administer it unto one that hath spiritually no right to it as we see in the Scripture the Apostles themselves were deceived but Gods promise in giving the children an interest in the fathers priviledge is a sure ground to go by more than any mans believing or profession in the world can be for himself and therefore a man is bound to believe that his seed is taken into covenant and that they do belong to the Election of grace and are truly justified sanctified adopted and accepted in Christ till they manifest the contrary and we have more than a negative ground for it that we know nothing to the contrary for we have a positive ground and that is the indefinite promise which we have cause to interpret in the most favourable sense and I am sure is a more certain ground for me to pass a judgment upon than any mans profession can be seeing that I know my judgment is not infallible in either but I may be deceived in reference to the person to whom it 's applied therefore consider that 1 Children while in their infancy are members of the visible Church of God 2 They have always been taken into membership in the same Church with their parents and accounted as of the same Church with them 1. Children while they are infants may be members of the visible Church of God before they come to years to be able to understand the nature of a Church or to consent unto the Duties unto which they are obliged in that relation and that will appear Luk. 18.16 Mar. 10.13 1 What children were those spoken of they were not children in meekness and harmlesness as some would have it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infants young children teneri adhuc ab uberibus pendentes pueruli Beza the same word is used of new-born babes 1 Pet. 2.2 and so much do the words also import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he took them in his arms which notes that they were children in their infancy 2 What doth he say to these children he saith That the kingdom of heaven did belong to such what doth he mean by the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Heaven is put for the Kingdom of Grace here in a visible Church or else for the Kingdom of Glory Mat. 8.11 12. Many shall come from the East and shall sit down with Abraham in the kingdom of heaven i. e. shall be added unto the Church upon Earth and shall enter into the Kingdom of glory when the children of the Kingdom of the Jews the natural branches born children by an external right shall be cast out And Mat. 16.19 I give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven it 's meant of the Kingdom of Grace here the Church and the Kingdom of Glory in Heaven for he gives him power to bind on earth and loose on earth and promises that it shall be ratified in Heaven but yet all Officers are for the visible Church and all their power is to be exercised in the visible Church and though it be for the good of the Elect the Church of the first-born the Church invisible yet that is not the proper place thereof but Officers are for the visible Church So then theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven that is not only they shall be saved and so fill up the Kingdom of glory but also they belong to the Kingdom of grace and the Subjects of this Kingdom here are members of the visible Church they are actually Subjects of this Kingdom 3 Neither doth he speak of these very individual children as a priviledge which belonged unto them alone he by his omniscience knowing them to be elected of God but he saith Of such as these are delivering it therefore as an ordinary rule of our judgment in the like case of all other children of parents in covenant unto the end of the world therefore children that are infants are members of the visible Church and therefore taken into a Church-covenant with their parents for by nature no man is a Church-member Eph. 2.12 but all strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel and men afar off for if any man were so by nature then all men by nature must be so therefore it 's a priviledge by grace that they are taken into their parents covenant and are members of the same Church with them 2. Children have been always taken into the same covenant with their parents and have been members of the same Church with them When the Lord made a covenant with Abraham he took in his family to be a Church when he took in the Jews he took in their children also to be unto him a holy and a peculiar people and when he did cast out the children of the Kingdom and did give them a bill of divorce removing the candlestick he did excommunicate and disinherit their children and when he takes the Gentiles into covenant also it is with them and with their seed in their generations and therefore the master of the family being converted salvation is come to his house and there is a Church in his house his family becomes of those of whom the visible Church is constituted for the Gentiles were grafted in as the Jews were broken off and that was in reference to a Church-state for themselves and their posterity and so were the Gentiles grafted into a Church-state for themselves and their posterity and the Lord has given us a rule for it Deut. 29.14 Deut. 29.14 15. when he enters into a Church-covenant with that people and with their little ones that they should be a people unto himself that is a Church unto God vers 15. Neither with you only do I make this covenant but also with him that is not here with us this day If you understand it of the Jews only this leaves to us these two things 1 That children are included in their fathers covenant though they be not of themselves able to restipulate 2 That it is the will of God it should not only be so at that time but in after-ages with them and their seed in their generations But if we understand by them that are not here this day all that shall be taken into the same covenant in time to come as it may be then it will leave a door open to bring in all the believing Gentiles and their seed to the end of the world Thus the Lord out of love unto the parents doth take not only them but their seed also into a visible Church that they may be a holy and a peculiar people unto himself 5. They that have a right of membership are to be admitted into the visible Church and to be looked upon as having a right Mat. 16.19 for the Lord has appointed the power of the Keys in his Church unto this end Church-power and authority is commonly expressed in Scripture by the name of Keys the sign being put for the thing signified and the ensign of authority for the
