised in the Covenant it is not all the holinesse that is promised in the Covenant it is not all the comforts and joyes and peace and blessings which are promised in the Covenant it is not that eternal life and glorious salvation promised in the Covenant it is not Jesus Christ and all the purchases of Christ drawn into this Covenant none of these nor all these would be any hope or any encouragement or any life at all unto us were the graciousnesse of the Covenant left out If the Lord should say unto us Here is the sweetest love that ever sinner tasted of but you must deserve it alas then I cannot expect it Here is the precious Christ the Authour of salvation but you must deserve him alas then I shall never enjoy him here is pardoning mercy to forgive all your sinnes but you must deserve it O then I shall never partake of it As he said Tolle meum tolle Deum so say I Tolle gratiam tolle omnia take away grace and take away all then take away Christ and take away God and take away mercy and take away heaven and take away hope and take away all the sinner is utterly lost upon any account but that of grace only it is this graciousnesse which makes him capable and makes him hopeful here is a loving God and he will love you freely here is a merciful God and he will pardon you freely here is a converting God and he will receive you graciously here is a good God and he will blesse you graciously c. Now the sinner begins to have hope and begins to hearken If there be a Covenant of grace why should I despaire If it be altogether gracious if it be raised by grace and published by grace and admits and receives by grace and le ts out all by grace there is yet hope that I may escape perishing that I may be delivered that I may find mercy and favour grace looks for no worthinesse and grace passeth by all unworthinesse and grace may look on and pity and help the greatest of sinners blessed be God who hath sweetened all his mercies and all his undertakings and all his blessings and all his givings with freenesse and graciousnesse 2. Is the Covenant which God makes with with us a free and gracious Covenant then stand out no longer be aliens to God no longer be strangers to his Thâ—n stand out no longer Covenant no longer grace makes your way clear and open it beats down all the mountains that did stand in your way It is said of Abraham that against hope he believed in hope so against all the unhopefulnesse from your selves you should believe from the hopefulnesse in the Covenant of grace yea and above hope believe in hope when you consider the greatnesse of the blessings in the Covenant they seem to be above hope but when you consider the graciousnesse in the bestowing of them they are now under hope Ho all you that hear me this day hearken unto me The graciousnesse of the Covenant will prove unto you either your sweetest salvation or else your heaviest condemnation if it doth not prove a strong encouragement to bring you into the Covenant it will certainly prove the heaviest and bitterest aggravation upon you for standing out against the Covenant O beloved yet be serious and wise and make in to God! you may be received graciously your sins have been exceeding great but the Covenant holds out more exceeding mercy joyned with more exceeding grace Rom. 5. 20. Where sinne abounded grace did much more abound If you come in to God his Covenant is to forgive all your sins and to forgive them freely Your worthinesse is none at all and yet you may come in and God according to his Covenant will love you freely you may have all freely a God a Christ love mercy forgivenesse the holy Spirit then new heart the salvation of your souls freely Therefore 1. Refuse him not and do not trifle away your precious souls whiles you Refuse not Gods offer have a day of grace and a Covenant of grace tendred unto you to come in Beware you refuse not him that speaketh neither neglect so great salvation God neither will nor possibly can fall lower or easier than he doth with you in his gracious Covenant 2. Fear not whether you shall be look't on or received of God he saith he will Fear not your acceptance receive you graciously If a company of poor men were envited by a rich man Come and I will give you money and receive and feed you freely you shall have all your wants supplied freely would they be afraid to accept the offer Do not make another Covenant than God is willing to make with you neither make any other Articles than God himself hath annexed unto this Covenant he saith it is a gracious Covenant say not you it is not so he hath said he will receive you graciously a say not you but he will not he saith that he will love you freely and justifie you freely and save you freely do not you say But God will do none of these O no! God is truth it self and he will perform the truth to Jacob and his mercy to Abraham Micah 7. 20. Therefore fear not but catch and take hold on this grace of God 3. Come in and make thy supplications to God Come in and confesse thy sins Come in and make thy supplications to God and thy unworthinesse and cry out unto God in the Name of Christ O Lord I have sinned against thee and I am unworthy to be
workings of all things in this Covenant to the right end The motions and workings of all things in this Covenant to the right end when every thing acts to its right end this shews a right ordering now in this Covenant every thing works to the right end which is to the praise and glory of Gods grace God himself works for this and Jesus Christ works for this and every good thing given and received works for this and every believer who is brought into Covenant works for this Christ is given and mercy is given and grace is given and glory is given and because all is given therefore all exalts the glory of Gods grace Christ is the surety and Christ is sent and Christ dyed and Christ made satisfaction and Christ made peace and Christ purchased all for the sinner and this also exalts the grace of God towards sinners the sinner is called by grace and made a believer and as a believer he receives all by grace and he acts in the strength of grace and is led on and preserved by grace and what he is he is by grace and what he works he works by grace and what he hopes for he hopes for by grace and that which he rests on is grace and what he magnifies and sets up is not himself nor any thing of his own but only the grace of God 4. All the good of the Covenant is dispensed in a right season and this All the good of the Covenant is dispensed in a right season also shews that it is a well-ordered Covenant when things are out of time they are out of order If Snow or Frost should come in the time of Harvest this would be disorderly and if physick should come when the person is dead this would be disorderly Things are well-ordered when they come neither too soon nor too late but in the very season when we need them and when they will do us good And after this manner are all the dispensations of this Covenant they are let out and come in the very time aâ—d minute of our â—eed When a poor sinner knows not what to do then doth Christ appear and then doth mercy appear and then doth help appear Isa 41. 17. When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them 2 Cor. 6. 2. He saith I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee when Davids heart was overwhelmed and ready to faint then God took him up and comforted him And when the Church was as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit then saith God with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee when Ephraim was ashamed and even confounded then saith God My bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him when Paul was pressed above measure and his own strength was found insufficient against Satans temptations then he received an answer my grace is â—ufficient for thee O beloved thus is the Covenant ordered that you shall have mercy in the fit time and help in the best time and deliverance in the best time and answers to your prayers in the best time though you have not your desires presently answered yet your God is a gracious God and therefore intends your good and he is a wise God and therefore knows the best time and he is a faithful God and therefore will lose no time 5. This Covenant is so framed that there is still a strong foundation It is so framed that there is still a strong foundation of hope and confidence for a poor sinner A foundation laid For the admission of poor sinners For the impetration of all the good a sinner needs of hope and confidence for a poor sinner and by this it appears that it is a well-ordered Covenant here is a firme foundation laid 1. For the admission of poor sinners If a Christ and Mediator if mercy in all the abundance of it if free grace in all the glory of it may be esteemed a fair foundation for hope and confidence here every one of them stands ready to make way for the sinner I will satisfie for all his sinnes and make peace for him saith Christ the Mediator I will forgive and abundantly pardon all his sinnes saith the merciful God I will love him freely and receive him graciously saith the God of love and grace 2. For the impetration and assecution of all the good that a poor sinner doth need or can desire For in this Covenant there is a Christ who merits all and a God who promiseth to give all and hath bound himself to perform all and who rejoyceth over his people to do them good and accounts it his praise and honour to accomplish and performe unto them all the good which he promiseth unto them and puts them upon it still to call and still to trust and still to receive from him 3. For the preservation and continuation of them in this Covenant for the For the preservation of them in this Covenant Lord hath sworn the everlastingnesse of it and he gives all effectually to hold up and maintain an everlasting union and communion 'twixt himself and his people and keeps them by his own power through faith unto salvation and charges none other but Jesus Christ himself to look to them and to keep them in his Name and he undertakes this charge and will fully execute it and faithfully and therefore as he conquers all the enemies of his servants sinne and Satan and the world so he furnisheth them with all graces accompaning salvation and still strengthens those graces untill they come to receive the end of their faith even the salvation of their souls Vse 1 and surely this Covenant must needs be well-ordered which opens a way to receive in poor sinners and which hath reasons within it self and Then the wisdome of God is in this Covenant as well as his goodnesse Therefore do not displace the order God hath set in his Covenant By interesting our selves in the benefits of the Covenant before we interest our selves in God upon which the received sinner may with confidence plead for all good and which will keep them for ever fast with God Is the Covenant of grace an ordered Covenant and a well-ordered Covenant then certainly the wisdome of God is in it as well as the goodness of God the goodnesse of God is in it as to all the mercies and blessings wherewith this Covenant is furnished and the wisdome of God is in it as to the placing and disposing and dispensing of all those mercies and blessings Therefore take heed of displacing that order which God hath set in his Covenant we do displace the order of the Covenant and consequently do presume to correct the wisdome of God when 1. We do apply and interest our selves in the benefits of the
of his grace and mercy unto his people Now there are foure things which magnifie God in these First his graciousnesse freely to make us to be his people A second is his goodnesse in the plentiful blessing of his people And thirdly his faithfulnesse that he will surely blesse his people And fourthly his everlastingnesse that he will never forsake his people and never will turn away from doing of them good Why this exalts his mercy indeed that it endures for ever and his love indeed that it continues for ever and his grace indeed that as it is free so it is everlasting In respect of his people The everlastingnesse of the Covenant is a just reason of perfect thankfulnesse 2. There are reasons for this in respect of his people I will mention a few of them 1. The everlastingnesse of the Covenant is a just reason of full and perfect thankfulnesse Psal 100. 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise Be thankful unto him and bless his Name Verse 5. For the Lord is good his mercy is everlasting Psal 136. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord for hâ— is good for his mercy endureth for ever 2. His people have cause now to trust on him for ever Isa 26. 4. Trust ye in His people have now cause to trust in him for ever the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Psal 62. 8. Trust in him at all times ye people pour out your heart before him God is a refuge for us Selah Vse 1 Is the Covenant which God makes with his people an everlasting Covenant then that opinion is very false which delivers out unto us such a Covenant of grace as is mutable and alterable and may be broken off and cease between God For confutation of that opinion that the Covenant is mutable and alterable and his people That a man may be made a child of God and yet may become the child of the Divel that he may be graffed into Christ and yet may be broken off from Christ that he may have true faith and grace and yet he may lose true faith and grace that he may finde love and mercy from God and yet may so sinne as actually to forfeit and that for ever all the love and mercy of God Certainly this is a very sad assertion that any person should be translated from death to life that he should be delivered from the power of Satan and translated into the Kingdome of Christ that he should be effectually called and become a believer and thereupon a Sonne of God and heire of glory that he should for a while believe and rejoyce in his God and be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise and yet upon a sudden notwithstanding all the love and promises and engagements of God unto him in Covenant his Sun should set at noon-day he and his God should part and be utter enemies again that he should cast off God from being his God and God should forsake and cast him off from being any of his people and as it is a sad opinion so it is an opinion utterly inconsistent with this truth of the everlastingnesse of the Covenant of grace A relation which ceaseth to be that relation is not everlasting and that agreement or Covenant which is broken and frustrated that Covenant is not everlasting to be temporary and to be everlasting are questionlesse inconsistent neither will that evasion of a temporarinesse on our part and everlastingnesse of the Covenant on Gods part any way patch up the businesse because there is no such Covenant of grace which God hath made with his people Jer. 31. 31. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Ver. 32. 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 unto them saith the Lord Mark the place God makes no such Covenant as shall be broken on our part but such a Covenant as shall hold and be kept on our part as well as on his part verse 33. But this shall be the 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 c. And cap. 32. 40. I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me The principal if not the onely ground of this breaking and falling opinion is a supposition of a power in the will of man according to the pleasure and use whereof the Covenant of Gods grace must stand or fall must continue or break off And to speak plainly according to the Arminian doctrine all the stability and state of a sinners salvation is made to depend upon the will of a sinner the election of God the conversion of a sinner the beneficial Redemption by Christ the perseverance in Christ and grace all of these do lie at the mercy of the will of a poor sinner and truly I must confesse that if the Covenant of grace had no surer foundation then mans wâ—ll it may quickly cease to be an everlasting Covenant But we read of other and better foundations for the perpetuity of this Covenant thâ—n mans will we read that it is grounded on the immutable counsel of God and on his absolute promises and on his Oath and on the blood of Christ confirming and establishing of it and on his power and intercession and presence and love and Spirit and faithfulnesse But as to the opinion of these men which indeed is none other but that of the To state the stability of the Covenant upon the will of man Pelagians and Papists and Arminians Give me favour to speak a few words 1. It is very improbable that God would make a new Covenant with us and state the stability and everlastingnesse of it upon the will of us sinners for hereby 1. There should be no difference as to the ground of safety and certainty Is very improbable 'twixt this Covenant of grace and that of works for if Adam had improved the power and liberty of his will he had continued and had enjoyed the life which God promised unto him Now wherein doth the grace of this Covenant exceed the other of Works if eternal life be left unto the pleasure of our will as formerly it was to Adams 2. Nay it should be harder and more unsafe for us to be in the Covenant of grace than it was for Adam to be in the Covenant of works because in that condition Adams will was created with a perfect righteousnesse and conformity and sufficiency to have continued in that Covenant but we are fallen with him and
mercy He did not leave me to my sinful heart and life he did pity and call me and brought me in to Christ and made me one of his people who aforetime was none of his people But I still finde such a body of sin such a law in my members warring against the Law of mind so many sinful corruptions within and so many strong and violent temptation without and so much weakness and insufficency in my self that fear I shall never hold out unto the end I shall one day faile and loose all my interest in God and in Christ and grace Consider To this sad complaint I would briefly speak three things There is a twofold fear 1. There is a twofold fear There is a a fear of unbelief and this is a vexing and distressing and disabling fear it loosens our confidence in God and in his A fear of unbelief this is to be resisteâ— promises It is a naughty fear and beware of it and resist it and bewaile it And there is a fear of tenderness and jealousie in regard of the Natural deceitfulnesse of our own hearts and of the supernatural weaknesse of our own strength this is a A fear of tenderness and jealousie is good good fear and blessed is the man that thus feareth alwayes The weak child feareth and thereupon cries out to the Parent to take him to hold him to support him and by his fear of falling he is preserved from falling So the child of God fears and thereupon he cries out unto his God! Lord help thy servant forsake me not make haste to deliver me keep me who cannot keep my self establish my goings Thou hast promised to keep and preserve the feet of thy Saints This fear is that fear which God hath promised to put into the hearts of his people that they shall not depart from him And indeed this fear is their strength the more of this fear the more safe they are Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Thou standest by faith Be not high-minded but fear work out your salvation with fear and trembling 2. Your standing or continuing in the Covenant doth not depend upon your own Our standing doth not depend upon our own strength strength nor doth God leave you unto that but it doth depend on his strength and on his power Ephes 3. 16. That he would grant you according to the riches of his grace to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Mic. 4. 5. We will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever and ever Zach. 10. 12. I will strengthen them in the Lord and they shall walk up and down in his name saith the Lord Though your strength be insufficient yet the strength of your God and of your Christ is sufficient for you 1 Pet. 1. 5. We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 2 Cor. 12. 9. My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness 3. The Lord is able to keep you from falling and to preserve you faultlesse before The Lord is able to keep you from falling the presence of his glory with exceeding joy Jude ver 24. Nay and he will keep you from falling Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling Psal 56. 13. Thou hast delivered my feet from falling Psal 116. 8. He will keep the feet of his saints 1 Sam. 2. 9. When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up Psalm 94. 18. 2. The everlastingnesse of the Covenant should be a Cordial to the people of God in the time of desertions when they are apt to question whether God be not Against desertion fallen off from them and hath forsaken them But consult these Promises and you may finde these fears removed Isa 49. 14. Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me ver 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee ver 16. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands Thy walls are continually befâ—re me Isa 54. 7. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee ver 8. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer ver 10. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Use 4 Is the Covenant which God makes with his people an everlasting Covenant Then blesse God and not your selves for your standing and for your continuing inCovenant with him Blesse God and not your selves for your standing in Covenant with him There are three things for which we should blesse God 1. For his restraining grace 2. For his converting grace 3. For his confirming grace that he will and doth keep you stedfast to himself in Covenant O beloved we could never keep our selves nor establish our selves were it not for the goodness and the power and the love and the faithfulness of our God we should break with God and turn aside from him and leave all truly it is almost a wonder that the people of God do hold out in keeping Covenant with God considering 1. The daily and frequent discouragements which they meet with in the world the continual scorns and threats and persecutions and affronts to their persons and godlinesse 2. The manifold allurements snares and temptations unto sin and sinful wayes by wicked example and promises and hopes and connivencies wickednesse in judgement in practice is a general infection the common aire is infected with this plague it is therefore the more hard to keep our health 3. The malice of Satan and his power and subtilty is exceeding great he desires to sift and winnow us as wheat he threw down the third part of the Stars he helped to break the first Covenant There is not any one of the people of God but may say of him as David of his enemies Psal 118. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me 4. How strongly some of the people of God have been hazarded in the lasting part of the Covenant Solomon Peter Asa insomuch as many from their falls have erected the Doctrine of the Apostacy of the Saints 5. Those many remaining Principles for inconstancy and failing as spiritual pride unbelief hypocrysie and worldliness much of every one of these still in our hearts 6. Adde to all these the exceeding weaknesse in all our graces How little faith how weak love and how apt to be shaken and offended Truely we must acknowledge that what we are we are by the grace of God and that if we be strong we are strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might and that it is the Lord who keeps us by the strength of the Covenant to continue steadfast and faithfull to the end c. Use 5 Let none abuse this sweet heavenly truth of the everlastingness of the Covenant twixt God and his people as therefore to venture upon great transgressions and say God will raise me again and shew me mercy again for his covenant lasts for Abuse not this sweet and heavenly truth ever Let me do what I list c. To such I would present a few words 1. That of the Apostle in Rom. 2. 2. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound Psal 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Rom. 6. 1. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound ver 2 God forbid This were indeed to turn the grace of God into wantonnesse as the Spider turns the sweet juice into poison 2. That of the Apostle to the Church of the Ephesians Ephes 4. 20. But you have not so learned Christ verse 21. if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus 3. Though the Covenant doth last twixt God and his people for ever yet there are weighty Reasons for them to take heed of sinning against their God 1. They do exceedingly dishonour their God by their sinning and cause his Name to be blasphemed as Nathan charged it on David 2 Sam. 12. 14. 2. They make an unkind return to their most kind God Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise doth this answer his love and goodnesse to you to chuse you for his people before other people 3. They do exceedingly grieve their God and Father This that the people of his grace should deal thus with him is a grief unto him as he was grieved with that generation forty years 4. Though the Lord will not cast off his people when they do transgress yet he will visit their sins with stripes Psal 89. 32. And those stripes may be very sharp and heavy as David found them and though David did not break his neck by his fall yet David brake his bones and a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. 5. Though the union continue twixt God and his people yet upon their great transgressions the comfortable communion will be interrupted and darkned they shall lose the joy of their salvation Psal 51. 12. 6. Though God will raise his people again yet it will cost them dear for the cure of their wounds and bruises and to put their bones in joynt again They shall know that it is an evil and bitter thing thus to sin against a God in Covenant c. It may cost them many tears and fears and prayers and conflicts and waitings c. Use 6 Is the Covenant which God makes with his people an everlasting Covenant Then let all the people of God be so wise as to use all the means to continue the Use all means to continue in the Covenant Covenant in an everlastingnesse on their part God worketh our lastingness in the Covenant by means You finde in Scripture that Spiritual means are subordinate to Spiritual ends and that certainty of issues doth take in a necessity of means The Covenant is everlasting and that it may be so therefore doth God put his people upon several wayes and duties to perpetuate the Covenant and to assure themselves it shall be so There are ten things which if you carefully heed you may be confident of the everlastingness of the Covenant 1. Keep up an humble fear I will put my fear into their hearts Jer. 32. 40. Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes Prov. 28. 14. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. Fear your wants crave supply and grow in faith 2. Be adding of grace to grace and give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall 2 Peter 1. 5 10. 3. Strive after and keep up an exceeding love of your God a superlative love This will keep you fast Saw you him whom my soule loveth I found him whom my soule loveth I held him fast and would not let him go Cant. 3. 3. 4. Keep your hearts with all diligence Look to them watch them still be mending of them and minding of them unite or joyn my heart unto thee said David Let them be much in meditating of the goodness of your God love of your God kindnesse of your God Take delight in God alone and in his wayes as the Wife in the Husband 5. Be conscientiously diligent in attending upon the publick Ordinances 1 Thes 5. 19. Quench not the Spirit verse 20. Despise not Prophecying Acts 20. 32. I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified The Ordinances are your strength They 1. Give you a sight of Gods will and wayes 2. Keep up tenderness in conscience 3. Open more fully the love of God unto you 4. Quicken your hearts 5. Increase your faith 6. Heale your corruptions 7. Convey help from Christ 8. Direct and establish your goings 6. Be much in prayer that you may be kept and held fast by God unto the end Psal 119. 8. I will keep thy Precepts O forsake me not utterly Verse 33. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep them unto the end verse 116. Vphold me according to thy Word that I may live verse 117. Hold thou me up and I shall be safe and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually 7. Remember Jesus Christ his love to you his promise to you and live by faith upon him Take hold of his strength and then you shall walk up and down and not faint Remember that he is the Authour and finisher of your faith 8. If you offend never so little return speedily to your God and judge your selves and sue out for more grace for more strength for more sufficiency from Christ let not any enmity live humble your soules and make peace 9. Beware of Seducing and Erroneous Dectrines do not affect to hear them Cease my son Prov. 19. 27. to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge Beware lest you also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse 2 Pet. 3. 17. 10. Get much experience of the exceeding love of God to you in Christ Every day get a sight of his gracious favour and be often in the consideration 1. Of what he hath done for you 2. What he is to you 3. What he will bestow on you SECT X. 10. A Tenth property of this Covenant is this It is the best Covenant Better 10. It is the best Covenant than any other Covenant Heb. 7. 22.