judge for the breach of it but this is the habitation of the great King 3 In this Kingdom he hath enemies to subdue 1 Joh. 3.8 and therefore he did come to destroy the works of the Devil first to cast out Satan and call men to translate them out of his Kingdom Col. 1.13 and then to destroy the works that he had wrought in their souls Col. 1.13 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to loose the works of the devil sin and corrupt principles in the heart are the Devils works and the great thing that he doth labour in from day to day now first the word doth signifie to destroy or demolish Joh. 2.19 Destroy this temple and 2 Pet. 3.11 it is the desolation of all things here below so that though the Devil hath erected the building the Lord will surely pull it down he shall not have that habitation for himself to dwell in where Gods Kingdom is to be set up 2. It notes also solvere to loose it so that a man is bound by it and it is unto him as a snare the works of the Devil in a man are an enthralling thing but thus to fight the battels of the Saints doth belong to the spiritual Kingdom of Christ 4 He doth bestow and confer graces and gifts these are the proper gifts that belong unto this Kingdom he is Melchisedeck King of Righteousness and he is also King of Peace he doth give gifts unto men and before the Throne are the seven Spirits of God Rev. 4.5 all the graces of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are at his dispose and he gives them out as he sees it good 5 He rules in their hearts and in their ways for the Spirit of Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the guide of the way of his Saints he doth lead them Joh. 16.14 My sheep hear my voice they are his sheep he goes before them and they follow him They follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes all that Dominion of God subjecting of their wills unto the will of God and their consciences to the rule of God alone is the spiritual Dominion of Christ within them 6 He hath the keys of hell and of heaven he doth open heaven and translate his people unto glory and they that are in enmity he doth open hell for them for it is he that hath his reward with him Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me there is none can open and shut heaven but Christ and this he doth as he is the spiritual King of his Church this Kingdom he hath entred upon but it is but begun it is not come unto its perfect glory but there will come a time Rev. 11.16 17. That the kingdoms of the earth shall be the Lord's and his Christ's and the mountain of the Lords house shall be exalted upon the tops of the mountains when the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and abundance of grace shall be poured out that the weak shall be as David there shall much more of the glory of the spiritual Kingdom appear than now there doth for now the Devil seems to rule in the hearts of all the men of the world Rev. 20. but then shall Satan be bound for a thousand years in fine seculi millesimi anni malitia omnis aboleatur è terra justitia regnet c. Lactant. 2. The providential Kingdom which is the government of all things in the world 1 All the works of God are committed into the hand of the Mediator Ezech. 1. there is the subordination and so Psal 8. All sheep and oxen are all under his feet which cannot be spoken of Christ as God it 's spoken of Christ as he died and rose again Eph. 1.21 he is made the head of all things unto the Church therefore it must be understood of him as Mediator he hath committed all judgment unto the Son and it is that all men might honour the Son as they honour the Father Phil. 2.11 that every knee might bow to him and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father for this is the honour that the Father did promise Christ to give him a kingdom and glory that the government of all things should be in his hands for it is by me kings reign Prov. 8.15 it 's spoken of him whom the Lord possessed in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was anointed which is the same word used Psal 2.6 and therefore it 's not spoken of him as God so he was not anointed but it 's spoken of him that was God-man Mediator 2 All the great things in Scripture are attributed unto him he it was that brought the floud upon the old world for it was his Spirit did strive with the old world 1 Pet. 3.19 20. and he it was that destroyed Sodom he it was that brought Israel out of Egypt and that led the people in the wilderness he it was that gave them a Law and he it was that did shake heaven and earth Heb. 12.27 28. all the shakings that have been were from him and he it is that must fulfil all the prophecies and all the promises in the word and then his name shall be called the Word of God Rev. 19.13 and he it is that fights all the battels of his people and he is cloathed with a garment dipt in blood and the armies of heaven do but follow him and he hath a name upon his garments which is the highest name King of kings and Lord of lords c. he doth destroy Antichrist with the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming and he it is that doth prepare new Jerusalem as a Bride for the Bridegroom 3 He it is that shall judge the world and he could not judge the world if he did not rule the world he must imploy them and he must reward them for God will give unto every man as his works shall be he doth rule as the Fathers servant and he shall judge as the Fathers servant Judgment being the last act of his Kingly Office having ordered all things for the great accomplishment of all the Fathers ends for he doth all for him according unto the counsels that are in his bosom which he hath revealed to him c. Judgment is committed unto the Son of man both for government here and the sentence hereafter Joh. 5.22 and therefore it is said All judgment is committed to him 4 He shall give up the Kingdom unto the Father 1 Cor. 15.24 that is that which he hath received but it is the government of all things that he shall give up that of the Angels as well as any other he shall lay it down having attained all the ends thereof so that then God shall be all in all in the Saints and in the world c. 5