Jesus was made a surety of a better Covenant 8. 6. He is the Mediatour of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises There is you know the first Covenant the Covenant of Works and there is the second Covenant the Covenant of Grace which is divided into the Old Covenant and into the New Covenant Now here I shall briefly open two things unto you 1. That the Covenant of grace which is the second Covenant is a better Covenant than the Covenant of Workes which was the first Covenant 2. That the New Covenant under which we live is a better Covenant then the Old Covenant under which the Fathers did live 1. The Covenant of grace is a better Covenant then the Covenant of Works This will appear if you do consider ten particulars The Covenant of grace is a betâ—er Covenant then that of works It hath a better foundation 1. The Covenant of Grace hath a better foundation than the Covenant of Works The foundation of the Covenant of works was that power of will and righteousness wherewith Adam was created he stood upon his own bottom and was left unto his own sufficiency like the Prodigal child Luke 15. he had all his goods in his own hand But the foundation of the Covenant of Grace is Jesus Christ he is the sure foundation-stone laid in this building Isa 28. 16. and our salvation is laid upon one that is might upon one who is able to keep and to save to the utmost Not our strength but Christs strength not our undertaking but Christs undertaking not our will but Christs Mediatorship and Suretyship is the foundation of the Covenant of grace 2. The Covenant of grace hath better terms All the Articles of it are promises nothing is there required of us which is not promised unto us by God yea that It hath better terms which was required in the first Covenant as a condition is in this Covenant turned into a promise viz. Obedience to Gods Commandements Heb. 8. 10. I will put my Law into their minds and write them in their hearts And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people And that which is required in this Covenant as a condition it is likewise promised Joh. 6. 45. They shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me 3. The Covenant of Grace hath better admissions I speak in respect of us thn It hath better admissions the Covenant of Works The Covenant of works would not admit any person unlesse he were righteous and inherently righteous and perfectly righeous The Covenant of works was never made with the sinner but with the righteous it condemns and casts out the sinner but never doth accept of him or let him in But the Covenant of grace doth admit sinners if any sinner be rightly sensible of his sins and of hâ—s wants and imperfections God calls out unto him Hearken It hath more favourable proceedings with the parties brought into Covenant unto me and your souls shall live And he that hath no mony come buy and eat Isa 55. 1 3. 4. The Covenant of grace hath more favourable proceedings with the parties brought into Covenant than the Covenant of Works The Covenant of work is very sharp and quick the least transgression therein doth undo the party whether of Omission or of Commission Cursed is every one that doth not continue in every thing that is written in the law to do it Gal. 3. 10. That one sin of the Angels hath undone them for ever That one sin of Adam brought him under the sentence of death The Covenant of Works had no mercy to shew it proceeded only in a way of justice But the Covenant of grace is not so strict and quick it is a very favourable Covenant I will be merciful to their unrighteousness saith God Heb. 8. 12. And if any man sin we have â—n Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. If my people which are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked wayes Then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin 2 Chron. 7. 14. 5. The Covenant of grace hath better promises the Covenant of works so far as yet I do understand it had but one grand promise annexed unto it and that It hath the better promises promise also was but conditional viz. A promise of life upon the condition of fixed Obedience life should be continued as long as obedience was continued Do this and live But the Covenant of grace contains better promises and more promises it doth contain a promise of life upon better conditions than that of working Life is promised upon believing Believe and thou shalt be saved and besides that it contains promises of all the things that shall bring us unto that life promises of holinesse promises of strength promises of perseverance in grace And promises against all the things which might break us off from the Covenant and from the fruition of promised life and salvation 6. The Covenant of grace is more indulgent than the Covenant of works Those services which will not be accepted in a Covenant of works will yet It is more indulgent be accepted in a Covenant of Grace The Covenant of works doth so insist upon works that the least mixture of diminution or imperfection renders the work uncapable and distastful the work must be in every regard perfect for matter and manner and measure or else as to that Covenant it was faulty and rejected But this is not in the Covenant of Grace weaknesse in working and imperfection of service shall not be rejected The day of small things is not despised The bruised Reed shall not be broken The smoaking flax shall not be quenched I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him saith God in Mal. 3. 17. If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8. 12. Vnto this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word I have seen thy tears said God of Hezekiah Isa 38. 5. Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Psal 38. 9. 7. The Covenant of grace affords better pleas than the Covenant of works If a person offend against the Covenant of works his mouth is stopt and he can It affords better pleas plead nothing on his own behalf nothing at all to stay the hand of justice against him But if one sins against the Covenant of Grace he hath yet something to plead for himself why God should not reject and destroy him There are four things which he can plead One is his Relation yet thou art
our Father and we are thy people A second is the merciful nature of God ready to shew mercy and to multiply pardon A third is the death of Christ he shed his blood to make our peace and to slay all enmity A fourth is the very Covenant it self wherein God hath promised that he will not cast away and that he will heale and forgive the back-slidings of his people and though he will chastise them yet he will not forsake them 8. The Covenant of grace gives a better estate then the Covenant of works It gives a better estate we have a better estate by this then we had or could have by that 'T is true That Adam in innocency enjoyed a larger measure of knowledge and righteousness and had also free communion with God without fear and had dominion over the creatures But yet he had not knowledge of God in Christ nor any communion with God through Christ nor had he any manifestations of the glories of the Gospel by the Spirit of Christ and besides all this whatsoever enjoyments Adam had which might make up a happy estate unto him yet all that enjoyment was mutable and contingent But now in and by the Covenant of Grace our enjoyments are higher and they are also surer 1. They are higher for now we enjoy God not only as a Creator but as a Father Our enjoyments are higher we enjoy him a merciful and gracious and abundant in goodnesse and truth and we enjoy Jesus Christ in a way of union with his person being bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh as the Apostle speaks Ephes 5. 30. and in a way of communion in his death and life and victories and purchases and we enjoy the very Spirit of Christ as to all his graces and comforts and assurances 2. They are surer he enjoyed God so as yet he lost his God he enjoyed righteousness Surer so as yet he lost his righteousness and dominion so as he lost that dominion and had it not been for Christ who was immediately promised after the fall he had never found his God again nor a righteousnesse again nor any right of dominion again but in the Covenant of grace all is sure and stable and permanent God is our God for ever and we continue his people for ever Christ is our Head and we are his Members for ever we enjoy the Spirit and he abides in us for ever The Covenant of grace is a better Covenant then that of works It is better in the way and cause of Remuneration as to the way and cause of Remuneration In a Covenant of works you must earn your wages before you must be paid your wages your own doing is the price of your receiving and your reward is as your work is nothing is there expected as a bounty and gift but all runs there as debt and wages Adam could never pray under this Covenant Lord receive me graciously do me good freely for thy mercies sake But it is not thus in the Covenant of grace where he that deserves nothing may yet receive all and the unworthy sinner doth yet attain to the most excellent mercies upon the sole account of the riches of Gods grace in Christ In the Covenant of grace God doth not reward us according to our ill deeds nor doth he reward us for our good deeds But he freely pardons the ill works of his people and doth them all good not for their goodness but for his own goodnesse-sake In the Covenant of works you come to God saying Lord This I have done therefore blesse me In the Covenant of grace you come to God saying Lord This I need and this thou hast promised O give it me not for my sake but for thy truths sake and for thy Christs sake freely love me freely accept of me freely own and bless me I can shew no deserts of mine but I can shew unto thee thine own promises I can find enough in my self why thou shouldest abhor and curse me and yet I finde enough in thy self and Covenant why thou mayest embrace and help me 10. The Covenant of grace is a better Covenant than that of works in respect of a double efficacy 1. Of helping recovery 2. Of saving vertue It is better in respect of a double efficacy Of helping recovery 1. The Covenant of works never did afford help to recover any one sinner As that Commander spake of the Watchman whom he found asleep and therefore ran him through with his sword I found him dead and left him dead That we may say of the Covenant of works It findes us dead in sins and in trespasses and it leaves us dead in our sins and trespasses there is no balm for our wounds in that Covenant But the Covenant of Grace this doth help and restore sinners it is the ministry of Life and Grace and Peace But God saith the Apostle in Ephes 2. 4 5. who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ And 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his love towards us in that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for us verse 9. Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him 2. The Covenant of works did never save any righteous person What saving Of saving vertue power might be found from it upon a supposition of Adams standing I dispute not but this I say There never was any one person saved actually by the Covenant of works But yet the Covenant of Grace doth save all Believers Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 15. We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Ephes 2. 8. By grace ye are saved through faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your soules Thus you see that the Covenant of grace is the best Covenant in comparison of the Covenant of works Use 1 Is the Covenant of Grace the best Covenant The best Covenant that ever God made with man and for man How great then is their sin who refuse this Covenant Then how gâ—eat is their sin who refuse this Covenant and to come into this Covenant The greater that any mercy is our sin is therefore the greater to refuse that mercy O beloved whence is it that many of your hearts are still hardned whence is it that you love darkness rather then light why do you not hearken to this Covenant whence is it that for lying vanities you forsake your own mercies 1. Are you not sinners 2. Do
not sinners need mercy 3. Can mercy be found anywhere but in this Covenant of mercy or peace anywhere but in the Covenant of peace or life anywhere but in the Covenant of life 4. And doth not this Covenant hold out mercy unto you yea the best mercy and upon the best terms The other Covenant affords you no mercy it easts you off it condemns you to death and wrath And this Covenant yet offers you mercy and life and salvation and no Covenant but this doth so What and yet to refuse to come into it surely either you know not that you are sinners and what will befall you for your sins or else you are desperately wicked to slight and refuse the mercy and grace of God in this Covenant Ezek. 24. 13. Because I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee So may the Lord say unto some of us Because I would have shewed you mercy but you would not accept of mercy therefore you shall never have mercy And because I would have taken you into Covenant and you would not come into my Covenant of grace and life and peace I will never be a merciful God to you nor a gracious God to you but you shall dye in your sins and perish for ever Heb. 2. 3. Vse 2 How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth Then how injurious are many broken-hearted sinners to God and themselves much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven Is the Covenant of Grace the best Covenant better then any other Covenant which God made with man Then how injurious are many broken-hearted sinners both unto themselves and unto God! who lay the Covenant of grace so low and impose such opinions upon it as if there were no difference twixt a Covenant of grace and a Covenant of works Surely it is either temptation which lies upon them or ignorance or unbelief that they thus stand off and fear and dispute and except and question and many times conclude against all encouragements to be taken into this Covenant and there to finde mercy and rest for their soules truely they do many times turn the Covenant of Grace into a very Covenant of Works O but there is no mercy to be had O but not for such great sins O but for me O but I can deserve nothing and bring nothing O but the sentence is past against me O but I have nothing to make my peace And thus they make the Covenant of Grace a very Covenant of Works no better then so a Covenant without mercy without grace without a Mediatour without a tender compassionate God and Father no City of refuge at all nor help to the poor sinner at all And when they are convinced of mercy in it and possible reception into it yet they think that God will not come off to this but upon very hard and difficult terms usually annexing the Legal condition to the promises of the Covenant of Grace Why sirs what do you mean thus to wrong God and his Covenant and your distressed souls Either there is a Covenant of Grace or there is not either that Covenant of Grace is a better Covenant than the Covenant of works or it is not If it be a better Covenant then the fallen and undone sinner may finde relief there and help there which he could not finde in the Covenant of Works for if the sinner can be no more relieved by this than by that Covenant it is then no better Covenant And now see what a slurre you cast upon the wisdome of God and upon the goodness of God and upon Jesus Christ and upon all the promises of God O distressed sinner If the merciful God if the gracious God if the giving God if the forgiving God if the freely loving God if the Lord Jesus as Mediatour and Surety if all the promises of God in Christ if all the offers of grace if all the calls of the Gospel may suffice to convince thee that this Covenant is the best Covenant that ever was or can be made for sinners with all suitableness and tenderness to the sinners condition Then dispute no more but pray for faith to give God the glory of his exceeding grace in this Covenant c. Use 3 Is the Covenant of Grace the best Covenant What a comfort is this to all believers who are effectually brought into this Covenant Is it no comfort to be Comfort to all Believers brought into such a good estate as better cannot be found or enjoyed If the Covenant of Grace be the best Covenant better then any other Covenant Then all in that Covenant are in the best condition of all other men It was a special kindness in Joseph to give his Father and his Brethren a pâ—ssession in the land of Ramesis what kindness then is that in God to make you to be his people and to become your God and to settle such a portion such a possession upon your soules as in heaven and earth a better Covenant cannot be how should you hearts rejoyce and blesse God for the Covenant of Grace and for bringing of you into that Covenant of grace where A Redeemer is only to be found and you have an interest in that Redeemer A reconciled God is only to be found and you have a propriety in that reconciled God pardoning mercy is only to be found and you have your shares in that pardoning mercy Renewing grace is only to be found and you have your portion in that renewing grace Salvation is only to be found and you have your possession of that salvation Others perhaps cry out O that we might have mercy and O that we might have Christ and O that God would be pacified towards us and reconciled to us and O that our sins might be forgiven and our soules accepted into life why you have all this and more than this Have you not cause to rejoyce who are brought into such a Covenant where you have a propriety in God and Christ and the Spirit and mercy and grace and glory yea into such a Covenant where you may finde relief and support for every want and against every fear and against every sin and against every temptation where all the sorts of mercies and helps and comforts are yours Yea unto such a Covenant where there is not only mercy but fulnesse and not only fulness but freenesse and with all these a certainty and unchangeablenesse Here is as much mercy and goodnesse and happinesse as you need and you shall surely have it and it shall continue unto you for ever Adam and God parted but you and your God shall never part you and Christ shall never part you and mercy and
grace and salvation shall never part 2. The second thing which I would shew unto you about the comparison of the This Covenant is a better Covenant than that old Covenant under which the Fathers lived Covenant is this That the new Covenant of grace under which we do live is a better Covenant then that old Covenant of grace under which the Fathers lived and the people of God of old time For the managing of this mighty and intricate Point I shall deliver unto you three particulars 1. That none of the people of God in any age of the world since the fall of Adam had a Covenant of works given unto them by God for life but the Covenant which God made with them for life was a Covenant of Grace 2. Wherein that Covenant of Grace under which the people of God of old lived consents or agrees with the Covenant of Grace under which we do now live 3. The pre-eminency or betternesse of this New Covenant in a comparison with that old Covenant 1. That none of the people of God in any age of the world since the fall had a Covenant None of the people of God since the fall had a Covenant of works given them for life but a Covenant of Grace as of works given unto them by God for life but they had all of them a Covenant of Grace given unto them for life Let us if you please calculate the several Ages or times of the Church of God and then you shall clearly see the truth of what I speak 1. As soon as Adam fell God was pleased to set up the Covenant of Grace in the form of a promise for he made a promise of Christ as a Saviour and deliverer Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele Here is an express Immediately upon Adams fall promise of Christ who is called the seed of the woman because he was to take our nature upon him And the work or Office of Christ is to bruse the head of the Serpent that is Jesus Christ was to conquer and destroy him and surely the conquest and destruction of of Satan imports our full deliverance from him and restoration of us into the estate of freedom and grace and happinesse The which Christ doth by having his heel bruised that is by dying and suffering for us and hereby procuring life and salvation The Apostle calls it His putting to death concerning the flesh 1 Pet 3. 18. And in this respect Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. because the death of Christ by which our deliverance and salvation is wrought was published and promised from the beginning of the world Now there is no Covenant wherein Christ comes in on the behalf of sinners but that Covenant is a Covenant of Grace 2. Again pursue this from Adam to Abel and from Abel to Enoch and from From Adam to Noah Enoch to Noah it is evident they were not under a Covenant of works but of grace And I will give you one reason for it or rather the Apostle will do it for me who speaking of Abel and Enoch he doth commend the one for his more excellent sacrifice Heb. 11. 4. and the other for his pleasing of God verse 5. and both of them and Noah also for faith for he adds in verse 6. But without faith it is impossible to please God whence I argue thus That those persons who enjoyed such a faith by which their persons and services were pleasing unto God and graciously accepted of him those were not in a Covenant of works but in a Covenant of Grace Nay look on the words once more verse 4. By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice then Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous And verse 7. Noah became heir of the righteousness which is by faith verily a righteousnesse by faith is no righteousnesse in a Covenant of works but of grace It is that righteousnesse through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3. 9. 3. Let us advance one step further from Noah to Abraham where we shall hear From Noah to Abraham of the Covenant again Gen. 17. 2. I will make my Covenant between me and thee and verse 7. I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generation for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee Here is a Covenant expresly made twixt God and Abraham but what Covenant was it Surely not a Covenant of works but a Covenant of grace And that I shall clear unto you by four particulars which I pray you well to consider and observe 1. In this Covenant you have Jesus Christ promised unto Abraham so the Apostle in Gal. 3. 16. To Abraham and his seed was the promise made he saith not to thy seeds as speaking of many but of one who is Christ 2. Abraham In relation to this Covenant is stiled a believer yea the Father of all them that believe Rom. 4. 11. And the Gospel was the means of his faith which was a justifying faith Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed 3. He received the signe of Circumcision a seale of the righteousness of faith Rom. 4. 11. 4. Moreover it is said of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that they are in the kingdom of Heaven Matth. 8. 11. And of all the Elders with Abraham that they did desire a better Country that is an heavenly Heb. 11. 16. And this also proves that neither he or they were under a Covenant of works which never brought any to Heaven but under a Covenant of Grace for by grace ye are saved Ephes 2. 5. 5. Let us go forward from Abraham to Moses and there let us consider whether the Church were under a Covenant of works or of grace That From Abraham to Moses God set up a Covenant in Moses time the Scripture doth clearly teach us Exod. 19. 5. If ye will obey my voice and keep my Covenant Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people verse 6. And ye shall be un to me a kingdom of Priests and an holy nation Exod. 34. 27. After the tenour of these words I have made a Covenant with thee and with Israel Deut. 4. 13. He declared unto you his Covenant which he commanded you to perform even ten Commandements and he wrote them upon two tables of stone Quest Whether the Law given upon Mount Sinai were a Covenant of works Some things premised But here it is earnestly objected What was not the Law which was given upon Mont Sinai a Covenant of works what was it else but a plain
and clear manifestation of the Law written in the heart of man at the first and now revived and set on foot by God himself Sol. This is I confesse somewhat a knotty question and therefore I would speak warily unto it 1. The Law given by Moses Ministerially was partly Moral in the Ten Precepts and partly Ceremonial in the Levitical Types and Ceremonies and partly Judicial in the civil Rules appertaining to the Jews as such a Nation in civil society but the debate will principally fall upon the Moral Law 2. Which may be considered two wayes viz. 1. As to the matter of it as to which I grant that therein is the Covenant of works to be found 2ly As to the form or Sanction of it as given at this time to the people of Israel thus I deny it to be a Covenant of works Although much which was in the Covenant of works be in this Covenant yet this Law or Covenant was not given for this end to the people of Israel to be a Covenant of works unto them that is such a Covenant upon or from which they must expect life upon their doing 3. You must distinguish twixt 1. The intention of God in giving the Law and 2ly The abuse or perverting of that Law I do grant that many of the Jews did set up a Legal Righteousness for their justifications and rested upon the works of the Law as if life came by them against which the Apostle Paul doth notably argue in his Epistle to the Romans and to the Galathians But this was not the intention of God in the Sanction of the Law They never could find a justifying righteousness by the Law or works of the Law under the notion of a Covenant of works Nor did God ever propound it for that end and because I meet with this choice question I will briefly deliver my own judgement concerning it in The question answered in three particulars three particulars 1. That God never did not will set up for sinners a Covenant of Works 2. That he did not in giving the Law to the Israelites set it up 3. That this Covenant on Mount Sinai was a Covenant of Grace at least subserviently and respectively 1. That God never did since the fall set up a Covenant of Works and I will God did never since the fall setup a Covenant of works Demonstraâ—ed give you arguments to demonstrate it 1. He did set up immediately after the fall a Covenant of Grace this the Scripture clearly shews us but a Covenant of works is inconsistent with a Covenant of Grace and a Covenant of grace is inconsistent with a Covenant of works They are mutually destructive one to the other If of works then no more of grace saith the Apostle Rom. 11. 6. So that you must either deny that God did set up a Covenant of grace for sinners which the Scriptures affirm or you must grant that a Covenant of grace is inconsistent with a Covenant of works which the Scriptures deny or you must confess that there is no Covenant of works since the fall set up by God for sinners 2. If God did set up a Covenant of grace for sinners and after that a Covenant of works for sinners Then he did set up a possibility for sinners to be saved and an impossibility also for sinners to be saved The reason whereof is this There is a possibility for a sinners salvation as to a Covenant of grace where mercy may be found and there is an impossibility of a sinners salvation as to a Covenant of works where no mercy is to be found for a sinner But for God to make salvation both possible and impossible for the same sinners were most inglorious and absurd 3. To put sinners upon contradictions is no way suitable with the wisdom and goodnesse of God But if God should have set up a Covenant of works for sinners after he hath set up a Covenant of Grace he should have put the sinner upon contradictions you must believe and you must not believe you must be justified and live by works and you must not do so The Covenant of grace saith you must believe the Covenant of works saith you must not believe That saith believe and you shall be saved this saith do this and live what is this but to build up and pull down to offer mercy and to deny mercy to give life and to take way life 4. To make the Covenant of grace to be changable and void is quite contrary to the intention and purpose of God who hath made that Covenant to he everlasting and never to be altered no more then the Priesthood of Christ is changeable of which God hath said Thou art a Priest for ever But if God should set up a Covenant of works after a Covenant of Grace this would void and frustrate the Covenant of grace It would throw down Christ as a Mediatour and the Righteousnesse of Christ and all the Fabrick of a Sinners salvation by a Christ God did not make a Covenant of works with the Israelites 2. As God never did after the fall make a Covenant of works with sinners so in particular he did not make such a Covenant with the Israelites when he gave the Law unto them from Mount Sinai he did not give that Law for to be a Covenant of works which I shall endeavour to prove thus Demonstrated 1. What Covenant God made with Abraham that Covenant he made with the seed of Abraham Gen. 17. 7. I will stablish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee But that Covenant with Abraham was the Covenant of grace and the seed of Abraham were those Israelites And if those who are the seed of Abraham were under that Covenant of grace with Abraham they could not be put off to another Covenant of Works in which Abraham was not unlesse you will say that God did act in different Covenants with Abraham and his seed 2. The Apostle saith the Law is not against the promises of God Is the Law then against the promises of God God forbid Gal. 3. 21. And do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. 3. 31. Mark the Law is not against the promises nor doth faith make void the Law both these can very well agree together but so they could not if the Law had been given as a Covenant of works for now the Law would be expresly against the Promises and faith would certainly make void the Law The promises of God are contrary to a Covenant of works and faith is destructive to a Covenant of works If therefore the promises and faith and the Law can consist Then the Law cannot be set up as a Covenant of works 3. That Covenant which God made with Moses and under which Moses stood was no Covenant of works but Moses and the people of
Israel were both under the same Covenant Exod. 34. 27. I have made a Covenant with thee and with Israel If any doubt under what Covenant Moses did stand whether of works or grace let him peruse Heb. 11. 26. what a description he shall there finde of Moses He shall there finde him to be a Choice and eminent believer in Christ Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt and having respect to the recompence of reward c. Now certainly such a choice believer in Christ was not under a Covenant of work 4. That Covenant which was confirmed by blood and sprinkling which typified the blood of Christ confirming and ratifying the Covenant was no Covenant of works But the Covenant which God then made with the Israelites was confirmed by blood Exod. 24. 7. Moses took the book of the Covenant and read in the audience of the people and they said All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient verse 8. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words Now this very place is quoted by the Apostle in Heb. 9. 19. He sprinkled both the book and the people verse 20. saying This is the blood of the Testament which God hath enjoyned unto you and expresly interprets it and applies it to the blood of Christ verse 14. and veâ—se 23. And therefore that Covenant with that people was not a Covenant of works which never was nor shall be confirmed by the blood of Christ 5. That Covenant which did so convince of sin that it did also shew the way of expiation of sin and of forgivenesse could not be a Covenant of works for that Covenant convinces and condemns But this Covenant at Mount Sinai shewed sin and the way of forgiveness for it taught men to look for forgiveness in the blood of Christ specified in the sacrifices 6. If the Law had been given to the Israelites for a Covenant of Woâ—ks Then upon the breaking of that Covenant all the Israelites had been cut off from all hope of salvation My Reason is this Because a Covenant of Works once broken presently condemns and as to it Salvation therefore becomes impossible it not at all admitting of repentance or of mercy or of a righteousness and satisfact on by another But there was no such Covenant made with the Israelites as the sinning against which did make their salvation thus desperate but that upon repentance they might be received to mercy And for this see Deut. 4. 29. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt finde him if thou seek him with all thine heart and with all thy soule verse 30. When thou aâ—t in tribulation and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter dayes if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shalt be obedient to his voice verse 31. For the Lord thy God is a mercifull God he will not destroy thee nor forsake thee nor forget the Covenant of thy Fathers which he sware unto them Lo here is a way prescribed for repentance in case of transgressions And here is mercy and acceptance in case of repentance and all this in reference to the Covenant made with their Fathers and with them And are any of these to be found in a Covenant of works or upon the transgression of it 7. It had been strange kindnesse in God to help the Children of Israel out of Egypt by an out-stretched arm and after this to make such a Covenant with them that they should never have found mercy nor salvation as in a Covenant of works there is not 3. The Covenant made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai was at least subserviently the Covenant of Grace and given for gracious ends and purposes The Covenant at Mount Sinai was at lâ—ast subserviently the Covenant of grace I say a Covenant of Grace for the substance of it though propounded in a more dark way and in a manner fitting for the state of that people and that present time and condition of the Church namely so as to convince them of sin and of their own impotency and of the great need of Christ and to flie for mercy to God revealed in Christ and to be a Rule of life for a people in Covenant with God that so they might inherit the promises of mercy Gal. 3. 19. The Law was added because of transgressions verse 24. The Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified through faith This assertion I shall endeavour to make out unto you from the Word As appears by of God 1. The Praeludium unto the Law makes much for this Read it in Exod. 19. 5. The Praeludium of the Law If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people verse 6. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation And the Apostle makes use of these expressions and applies them to those who are in the Covenant of grace in 1 Pet. 2. 9. But ye are a chosen Geneeration a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar peoâ—le c. And verse 10. Which in times past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy Now I beseech you mark me Is there any Covenant unlesse that of grace wherein the Lord doth thus own and thus exalt a people Is it not meerly of the grace of God in Christ by whom we are made Kings and Priests to God Is it imaginable that any people should be as it were Gods own proper goods which he loveth which he sets his heart upon which he keeps in store for himself for his own special use which he will not part withall which God accounts as his rare and exquisite and precious treasure as all this the word Segulah doth signifie and yet this people are not in a Covenant of grace The immediate Introduction to the giving of the Law 2. The immediate Introdâ—ction unto the giving of the Law Exod. 20. 2. I am the Lord thy God which have c. why there is the very Covenant of grace here is God as our God and blessed are the people who have the Lord to be their God and here is Jesus Christ the Mediator of the Covenant implied for in Christ doth God become our God and there is our redemption from sin and Satan intimated by their deliverance out of Egypt and presently there is the worship of God instituted and appointed which if acceptable to God must be performed with faith for without faith it is impossible to please God God would not command his people so to worship him as to displease him Lev. 26. 12. I will set my Tabernacle amongst you and my soul shall not abhor
you and I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people and in the very Covenant Exod. 20. 6. shewing mercy to thousands of them that love me The Preface made before the renewing of the Law upon the breaking of the Tables 3. Upon the breaking of the Tables of that Covenant before they were written again there is such a preface made by God as can no way fit any Covenant but that of Grace as you may see in Exod. 34. 7. The Lord the Lord gracious and merciful long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiveing iniquity transgression and sin 4. The Ceremonies were Appendices of the Moral Law especially of the first and second Commandments as given to the Israelites and what did those The Ceremonies were Apendices of the moral Law ceremonies shadow out even Jesus Christ and Redemption and Reconciliation and Remission and Salvation by him c. Moses is said therefore to write of Christ Joh. 5. 46. 5. Many other Arguments might be brought as that if those people were not Many of them under that Covenant were saved in a Covenant of Grace then none of them could be saved for a sinners salvation is in no Covenant but that of Grace and yet many of them under the Covenant which God made with them were saved Acts 15. 11. We believe that through grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they c. I now proceed to the Second Particular 2. Quest Wherein that Covenant of Grace under which the Fathers lived Wherein these Covenants agree doth consent or agree with the Covenant of Grace under which we now do live Sol. They do consent and agree in three Particulars 1. In the Parties God was one party and fallen sinners were the other party in the Old and so they are in the New Covenant Before the coming of Christ In the Parties which respects the Old Covenant none but sinnerâ— were lookt on and brought into Covenant and after the coming of Christ which respects the New Covenant none but sinners which work not but beâ—ieve in him that justifieth the ungodly are taken into Covenant The Grace of God is manifested towards sinners in the one and towards sinners in the other Covenant 2. Both these Covenants had a Mediator who stood between the parties at a In the Mediator distance and reconciled them even Jesus Christ who is said to be the same yesterday and to day and for ever You have him promised to Adam and made known to Abraham who saw the day of Christ and rejoyced Joh. 8. 56. and prophecied by of Moses Act. 3. 22. Moses truly said unto the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you hear c. he was promised to the Fathers and expected oâ— them Luk. 1. 69. He hath raised up an born of salvation for us in the house of his Servant David Vers 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been siâ—ce the world began And verse 72. To perform the mercie promise to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant Vers 73. The oath which he sware unto our Father Abraham c. 3. They do agree in the main Promises the spiritual promises of good things In the main Promises Rom. 15. 8. Jesus Christ was a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers Some think that the Fathers under the old Covenant were fed only with temporal Promises Indeed they had many temporal Promises and some were of special Blessings and Gifts as the land of Canaan c. Nevertheless they had the same spiritual Promises which we have under the New Testament Forgiveness of sins besides that place formerly mentioned in Deut. 4. 29 30 c. you read of frequent Promises of forgiving of sins upon their Sacrifices in Levit. 9 and 2 Chro. 7. 14. If my people shall humble themselves c. I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin Eternal life both promised and enjoyed Many shall come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God Matth. 8. 11. They embraced the promises of a better Country even an heavenly vers 11 13 16. Prepared for them a City We hope to be saved even as they Acts 15. 11 c. 3 Quest Wherein they differ and wherein the betterness of the New Covenant Wherein they differ of Grace doth consist Sol. Although both these Covenants do agree in substance and end yet they differ very much as to the particular from of administration or dispensation I will touch only on Five differences 1 In Obscurity and Perspicuity 2 In Burdens and Liberty 3 In Weakness and Efficacy 4 In Restraints and Extent 5 In Time and Duration 1. The New Covenant is a better Covenant than the Old because there is a In Obscurity and Perspicâ—ity greater Perspicuity in the new Covenant and a greater Obscurity in the old Covenant Hence 't is that the Gospel is called The revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began But now is made manifest Rom. 16. 25 26. He doth not mean that it was kept secret or hid or covered absolutely from the beginning of the world to that time but he speaks comparatively that iâ— Now Jesus Christ and the way of salvation by faith in him appears most clearly the Sun is risen and shines without any cloud Behold the Lamb of God Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself He that believes shall be saved We are saved by grace c. I am the way the truth and the life There was not comparatively such clearness in expression in the Old Testament Hence it is that the Apostle speaking of both these Testaments in 2 Cor. 3. he tells us of a vail on the one Testament vers 14. and of an openness in the other Testament vers 18. We with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord c. Let me give you a few Instances that you may the better understand this 1. Consider Jesus Christ it is true that he was revealed in the Old and in the New Covenant but yet with a marvellous inequality of light he is called the Seed of the woman and the Root of Jess and the Oyntment and the Mighty God and the Childe to be born But the clear expression of him is in the New Covenant Luk. 2 11. This day unto you is bern in the City of David a Saviouâ— which is Christ the Lord. Joh. 1 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father Acts 11. 38. God hath anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and
it is See the antiquity of the Grace of God it hath been acting and putting forth it self from the beginning of the world it is of antient days and running along through all ages unto our age and so shall it hold on until the end of the World God hath had some ever since the fall whom he hath owned in special a manner for his people There is no age but his Covenant in some measure hath been afoot and some have been tasting of his Grace and Mercy We in our generation are not the only vessels of them thousands and thousands before us have been restored by Grace and saved by Grace Vse 2. How should this bow in our hearts to come into that Covenant of Grace This should move us to come into this Covenant which hath in so many Generations been found so full of mercy and life and to trust upon that God who is good and always keeps Covenant there is not any thing spoken of in any one Dispensation of the Covenant but it hath been still performed Surely that Covenant which hath held out so many years to so many Believers it will be sufficient and effectual for us all our days Vse 3. Then it is a gross error of the Anabaptists who put the Fathers under a carnall It discovers the erâ—or of the Anabaptists Covenant and that God fed them only with husks with Temporal Promises with earthly blessings as if they had no interest in God himself nor Christ nor Grace nor Glory whereas the Old Covenant under which they lived made up the same relation 'twixt God and them as between us and God and they had the same Christ revealed unto them as we have and their Faith looked on him as promised and to come as our faith looks on him as come and exhibited and they and we are the same children of God by faith and heirs of the same glory by Christ Vse 4. Then it is also a gross error to lay any other foundation than what is laid And their error who set up a Coveâ—anâ— of Woâ—ks â—or life my meaning is To set up a Covenant of Works for life and justification to build our confidences and hopes for life and salvation upon our own works for God as you have heard hath from age to age and from generation to generation set up a Covenant of Grace though in several ways of dispensation for his people and in these latter times as the Apostle stiles them hath setled fixed an invincible Covenant of grace to the worlds end And the Covenant of grace layes Jesus Christ alone for the sinners foundation and gives faith to lay the soule upon him not upon our own righteousness but upon his righteousness You do for lying vanities forsake your own mercies when you leave Jesus Christ and expect life from a Covenant of works Use 5 Vse 5. If they who had the Covenant of grace more dimly and darkly revealed were brought in as a people unto God what shall we say for our selves who have the Covenant of grace most clearly revealed in the Gospel and who have How unexcusable are sinners under this Covenant Christ and all the work of Redemption by Christ and all the way of salvation by Christ written as it were with the beams of the Sun what shall we say for our selves if yet 1. We remaine ignorant of mercy and life and Christ and salvation 2. We remaine obstinate and refuse to hearken unto the way of life and unto the terms of grace propounded unto us in the Gospel 3. We still receive the grace of God in vain and are no way wrought on by the ministration of the New Covenant but it is still a dead Letter unto us not a quickâ—ing Spirit c. O how inexcusable are our soules and how unanswerable shall we for all this grace of God and how heavy will the condemnation be for despising the grace of God shining amongst us with such glorious light in the face of Christ and in the Ministery of the Gospel of Christ If our Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that are lost 2 Cor. 4. in whom the god of this world hath blinded the mindes of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them verse 5. Vse 6 O what manner of persons should the people of God be in these times who live under the new Covenant the best of all Covenants Better than the Covenant of works better What manner of persons should we be For knowledge than the Old Covenant of Grace for perspicuity for efficacy for liberty c. 1. What manner of men should we be in knowledge of Christ and of the grace of God in Christ 2. What manner of men should we be for soundness of judgement in the truths For soundness of judgment of the Covenant having so much light of the Gospel revealing the Covenant 3. What manner of men should we be in the estimation of Christ in affections In estimatioâ—s of Christ and in affection to him unto Christ in love to Christ in faith in Christ to whom Christ is so fully and so evidently made manifested by the Gospel in his Person in his Offices in his Love in his Redemption in his Salvation 4. How rich in grace how abounding in every grace to whom the New Covenant of grace is preached which is of more power and efficacy than any other How rich in grace Covenant which hath a more abundant presence and influence of the Spirit As to whom much is forgiven of them shall much be required So they who have received much from them doth God expect more 5. How should you serve your God and live up to Christ in all intention of mind How should such serve their God! and fervency of Spirit and freedom of heart and chearfulness of soul and readiness of obedience who are brought into that Covenant which sets you at liberty from a world of Ceremonies and Sacrifices and restraints and besides from sin and Satan 6. How chiefly should your hearts be raised to the better promises in Christ fully How should our hearts be raised to the better promises manifested now in the Gospel In the Old Testament you finde more mention indeed of temporal blessings and the spiritual were many times vailed in them But in the New Testament you finde the greatest mention of Spiritual blessings and temporal blessings be annexed unto them And why is this but because your hearts should be more taken up with and more set upon the great things of salvation and heaven than the mean things of earth and of this life O that you had hearts suitable and answerable to the choisest chiefest manifestations of the Covenant of grace and of the blessings more fully revealed and promised in the Covenant Use 7 How should we Gentiles blesse the Lord whom he hath reserved for
the times of the New Covenant which excels the other It is to me a very considerable Mystery that the Jews who were if I may so expresse my self the Original people of God the first fruits of the creature That they should have the largest time How should we Gentiles blesse the Lord who are reserved for the times of the new Covenant under the Old Covenant And we who are Gentiles that came in as it were at second hand should have all our time under the New Covenant That they by unbelief were so quickly broken off and the Gentiles have been for so many hundred years graffed in whatsoever the mystery of this dispensation may be certainly we who are sinners of the Gentiles have wonderful cause to blesse our God who hath given us so long a day in the day of his grace and have singular cause to improve such a mercy with fear and trembling As we may see the greatness of the freeness of Gods grace and the exceeding riches thereof to us so should we both lay hold on the grace revealed and walk with more faith and humility not be high-minded but fear for we stand by faith Remember saith Paul to the Ephesians Chap. 2. 12. That at that time ye were without Christ being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world But verse 13. now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. CHAP. VI. Isaiah 55. 3. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David I Have now discoursed of the Covenant of Grace as it stands in The condition of the Covenant opposition to the Covenant of Works and I have discoursed of the Covenant of Grace as to the vital nature of it what it was and I have discoursed of the Covenant of Grace as to the Properties and Adjuncts of it Now I shall proceed unto a fourth General consideration of this Covenant of Grace and that is the condition of it The Covenant of Grace herein agrees with all other Covenants that it is a mutual obligation God bindes himself and his people binde themselves there is something which he will do and there is something which we must do I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20. 37. and surely theâ—e is a condition in that Bond. God hath his part in the Bond and we have our part in the Bond If you trace the Covenant from Abraham even unto Christ successively you shall all along finde a condition expressed and annexed unto the Covenant Abraham he believed Gen. 15. 6. And he was to walk uprightly Gen. 17. 1. and the many Rites in Moses time took in a condition of faith and obedience and so it did in Davids time and the like with the people of Israel in and after the Babylonish Captivity and so in Christs and the Apostles time SECT I. Object I Know there is a great dispute How any condition can be allowed in a Covenant of Grace And some are very eager against it and think that if any condition be admitted then presently we are Legalists and are setting up a Covenant How any condition can be allowed in the Covenant of Grace of works instead of a Covenant of Grace Sol. But I humbly conceive that there is no need of such heat nor fear of such an inconveniency in this Point if parties would but patiently hear one another and calmly consider the matter Therefore first I think it necessary to distinguish of that word condition which may be taken in a three-fold sense Distinguish of the word condition No such condition as to work any one grace in our own hearts 1. For such an Act which we may or may not perform according to the power and pleasure of our own free will without the preventing or determining grace of God And truely in this sense I know no godly Christian who doth or dare to thrust in a condition to the Covenant of Grace as if there were something to be done by us that is by the sole power of our free wills upon the drawing out of which a Covenant is made up and accomplished twixt God and us 2. For the doing of some work which hath in it a meritorious reason on our part either for the acceptance of our persons with God or for the performance of No such condition as merit and self-worthiness his promises unto us so as wages are due to a workman no such condition as merit and self-worthiness Neither in this sense dare we admit of a condition in the Covenant of Grace for the thirsty drink of the water of life freely and the poore buy without mony and without price Both our graces and our rewards are only of the grace of God in Christ 3. For some qualifications in the sinner not wrought in him by his own power but by the sole power of Gods grace without which he cannot stand in an actual relation But a qualification wrought by God without which we cannot stand in Relation to God unto God as his God nor can apply the promises of pardon and salvation by Christ unto himself In this sense we do hold a condition in the Covenant of Grace namely That something there is required of us which yet God doth promise to work in us and which he doth work effectually in the hearts of all the Elect in time therefore Faith is called the operation of God Col. 2. 12. and the work of his power 1 Cor. 2. 5. without which they cannot look on God as their God nor can apply the Promises of forgiveness and eternal life and which when they do finde wrought in themselves by the power of Gods grace they can and may apply both unto themselves In this sense there is a condition Look as to make up a conjugal Relation there is something required on either party The woman must be willing to take and receive the man for her husband as well as the man is willing to take the woman for his wife So it is in the making up of the Spiritual marriage which is the Covenant twixt God and us as he is willing to be our God so must we be willing to be his people And as be therein takes us to be his people so do we therein take him to be our God Only with this difference That in the civil Covenant of marriage our own will leads us to that but in the Spiritual God doth by his Such a condition as it is simply necessary so it is expresly deteâ—mined in Scripture Spirit work in us that will which is a condition necessary to make the Covenant between himself and us 2. A condition as thus interpreted as it is simply necessary to the Covenant of Grace being a mutual compact and not a meere promise so it is expresly determined in