take Saints off from a dependence upon their own graces they should consider 1 That though grace be the best of all the creatures yet it is but a creature and therefore defectible and subject to decay 2 It is contrary to the very nature of grace to be made the ground of a mans dependence because grace in its own nature is properly to be dependent upon another 3 No man is able to act the grace he hath received without a continual influence from Christ. 4 All the grace a man hath cannot free him from temptations nor secure him from falling into great sins 5 This will certainly provoke God against his grace so as to let it decay 6 The more immediate supplies of grace are the sweeter they are ibid. All that have chosen the Lord for their God should be content with him alone though they have nothing else Pag. 368 This contentment of soul consists 1 In laying up all in God 2 In not running out after other things in an anxious and solicitous way 3 In only fearing the loss of God 4 In not being much troubled with the loss of other things 5 In not envying the prosperity of the wicked 6 In rejoycing in God 7 In making their boast of God Pag. 368 Those are in a happy condition that have an interest in the Alsufficiency of God 1 It is the highest way of honouring God that can be in this life 2 This makes a man set light by the scorns and derisions of the world 3 This gives the soul in all its straits and necessities a city of refuge 4 This will guard the heart from going out unto any thing else whatsoever Pag. 371 Their happiness by reason of their interest in Gods alsufficiency consists 1 In a supply of all their wants 2 In enabling them for all their work 3 In disburdening their souls of all their troublesom afflictions 4 In fulfilling all their desires Pag. 373 They that have an interest in the alsufficiency of God 1 Have an interest in Christ. 2 They chuse this for their portion to place their happiness in 3 They honour and exalt that Attribute in their hearts 4 They will be raised up in their souls to an holy self-sufficiency Pag. 375 Those that have this interest in Gods alsufficiency should walk before God and be upright Pag. 377 CHAP. VI. The Soveraignty of God made over to the Saints in the new Covenant The Soveraignty of God is that absolute and universal Authority which he hath over all things as being the works of his own hands Pag. 378 This Soveraignty is 1 Vniversal 2 Supreme 3 Absolute Pag. 379 This Soveraignty of God is during this world committed into the hand of Christ as Mediator And is 1 Spiritual 2 Providential Pag. 381 The government of all things in his Kingdom is exercised by him in the behalf of the Saints and so they have a right to the Soveraignty of God and it is made over to them Pag. 385 The Soveraignty of God in reference to the spiritual Kingdom which is either in grace or glory is made over to the Saints Pag. 386 The subjects of this spiritual Kingdom are only those that live in the Church and belong unto it Pag. 387 Christ hath a spiritual Kingdom in the souls of the Saints Pag. 388 This spiritual Kingdom consists in a Throne that Christ sets up in the conscience which doth order and command the whole man and that in the Name and by the Authority of God ibid. This rule and dominion Christ only hath in the hearts of the Saints Pag. 389 Christ hath the rule and government over the spirits of those that are under the spiritual Kingdom by profession only Pag. 391 This government Christ by his spirit doth exercise towards them and over them for the good of his Saints 1 Their graces are ruled by Christ for the Saints 2 Their gifts 3 Their services 4 Their sins 5 Their judgments Pag. 392 There belong unto this spiritual Kingdom reductively all the works and the dispensations of God amongst the creatures 1 They tend to perfect the graces of the Saints 2 They belong unto the priviledges of the Saints Pag. 395 Christ the Mediator in this spiritual Kingdom doth also rule and order the Angels that they have an influence and do conduce to the advancement of this spiritual Kingdom Pag. 398 Angels on earth the Ministers and Messengers of God conduce to its advancement 1 By the gifts and abilities which Christ gives them for the good of the Saints 2 By suitable affections and dispositions of heart towards them 3 By performing the work Christ appoints them 4 Christ over-rules and orders their ministry for the good of his people 5 Gives efficacy and success to their labours 6 Their sufferings are for the Churches sake and good ibid. Christ also uses the Angels in Heaven for the advancement of this spiritual Kingdom 1 They pray for us 2 Joyn with us in our praises 3 Instruct us â—n the things of God 4 Watch over us to keep us from sin 5 Comfort and chear us in dejections 6 At death carry our souls into Abrahams bosom Pag. 401 The Saints have an interest in Christs providential Kingdom Pag. 402 There is a special Providence over them above all the rest of the creation 1 In over-ruling all things for their good that nothing shall do them hurt 2 Every thing shall act for their preservation ibid. The greatest things in the world are not above the Providence of God nor the smallest below it Pag. 403 The Providence of God hath two parts 1 He upholds the creatures in their beings 2 He orders their actions ibid. The Providence of God is either 1 What he doth immediately by an extraordinary providence or 2 In an ordinary way by second causes ibid. The Providence of God is either seen 1 In things which have a necessary dependence upon their causes or 2 In things that fall out so that we can give no reason of them Pag. 404 Providence is either about good or evil ibid. The Providence of God about the greatest things for the good of the Saints 1 His government over the Angels 2 Over men in all the changes of the world ibid. The good Angels are for the good of the Saints 1 They secretly suggest things to the hearts and wills of men 2 They fight against their enemies 3 Execute vengeance upon them 4 Over-rule the creatures for their good beyond their nature 5 Guide them in their way and succeed their undertakings 6 Compass the earth for their sakes Pag. 405 The Providence of God governs evil Angels for the good of the Saints 1 They shall not tempt them more than is for their good 2 Nor further than shall be for subduing corruption 3 Their temptations serve to improve their graces 4 And giving the Saints experience of the power of Christ 5 And the benefit of his Intercession 6 And of the power of their own prayers 7 Their