Scripture Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life ye shall not perish if you do believe and ye shall have everlasting life if ye do believe Mark 16. 16. He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Isa 55. 3. Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant Exod. 24. 7. He took the book of the Covenant and read in the audience of the people and they said All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient verse 8. and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Chap. 3. 19. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out c. Chap. 13. 18. Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins verse 39. And by him all that believe are justified c 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you Verse 8. and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 3. Every condition annexed unto a Covenant doth not make that Covenant to be a Every condition doth nor make the Covenant to be a Covenant of Works except it be the same condition The Covenant of grace Covenant of Works unless you do put the self same condition into that other Covenant which is placed in the Covenant of works But thus it is not in the Covenant of grace which 1. Puts not the same condition but another condition of a quite different nature from that condition in the Covenant of work There it is Do this and live Here it is Believe and you shall be saved 2. Puts such a condition which is compatible with the grace of God Indeed works that is a self perfect and absolute obedience is incompatible and inconsistent with salvation by grace but a saving by faith is not inconsistent with Requires another condition And a condition compatible with the grace of God grace Of which if any doth doubt let him but read the Apostle in Ephes 2. 5. By grace are ye saved verse 8. By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace What can be can spoken more expresly to shew the consistence twixt grace and faith grace saves and yet faith saves ye are saved by grace through faith Now from all which hath been discovered it doth appear that the Covenant of grace can admit of a condition namely such a condition which is graciously given and such a condition which will in the nature and use of it exalt all the grace of God And truely this condition is Faith and no other thing for This condition is faith Faith 1. Is the gift of God Ephes 2. 8. and Phil. 1. 29. It doth not at all flow from our selves Therefore believers are said Joh. 1. 13. to be born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 2. And it is such a gift of God as is compleatly adopted to the Covenant of Grace To no Covenant but that and to that it is For that Covenant on Gods part is all in offers and promises and givings and faith is all in receiving and is depending and acknowledging and magnifying the grace of God And that Faith is the condition annexed to this Covenant I shall present unto Demonstrations of it you a few Arguments besides the Scriptures above mentioned to demonstrate it 1. That without which God is not our God nor are we his people And upon Without faith God is not our God nor we his people which God is our God and we do become his people and children This is a condition of the Covenant But faith is that without which God is not our God nor are we his people and upon faith God is our God and we are his people and children See it in the particulars 1. Without Faith there is no Relation by way of Covenant twixt God and us 1. For God and unbelievers are not in Covenant 2. Refusers of the Covenant are not in Covenant 3. Persons under wrath and condemnation are not in Covenant He that believes not is condemned and he shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him Joh. 3. 18. Ephes 2. 11. Remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh c. verse 12. That at that time ye 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 This was their condition before they were quickned from the dead and had obtained faith 1 Pet. 2. 10. Which in times past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy 2. Upon faith God becomes our God in Covenant and we become his people and children He upon believing becomes our God in Covenant Isa 55. 3. Incline your ear and come unto me Hear and your soule shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you And Rom. 8. 15. Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And that spirit of Adoption presupposeth faith None are sons but by faith And we upon believing do become his people and children Gal. 3. 26. Ye are all the children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus 2. That which gives you an interest in Christ the same thing gives you an interest in Faith gives an interest in Christ the Covenant of Grace For this is a sure truth that according to your interest in Christ so is your interest in God and in the Covenant Out of Christ you shall finde no God to be your God But Faith is necessary to give you an interest in Christ forasmuch as Christ becomes ours by faith By faith we are planted into Christ and built upon Christ and married unto Christ he is ours and we are his 3. If all the good of the Covenant comes unto us upon believing Then Faith is All the good of the Covenant comes to us upon believing the condition annexed unto the Covenant you can have none of the good of it but upon believing unbelief cuts you off from all title and all fruition but all the good of the Covenant comes to be setled upon you by believing If you believe you shall be saved If you believe you shall be justified and pardoned you have the
unto it in holinesse of conversation The condition in which sinners lie whiles under the Law and the curse thereof and without Christ is set forth in the 18 19 20 21. verses I will give you the The Words opened summe of it They have to do with God as a terrible Judge sitting on the Throne of his Justice This is represented by Mount Sinai that burned with fire and where theâ—e was blackness and darkness and tempest verse 18. All which shew unto us that dreadful and burning wrath of God against sinners and when he manifests himself unto them as their offended Judge then they are filled with confusion and perplexity and horror They can neither fly from this God nor yet abide his dreadful presence this is set out in verse 19. 20. as if nothing but death were to be expected and present destruction And truely the manifestations of God were then so terrible that Moses himself said I exceedingly fear and quake ver 21. No not the most righteous person is able to stand before God as a â—udge But now let us consider the other estate unto which Believers in Christ are brought by the Gospel This is set forth in verse 22 23 24. But ye are come unto Mount Sion the heavenly Jerusalem instead of Mount Sinai which was the seat of wrath ye are come to Mount Sion which is the throne of Grace And unto the City of the living God ye are not now in a wilderness condition but brought into a resting place into the heavenly Jerusalem which is the vision of peace where being reconciled by Christ you do abide and enjoy the living God for your God And to Myriades or innumerable company of Angels even the Angels are fellow-Citizens with you in the heavenly Jerusalem and in this life your fellow-servants and Ministers To the general assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven Through Christ ye are made members of the true Catholick Church of the Elect and of all Believers whose names are inrolled in heaven written in the book of life predestinated unto grace and glory And unto God the judge of all who will condemn and punish his adversaries and absolve comfort and reward and save his people according to his faithfull promises And to the Spirits of just men made perfect To the Church triumphant in heaven which is freed from all sin and misery and partakes of perfect holiness and happiness to which you have now a present right and of which are long you shall by Christ have a sure enjoyment with them that are already entred into that Possession And to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant Ye are under a Covenant of grace which proclaimes remission of sin and of which Christ himself is Mediatour and Surety by whom God is satisfied and reconciled And to the blood of sprinkling to the partaking of this blood which was shed for the remission of sins and to cleanse us from sin so that you are now justified and sanctified by him which speaketh better things than that of Abel The blood of Abel spake and cryed out against Cain for curse and vengeance but the blood of Jesus Christ speaks to God for mercy and pardon of sin and peace and life and is effectual for these Thus you see into what a surpassing condition the Gospel brings believers in Christ and of what efficacy the Apostles exhortation of them to holiness should therefore be CHAP. VII The Covenant of Grace considered in relation to Christ the Mediatour THIS last verse I have purposely chosen to carry on farher the discourse of the Covenant of Grace in relation to Christ Jesus as Mediatour The Covenant of Grace considered â—n relation to Christ as Mediatour thereof And let me tell you that herein lies the strongest hopes and the sweetest comforts and the surest grounds that we sinners have that as there is a New Covenant a Covenant of Grace so that Jesus Christ is the Mediatour thereof For set Jesus Christ aside as Mediatour in this Covenant there would be no admission of sinners into it nor any participation of the good things in it nor any ability of our standing or abiding in it I finde in Scripture a seven-fold relation that Jesus Christ hath to the Covenant Christ hath a seven-fold relation to the Covenant He is the substance of the Covenant The principal confederate party 1. He is the substance of the Covenant even the Covenant itself Isa 42. 6. I will give thee for a Covenant of the people Isa 49. 8. He is our very peace and our very life and our very salvation and if I may not be mistaken he it is that fulfils and makes the Covenant good on both sides 2. He is the principal confederate party As Adam was in that Covenant of works standing for himself and all his posterity so Jesus Christ in this Covenant of Grace for himself and all that believe on him Heb. 1. 5. I will be to him a Father and be shall be to me a Son 1 Joh. 20. 17. I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God 3. He is the Messenger of the Covenant Mal. 3. 1. The Messenger of the Covenant The Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in He it is who opens and reports unto us the good will of his Father and the gracious love of the Father and what hath past and hath been agreed on 'twixt the Father and him touching our salvation he reveals this Covenant and treats with sinners about it and shews them the way how to come in and prevailes with them by his Spirit 4. He is the Witness of the Covenant Isa 55. 4. Behold I have given him The Witness of the Covenant for a Witness to the people Rev. 1. 5. From Jesus Christ the faithful witness c. He testifies to the Covenant by word and deed and oath and his testimony is true 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy all acceptation that Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners He is the Yea and Amen to every word of promise and grace that God hath spoken concerning us that it is good and true that God hath said it and that he will performe it 5. He is the Surety of the Covenant Heb. 7. 22. Jesus was made a Surety of The Surety of the Covenant a better Testament and Covenant As God is in some respect a Surety for Christ Isa 52 13. Behold my servant shall deale prudently so Christ is a Surety for God undertaking that his Father shall perform what he hath promised Joh. 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out verse 38. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me verse 39. And this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all
particular of some men and not universal of all men for all men have not Faith nay comparatively very few have Faith Who hath believed our report unto whom is the arme of the Lord Revealed Isa 53. 1. 2. If God did really intend the Redemption and Salvation of all and every man effectually by Christ then he did intend and in time did bestow all the means which might effectually bring all and every man to the participation of that salvation by Christ for every Agent who really and seriously intends an end he doth likewise as really intend the means effectually conducing unto that end And as it doth not beseem the Wisdom of God to intend an end without meanes so neither doth it suit with the goodness and love of God to pretend a common salvation for all when yet he intends not to give meanes unto all effectual to bring them unto that salvation But God doth not give means effectual unto all and every man to bring them to salvation by Christ which I thus demonstate The means necessary to an effectual participation of salvation by Christ are 1. Outwardly the preaching of the Gospel which is therefore called the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1. 16. for therein is revealed the righteousnesse of God from Faith to Faith Verse 17. 2. Inwardly the Grace of Faith by which we are brought in to Christ and made one with him and so partaking of him we come to partake of life and salvation by him Eph. 2. 8. By Grace are ye saved through Faith And Mark 16. 16. He that believes shall be saved And 1 John 5. 12. He that hath the Sonne hath life But now God doth not give unto all and every man either of these means 1. The Gospel which is the means of Faith is not given unto all Psa 147. 19. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgements unto Israel Verse 20. He hath not dealt so with every Nation and as for his judgements they have not known them Act. 14. 16. Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own wayes And we know it by experience that the Gospel hath not been and is not Preached unto all And if it be not Preached unto all and every one how can we rationally fancy an intention in God to save all by Christ Suppose a Physician should give out that he had a medicine to cure all diseases and that he would impart it unto all that so all and every one may be cured by it nevertheless he doth indeed make it known but unto a few that he hath provided that remedy or medicine you would certainly conclude that he never intended that every one should be the better for it seeing he will not communicate the knowledge of it unto them If he will not give them the knowledge of it doth he intend to give them the benefit of it Or suppose a potent Prince should say He had provided a Mass of money to Redeem all Captives and Slaves and that it is his serious intention by that provided Treasure to Redeem and Free them all and every one yet nevertheless he never gives notice of his intention and kindness unto all of them by himself or any Messenger from himself questionless he doth not intend it For men to Print and Preach and Dispute that God intends to save all by Christ and that he gave Christ to be an Universal Redemption to set all men free c. And yet we finde both in Scripture and in Experience that God doth not give the Gospel unto all which is the Messenger bringing glad tydings and reports of Christs death and Gods Intention touching the Salvation of sinners but suffer them to live in darkness and silence not any one Messenger being dispatched to report to them and to their children any one Word of Christ or Salvation by him This cannot stand with such a serious intention in God to Redeem and Save all men by Christ Objection O but the Gospel was revealed to Adam and so continued in the posterity of Noah and so down to Christ and his Apostles and by them promulgated to all the world to all Nations to every creature Sol. We grant the knowledge of Salvation by Christ in Adam and his family in Noah and his family in Abraham and his family in the Israelites that came from him But what is this to all the rest of the world whom God left to themselves and did not make the Gospel of Salvation by Christ known And as for the Apostles their Commission was general and they did in their times make the sound of the Gospel to be heard in most part of the world but what is this to the succeeding generations of men in all the world who never heard of Adam nor Noah nor Christ nor his Apostle nor Gospel of Christ If God did intend to save all men in all generations by Christ surely he would have revealed the Gospel to all men in all generations If his intention were so rich in goodnesse unto them all his care and Providence would have been manifested unto them all Object But perhaps the reason why the Gospel did not descend in an universal manifestation of Salvation by Christ unto all succeeding generations might be the ingratitude and unbelief of those to whom it was first revealed Sol. Perhaps many of them were unthankful and unbelieving but if the knowledge and notice of salvation by Christ must presently fail the posterities of men because of the unthankfulnesse and unbelief of Parents and Predecessors then it seems that the latitude of the Gospels publication depends on the will of man and not on the will and goodness of God whose intention to publish this universal Redemption and salvation unto all is stayed and altered upon the neglect and refusal of Christ and so for their sakes there must not be now a notice given to succeeding generations who never heard and therefore never refused the Gospel 2. As the Gospel is not universally given to all so neither is Faith universally given unto all for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. 17. If therefore the hearing be not universal then unquestioanably faith cannot be universal and if faith be not universal then there cannot be an universal participation of Redemption and Salvation by the death of Christ Object But it may be replyed though faith be not universal as to every mans possession yet it is universal as to Gods intention he intended for his part and as much as concerns him to give faith to all and every man Sol. I answer thi is not true For if God intends to give faith unto all and every sinner as will put forth so much towards it as concerns him then every sinner shall undoubtedly have faith given unto him because as Christ saith Joh. 6. 45. Every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me and the
the 11. verse 4. Fourthly Jesus Christ doth professedly disown some as being such that he never had any affection or respect unto did he ever intend to dye for these and to do as much for their salvation as for the salvation of others Matth. 7. 22. Many shall say in that day Lord Lord have we not Prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Divels and in thy Name done many wonderful works verse 23. And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity Many shall say and yet Christ will say to those many I never knew He doth not say I do not now know or own you or I did once know you but I never knew you Christ is said to know his sheep Joh. 10. 14. for whom he laid down his life verse 15. But there are many to whom Christ will say I never knew you never acknowledged you never loved you never liked you no not when they Prophecied and wrought miracles in his Name Christ will not then know them because they rejected him and were wicked workers yet I never knew you There you see that this universal redemption cannot finde foundation either in the intention of God the Father or in the intention of God the Son and as Christ who wrought Redemption for sinners 3. I shall now advance to a third Conclusion that there was not an universal impetration of reconciliation and remission of sins and of eternal life by the death of Christ This is that thing upon which the Controversie about the universality of the death of Christ doth principally depend concerning which the Arminians unanimously deliver themselves thus Christus ex patris sua intentione omnibus singulis hominibus indiscriminatiâ—â— â—â—m pereâ—â—tibus quam servandis impetravit Reconciliationem cum doo â— Remissionem peccatorum vitam ateriam Christ according to the intention of his Father and his own did obtain for all men and for every man indifferently as well for them that shall perish as for them that shall be saved Reconciliation with God Remission of sinnes and life eternal Before I present you some Arguments against this Opinion I shall crave your favour that I may spread the whole summe and frame of it as it is by the Arminians themselves set forth in their writings they teach I. That upon the fall of mankind in Adam there was a gracious affection in God by which he was yet mercifully affected to love all and every man alike so as seriously to desire the salvation of all men and of every particular man Vt nullus omnino homo sit cujus salutem non velit so that there was not any one man whose salvation God did not will II. That for the extending of this favour unto all and every man Jesus Christ was sent into the word to dye that by his dâ—ath God justice might be satisfied for all the sins of all men and that thereupon Godâ— might without any prejudice to his justice Plenario voluntatis proposito velle salvare with a full purpose will salvation III. That Jesus Christ did come into the world and by his death did satisfie the justice of God and so opened a door of grace for a possible salvation for all and every sinner Mercy now being set at liberty which before was bowed up IV. That all and every sinner hath a liberty of freedom to enter into that door of grace and besides that there is so much sufficiency of help afforded unto them that if their free-will be pleased to make use of it they may accept of it if they will and if they will not it is their own fault V. That neverthelesse you must distinguish of the death of Christ according to a two-fold decree of God as they say there is One Decree which is according to his affection or will desiring to save all and in respect of this the death of Christ was an universal impetration i. e. it did work so far in relation to God that he might without any injury to himself will an universal salvation to all men and accordingly he did will and decree it Christ having impetrated it Another Decree of God by which he intended the actual bestowing giving and communicating of this salvation universally purchased by the death of Christ which they and we do call the Application of the death of Christ and this they say is Solis fidelibus only to Believers who by faith do receive Christ So that if you demand of the Patrons of universal Redemption Did God indeed desire and will the salvation of all lost sinners they answer he did But did God seriously will this yes he did And was Christ sent for this end he was And did Christ by his death procure and obtain this for all yes he did But did God ever decree or will that all and every man should have benefit by this No verily but only Believers only such as suffer themselves to believe and repent these actually are reconciled pardoned and saved Nevertheless Jesus Christ did by his death obtain this for all Universal Reconciliation universal Remission universal Salvation are purchased by the blood of Christ although some only shall partake of it All have a right in the salvation purchased though only Believers have the benefit nay though no man should ever believe yet there was an universal salvation purchased by Christ for all men Though that Assertion that all Believers and they only partake of actual Reconciliation and Remission and Salvation by Christ be a truth which we all agree in yet that there is such an universal Reconciliation Remission and Salvation purchased by the death of Christ for all men whatsoever is an opinion unto which we cannot subscribe but must reject as opposite unto Scripture and religious Reasons I shall let passe some Arguments which some make use of against this Opinion Arguments against this Opinion verse 9. 1. Some were in Hell when Jesus Christ died Did Christ obtain Reconciliation and Remission of sins and Eternal life for them If not for them how then for all and every man But did God ever intend it for them or accepted of the death of Christ for them those for whom Christ laid down his life he saith of them that they shall never perish Joh. 10. 15 28. Do not they perish who are in hell 2. How comes it to passe that many misse of heaven who yet never refused or rejected Christ If Christ obtained salvation for all and theirs it is if they refuse it not how come they to misse of that obtained salvation Misse they shall not lay the Arminians unlesse and untill they refuse but refuse say we they cannot unless it be offered and offered it is not but by the Gospel and the Gospel offers it not where it comes not but in all timâ—s and ages of men it comes not to all and every man yea that there were any inhabitants in America was
people Ver. 34. And they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more Jerem. 32. 39. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and their children after them Ver. 40. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Ezek. 11. 19. I will give them one heart and I will put a New Spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh Ver. 20. That they may walk in my Statutes and keep my Ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God Hosea 2. 19. I will betroth thee unto me for ever and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving-kindnesse and in mercies Ver. 20. I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. Hebr. 8. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people c. Quest But why is God pleased to promise to give unto his people in Covenant Why God gives spiritual blessings as well as â—emporal His people have souls as well as bodies spiritual blessings as well as temporal Sol. The Reasons are these First Because his people have souls as well as bodies and their souls do stand in as much need of spiritual blessings as their bodies do of temporal blessings Every mans soul since the fall of Adùm is in a fourfold miserable necessity which cannot be relieved but by spiritual blessings 1. In an estate of spiritual death out of which it cannot be relieved but by the donation of spiritual life a quickning by the Spirit of Christ is necessary for a soul dead in trespasses and sins 2. In an estate of spiritual enmity and that enmity cannot be slain but by the death of Christ nor any atonement peace or reconciliation enjoyed but by his blood 3. In an estate of offence and guilt which expose the soul unto wrath and punishment by reason of which the soul needs exceeding riches of grace and mercy to forgive and acquit the sinner 4. In an estate of pollution and bondage being held under the power of sinful lusts in which regard the soul needs the Lord Jesus to be redemption and liberty unto it and the soul can never be freed nor free but by Christ and his Spirit John 8. 36. If the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death If a man had all the blessings of the world riches honour friends health pleasures c. they could be of no help or relief unto his soul at all notwithstanding all these the soul still remains sinful and miserable Give the soul Christ and grace and mercy or else you give it nothing it must perish for ever without them And therefore doth God give unto his people spiritual blessings because the soul needs them and they are sutable to the spiritual necessities of the soul Secondly His people are people of another life they have the promise of eternal His people are for another life life 1 John 2. 25. This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life Titus 1. 2. Inhope of eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens But what of this will you say why hence it follows that therefore God will give unto them spiritual blessings and why spiritual blessings because spiritual blessings are necessary for them in relation unto that eternal life Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other Name given under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Loe here is a necessity of Jesus Christ for our salvation John 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Loe here is a necessity of faith for salvation Matth. 5. 8. Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God Hebr. 12. 13. Follow holinesse without which no man shall see the Lord. Joh. 3. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Loe here is a necessity of holinesse and regeneration for salvation and they are congruous and fitting us for salvation or eternal life Colos 1 12. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light It is meet to enjoy grace before we come to enjoy glory it is meet to have a conformity to Christ on his Crosse before we come to have a conformity to Christ in his Crown c. Thirdly His people are designed and set apart for special duties and services His people aâ—e set apart for special duties the which they can never performe without spiritual gifts and blessings They are to glorifie their God Isa 43. 6. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth Ver. 7. Even every one that is called by my Name for I have created him for my glory Ver. 21. This people have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my praise They are to deny themselves and to take up the Crosse of Christ and to follow him they are to crucifie the lusts with the affections thereof they are to suffer losses and reproaches and persecutions and perhaps death it self they are to fight the good fight of faith to resist temptation to quench the fiery darts of Satan to overcome the world they are to live by faith against hope to believe in hope to walk in all well-pleasing before the Lord. They are to have daily communion with God and their hearts are to be set on him and on things above Can any of these duties and services be performed by them without spiritual strength or can they partake of spiritual strength unlesse and untill God doth give unto them spiritual gifts or graces Fourthly All the people in Covenant with God they have his image restored They have Gods image restored to them unto them they behold as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. They are made partakers of the Divine nature
I will heal their back-slidings I will love them freely Zac. 12. 10. I will poure upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication c. Here only two Questions for the illustration of this Point 1. Why God himself undertakes to give the Covenant-blessings unto his people 2. After what manner he undertakes to bestow them upon his people Quest 1. Why God himself undertakes the Donative of all the blessings in Reasons of it the Covenant unto his people Sol. Reasons thereof are First No creature whatsoever can give them therefore it belongs to God alone Two things at the least are required for the giving of blessings No Creature can give them 1. One is Authority there must be a right in them as ours for what hath any one to do to give that which is none of his 2. The other is Sufficiency or ability to pass them over unto another and to make the blessings to be his Now no creature hath Authority to give any blessings why so because God only is the Lord of all blessings whatsoever they are his and of right belong unto him only Consider all sorts of blessings they are his he is the Lord of them Spiritual blessings are his mercy is his he is the God of mercy and grace is his he is the God of all grace and comfort is his he is the God of all consolation and peace is his he is the very God of peace and love is his God is love the Spirit is his and Christ is his Anointed and glory is his he is the God of glory And so for temporal blessings though they be ours many times for possession and use yet they are his for Right and Donation The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof saith David Psal 24. 1. Thine O Lord is the greatnesse and the power and the glory and the victory and the Majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine 1 Chro. 29. 11. Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thine hand is power and might and in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all ver 12. And no Creature hath Sufficiency or Ability to convey or passe over blessings for Spiritual blessings can any man give them unto himself or unto another Can any man give faith unto himself It is the work of God saith Christ it is the gift of God saith Paul Can any man give Repentance unto himself no it was God that gave repentance unto the Gentiles and the Church prayed Turn thou me and I shall be turned Can any man make his own heart holy no it is God himself which sanctifies us can any man forgive his own sinnes no who can forgive sinnes but God only And for temporal blessings can we give rain or plenty or safety or health or life or ease or quietness can we make the Cloudes to drop down or the sword to be at rest or the sick to be at rest No Creature can do any thing of itself and therefore God himself undertakes to give all the blessings in the Covenant unto his people otherwise they could never have them Secondly God will have the glory of whatsoever blessing we do receive from him God will have the glory of all our blessings He allows unto us the benefit of them and the comfort of them but he reserves all the glory of them unto himself alone Thine is the glory saith Christ Matth. 6. 13. Now upon a double account doth the glory of all appertain to God viz. 1. In that he is the End of all his works and gifts and blessings all that God manifests about the salvation of sinners is to the praise and glory of his grace Eph. 1. 6. He himself is the ultimate End of all his works and of himself 2. In that he is the Efficient Cause of all good and blessings the Apostle joynes these two together in Rom. 11. 16. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Mark the place let glory be given to God for ever and unto him alone why so because 1. All things are of him and through him he is the Efficient Cause 2ly All things are to him he is the Final Cause for which they are You have another place to this purpose in 1 Cor. 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption ver 31. That according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. If any man could be of himself the cause unto himself of any good then he might glory in himself and bless himself and say This hath mine own hand wroughâ— for me I gave life unto my self and grace to my heart and peace to mine own conscience and I wrought mine own Redemption No saith the Apostle you can do nothing it is of God that ye are in Christ and it is of God that Christ is made unto you wisdom c. therefore you may not glory in your selves but only in the Lord. If I be made high only by the favour of another and if I be made rich only by the bounty of another should I give the glory of these unto my self well then God hath a right unto all glory therefore he himself will give all grace Thirdly God himself undertakes to give unto his people all Covenant-blessings God would have the hearts of his people fâ—x't on him alone because the hearts of his people should be fixed and fastened on him alone There are two things which God cannot endure especially in his own people 1. One is a distrust of himself Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel My way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God! Isa 40. 27. 2. The other is a trusting upon the creature and now What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the water of Siber Or what hast thou to do with the way of Assyria to drink the water of the River Jer. 2. 18. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord Jer. 17. 5. No but this is it that the Lord doth require of his people viz. to take off their hearts their hopes and expectations and dependances from all other besides himself and to settle and fix them only upon himself Isa 45. 22. Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be saved for I am God and there is none else Psal 62. 8. Trust in him at all times ye people poure out the heart before him God is a refuge Selah In the Covenant God engageth his heart to us and one reason thereof is to engage our hearts to him in the Covenant he engageth his power and goodnesse and all-sufficiency
time he gives faith and Christ and Justification and Sanctification all at once as soon as the person believes he is united to Christ and hereupon justified and sanctified And others of them are of a comfortable consequence as assurance joy peace c. God doth not give these blessings first of all but after he hath given the former Ephes 1. 13. In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise mark the sealing follows the believing 1 Pet. 1. 8. In whom believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory here rejoycing follows believing Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God peace with God follows justification and therefore is it a preposterous course for any troubled souls to presse God or to expect from God the comforts and joys and assurances promised before they have faith and are in Christ for though God doth promise these things yet he promises to give them in an orderly way the graces first and then the comforts of grace faith and union with Christ first and then the joys and peace depending upon that union 5. When God undertakes to give all blessings unto his people in Covenant this He gives according to the proportions and measures he knows best for us in our places and conditions must be understood according to the proportion and measure which he knows best for us in our places and conditions There is a measure of apprehension of Christ and of our justification by Christ and of our salvation by Christ God gives a greater and clearer and more fixed measure of the apprehension or reflexive knowledge of these to some of his people then he doth to others of them And there is a measure of holinesse some have higher and some have weaker degrees of grace now in Gods undertaking to give all spiritual blessings you must not think that God intends to give every measure or degree of grace at once nor yet the like degree of grace unto every one nor yet the like measure of comfortable evidences or apprehensions of interest in Christ and remission and salvation by him no but God will give all Covenant-blessings unto all his people in such a proportion and measure in this life as may conduce most to his glory and may most fit them in their private and publick conditions for his better service Vse 1 Strive to believe and acknowledge this truth that God himself doth undertake to give all the blessings of the Covenant which do concern his Believe and acknowledge this truth people Object Why will you say no man doubts it or scruples it but it belongs to God and to him alone to give all c. Sol. I wish that â—â—me were true but if indeed this were so then 1. Why do not we in all our wants and necessities make our prime applications unto God Why do we think least of him and last of him we run to this creature and to that creature set up one friend and look upon another try all the powers and abilities here below as if God were least of all concerned in the donation of our mercies and blessings if we did indeed believe that God himself undertakes all blessings for us then our first addresses would be unto him our first work and our great work would be with himself alone to do us good 2. Why do our hearts go and come rise and fall according to the presence and absence of visible means and helps in the prevalence of them our hearts are raised up with hopes and in the absence of them they are distracted and cast down with fears Would it be thus with us if we did indeed believe that God himself undertook to give us all our blessings certainly we place our hopes and expectations below and besides God himself when inferiour causes have such a command and such an influence upon our hearts If we did believe that God himself that he alone were sufficient and faithful it would be all one to us whether the creatures smile or frown incline toward us or fall from us 3. Why do we not only for temporal supplies but also for spiritual mercies undertake for our selves and as it were discharge God from undertaking for us How often do we undertake the spiritual charge of our hearts and to make our own hearts to repent and to believe and to subdue our own sins and to do such and such commands of God by our own free-will and by our own strength if we did believe that God himself undertakes for all these and that it belongs unto him alone to give them would we presume upon our selves thus would we take his work out of his hands 4. Why dare we not in our exigency commit all unto him and quietly rest on him but when our helps and hopes are reduced only unto him so that unlesse he himself appears we can cast Anchor nowhere else and although in such cases he doth plainly appear in his Covenant graciously undertaking and faithfully promising to help and blesse us yet this is nothing to us it doth no way affect or support us assuredly either we do not know this God aright or else we do not believe that he himself doth undertake for us or else that he will performe and Not to believe and acknowledge this truth is a great sin Wherein the sinfulnesse of it lies make good what himself hath undertaken Beloved Consider what I say this is a very great sin thus to fall short in the belief and acknowledgement of this truth for 1. You deny God to be God in the Covenant you do as it were shut him out from being a party there and concerned there though indeed he be the confederating party and we are the confederated party yet you include him and deny him to be so when that you believe not that it belongs to him to be the suscipient party and your selves to be the recipient party only for I beseech you what will you make of Gods covenanting with you more than a cypher if you do not grant and acknowledge him therein as engaging himself to give us all the good which we do need What other work is there which can or doth concern him 2. And you do hereby deny all homage unto him for how can you 〈◊〉 unto him for any one good that you want or trust on him for any one â—â—â—cy if you do not acknowledge this truth that he himself undertakes to give all blessings and mercies unto you and where will you put your mite of thankfulnesse for all your receits of blessings if God himself did not undertake to give you the blessings what ground have you to undertake to give him the praise of them Therefore earnestly strive by faith to assent unto this truth which I have delivered it is of more consequence than you are aware of it is that which gives life unto you in all your dealings with God and which may
people in Covenant he gives them only upon account of his graciousnesse in Covenant he will and doth give them not for any worthinesse in them but only upon the account of his own graciousnesse In this Chapter you have God undertaking all sorts of mercies for his people and it is observable that both Antecedently and Consequently he disclaims all worthiness of them on his peoples part Ezek. 36. 22. Thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Name sake ver 32. Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you Deut. 7. 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor chuse you because ye were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people ver 8. but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the Oath which he had sworn unto your Fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bond-men from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt Consider all the blessings of the Covenant for soul or body for this life or for the next life Spiritual or temporal the reason of them lies not in our worthiness but only and altogether in Gods graciousness not in the receivers but only in the giver See it in these particulars First That God loves us and makes a Covenant with us this comes to pass not God loves us from his own graciousnesse for our worthiness but from his own graciousnesse Ezek. 16. 6. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live ver 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was a time of love and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakednesse yea I sware unto thee and entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine Secondly That God gives his Son Jesus Christ this respects no worthiness in God gives Chrâ—st of his oâ—n graciousness us but his own graciousnesse Rom. 6. 5. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly ver 8. God commendeth his love towards us that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. Thirdly That any man is effectually called unto Christ this doth not arise from Effectual calling is from Gods graciousness any dignity in us but only from Gods graciousnesse 2 Tim. 1. 9. who hath called us with an holy calling not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Fourthly That any man is Sanctified and renewed by the Spirit of Grace this So is Sanctification comes not from the account of any thing in us but only from the account of Gods graciousnesse Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour 5. That any man is Justified there is no reason for this in our works but in And Justification his grace Rom. 3. 23. For all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God ver 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sins according to the riches of his grace Sixthly That any man is Saved and comes to the enjoyment of eternal life this depends not upon our worthiness but on Gods graciousnesse Ephes 2. 5. By And salvation grace ye are saved ver 8. By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God ver 9. Not of works least any man should boast Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Seventhly Nay all our temporal blessings do flow not from our worthiness but from his graciousnesse Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered And all temporal blessings him up for us all how shall he not also freely give us all things 2 Sam. 7. 21. For thy Word sake and according to thine own heart hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant know them For the further discussing of this Point I will shew unto you 1. That God doth not enjoyn on his people nor expect from them any worthiness God doth not enjoyn nor expect any worthiness as a reason of his blessings Three Demonstrations of it as a reason of his blessings 2. Why all his blessings are given unto us upon the account of his own graciousness First That God doth not enjoyn on his people nor doth he expect from them any worthinesse as a reason of any of his blessings Indeed he doth command his people to â—eek unto him and to trust upon him for all that good which he promiseth to give unto them But for any personal worthiness as a reason of his goodness and bounty unto us this he neither requires nor expects For First A personal worthinesse of the blessings of the Covenant is impossible on our part we are in an absolute incapacity of meriting any good from the hands of A personal worthiness on our part is impossible God Dan. 9. 7. O Lord Righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day O Lord to us belongeth confusion of face c. Isa 64. 6. We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Consider either our best doings or our greatest sufferings no merit or worthiness is to be found in either of them For our doings when we have done all that we can Christ saith that we must say and confess that we are but unprofitable servants Luke 17. 10. For our sufferings the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the which glory shall be revealed in us But let me now punctually demonstrate this Assertion that there can be no worthiness or meriting from us for any good thing 1. No gift of God can really merit for us any good from God but all the good that we have is the gift of God Ergo. The fiâ—st Proposition is clear because in receiving what is only given an Obligation rests only upon us but none upon the giver and therefore we merit nothing Simile no more than a beggar can merit from us by receiving an almes
in a very good estate when he is in a very wicked estate and a man may think he hath every grace requisâ—te to salvation when indeed he hath not any one of them he may deceive himself about repentance and about faith and about love c. For there is no true grace but there is also a counterfeit of that grace which may look like it but it is not so Ahab humbled himself and so did Hezekiah but his humbling was of another sort David repented and so did Judas but Davids repentance was of another kind than his Simon Peter believed and so did Simon Magus but Peters faith was another kind of faith than his There are three Grounds or Reasons upon which men may and do deceive Three grounds oâ— this deceit themselves that their Faith is the true Faith which shall bring Remission of sinnes unto them when really their Faith is not that Faith unto which forgiveness is promised 1. They finde some things which are the Ingredients of true Faith which yet are They finde some ingredients of Faith which are but common ingredient but common ingredients which another faith may have that gives not title unto forgiveness of sins As suppose knowledge and assent unto heavenly truths these are in that faith which gives us the Remission of our sins though not as giving that Remission and these may be in a faith which shall never bring you to the Remission of your sins 2. They finde some affections like unto those which come from true faith Some And some affections 〈…〉 suddain joyes and delights and desires upon hearing the Word and yet these are not those joyes which do flow from faith but are suddain and tranâ—â—ent Raptures flowing only from their own self-deceiving perswasions and not from any certain knowledge of union with Christ 3. They finde some kinds of conforming of themselves unto the Word in matters And some 〈◊〉 to the Worâ— of practice reforming and doing many things and yet this is not that conformity and that obedience which flows from true faith For it is not internal but only external and it is not universal but partial Let the same word strike aâ— a separation 'twixt their hearts and their beloved sin and presse them to a strictnesse of holy walking their Faith will not be able to bring them up to a subjection therein unto the will of Christ 4. These things being premised I now come to set out before you that Faith What that Faith is which will certainly get the remission of sins Faith well seated for the truth and quality of it which will certainly get you the remission of your sins That Faith First It alwayes follows special contrition and humiliation for sin For Faith cannot act on Chrst as a Saviour untill I finde my self a sinner needing him to be my Saviour and therefore the ordinary usual way of the Spirit is to convince of sin and to lay us low in the sense thereof and to break down all our high imaginations and self confidences that we come to see no hope but in the free grace and rich mercy of God in Christ before he conveyes Faith into our soules Luk. 3. 5. Every mountain and hill shall be brought low c. Ver. 6. and all flesh shall see the salvation of God Acts 16. 29. He came in trembling and fell down ver 30. and said Sirs what must I do to be saved ver 31. and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved 2. Is wrought in us only by the power and mighty working of the Spirit of Christ Faith rightly caused So the Apostle in Ephes 1. 19. called there the exceeding greatness of his power and the working of his mighty power The Spirit of Christ doth accompany and actuate the Gospel and it sets it on upon the heart for the truth and goodness of it with such Majesty Authority and Efficacy that the poor sinner is not able to resist and withstand the precept of Faith but is made willing and ready and yields up his heart to receive the Lord Jesus Christ Thirdly It is alwayes raised by Evangelical offers and premises when the Lord And well grounded works faith indeed and draws the heart to believe on Christ the heart takes ground and encouragement for this from the Offers and Invitations and Commands of the Gospel Come unto me saith Christ this is his Commandement that we should believe And from the Promises He that believes shall be saved Come unto me and I will give you rest c. Fourthly In true Faith the whole heart or soul is carried out unto Christ True believing is a believing with all the heart the whole heart yields unto Jesus Christ And unites the whole heart to whole Christ the understanding admires at the glory and at the kindness and goodness and love of Christ the judgement is filled with choisest thoughts and highest estimations of Christ None like Christ and none but Christ the will falls in with Christ freely readily fully O Christ thou art my chiefest good and blessedness and Christ hath all the affections of desire love delight and joy these are taken up and filled with Christ c. Faith brings in all to Christ Fifthly True Faith sincerely sets up all Christ takes and sets up Christ as our Priest for Expiation of sins Reconciliation Intercession and him alone and as It sincerely sets up all Christ our Prophet to teach and instruct us and as our King to rule us to destroy his enemies in us to give us Laws to receive obedience from us Sixthly True faith eternally unites the heart to Christ neither earthly preferment It eternally unites to Christ on the one side nor persecutions and discouragements on the other side can separate the heart of a true believer from Jesus Christ In a word true faith which hath the promise of forgiveness of sins doth not only know Christ but approves of Christ not only approves of Christ but receives Christ not some of Christ but all Christ not with some part of the heart but with the whole heart not for a time but for ever not upon our conditions but upon his own conditions not occasionally and upon an exigence but freely and upon choice not only for safety but also for service nor only for profession but also for union and communion It matcheth us to Christ as a Wife to the Husband it unites us to Christ as Branches to the Vine it joynes us to Christ as Members to the head Beloved this is that faith which is necessary for the remission of our sins If you have not a Faith produced by the mighty working of the holy Ghost if you have not a faith planted in a broken heart if you have not a faith grounded on Gospel-offers and promises if you have not a faith which brings in all your heart to match with Christ if you have not a faith