of all his that die in their infancy because the Covenant is the same with both and the persons taken into Covenant are the same Thou and thy seed after thee This truth therefore we had need to be carefully instructed in and which has stirred up those that are faithful unto God and his Truth to contend earnestly for this Doctrine as delivered unto and this priviledge as conferred on the Saints against those that would put their children into the same condition with those who are farthest off from God Jude 3. so that though they be the children of their flesh yet they are not of their Covenant There has of late years been much written about it and therefore I shall not enter into the disputation as that which you may read every where and inform your selves at leisure about but barely lay down the truth in a positive way in which I shall but nakedly represent unto you what I find delivered by those that hold and love the truth herein I shall first begin with the proof of the Doctrine That children are taken into their parents Covenant together with themselves which I shall endeavour to make good to you by these clear and evident Arguments 1. This ever hath been since the Fall and ever since the Father has gathered unto the Lord Jesus his Son a Church upon Earth the way of the Lords administration of the second Covenant that whensoever he has taken parents into Covenant with him into his Kingdom and Family he has taken in their children together with them Acts 3.25 and has counted them as part of his Family and Kingdom therefore they are called the Sons of God Gen. 6.1 and the children of the Lord your God Deut. 14.1 and amongst the Gentiles Gal. 3.26 he saith That you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and therefore called the children of the Kingdom Mat. 8.12 Rom. 9.2 3. not that they are all born of God and are inwardly as to the state of their persons the children of God but Rom. 9.2 3. Theirs is the Adoption it is not meant of an inward and spiritual Adoption but it 's meant of an external and visible Adoption to be separated from all other people and to be owned by God as his children Israel is my son my first-born Exod. 19.5 6. yet there were many in Israel that were inwardly and for the state of their persons enemies to God and the children of the Devil and so much the Apostle does evidently assert Rom. 11.21 Rom. 11.21 Here 's a twofold Olive-tree there is the true Olive-tree and that is Abraham Isaac and Jacob by virtue of their Covenant Non quibus à natura inesset sanctitas sed quia ex iis erant nati quos Dominus foedere gratuito à reliquis gentibus sibi segregat Beza and they that were born of them are called the natural branches and what is the wild Olive that is all those that were out of the Church of the Jews that were not visibly taken into Abrahams family and Covenant so that now there is a threefold Israel of God 1 There is natural Israel and they are taken into Covenant for their fathers sake as they are natural branches growing upon the good Olive-tree 2 There is surrogated Israel those that are grafted in when they were broken off therefore as the other did grow upon the root of Abrahams Covenant so do these also for they were gathered in Rom. 11.17 that is as Beza renders it for those * Pro ipsis in locum ramorum defractorum that were broken off therefore as the others grow upon his root they and their children so do these also 3 The Lord shall return again in mercy to his people Israel they shall be taken in again for their parents Covenant for they are beloved for their fathers sake and they shall be again ingrafted into their own Olive-tree so that it has been the constant way of Gods administration of the Covenant of grace he has taken the parents into Covenant and they being ingrafted into a visible Church of God they are grafted in as the root and all their children are as branches growing thereupon 2. When the parents are disinherited and cast out of the Covenant so are the children also therefore when the parents are taken in the children are taken in Rom. 11. we read of a breaking off and a grafting in Now the breaking off and grafting in must answer to and expound one the other now how were they natural branches They were so called by reason of their birth growing naturally upon Abraham the root How were they broken off They were rejected from being a visible Church the Lord called them Loammi and would owne them for his people no more deprived them of the adoption which did before belong unto them they were formerly counted the people of God above all Nations under Heaven 1 Thess 2.16 but now rejected and this the Apostle calls wrath come upon them to the uttermost men that are members of the invisible Church cannot be broken off their sins though they may vastare conscientiam yet they cannot excutere fidem c. So then as the Lord took in the believing Gentiles and their children into a visible Church unto himself and translated the adoption unto them so he did cast off the Jews and their children he broke off the natural branches that they should be unto him no longer as a peculiar people so that together with their fathers the children were broken off therefore together with their parents the children of the Gentiles are grafted in and therefore all is put upon the parents Covenant for their opposition to the Gospel the Lord laid this great wrath upon them and their posterity 3. Children are members of the visible Church where their parents are in Covenant with God grafting in is admission into visible membership as breaking off is a casting out of visible membership so Mar. 10.14 Of such not only of these very little ones but of such as these is the Kingdom of Heaven Now by the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the visible Church and it 's commonly so put in the Gospel so that of such is the visible Church of God constituted and made up therefore little children born in the Church are by Christ counted as those of whom the Church and Kingdom of Christ in part consists Now all men by nature are children of wrath and enemies to God strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel Eph. 2.12 there is no difference but only by virtue of the Covenant of grace which cannot come upon their own but only in their parents right no man is born a member of the Church naturally but 't is a birth-priviledge that comes upon them by grace through their parents Covenant 4. Hence it comes to pass that there is a holiness comes upon those children of believing parents Rom. 11.16 Rom. 11.16 If the