several experimental attainments of the people of God in this one particular David gained this assurance of the pardon of his sins in Psal 103 3. So did Paul when speaking of Christ who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. and 1 Tim. 1. 15. But I obtained mercy So have many thousands more in former times and in our times who believing rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory for their interest in Christ and in the forgiveness of their sins in and for him Fifthly But lastly propend the advantages which would certainly result The advantages of it unto you upon the assurance that God hath for Christs take forgiven your sins what comâ—ortable advantages First This would quiet all your fears and possess your consciences with peace Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. 1. I will lye down in peace saith David Psal 4. 8. Having got assurance Ver. 6. Secondly This would be a spring of joy and rejoycing â—sal 51. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Ver. 7. Thou shalt put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and wine increased Thirdly This would raise chearful confidence in your approaches to your God Hebr. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience c. Fourthly This would fully answer all temptations Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed Fifthly This is it which would bear up your hearts in all the sad days which do or may befall you If you be sick this would be better than health what a cordial did Christ deliver to the diseased man in Matth. 9. 2. Be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee If you be persecuted and troubled this would be a triumphant security unto you Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness op peril or sword Ver. 37 Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 5 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God Ver. 3. And we glory in tribulation I confess that faith can make a man to submit in a cross but assurance will make a Christian to triumph on it and over it Sixthly What shall I say more this assurance would make your whole life a delightful Paradise and your death at the last a desirable and quiet harbour and passage 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens If your sins for Christs sake be pardoned and you are assured thereof by the testimony of Gods Spirit then unquestionably there is no condemnation unto you and then as unquestionably your souls shall be saved and everlastingly blessed for Justification doth infallibly end in Glorification c. SECT III. Vse 2 AS I would have you to strive after the assurance that your sins are forgiven in the blood of Christ so in the second place I would have Be careful you be not deceived about it you very careful and circumspect that you deceive not your selves with a false assurance in this great and mighty business There are four sorts of people in the world 1. Some have no kind of assurance at all nor do they look after any 2. Some apprehend the want of assurance and are weeping and praying for it 3. Some have attained unto a true assurance and are rejoycing and blessing God for it 4. Some do deceive themselves with a false assurance that their sins are pardoned when indeed there is no such matter For the better managing of this Caution not to deceive our selves with a false assurance I will deliver my self in four Conclusions 1. It is possible thus to be deceived 2. Many have in this deceived themselves 3. Many do deceive themselves with a false assurance 4. It is a most dangerous deceit First That it is possible for men to be deceived with a false assurance and perswasion that their sins are pardoned and that God is reconciled unto them I It is possible to be deceived do not know any one thing in reference to salvation but it is possible for some or other to be deceived in or about it It is possible to mistake a false Religion for a true Religion It is possible for a man to please himself with false graces instead of true graces and with false repentance instead of true and with false faith instead of true and with false love instead of true and with a false perswasion or assurance instead of a true perswasion and assurance Are you assured that Christ is yours and God is yâ—urs and pardoning mercy is yours and salvation is yours another even upon deceivable grounds may be falsly perswaded of a propriety in all these Error is a natural to the corrupt judgement of man as any other sin and heart-deceitfulness is as proper unto us as heart-sinfulness Besides Doth not the Prince of darkness often change himself into an Angel of light And as he deludes men about the state of grace so he can as easily delude them about the comforts of that estate Why is it not as probable that Satan may render a bad estate as good and so cheat us with joy as he doth sometimes render a good estate as bad and so oppress us with fear and grief Nay once more Men will set up such opinions as do easily lead them into a false assurance v. g. 1. That God is made up only of mercy 2. That Christ dyed for all none excepted 3. That it is but to cry God mercy and all is well 4. That a good heart and a good meaning is enough and that they always have had Secondly As it is possible so it is real Many have deceived themselves with a false assurance instead of a true The Jews did so who called God Many have deceived themselves their God and their Father and insisted upon it with Christ that so it was and that they were his children and free-men So did Laodicea cheat and delude her self with a false perswasion that she was rich and increased and stood in need of nothing Revel 3. Nay the Apostle Paul he himself was thus deluded I saith he Rom. 7. â—9 was alive once without the Law 2 Cor. 10. 7. If any man trust to himself that he is Christs c. Did not they deceive themselves with a false perswasion who call upon Christ to open the door of heaven unto them Lord Lord open unto us Matth. 25 11. And they also who plead with Christ and contest with him Have we not
him and will manifest my self unto him I beseech you to remember five passages 1. That men who make no conscience of their ways but walk licentiously and dissolutely they can never come to their assurance Isa 59. 8. The way of peace they know not Isa 57. 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Psal 119. 155. Salvation is far from the wicked for they seek not thy statutes 2. That the people of God for particular failings in a conscientious and careful walking have forfeited their assurance David did so Psal 51. 8 11 12. 3. That assurance is frequently promised to an upright conscientious careful walking Psal 11. 7. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Psal 50 23. To him that ordereth his Conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God 4. That such persons have found abundance of joy and comfort 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with flesh wisdome but by the grace of God we had our Conversation Psal 119. 165. Great peace have they which love thy Law 5. That all persons that do thus walk and continue so to do although for some space of time they may not finde this assurance yet they shall at length enjoy it Psal 97. 11 Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart Simile The seed which is sown lies for a while under ground but at length it appears therefore you who desire to enjoy the pardon of your sins this do 1. Keep up a mourning heart for your sins 2. Enter into and keep on in the paths of righteousness follow on to know the Lord and ye shall know him Hosea 6. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. Fourthly An humble dependance upon the Lord graciously to work this comfortable An humble dependance upon God to work it in us assurance in our hearts although we be utterly unworthy thereof Psal 33. 21. Our hearts shall rejoyce in him because we have trusted in his holy Name As you can plead no worthiness of pardoning mercy so neither of the assurance thereof but only in Christ and therefore you must depend upon God who loveth freely and receiveth graciously that he according to his promise and for his Christs sake will make his face to shine upon you Go in peace your sins are forgiven you Vse 4 Doth the Lord promise to sprinkle clean water upon his people then do you whose hearts the Lord hath sprinkled with the assurance of the pardon of your You that have this assurance sins remember and heed a few things which do especially concern you First Be you exceedingly thankful indeed you cannot but be so if God hath Be thankful thus sprinkled your consciences to bring you into Covenant and to assure you that you are so to bring you into Covenant and to assure you that you are Christs to forgive you all your sins and to assure you thereof O how great how sweet is this goodness Mercy and the assurance of mercy love and the assurance of love a good estate and a comfortable estate life and the assurance of life heaven and the assurance of heaven this was the first desire of the Church Cant. 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for thy love is better than wine and this was the last desire of the Church â—ant 8. 13. Cause me to hear thy voice Assurance is the top of all our comfortable mercies and the top of all our desires Be chearful Secondly Be more chearful in your spiritual course when God gives you assurance Simile he doth as it were take the ring off his own finger and put it upon yours saith David Psal 105. 3. Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord. How joyful then should the hearts of them be that find the Lord When Simeon got Christ into his arms he rejoyced The possession of Christ and the evident fruition of pardon are matter of great joy walk like pardoned men and like a people assured of a reconciled God in Christ Thirdly Be very watchful no mercy must make us secure assurance it self must Be very watchful make us the more vigilant Christ was tempted after that voice came from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And Pauls temptations were very strong after that he had been wrapt up into the third heaven Let me tell you two things and they may serve to make you watchful after your sweetest assurances 1. One is that still much of sinful corruption dwells in you though assurance doth for the present clear the mind of all doubts yet it doth not cleanse the heart of all sins 2. Another is that temptations usually attend assurances Satan is an enemy to our comforts as well as our graces and sometimes they prevail over us if they find us careless Fourthly Be very faithful and stedfast He will speak peace unto his people and to Be faithful his Saints but let them not turn again to folly Psal 85. 8. Sin should be most odious when mercy hath been most gracious O do not for a taste of sinful pleasures lose all the taste of most sweetest assurance sinnings do most provoke God and prove most bitter to us after the greatest experiences of Gods loving kindnesses Fifthly Be very fruitful the assured Christian of all others should be the tallest Be very fruitful Cedar the brightest Sun and most fruitful Vine Who should abound more in duty than he who hath found God most abounding to him in mercy I will say no more but this thy assurance was never right if it hath not made thee a more zealous friend for God and a more diligent servant to Christ and a more deadly enemy to sin Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh CHAP. VII Sanctification promised as well as Justification AS the former words contained the promise of Justification in the forgiveness of all the sins of all the people of God so these words do contain the promise of Sanctification in the renewing of all the hearts of all the people of God In them there are three things very observable First The Connexion of this promise with the former in that particle also also a new heart will I give unto you Secondly The Authour or undertaker of the particular good promised viz. God himself I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you Thirdly The very blessing here distinctly promised by God unto his people a new heart and a new spirit From these Parts there are three Propositions which I would briefly discourse upon I. That Sanctification is promised unto the people of God
for ye are bought with a price 1 Cor. 19. 20. 2. Of all the Services of the Elect He hath delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve him in holiness and righteousness Luk. 1. 74 75. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. 3. Of all Graces for the Elect the donation of the Spirit as to all the effects of grace is the fruit of his death and purchase not only eternal glory but renewing grace is purchased by Jesus Christ Thirdly The Lord doth put several duties and services upon his people which God hath several services for his people are impossible for them to perform unless he did give them a new heart an heart changed and renewed by grace They must deny themselves they must love the Lord their God with all their soul and all their might They must hate every evil way They must walk uprightly They must be contented in all conditions They must resist temptations and wrestle against principalities and against Rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places They must overcome evil with good They must love their enemies bless them that curse them and do good to them that hate them They must be ready to do every good work They must take up the Cross and suffer reproaches and losses they must persevere to the end It is impossible for a natural heart to perform these Is there not then a necessity of renewing grace to enable the heart for these Fourthly Again The people in Covenant they have a new and choice relation They have a new relation and must have natures sutable to it No people have such a relation as they and unless they were renewed by grace they could never hold that relation God is their God and their Father and they are his children they are his sons and daughters 2 Cor. 2. 18. I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty and Ver. 16. Ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people this is their relation but then mark what he infers from this in Ver. 17. Wherefore come from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you q. d. Holiness is necessary for this relation you must be separate you must be renewed you must have no communion with sin you must be another kind of people you cannot hold communion with me nor will I own you for my people and children if you do so c. And Christ is their head and they are his body this is another relation Colos 1. 18. He is the head of the body the Church Now is Christ the head of profane and ungodly men Is he the head of the dead or of the living Do not the head and the body agree in the same kind of nature and life Are not they who are joyned to the Lord one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. Certainly as all who come from the first Adam do bear his image so all who are of the second Adam do bear his image Ergo. They must be a redeemed and sanctified people Fifthly I will adde one reason more why God will give unto all his people The congruity of it as to their Conversation a new heart and it is this The congruity of it for that conversation which they are to have amongst men both good and bad First For good men they are to have society and communion with them With good men in all holy things and in all holy duties their hearts should be knit unto them in love their delight should be in them as in the excellent of the earth and you know the mutual comfortings and edifyings and strengthnings and spiritual supportings which believers should be to one another But this requires a new heart untill that be given there can never be that love that delight c. Secondly For wicked men the people of God are to shine amongst them as With wicked men lights Phil. 2. 15. and to win them by their godly walking at least to stop their mouths and make them ashamed that falsly accuse their good Conversation in Christ they are to convince them and reprove them c. But all these things would fail they could not be if God did not renue and change the heart of his people by grace c. SECT II. Vse 1. Doth God promise to give unto all his people a new heart and a new Then many are not Gods people they have their old hearts still spirit here it follows that many people are not the people of God in Covenant because they have not a new heart given unto them but they have still their old hearts and old spirits their old corrupt lusts which they obey and serve and which they will hold fast and will not forsake For the managing of this Use I will briefly shew you two things 1. The infallible Characters of an old and unclean heart 2. The woful miseries of people still retaining those old hearts 1. The Characters of an old or unrenewed heart Characters of an old heart The Scripture gives us five Characters of an old heart i. e. of an heart never yet changed or renewed by grace First Ignorance generally the sinful estate is set out by ignorance 1 Pet. 1. 14. Not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance Ignorance Eph. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them Acts 17. 30. The times of this ignorance God winked at There are three things of which if a man be ignorant he is unquestionably in an old sinful estate 1. Himself if he knows not what a wicked wretched vile and miserable heart is within him and how accursed he is by reason of it 2. Jesus Christ and the mystery of salvation in and by Christ 3. The excellency and necessity of the new creature of Regeneration and renewing grace this man is still in his sins he is in the gall of bitterness he is dead c. The first work of the Spirit is to open the eyes and to turn men from darkness to light Acts 26. 18. And to give knowledge of salvation Luk. 1. 77. To enlighten the understanding Eph 1. 18. There begins the first change and dawning of Christ and grace therefore if that be not done the old heart remains Secondly Carnal security and quietness a perpetual silence and rest Luk. Carnal security 11. 21. When a strong man armed keepeth his Palace his goods are in peace where sin reigneth and still keeps possâ—ssion all is quâ—et the man feels not his burden nor wounds not wants nor
of his ways but when that comes then he judgeth of himself as he is and of his ways as indeed they are and have been Psal 73. 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a Beast before thee 1 Tim. 1. 15. To save sinners of whom I am chief and for his wayes he now looks on them as ways of death and paths of hell in which who so walks shall find no rest nor peace In respect of God and his ways God is now look't upon as an only happiness and could I enjoy him for my God in Christ I were blessed for ever and his ways are righteous and good and holy and most pleasant and only safe the way of Repentance the way of faith the way of holiness the way of a godly Conversation how excellent how beautiful how desirable are all of them to an heart renewed by grace which yet in former times were judged with scorn and contempt and hatred Thirdly Where the Lord gives a new heart there he gives new cares and New cares and requests requests Before the Lord renews the heart by grace a sinner is very careful and very careless He is very careful for two things One is for the world What shall I eat and what shall I drink and wherewith shall I be cloathed Matth. 6. His heart is set on the world and he minds earthly things and his heart goes after his covetousness and who will shew us any good his affections are set on things below The other is for his fleshly lusts They that are after the flesh minde the things of the flesh Rom. 8. 5. And they make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13. 14. But he is very careless about his soul therefore he is said to despise his soul and not to know the day of his visitation nor the things which concern his peace and to make light of the invitations of Christ But when the Lord begins to renew the heart by grace there are new cares and new desires O how the soul is taken with the soul and for the soul Lord What will become of my poor soul and what shall I do for my poor soul if I get not Christ my soul is lost and if I get not mercy I am undone Take the world who will and take sinful pleasures who will but O Lord be merciful to me a sinner and O Lord be thou reconciled to my soul and lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Every new heart hath new thoughts and cares and desires What shall we do said they to John the Baptist Matth. 3. And What shall we do said they to Peter Acts 2. 37. And What shall we do to be saved said he to Paul and Silas Acts 16. 30. Fourthly If a new heart be given there will then be found in you the presence New principles of all new principles which are contrary to all the old principles in the old sinful heart there is not any one spiritual and heavenly principle respecting salvation but they may be found in you v. g. 1. Ignorance that is one principle of an old heart the contrary unto it viz. Knowledge is given when you come to partake of a new heart Colos 3. 10. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge Eph. 5. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. 2. Carnal wisdome that is another principle of the old heart the contrary unto that is given to a person when God renews his heart viz. Spiritual and heavenly wisdom a wisdom for salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. A wisdom unto that which is good Rom. 16. 9. A wisdom to approve the things that are excellent Phil. 1. 10. A wisdome to know the times or seasons of grace and to imbrace and improve them Hebr. 3. 3. Vanity of spirit that is another old principle in the old heart an old heart is a vain heart and an old mind is a vain mind but when the Lord gives a new heart he then gives a spiritual seriousness unto the heart To work out its salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. And to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Hebr. 12. 28. And to give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 1â— And taking heed of neglecting so great salvation Hebr. 2. 1 3. 4. Hardness this is another principle in an old heart the heart is a stony heart Ezek. 36. 26. and an heart of Adamant Zach. 7. 11 12. But when God gives a new heart there is a principle contrary unto this put into the heart namely a soft and tender and mournful heart Josiah had a tender heart 2 Chron. 34. 27. God maketh my heart soft Job 23. 16. They shall mourn as one mourneth for his only son Zach. 12. 10 5. Pride this is another old principle of the old heart Mark 7. 22. so Psal 73. 6. Pride compasseth them about as with a chain So Jer. 48. 29. We have heard the pride of Moab he is exceeding proud his loftiness his arrogancy and his pride and the haughtiness of his heart So Rom. 1. 30. Deceitful proud boasters But when the Lord gives a new heart there is a principle of humility given which is contrary unto that pride of heart Deut. 33. 3. All his Saints are in thine hand they sit down at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words Psal 131. 1. Lord my heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty c. Ver. 2. Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a childe that is weaned of his mother my soul is even as a weaned childe Acts 20. 19. Serving the Lord with all humility of minde 6. Stubbornness of resistance and unyieldingness this is another principle of an old heart an old heart is a stubborn heart as for the Word which thou hast spoken in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee said they to Jeremiah Jer. 44. 16. Ye always resist the Holy Ghost ye stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart said Stephen unto them in Acts 7. 51. But when God gives a new heart there is given a contrary principle unto this even a yielding and obedient spirit to the Word and Will of God Acts 9. 6. Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 10 33. We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Isa 66. 2. To him that trembleth at my Word Psal 119. 161. My heart standeth in awe of thy Word Rom. 6. 17. Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered you 7. Hypocrisie this is another principle in the old heart an old heart is an hypocritical heart it is full of guilt and deceit Jer. 17. 9. Deceitful above all things But when the Lord gives a new heart he gives a principle contrary to this viz. sincerity and uprightness of heart and a true heart John 1. 47. Behold
ways of worldly advancements and advantages But the rule which a renewed heart sets up to guide and prescribe him is none other but that which God himself sets up for his people to walk by and that is his written Word Psal 119. 105. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Ver. 133. Order my steps in thy Word This rule he sets up for all matters of faith and for all matters of fact this I must believe because God reveals it and commands me to believe it this I receive for truth because God delivers it for truth and that I reject as erroneous because the Word of God condemns it as contrary to the truth And this work I do and that way I walk in because God sets it out in his Word for me and that I do not do and so and so I dare not walk for I have no Word of God for it nay the Word of God is against it why mans heart is right indeed it is renewed by grace but if a man will walk contrary to this rule if he will not speak and live according to this Word it is because there is no light in him Isa 8. 20. SECT V. Vse 4. DOth God promise to give unto all his people in Covenant with him a new heart and a new spirit then there is comfort and joy to Comfort to those that have a new heart all those who finde the new heart given unto them it is true that when the Lord doth renew the heart of any by his grace and separate them from the world unto himself that 1. They shall meet with many troubles and scoffs and reproaches and persecutions from the world All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecutions 2 Tim. 3. 2. They shall meet with many temptations and oppositions from Satan if he cannot hinder grace and conquer grace yet he will molest and disquiet grace 3. They shall meet with many conflicts and warrings within their own hearts and with many weaknesses and failings and tryals nevertheless their condition is a very happy and comfortable condition and there are eight Eight comforts proper to them choice comforts which are proper to every renewed person and which may cheer up his heart all his days v. g. 1. Newness of heart is a sure and infallible testimony of the best and of the greatest matters which can concern the soul 2. This newness of heart is an unquestionable effect of our union with Christ 3. It is the noblest and highest elevation of the soul here on earth and the clear evidence of the presence of the Spirit of Christ 4. It enables you for all heavenly communion and serviceableness to Divine glory 5. God will own and accept of it and the fruits of it though but little and weak 6. He will strengthen and uphold and perfect it unto the day of Christ 7. He will poure upon every person who enjoys it all necessary blessings for this life and will take special notice of him and care for him in the days of adversity 8. Renewing grace shall without all doubt bring us at the last to eternal happiness First Newness of heart is a sure and infallible testimony of the best and of It is a clear testimony of the greatest matters which can concern the soul the greatest matters which can concern the soul There are six things which do concern the soul as nearly I think as any can and of every one of them is renewing grace a sure testimony 1. The love of God 2. The election of God 3. A relation to God 4. A change from death to life 5. The pardon of sin 6. The hope of glory 1. Of the love of God that the Lord doth indeed set his special love A testimony of the love of God his very heart upon a person 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God Psal 146. 8. The Lord loveth the righteous for any to be made the sons of God this is an effect or fruit of the love of God now all the sons of God are new born they are born again of the Spirit Joh. 3. 5. Ephes 2. 4. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us Ver. 5. even when we were dead in sins and trespasses hath quicked us together with Christ As it is one of the greatest testimonies of Gods hatred and wrath for any to be left to his old sinful heart and lusts and ways so it is one of the greatest testimonies of Gods love when he pities them in their sinful condition and delivers them out of it and gives his Spirit to enliven and renew them by grace 2. Of the Election of God for this see two places 1 Thes 1. 4. Knowing Of election Brethren Beloved your Election of God Ver. 5. For our Gospel came unto you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost Eph. 1. 4. He hath chosen us in him that we should be holy Holiness or renewing grace it is as one speaketh the counterpane of Gods decree of Election God by his own eternal prescience knows whom he intends for salvation and we by that work of renewing grace in our hearts come to know that eternal purpose of his grace concerning us it being given unto us an effect flowing from his Election and in order unto that happiness unto which he hath chosen us 3. Of our Relation to God as our God and our Father as none but his Of our relation to God people and children are holy so all his people and his children are holy Isa 63. 18. The people of thy holiness they are 1 Pet. 2. 9. an holy Nation and a peculiar people 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch no unclean thing Ver. 18. And I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 4. Of our translation from life to death See Isa 4. 3. He that is left in Of our translation from death to life Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem Ezek. 16. 6. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Luk. 15. 32. This my son was dead and is alive again Rom 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God Renewing grace is one of the strictest differences between men of death and men of life not any man hath it but he who is made alive by Christ and is in the state of life no profane person hath it nor doth any hypocrite partake of it 5. Of the pardon of our sins if any
and with this hedge hath our portion been secured Yet this Providential mercy and goodness of God doth not work kindly and effectually on the hearts of many men no penitential plyableness and obedience at all Hos 11. â— I drew them with cords of a man with bands of love and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws and laid meat unto them Ver. 5. But they refused to return Rom. 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of the goodness and forbearance and longsuffering of God not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ver 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart c. Nay instead of yielding unto and complying with God by reason of his good hand of blessing many sinners do therefore grow more disobedient and wicked I spake unto thee in thy prosperity but thou saydst I wilt not hear Jer. 22. 21. Deut. 32. 15. But Jesuron waxed fat and kicked then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation Secondly Gods merciful Treaties The Lord sends the Gospel unto a people His merciful Treaties and by that sets open his Mercy-seat and sets up his Throne of Grace and proclaims himself to be the Lord the Lord gracious and merciful in goodness and truth and by it reports unto sinners that he hath raised up an horn of salvation for them that he hath out of his infinite love sent his own Son Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners and that whosoever believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life And he offers his Christ unto sinners invites them commands them earnestly urgeth them to come unto him to receive him to believe on him and assures them of the pardon of all their sins and of eternal life nay intimates clearly that though they have no worthiness yet they may come and drink of the water of life freely O what merciful dealing is this and yet after all this the hearts of many sinners are no more stirred or drawn than the stones or Rocks Who hath believed our report saith the Prophet Who hath believed our report said Christ Matth. 23. 37. Who hath believed our report said the Apostle Sinners are not gathered and ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Joh. 5. 40. Thirdly Gods merciful Strivings what he offers by his Word he presseth the His merciful Strivings same ofttimes by his Spirit who follows our hearts with one work after another with Humiliation and then with Conviction and then with Pulsation and Excitation the Spirit of God doth ofttimes make sinners to see their sins and their need of Christ and that their life and health and hope is oâ—ly in him and in no other Name and that they shall certainly perish and be damned if they believe not nay he troubles their Consciences and sets them a work to regard Jesus Christ and to comply with his excellent self and gracious offers and yet all this is lost many sinners harden their hearts and will not put their necks into his yoke they will not have him to raign over them Fourthly Gods merciful waitings The Lord doth not presently take the denial His merciful Waitings and forfeiture but waits that he may be gracious comes to the door again renews the offer sends one servant and a second and a third gives yet more time he waits thus on sinners more than three years sometimes more than twenty years sometimes more than fourty years sometimes more than sixty years for so long and perhaps longer doth he continue his Gospel to them yet after all his patient waiting many sinners do continue as they were ignorant proud obstinate impudent and unbelieving and are not drawn either by the goodnesse or by the patience of his grace Fithly Gods merciful warnings when all this works not on sinners then the His merciful Warnings Lord gives notice unto them that if they will not hearken unto his voice of mercy he will forsake them he will give them up unto their own hearts lust and they shall perish and never enter into his rest Joh. 8. 24. If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins Hebr. 2. 2. If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward ver 3. How shall we escape if we neglect such great salvation which at the first began to be spoken of by the Lord Heb. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven And yet all the warnings of God that he will not bear any longer that he will close up the day of grace that refusers of his grace in Christ shall not escape but shall receive a just recompence of reward for their disobedience I say all these move not many sinners at all but though they must die in their sins perish and be damned for their unbelief yet will they not yeild to come to Christ Sixthly Gods merciful recoilings or repentings i. e. when the Lord being so His merciful Repentings contemned and provoked by proud and obstinate sinners draws out his wrath and is now ready to execute vengeance on them that obey not his Gospel his hand is even stretched out to destroy yet his bowels work within him and his mercy prevails with his justice for a little forbearance and trial Luk. 13. 7. Behold these three yeers I come seeking fruit on this figtree and find none cut it down O Lord let it alone this year also c. Hose 11. 8. How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together ver 9. I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man Nevertheless though God repents of his wrath yet how few do repent of their sins they do not return to the Lord nor seek him for all this by all which it doth evidently appear that many sinners are destitute of all spiritual softness and tenderness of heart 2ly The convictions in a defective way that many persons do deceive Convictions that many deceive themselves in a false softness themselves with a false softness of heart There are six sorts of softness or tenderness of heart with which many do deceive themselves instead of this true spirituall softness of heart v. g. 1. Exigential softness 2. The Legal softness 3. The Partial softness 4. The Temporary softness 5. Worldly softness 6. The Desperate softness and tenderness First The Exigential softness and tenderness I mean that which ariseth only from fear of punishment as in Ahabs case or from that present sense of
Every one of Gods people hath so much of the spirit as is necessary to salvation Sixthly Though none of the People of God in this life have the Spirit in perfection yet every one of them hath so much of the Spirit as will bring him to salvation For he hath so much of the spirit as will bring him to Christ and he who hath as much as will bring him to Christ certainly he hath as much as will bring him to heaven Again he hath as much of the spirit as doth sanctifie and renew and regenerate him and therefore he hath as much as will bring him to salvation Matth. 5. 8. The pure in heart shall see God 1 Pet. 1. 3. We are begotten again to a lively hope Ver. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away reserved in heaven for us SECT II Vse 1. DOth the Lord put his own Spirit within his own people Then let Try whether we have the spirit within us all of us look well to this whether we have within our hearts the the Spirit of God yea or no. O beloved think much and often of that expression of the Apostle in Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his he hath no part in Christ who hath no part in the Spirit of Christ There are four Reasons why I should press this great search and great care upon Reasons of this search you to know whether God hath put his own Spirit within you 1. Because many persons have not the spirit of God 2. Because many persons do deceive themselves with a false and lying spirit instead of the Spirit of God 3. Because many have the spirit as to many effects and works yet the spirit is not fully given to them 1. Many persons have not the Spirit of God Many have not the spirit of God They who blaspheme the Spirit First What think you of those who blaspheme and scoff at the Spirit As those Jews did at the effusion of the Spirit upon the Apostles These men are full of new wine Acts 2. 13. And ordinarily among our selves the Spirit of God is jeared derided mocked and reproached in his graces which he bestows upon the people of God O these are men of the Spirit these are the Saints your holy brethren and your holy sisters forsooth they are full of the Spirit Ah thou profane wretch unworthy to live among Christians and unworthy of the name of a Christian who darest thus openly to reproach the holy God and the holy Spirit of God! and the graces in the people of God which are the excellent faculties of the Spirit promised unto all who are in Covenant with God! Is the Spirit of God a scorn unto thee is any work of the Spirit a derision unto thee is holiness the chief of all his works a matter to be scoffed and mocked at O how wicked art thou what a child of the Divel art thou what an Atheist how deep in the guilt of blasphemy will the Lord ever pardon thee can'st thou ever repent can'st thou ever be saved who deridest the Spirit without whom and his holiness without which there is no salvation Secondly what think you of those who do despite to the Spirit of grace Who do despite to the spirit of grace of such you read in Heb. 10. 29. And have done despite unto the Spirit of grace Men do despite to the Spirit of grace many wayes 1. When they have base thoughts of Jesus Christ and his blood treading under foot the Son of God and counting the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing these the Spirit sets forth as most high and precious and worthy of all reverence and acceptation but when sinners come to despise Christ and his blood looking on them but as common and ordinary things and regarding them no more than the dirt under their feet they do now despite unto the spirit of Grace they do now prejudice and disgrace and dishonour and shame him in his Revelation and Commendation of Christ and his blood 2. When they will sinne on purpose to vex and grieve the Spirit when they know Who sin on purpose to grieve the Spirit such or such a work or way is evil and displeasing unto him they will therefore chuse to do it knowing that it is grievous and vexatious to the Spirit as they in Jer. 44. 4. Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate Ver. 5 But they hearkned not nor inclined their ears And verse the 17. profess that they will burn incense unto the Queen of heaven c. Thirdly what think you of those that either have no work of the Spirit within Who have no saving work of the spirit in them them or no saving work of the Spirit within them have those the spirit put within them The spirit is never present in any but there is some work or other of the spirit appearing in them for he is most active and working some way or other in the hearts of those where he is present and dwells Ergo. But in some persons 1. There is no work of the Spirit at all neither highest nor lowest the lowest works of the Spirit within men are illuminations and pulsations when he enlightens sinners to see their sins and moves and stirs them to leave their sinnes and gives them some trouble for their sins But many persons there are who never had any light from the Spirit to see their sins nor were they ever troubled for their sins nor did they ever find those strong motions and perswasions of the Spirit to leave their sins 2. Though in many persons these common works of the Spirit may be found yea so many works as the Spirit useth the Ministry of the Law for as Illumination Conviction Excitation Humiliation and Terror and Fear yet in them we no Evangelical and saving works of the Spirit to be found no works of Regeneration no works of union with Christ no hungring and thirsting after him no faith in him no love in him no holy sorrow no repentance no newness of obedience no walking and living in the Spirit c. Fourthly What think you of those who have in them another spirit quite contrary Who have in them another spirit to the Spirit of God even that spirit which works effectually in the children of disobedience and in whom all the qualities and works of a contrary spirit are manifestly appearing and ruling The Spirit of God is a pure and holy Spirit but they are unclean and unholy The Spirit of God is effective an humble and lowly Spirit but they are proud and lofty and arrogant The Spirit of God is meek and gentle but they are turbulent and furious and violent The Spirit of God is merciful and compassionate but they are unmerciful incompassionate cruel and bloody The Spirit of God is a Spirit of love and of peace but they are full of
Causally in us c. 3. Without faith no salvation He that believes not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. But without the spirit there can be no faith because that grace is the fruit and effect of his Almighty power So now you see plainly the infinite misery of being destitute of the Spirit of God Quest But how may we know whether the Lord hath put his own Spirit within How to knw that we have the Spirit of God us that the spirit of God is given to us indeed Sol. This may be known 1. By the works of the spirit 2ly By the qualities of the spirit 3ly By the properties of such who have the spirit in relation unto the spirit 1. By the works of the spirit The spirit of God is a vigorous and active and operative spirit and By the works of the Spirit when he is indeed put within any mans heart there he works in order unto the salvation of that man for unto that do all the works of God the Father as our Father tend and unto that do all the works of Christ the Son of God as our Redeemer tend and unto that do all the works of the spirit of God within us tend What are the works of Gods Spirit in them that shall be saved Now the works of the spirit in them which shall be saved are these .. Conviction 1. Conviction Joh. 16. 8. And when he is come that is the spirit whom Christ calls the Comforter ver 7. he will reprove the world he will convince the world of sinne Simile As when the light of the sun shines in a room this opens and discovers all the nastiness and sluttishness in the room so when the spirit of God comes into the heart he doth by his own light clearly discover and represent the sinful foulness that lies therein Here now I will briefly speak unto two Questions Quest 1. How the spirit convinceth a person of sin Sol. He doth convince of sin 1. By opening the Law of God unto us partly in the spiritualness of it as How the Spirit convinceth of sin reaching not only to our outward words and actions but also to our inward thoughts and affections both in the commands of it and likewise in the prohibitions of it that God doth not only command of us a Righteousness and holiness of conversation but also a righteousness and holiness of heart and nature not only that we do good but also that we be good not only that we hear him but also that we know and love and fear and trust upon him not only that we draw near unto him with our lips and bodies but also that we draw near unto him with our hearts and serve him in spirit and in truth That God in his Law doth not only forbid and condemn sinful words and deeds but also sinful desires and delights and motions not only murder in the hand but murder also in the heart not only adultery in the act but adultery also in the heart as Christ assures us himself in Matth. 5 28. Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Perfection of it that it is so precise and exact that it expects from us not this or that particular duty but an universal obedience and full conformity unto all and every particular which is required and not for some little space of our life but constantly and invariably as to all the time of our lives and if we fail either in the fulness or in the continuance of obedience at any time in any particular presently the Law pronounceth a sentence of curse against us Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all these things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Secondly By opening our sins the transgression of the Law unto us Rom. By opening our sins to us 7. 9. When the Commandement came sin revived and I died i. e. when the Law came accompanied with the Spirit of God now sinne revived now it appeared now I saw what a sinful creature and what a miserable creature I was This is certain that when the spirit of God doth convince any one of sinne he then doth by an invincible evidence or lâ—ght so set out a mans sinful life and heart that he cannot but confess and acknowledge the same and withall himself to lye under the curse of God as long as by unbelief he remains in his sinful estate Quest 2. Whether a wicked person may not be convinced of sin and if he may how then can this work of conviction be any distinguishing character that we have the spirit Sol. To this I answer First I do not make every work flowing from the Spirit a character of his What are not characters of the presence of Gods Spirit gracious presence not illumination not conviction solitarily considered by themselves alone but as concomitantly considered with other more powerful and effectual works of the spirit following them 2. But secondly there is a difference between that conviction of sin in wicked The difference between the convictions of the wicked and the godly men and that in the people of God and the difference lies thus First The conviction in wicked men is ordinarily levis mollis it is such an evidencing of their sins as doth not much afflict and distress them indeed they cannot deny but that they are sinners yet they hope to escape well enough for all this c. Secondly The conviction in wicked men is ordinarily semiplena imperfecta it is of some outward gross sins as swearing lying adultery drunkenness but for all these they think their hearts are as good as the best they are seldom convinced their sinful hearts and natures and that original sin which is the fountain of all sins and which pollutes the whole soul Thirdly The conviction in wicked men if it be full and strong it is but Judicialis it is not Remedialis it is not in salutem but proves only in perniciem for when they are so convinced either they sin more desperately against the convincing light of the Spirit or else they fall into despair as Cain and Judas and Spira crying out that their sinnes are greater than can or shall be forgiven But now the conviction of sin by the Spirit in the people of God is another kind of conviction For 1. It is deep and powerful it makes discovery of the very root and foundation What is the conviction of the Spirit in Gods children of all sins even of that corruption and vileness in the heart In sinne did my Mother conceive me said David Psal 51. 5. And I see another Law in my members said Paul Rom. 7. 23. And Ecce cor meum Deus meus ecce cor meum said Austin Ah Lord what a wicked heart had I c. 2. It is graciously effectual this work of conviction works graciously upon
them and in an order to Christ and their salvation by him for by this they see that there is no longer staying or resting in their sinful conditions but then they must and will arise from their sleep in sin By this they find there is nothing in themselves for them to rest upon for when the Spirit indeed convinceth us of our sinful condition as he doth therewith convince us of the curse and wrath so doth he at the same time convince us of our own personal impotency and insufficiency and that there is no help at home if they are there they perish By this they are occasioned and indeed do actually look out for Christ and Righteousness and Peace and Salvation by him and in the event come in to him stoop unto all his Precepts and gladly accept of him and them and with all their hearts do magnifie and bless the grace of God for appointing and setting up such a way of life for miserable lost and self-undone and self-unable sinners Secondly Humiliation this is another work of the Spirit when he is given unto Humiliation us Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear If they had not received it again then sometime or other they had received that spirit of bondage to fear Indeed it is a question whether any who are by faith brought into Christ are under the spirit of bondage to fear but it is I think without all question that the spirit of bondage to fear goes before the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And so likewise is it without question that humiliation for sin or bondage unto fear is the work of the Spirit for none but the Spirit of God can work that work within us Now there are two things in that expression the Spirit of bondage to fear Whar is the spirit of bondage which I intend in that outward humiliation First An apprehension and feelling of our present sinful condition of which we have been convinced as our bondage or slavery which you know is 1. A base and contemptible condition 2ly A restrained and depriving condition 3ly A subjected and stooping condition to the will of another 4ly A laborious and toylsome condition and that upon very hard and cruel terms 5ly A vexations and grievous condition even ready to break the heart 6ly A most dangerous condition wherein our life lies at the mercy of him who hath it in bondage every hour 7ly It is a most wearisome and burdensome condition one would be most glad of escape and deliverance out of it Thus it is with a man who hath received the spirit of bondage 1. He looks on his sinful condition and on himself as vile and base and cryes out like the Leper unclean unclean like Paul O wretched man that I am 2. He looks on himself as in prison as one shut up and shackled and fettered no liberty no power to any good 3. He looks on himself as fallen into the hands of the living God and righteous God who may when he will execute his fierce wrath upon him 4. On himself as a very drudge to sin at the command of every lust and working out his own damnation 5. He feels this condition full of vexation and terror and burdensome so â—hat his very soul doth fail him and he knows not what to do with himself nor for himself 6. And oftimes in the anguish of his spirit cryes out O who will pity who will deliver me who will break the bonds of my distress Secondly A sad expectation of evil setling upon the soul which is here called fear for fear is the expectation of evil The humbled sinner lying under the spirit of bondage is farre from jollity and mirth and vain confidences he fears what the holy and righteous God who hath revealed his wrath from heaven against all ungodliness will do unto him for all the sins of which he is guilty And he fears exceedingly to dye in this condition if I dye I am damned for ever and he fears to come near to God he is afraid that God will never look on him nor answer him nor shew him mercy in a word he is a very troubled sinner for what he hath done against God and for what God may justly do against him Object But will some say Doth every one who receives the Spirit of God Whether all the godly have first the spirit of bondage find it thus with him hath every one the Spirit of bondage to fear Sol. I answer every one who hath the Spirit hath this those in Act. 2. 37. found it thus Paul in Act. 9. 6. found it thus the Jaylor Act. 16. 29. found it thus only you must distinguish 1. Of the intentions and measures of it All that have received the Spirit have not the like equal measure of bondage to fear Some drink deeper of the cup than others It is terror in some and burden in others it is horror in some it is only pain in others it is the breaking of the bones in some and only the lash of the rod on others 2. Of the duration and continuance of it Some are longer under the spirit of bondage than others are Simile As some women have quicker labour and others have stronger and longer labour So some have a longer time of humiliation for their sins than others have Some are under trouble of Conscience for many years some only a few dayes and then they meet with Christ and are eased Object But this work of humiliation cannot be any demonstrative note of having the Spirit of grace because many wicked men living and dying so have had this work of humiliation Sol. Humiliation may be considered two wayes 1. As a meere Legal and Judicial work for sin as it is a pure retribution of wrath and horror upon the conscience and one of the first fruits and taste of deserved damnation Thus I grant that a Cain and Judas may meet with it 2. As a preparatiâ—e work of the Spirit for Christ thus it is not given to any but to such whom God intends to convert and save by Christ Quest But may some reply There lies the Question How may one know that How to know which is true humiliation this work of Humiliation is not a judicial but a preparative work Sol. It may I humbly conceive be thus known When humiliation is a preparative work of the Spirit First Then the heart is troubled for the filthiness of sin as well as for the guiltiness of sin Not only because God may punish us but also because we have offended God not only because I am a guilty sinner deserving and feeling wrath but also I am a filthy and defiled creature destitute of the image and glory of God Secondly Then the heart is broken from sin as well as for sin sin troubles me and I trouble sin former sins are my burden and grief and present sins is become the