authority it self and this power is either Monarchical in Christ the Churches Head the only King and Law-giver to whom all power is given in heaven and earth Mat. 28.18 Rev. 3.7 He hath the key of the house of David or else it is Ministerial whether in the Church as some or in the Officers as others as in its proper subject I shall not now inquire whether in the Church radicaliter radically and in the Officers formaliter formally c. as some do speak but 1 the use of those Kyes is to bind and loose that is to open and shut the Kingdom of Heaven either to receive men in or to cast men out for surely they that have authority to cast out have power to take in and it is an authoritative act to admit as well as to eject c. 2 It 's an act that is to be denied unto none that have right to admission if so the power of the Keys is abused for it is not used unto that end for which it was appointed by the Lord for all the Churches power is but ministerial and must be according to Christs order therefore as to cast them out that ought not to be cast out as the Pharisees did if any man confessed Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue Joh. 9.22 and Diotrephes Joh. 3.10 he cast them out of the Church and Antichrist Rev. 13.7 he cast them out no man should buy and sell that had not the mark of the beast and to keep them in that ought to be cast out as the incestuous Corinthian and Rev. 2.2 as to be able to bear them that are evil and not reject them is an abuse of Church-power so not to admit those that ought to be admitted and have a right to it is but an abuse of the same power 3 It 's a power therefore to be exercised with judgment 1 Cor. 5.12 we judge them that are within It 's true a judgment of certainty and infallibility it cannot be and therefore it 's commonly called a judgment of charity but yet that must be more than a good hope or some negative judgment that I judge so because I know nothing to the contrary there must be a good rule and something positive that must be the ground of this judgment it must be a judicious charity something there must be that may be a ground to build a judgment upon that a man may be able to say by this rule I admit this person and open Heaven to him and by this rule I do not admit of another Those that I cannot know to have a title to membership I cannot in faith by the power of the Keys admit therefore if it be done in faith it must be an act of judgment and I must have a ground to go by therein 4 In admission the Lord that has always loved variety has taken two ways some are in covenant by their own personal right and some have been taken into the Church by their parents right and as it were their birth-priviledge being born of parents in covenant as all the Church of the Jews were taken into a Church-covenant with their parents though they were not able to restipulate and therefore they are called the Children of the Kingdom those born in it others were men born out of the Church and as Proselytes were added thereunto Now the ground that a man must go by in admissions of the one and the other must be visible for they are admitted into the visible Church into the invisible Church their admission is an act of God only and by a work of faith which no men are imployed in therefore it must be something visible and so Christ says of infants Suffer them to come to me therefore it might be judged who those infants were of whom was the Kingdom of Heaven or else how should we know to whom this injunction is directed Suffer them to come to me and forbid them not Now there is a double ground of this judgment suitable to the condition there is the profession of the Adult and there is the parents covenant and Gods promise in men grown if they be admitted the ground of judgment is the mans profession Now in reference to an inward and spiritual right I may be deceived in both but I may make as true a judgment upon the one as upon the other nay I look upon the promises of God taking in the children into the parents covenant to be a far greater and surer ground of judgment in the one than any mans profession can be in the other so that the Lord will take them into covenant to shew his love to their parents and this shall be the ground of their being a visible Church of Christ and their being thus taken into covenant shall be the ground of a judgment in those that have the power of the Keys for their admission into the visible Church unto whom of right it does belong SECT II. Twelve Questions for the stating Childrens Covenant-right resolved § 1. HAving thus far carried on the Proof of the Doctrine let us now come to the Explication thereof and that shall be in answer to these Questions 1 Whether all children of confederate parents be taken into their Covenant or only some God putting a distinction between their seed as we see he did between the seed of Abraham when he said In Isaac shall thy seed be called 2 Into what of the Covenant the children of Believers are taken whether into the regenerating and converting Grace of it or only into the external parts of it the outward priviledges 3 If only into external parts what advantage that is to them and what they gain by it 4 What this federal Right or childrens Holiness is wherein it does consist 5 What it is in the parents that give this right unto the child whether grace and the power of godliness in the parents or else their profession God taking them and their seed into a visible Church 6 What Right this is whether it be only a right before men or whether it be a right before God unto the visible Priviledges of the Church 7 From what parents this right is derived whether from those that are immediate only or whether from them that are more remote and where we must stay 8 Why God will have the Covenant run by way of entail in reference to the outward priviledges of it and not for the inward seeing in the first covenant Adam was to convey the image that he had received and the children of Adam were taken into his covenant for the spiritual part the grace of the covenant as well as for the priviledges of it for the internal as well as for the external Now the grace of the covenant is not conveyed from parents to children it is no more ex traduce than the reasonable soul is Joh. 1.13 they that believe are born not of blood or of the will of the flesh nor of
a man is delivered to Satan left under his power and kingdom a man without the Church is under the care and inspection of the Church no more but even left to the Devil to hurry him into all manner of wickedness or despair as he did endeavour to do the incestuous person and there was none of the Saints that might bear the burden with him 1 Cor. 16.22 such a person is said to be Anathema maranatha a man delivered by the Church of God as incorrigible until the coming of the Lord we can do no more with him and therefore hereby he is bound over to answer it before the Judgment-seat of Christ 2 It 's the highest degree of temporal wrath upon a people Hos 1.7 Hos 1.7 there is a pedigree of judgments set down but yet the highest is Loammi and this breaking off of the Jews the natural branches Hos 2.2 and saying of your mother she is not my wife is wrath that comes upon them to the uttermost and then a people may be truly said to be utterly destroyed or brought unto an end 1 Joh. 2.18 1 Pet. 4.7 this is the last hour the end of all things is at hand the end of your Worship and Temple and Ordinances and Services and so the end of your Church and Common-wealth doth now draw near it 's not meant of the end of the world and that 's the end that Christ speaks of