if I may so speak the very Genius and natural disposition of the holy Spirit to be casting out pulling down cleansing and purging of all our impurities and fleshly lusts which are so contrary to his nature and so offensive unto his presence Hence it is that he maintains a constant and perpetual war with sin in the hearts of the people of God till at the last he gives unto them a compleat and perfect victory Now from what I have delivered in this concerning the Spirit of judgement and of burning two things will flow 1. A conviction unto some that they have not yet received the Spirit of God because 1. They have not received the spirit of judgement to disallow and condemn their sinful lusts and wayes but are so far from it that on the contrary they do approve them and defend them and support them and cannot endure to hear the reproof and condemnation of them from the Word or Ministry or any other but presently they rage and swell and grow discontented and malicious and revengeful 2. They have not received the spirit of burning to abhor their sins and to crucifie them forasmuch as they do still love their sins and will serve them and will not forsake them Job 20. 13. But their great delight is in their sinful wayes and they hold fast their iniquities and hate to be reformed surely these persons have never received the Spirit of God 2. A comfort unto others that they have received the Spirit of God Because 1. They do judge themselves and really do disallow and condemn all sin in themselves Rom. 7. 15. That which I do I allow not 2. They are daily mortifying their sinful lusts by striving after a fuller fellowship in the death of Christ by relying on sin-subduing and mortifying promises and by constant hatred and opposition of their lusts which war against the law in their mind so that they will not serve sin any more and though as the Apostle spake in 2 Cor. 10 3. they walk in the flesh yet they do not warre after the flesh Secondly The Spirit of God is the Spirit of knowledge and wisdom so you read in Isa 11. 2. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Ephes 1. 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Whosoever hath the Spirit of God that man hath wisdom given unto him by the Spirit not carnal wisdom but heavenly wisdom true wisdome indeed which wisdom appears in four things First as to the subject If thou be wise saith Solomon thou shalt be wise for thy self Prov. 9. 12. And herein is a mans wisdom for himself when he principally minds and looks after and spends his choysest cares and layes out his chiefest pains to make sure work for the saving of his immortal soul That man is wise indeed and he only is wise who so attends his soul that he is never at rest untill he finds his soul to be ready in a safe and sound condition And thus doth every one who hath the Spirit of God given unto him he is by the Spirit made wise unto salvation What shall I do to be saved Act. 16. 30 He workâ— out his own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. And gives all diligence to make his calling and election sure 2 Per. 1. 12. 2ly As to the Object in making choice of the best and most necessary object for the soul and in refuâ—ing that which is pernicious and impertinent And this wisdom all have who have the Spirit of God For 1 They pitch upon the most excellent and most necessary object to enjoy that viz. God to be their God and reconciled Father and Christ to be their Lord and Redeemer and Saviour One thing is necessary and Mary hath chosen that good part c. 2. They abhor sin which is the pernicious object I hate every false way said David Psal 119. 104. And Solomon saith Prov. 14. 16. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil 3. They are above the world which is the impertinent object for the soul We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4. 18. Thirdly As to means and wayes tending to the fruition of eternal blessedness These they find out and in these they walk untill they come and appear before God Repentance Faith Holiness Righteousness Love new Obedience Uprightness these are the vety paths and wayes to heaven and all these do they chuse and walk in who have the Spirit of God given unto them Psal 119. 30. I have chosen the way of truth Ver. 35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandements for therein do I delight Isa 26. 7. The way of the just is uprightnesse Fourthly As to time or season Eccles 8. 5. A wise mans heart discerneth both time and judgement And this part of wisdom also is found in all that have the Spirit of God There is a day of visitation a day of knowledge of the things which do concern our peace Luke 19. 42 44. A day of salvation an accepted time 2 Cor. 6. 2. A time when Christ offers himself and love and mercy and happiness and strives with the hearts of men to know and accept of him And this time they who have the Spirit of God discern and do lay hold on and do gladly embrace they do not slight nor delay nor harden their hearts But while it is called to day they hearken Like the wise Merchant who as soon as he found the pearl of great price sold all and bought it Matth. 13. 45 46. Now if this wisdom of the spirit be as indeed it is the evidence that we have the Spirit O how few then have the Spirit of God given unto them Who takes care in the first place for his soule and makes sure the salvation of it Who sets his heart upon a God upon a Christ upon Reconciliation upon pardoning mercy and not rather upon his sins and on the world Who knows the day of grace the day of his visitation the day of his salvation the accepted time Who chuse the path of holiness the way of uprightness c. 3. Thirdly The Spirit of God is the Spirit of power and he is such a Spirit in and unto all unto whom he is given Rom. 15. 18. The Gentiles were made obedient Ver. 19 By the power of the Spirit of God 2 Tim. 1. 7. God hath given unto us not the spirit of fear but of power Isa 11. 2. The Spirit of the Lord is there called the Spirit of might Ephes 6. 10. Be strong in the Lord aâ—d in the power of his might The Spirit of God is a most strong
seed and living which shall never be cut off Thirdly In their graduaâ— measures and quick operations herein there may be a decay and quickning Rev. 2. 4. I have somewhat against thee because thou In their gradual measures hast left thy first love Ver. 5. Remember from whence thou art fallen and dâ— thy first works Rev. 3. 2. Strengthen the things which remain and are ready to die Fourthly In their sensible and comfortable manifestations and here likewise they may be extinguished at least for a time Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me In their sensible manifestations the joy of thy salvation He had lost it by his sinning c. Now the people of God who have received the spirit they should be careful not to quench him at all no not in the measures no not in any degree of grace not in any one lively operation of grace not in any one comfortable fruit or effect of grace O sirs 1. It is an exceeding soily to weaken may I so express it the hands of the Spirit to shake your foundation to wound your selves so near the heart The Spirit is the Spirit of your life and power 2. It is an exceeding folly to loose any of your precious treasures why a degree or measure of grace one dram of it is more than all the world for value 3. It is an exceeding folly to bereave your selves of your best comforts and only joyes to turn your day into night your peace inâ—o trouble your hope into fear your confidence into doubts 4. It is an exceeding injury unto that good spirit and unto your own happiness c. Secondly Grieve not the Spirit This duty you have from the Apostle Eph. 4. 30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom ye are sealed unto the day of redemption Grieve not the spirit Do nothing which may offend and displease him or make his abode in you uncomfortable and undelightful The Spirit hath been the Comforter unto you you have tasted of his comforts and joyes do not grieve and offend and displease him who hath comforted and rejoyced your soul Quest What will grieve the Spirit that so we may take heed of grieving him Sol. There are 〈◊〉 wayes by which the Spirit is grieved First When we do not hearken to his motions and counsels and commands What grieves the spirit Not to hearken to his motions This doth grieve a Father and a friend when his counsels are disregarded and despised So when the Spirit of God puts us upon holy wayes and workes and we regard not his motions and directions this doth grieve and offend him Psal 95. 10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and what was that which grieved hâ—m they would not hearken unto his voice they erred in their hearts they would not know his wayes 2. Secondly When we do hearken to the voice motions and counsels of Satan or our own corrupt hearts which are contrary to him and his suggestions When we hearken to Satan as Christ spake in Joh 5 43. I am come in my Fathers Name and ye receive me not if another should come in his own name him ye will receive This grieved Jesus Christ that the Jews would not receive him coming in his Fathers Name and yet they would receive another coming in his own name Simile In like manner it cannot but displease and offend the spirit of God to see his holy and heavenly counsels motions commands neglected and at the same time the motions and lusts of of our hearts regarded embraced and followed Why this doth more displease a parent or friend that the enticements and seducemennts of base fellows prevail and take more then his grave and sound and loving advice c. as Esau went and married the daughter of the Hittites against the mind of his Parents Gross sins Thirdly When we do any notorious sinful work which is unworthy of men enjoying the Spirit of God and causeth dishonour and reproach unto him Simile As when a child doth any thing unbecomming his relations and dishonourable unto his Father Ye have troubled me said Jacob to his sons Simeon and Levi to make me to stink amongst the inhabitants of the land amongst the Canaanites and the Perizzites c. Gen. 34. 30. So when men professing the Spirit do yet walk contrary to the nature and rule of the spirit they do now trouble and grieve the Spirit e. g. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth and if we pretending Spirit embrace or countenance doctrines of lyes and falshoods â—he Spirit of God is a Spirit of holiness and if we pretending that Spirit follow and countenance practices of unholiness and profaneness The Spirit of God is a Spirit of love and meekness and peace and if we pretending that Spirit yet live in discord and wrath and contention these things are a grief and trouble unto the Spirit of God 2 Tim. 2. 19. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity So say I let every one that nameth the Spirit of Christ let every one that pretends to his presence depart from iniquity Fourthly Especiall do we grieve the spirit when we do sin against the present When we sin against the spirits workings works and workings of the spirit As 1. The present illumination of the spirit which at such a time actually shines upon that work we intend to do 〈◊〉 discovers it plainly to be evil and offensive and yet we do it 2. The strange motions and operations of the spirit striving to with-hold us from our purpose by arguing and reasoning with our souls propounding argument upon argument not to do so wickedly As when a man lyes or swears or commits uncleanness or steals against the particular light and present strivings of the spirit sinful actions thus substantiated do not only grieve but do also wound the spirit these are bitter provocations Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly Hose 12. 14. and these are presumptuous sinnings which will cost us bitter desertions and bitter throws in Conscience and bitter lamentations and bitter afflictions perhaps all our dayes and bitter fears and disputes and questionings in our hearts Thirdly Neglect not the spirit As Paul to Timothy neglect not the gift that is in thee 1 Tim. 4. 14. So say I neglect not the Spirit himself that is When we neglect the spirit in thee And there are two things of the Spirit which we should not neglect 1. His movings 2ly His removings First Neglect not the movings or motions of the Spirit but take hold of them observe and follow them You have many times suddain and secret excitations to draw you off more from the world to prepare for death to make sure work for your souls to trust more on God to walk more evenly and profitably to redeem the time to pray and seek the face of God to do more good in your places c. Now do
one of you do shew the same diligence unto the end And Ver. 12. That ye be not slothful Here he opposeth diligence unto slothfulness c. Now there are these Reasons why you should beware of slothfulness in any act Reasons against slothfulness Because it is Gods work and his eye is upon us It s a work for God of obedience or in any work which God commands you 1. Because it is the work of God a work that the great God enjoynes you and in which his eye is upon you will not the servant eye and mind his work when his master commands and his Masters eye is upon him 2. Because it is a work for God it is to he done not only with a respect of congruity as may best answer his will but also with a respect of sincerity as may best advance his glory should we be slothful negligent careless indifferent in any work of such a nature wherein we are imployed of God c. 3. Because you do but lose time little or nothing will be done if you be slothful Such do but lose time Solomon saith in Prev 18. 9. He that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster the great waster brings a fair estate to nothing so a slothful person brings a good work to nothing at best your work can never be well done if you do it with a slothful heart 4. Because in all holy working and walking you still go forward Psal 24. 3. In all holy walking there is a going on Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord sin still remains and works strongly against us so doth the world and Satan and unbelief and carnal fear and arguments against tide and wind and you will be carried back if you be remiss and slothful any difficulty that you meet with will discourage you and take you off difficulties and oppositions you will meet with and they will prevail if you be slothful Prov. 15. 19. The way of a slothful man is as an hedge of thorns but the way of the righteous man is made plain i. e. when a slothful man is to do a work there is still some rub or offence in the way and he cannot carry it on but finds it too sharp and painful and troublesome whereas were his heart righteous his way would be plain it would appear more free and open and easie Prov. 22. 13. The slothful man saith There is a Lion without I shall be slain in the streets 5. Because you will never be able to held out in walking in Gods statutes but will The slothful is prone to Apostacy certainly revolt and apostate if you give way to slothfulness indeed an accidental slothfulness may befall the child of God in his way to heaven but if you give way to a willing and habitual slothfulness it is a sign that your hearts are wicked that really you are not for God and cord ally you have no delight in him or in his wayes but there is some other object which your hearts do more mind and regard Secondly Beware of slowness in vvalking on in Gods statutes some of you Beware of sloth in Gods wayes need many arguments to avvaken and stir up your hearts unto duties and others do need many Goads to quicken their hearts unto a greater speed and forvvardness in duties The Apostle speaks of some that when for the time they ought to be teachers yet they had need that one teach thâ—m again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God these went on very slowly Many Christians are too blame in this they move on but slowly 1. In points of knowlege they know but a very little more of the mysteries of Some move slowly in point of knowledg Some in point of practice salvation of Christ of the Covenant of Grace of regeneration of the objects of faith after twenty or fourty years hearing then they did before 2. In points of practice after many years their sinfull lusts are no more mortified and their graces are no more strengthned and their abilitie to deny themselves and to live by faith and to suffer afflictions and to be more heavenly and profitable in their conversation is little or nothing raised and improved I would have these to consider First That this slow walking is very disproportionable to the means which Slow walking is very disproportionable to the means God vouchsafes unto them and to the expectations of God for to whom much is given of them much shall be required the greater means and helps should be answered with the greater fruits and returns Secondly it is very uncomfortable unto your own souls little fruit differs but a little from no fruit and it is a thousand to one but your hearts will be often Is very uncomfortable shaken and puzzled about the truth of your Spiritual condition that you never had grace in the truth and power of it which works so weakly and so slowly that almost all your life long you have got so little ground over your sins and hardly advanced to one grace more then you had before Thirdly It is very unanswerable to the course of humble and solid and serious It s unanswerable to the practice of sound Christians Christians David made haste and delayed not Psal 119. 60. And saith he Ver. 32. I will run the way of thy Commandements when thou shalt enlarge my heart And Paul was pressing and reaching forward Phil. 3. 13. And the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force said Christ It is shamefull unto us Math. 11. 12. Younger Christians will leave us behind them Fourthly Nay look on many Christians behind us in time of their calling setting out after us yet as Ahimaas out-went Cushy or as John out-ran Peter to the Sepulcher so these of later standing than our selves in Christ and grace have left us far behind them in Knowledg in Faith in Love in Tenderness in Exactness in Zeal in Fruitfulness c. As the Apostle to the Hebrews lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12. 12. so say I unto you stir up the heart and drive not on so heavily as if this were the way you had no pleasure in but Motives to make more haste We are in the way to heaven put on with more life and care and speed For this purpose remember five things First Are you not in the way to Heaven O how our souls should fly thither Indeed there is reason why we should be slow unto what is evil because that leads to Hell And so on the contraty there is all the reason in the world to be still setting forward and foremostly walking on in the Statutes of God for they are the way to Heaven where all your happiness and all your treasure and your desires or hopes are laid up for ever Secondly It was a long time before you
do much more but all those gracious experiences without any assistance and influence from God will not be sufficient unto you Secondly We should especially depend upon God for his strength and sufficiencie then when we do meet with the greatest strength of opposition to the performing of any good work or works as David in another case when the people spake of stoning him he did then encourage himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30. 6. Or as Jehoshaphat when that great multitude came against him and God promised him deliverance said he Believe in the Lord your God and ye shall be established 2 Chron. 20. 20. So should we do when we meet with strong â—ppositions and hinderances when we are to work or when we are working the work or works commanded us of God we should now by faith look up to God and rest on his arme of gracious power to uphold our hearts and to cary us out unto our dutiful performances How many temptations do we many times meet with from Satan and how many threatnings and scoffs and reproaches and incounters do we meet many times with from ungodly men and from carnal parents and friends and from secret enemies of â—od and his wayes All which do tend to discourage our hearts and to weaken our hands and to interrupt or divert our feet from walking in Gods wayes and from doing of the works which God requirs of us in our places Now this is the time to look up to God and to trust on him to encourage and enable the heart to serve him to hold on in walking before him with all faithfulness wisdome zeal and patience now make use of that promise in Esa 41. 10. Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaid for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Zech. 4. 6. This is the wâ—rd of the Lord unto Zorobabel saying Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts Ver. 7. Who art thou O great mountain before Zorobabel thou shalt become a plain and he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings crying Grace grace unto it Thirdly We should especially depend on God for his strength when we are most sensible of our own indispositions weaknesses streitghtened and insufficient hearts How often do we finde these things upon us how apt are we under them to shrink to complain to give over O but our work when we are not able to do our work is by faith to look up to God to quicken and enable us to do his work Psal 119 159. Consider how I love thy precepts quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness Esa 45. 24. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall men come Object But I have no might or power at all to do any thing Sol. Consider now that precious promise in Esa 40. 29. He giveth power to the faint and unto them that have no might he encreaseth strength Phil. 2. 13. He worketh in us c. Object But I have lookt up with such weak desires and with such a weak faith as I have and yet finde no more strength Sol. Read on ver 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength c. So Psal 31. 24. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your hearts all ye that hope in the Lord. Object But did any servant of God ever finde him coming in with strength when sensible of his own weakness and calling upon him for help and strength Sol. See two places of Scripture instances for this Psal 73. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion fore ver Psal 138. 3. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul Fourthly We should especially depend on God for strength when we are called to do any work wherein the glory of God and the good of his Church and our own salvation are more singularly concerned First These are services and works of the highest and of the greatest consequence there is no work whatsoever wherein we can deal which is or can be of a higher nature for excellencie necessitie felicitie Secondly Miscarriages under these would prove very woeful and ruinous that Gods glory should faile in my hand or the good and safety of the Church in my hand and my own soul should perish by my own neglect Thirdly And of all works these do meet with the greatest opposition from without our selves and from within our selves the gates of hell are opened c. Yet for these hath God most of all engaged his power and presence and strength as you may see in the varietie of his promises and in the glory of his providences therefore when you are called to do any work which hath a neer and special respect to these things fall down and pray look up and depend as he said de deo nil sine deo we can know nothing of God without God so say I pro deo nil sine deo we can do nothing for God without God nothing for his glory without his assistance O Lord the work which I am now endeavouring thou knowest that it concerns thy name and glory the good and welfare of thy Church which is the apple of thine eye and the dearly beloved of thy soul and it respects mine own eternal salvation which thou wouldst have me work out with fear and trembling good Lord leave me not hide not thy self but appear in thy strength for the carrying on of these works come in with thy wisdom to direct me and with thy grace to quicken me and with thy spirit to lead and uphold and prosper me Fifthly When the work is extraordinary and universal of much difficultie and danger and requires more then ordinarie hight of spirit and courage and resolution now is your time not to consult with flesh and blood not to consider your own proportion of gifts and abilities but by faith to look up to him who commands the work and promiseth his assistance and presence for the work Exod. 3. 10. I will send thee unto Pharoah saith God to Moses that thou mayst bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt ver 11. And Moses said to God Who am I that I should go unto Pharoah and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt Ver. 12. And he said Certainly I will be with thee Josh 1. 5. As I was with Moses so I will be with thee I will not faile thee nor forsake thee Beloved as the weakest duties are above our strength so the greatest and hardest are below Gods strength it is not what you are but what your God is who commands you and what he will be unto you who hath promised his own power and strength Sixthly