Luk. 21.9 Luk. 21.9 Ye shall hear of wars and commotions but the end is not by and by Therefore when the Lord doth once unchurch a people the end of all things is at hand with them there is nothing but utter destruction remaining for such I say when the Lord doth thus he doth cut them off by the root as we see in the Churches of Asia What a miserable condition have they been in ever since the Lord removed the Candlestick from them and of all the enemies of God the Antichristian Church is the greatest and is reserved unto the greatest judgments and though it is true it doth fall by degrees yet as soon as it became a mystery Babylon the great the mother of Harlots and spiritual Egypt and Sodom ever since the Lord hath been pouring out vials of wrath upon her by degrees which will at last sink her as a mill-stone into the Sea and her plagues shall come upon her in one day suddenly and irresistibly and the Lord will deal with her as a Harlot and one to whom he hath given a bill of divorce to the amazement of all the Christian Churches and it will be easier for her by all her art to weigh the fire to measure the winds to call back the day that 's past and to restore the verdure of the withered grass than to reverse the sentence that 's written against Babylon She is fallen is fallen it is become a habitation of devils and a cage of all unclean and hateful birds 2. Now the particulars wherein this great Priviledge consists are many 1. They have by this means the offers of the highest mercies they are the children of the Kingdom and the guests that were first invited unto the wedding and therefore it was necessary Act. 13.46 says the Apostle that the word of God should be first preached unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was a double priviledge that the Jews had before Christs coming they were soli alone there was a partition-wall between them and all other people but this being taken away yet being the people of God to whom belonged the adoption it 's necessary that they should be primi the first to whom the Gospel was offered And the great mercies of our lives be offers of grace and they are such as being neglected all the world cannot redeem and these many an ungodly man hath in a glorious manner made unto him that he doth never accept but doth as the Jews did put it from him and thereby judge himself unworthy of eternal life and the grace that is offered him in such offers of the Gospel 2. They have the most glorious presence of God of any people in the earth they are a people near to God the Tabernacle of God is with men and he dwells with them he has promised Rev. 21.3 Ezech. ult ult I will dwell in them and walk amongst them the Lord walks in the middle of the golden Candlesticks he goes down to the gardens to gather lilies Jehovah Shammah Jer. 13. Even as a girdle doth cleave to the loyns of a man so have I caused this people to cleave unto me even the whole house of Israel the Lord is in the middle of her Christ sits there upon a glorious Throne and they are all gathered together round about him after the manner of their pitching in the Wilderness where all the Tribes did pitch and incamp round about the Tabernacle and therefore they are said to incompass the Lord about 3. They have the most glorious influences it 's true that Christ as Mediator hath a providential Kingdom as well as a spiritual a Kingdom of Providence as well as of Grace Ezech. 1.10 and both are administred by the Spirit They have quieted my Spirit Zac. 6.8 but he hath a spiritual Kingdom in the Church which is therefore called the Kingdom of Heaven and all the members of it whether they be regenerate or unregenerate are called Children of the Kingdom and upon those the Spirit of Christ hath great works for the foolish Virgins have oil as well as the wise and they have many excellent gifts Mat. 12.43 44. the unclean Spirit goes out of the man when he returns he finds the house swept and garnished for there is a great diversity of gifts but the same Spirit and what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those gifts only the Church 1 Cor. 12. for they are all for the body and therefore they fall from them when they depart this life as Elijahs mantle did when he went to Heaven for then Prophecy shall cease and knowledge shall vanish away and they have glorious common graces restraining sin and are Virgins that have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ and the house is swept and the Devil is gone out and thereby men are restrained from those lusts which they dearly love and forced to an external conformity when they have no inward principles to support them and common graces elevating improving and sublimating nature as we see Heb. 6.7 Heb. 6.7 The ground that drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it there is a rain of Influences as well as Ordinances and by this means nature is strangely raised and improved and yet the man continues in a state of unregeneracy still and is nearer to cursing for it in the end 4. They have very great temporal blessings when Israel was taken into a marriage-covenant with God the Lord says I entred into covenant
It is also for the Saints sakes that Hypocrites have a standing in the Church Mat. 13.29 Mat. 13.29 Lest while you gather up the tares you root up also the wheat with them so that the tares are to stand for the wheats sake but it is but till the harvest till the wheat be ripe and then the Lord will soon command that the tares be gathered also and burnt That Parable because it is much urged now adays as it hath been by some of the Anabaptists of old against the power of the civil Magistrate in punishing gross offenders that all are to be left unto their liberty and unto the judgment of the Lord at his coming and therefore none are to be punished nor restrained which is the greatest cruelty that can be under the pretence of liberty to go on in sin without restraint therefore it will be necessary that we inquire a little into it 1 We will inquire of whom this is spoken which I conceive to be of the Church and not of all the world for it is said to be the Lords Field where the good are sown with the bad which can be meant no where but in the Church unless we will say as many men do that there is salvation amongst the Heathens that know not Christ And it 's also the scope of the other Parable of a people where the Gospel is preached Mat. 13.24 25. Vers 24 25. the Kingdom of Heaven is the Church of Christ in its outward condition neither do I conceive that it can be manifested that any where the whole world is ever called the Kingdom of Heaven and the servants speak of it with admiration Thou didst sow good seed in thy field from whence then hath it tares Now never any man did wonder that there should be tares in the world which lies in wickedness and for that Christ doth interpret the field to be the world it is not to be understood I conceive of all the wide world but by a figure for the Church that is gathered out of the world as it is usual in the Scripture to be put Joh. 3.16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. 1 Joh. 2.2 Not only for us but also for the sins of the whole world 2 The state of this Church this field of the Lord is in this life said to be a mixed state there are tares and wheat mixed in it which is not to be understood of all sorts of sinners it is true it 's the seed of the wicked one but it is the seed that is in the Lords field where gross offenders are not to be suffered or supposed to be but it is spoken of Hypocrites such as the servants did not discern at first but they grew up with the seed and had a great likeness with it as Jerome observes Zizania quamdiu herba est grandis est similitudo for in vers 26. 't is said When the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit then appeared the tares therefore it seems by this plainly that the tares are not the same with briars and thorns for they would have been at first discerned but they were like unto the wheat for a great while so that they discovered them not therefore the seed of the wicked one sown in the Lords field are Hypocrites and unsound-hearted men And if this be meant of the whole world as the opposite party would expound it then it must be meant of all sorts of sinners in the world that appear not only Hereticks and Idolaters as they would have it but of all the children of the wicked one unless they will give unto these this special honour which is indeed due unto them as much as now they are pleaded for that they are only or mainly called the children of the wicked one and as they do deserve that name above all sorts of sinners 3 This mixture cannot be avoided by all the care of the Lords servants for they cannot foresee them and it 's long before they do discover them and when they are discovered it is dangerous to pluck them up Calvin saith that Christ doth not here dispute either the power of the Magistrate or of the Minister or how they should exercise their power but only to free the weak from scandal when in the Church they shall see Hypocrites and unsound-hearted men to continue for this is and will be the state of the Church of Christ in reference to its outward condition until the day of Judgment But how comes it to pass that the sinners must be restrained here only to Hereticks and Idolaters when they are the children of the wicked one and why not extended to murderers and adulterers and thieves and why is not the one to be spared by this Parable as well as the other and how comes it to pass that by the servants here are only to be meant the Magistrates and not the Ministers and why are not Ministers as well bound to tolerate these in Churches as Magistrates in Common-wealths and yet that they are to be cast out of Churches that is granted Now why should not these mixtures be let alone in the one as well as in the other and why is not the direction given to one sort of servants as well as the other 4 It is for the Elects sake for the good seed that they are spared 1 There is a great deal of moderation to be used and care in reference unto the tares that nothing be done unto them that may prejudice the good corn that nothing be done in it to the offence or the scandal of them that be good that they be offended with their rigour and bitter zeal 2 Because they that are tares now may afterwards become good corn and therefore a great deal of patience is to be exercised towards them though they discover themselves to be tares 3 That though there be still some that are unsound yet a man should not be offended and cast off all Church-communion and Ordinances but be willing to let both grow together unto the harvest and expect the Lords time for the rooting of them all out till he shall send his reapers because we cannot fully discern who are tares or who may so continue but this is no way to infringe either the Magistrates power in reference unto the sword which is an Ordinance of God and he is not to bear it in vain nor Church-officers power of the Keys who are not after all admonition and means used to reclaim them to bear them that be evil but to put away wicked persons and to deliver men to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord neither is this Parable to be expounded so as to cross other plain and clear Scriptures for the Scripture is to be taken together and the hard places of it are to be interpreted by them that are more clear 2. God stirs
given Isa 9.6 And Rom. 5. Herein was the love of Christ that when we were enemies he died for us And Joh. 17.19 For their sakes I sanctifie my self But yet it cannot be denied that the Lord did give glory unto Christ as that which he promised as a reward of his obedience only it was of Grace to appoint it and of Grace to accept it and so by consequence of Grace to reward it 7. And this will appear at the last day that all that Christ hath and doth is from free-grace because the Kingdom that he hath received he must give up then unto God the Father 1 Cor. 15.24 He did receive a Kingdom at the beginning and had a gracious manifestation of it when he did ascend up into Heaven All power is given him in Heaven and in Earth Dan. 7.14 and when the Persecuting Monarchies be taken down there shall be given him a Kingdom which shall not be destroyed but all this shall be given up to the Father at the last day Not that Christ shall cease as Mediator to be the Head of the Church and to have an influence into them in glory God doing all by a Head for I conceive that the Mystical Union is eternal as well as the Hypostatical and that a man under the Covenant of Grace shall never stand before God in his own righteousness to eternity but as he is justified by the righteousness of Christ now by a righteousness imputed so he shall ever be for as here he is accepted of God for his Masters Grace so he shall hereafter enter into his Masters joy but Christ shall give up the Church which is his Kingdom and the present manner of Government of it and shall lay it all down and make it appear before Men and Angels that whatever he hath done it has been as his Fathers servant to please him and to do his will and shall after the day of Judgement which is the last act of his Kingly Office give up his account to him which shall be giving up of the Kingdom to God that so God may be all in all that is have the glory not only of all the glory of the Saints but of all the glory of Christ also and have his Grace honoured as the fountain of all and it shall be manifested to all the world that even the merit of Christ is after a sort Gratia inviscerata Grace inviscerated the Kingdom shall so return unto God as it is now committed and appropriated unto Christ Joh. 5.22 c. The Father judgeth no man and yet Heb. 12.22 he is called God the Judge of all the Father judgeth in the Son but the Son is the person to whom the execution and dispensation of all judgement is committed now he rules his Church by the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments and the supplies of his Spirit by degrees perfecting his Image begun in his Members and by the sword of his mouth destroying his enemies and so he shall do till the Resurrection of the Dead and then after a sort this Kingdom shall cease he shall no more exercise the Office of a Mediator in compassionating defending and interceding for his Church and then this glory he shall publickly â—â—sign before Men and Angels into the hand of his Father as having done all as his servant and he himself as a part of that great Church of the first-born shall appear subject to the Father as having done all by his command and God shall be all in all and have the glory not only of the salvation of the Saints but of the exaltation of his Son also yet so as Christ shall reign for ever as God co equal with the Father and also as Mediator shall be the Head of the Church as glorified for ever Vse 1 § 3. Let us from hence learn that God is willing to be reconciled unto sinners and to exalt his Grace therein for he is first in the reconciliation the Covenant of reconciliation began in him his love had no motive or foundation but within it self he doth it freely and â—or his own sake from the beginning to the end from the foundation to the top-stone there â—s nothing that is primarily active in our Salvation but free-grace he has loved us freely â—hosen us freely freely given his Son freely accepted his obedience for us and imputed it â—o us it is his gift by grace freely given us his Spirit faith and repentance free Rom. 5.18 Phil. 1.29 Gods works are free Ephes 2.10 and Salvation free For by Grace we are saved through faith Tit. 3.5 Even when he does reward our obedience it is free Hos 10.12 We sow in righâ—eousness and reap in mercy The unbelief of a mans heart is in nothing more seen than in jeaâ—ous and suspicious thoughts of God and therein doth the enmity of a mans spirit appear when man distrusts him as an enemy now his intention is to be reconciled and he hath used the most effectual remedy sent his Son and committed unto us the Ministry of reconciliation it was a work that his heart was much in How did it please David when Joab made the motion of bringing home Absalom again because his heart went out to him So it is here could you read the heart of God you think it may be Christ is willing and that he is compassionate towards you but that the Father is hard to be reconciled and Christ hath much ado to plead with him and perswade him but I tell you God is in Christ reconciling the world Christ is a fruit of the Love of God to you Joh. 3.16 Christ doth but his Fathers will when he brings you unto God and his Father loves to have it so for the Father himself loves you be assured thy unworthiness cannot hinder him for he loves freely Cast thy soul upon this free-grace in the Son anchor thou upon this Rock and remember that all glory that is given to Christ and all acts done by him are to be to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.10 11. It is required not only of the Saints that they close with the Grace of God conveyed by the Covenant but with that Grace that made the Covenant and is the foundation of it and say Here I will rest as the Lepers if free-grace save me I shall live if it will reject me I can but die it is free which way soever he deals with me there is not free-will in me that can make me differ Vse 2 2. How should this draw in our hearts to close with this Love and inflame them after the Lord There is nothing doth inflame the soul towards God but impressions and reflections of the love of God unto us 1 The great business of this Covenant is to win your Love not only that he may be reconciled unto you but that you may be reconciled unto him again 2 Consider what a grief it is to a man to lose his Love Love will be
in the Law is to present another and act for him as in his stead as an Attourney or an Ambassador 5 Christ is their Intercessor he offers their sacrifices and attains all mercies for them He offers them sacrifices mixed with his own odours Isa 53. last vers Rev. 8.3 5. for his blood is a speaking blood and it is always sprinkled before the mercy seat 6 He must come again and fetch them and present them unto his Father as a glorious Church before Men and Angels saying Here I am and the Children that thou hast given me and this Chrysostom doth conceive to be the Kingdom that is the Church which Christ shall give up unto his Father 1 Cor. 15.24 2. Now follows the promise if Christ doth perform this in obedience to his Father not seeking his own glory but the glory of him that sent him God doth assure him 1 of assistance in his work he shall have all the power of God ingaged to carry him through it as Isa 42.4 6. I will hold thy hand and thou shalt not be discouraged Isa 45.1 2 Of acceptance a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and therefore compared unto odours the presentation of it should be sweet unto God Rev. 8.4 3 Of deliverance that he should not lye under the guilt of sin but be justified Isa 50.8 For the debt was paid and the bond was cancelled justified in the spirit nor under the power of death it was impossible he should be held by death Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell c. 4 He should have a seed Psal 72.22 His name shall be continued amongst his posterity Isa 5.3 He shall see his seed and who shall declare his generation 5 He shall have rule and dominion a Kingdom John 5.22 not only in the Church but over all things to the Church a providential as well as a spiritual Kingdom Eph. 1. last Isa 42.4 He shall set judgment in the earth Mic. 4.3 He shall judge among the Nations and he shall govern as King of Saints Rev. 11.17 6 He shall have a worship and a glory Isa 5.5 Nations shall run to thee because I have glorified thee A name above every name a worship from Men and Angels Heb. 1.6 and a publick honour as the Author of all their salvation at that last and great day when he shall the judge the World in righteousness and shall come to be admired in his Saints who shall be with him in Heaven for ever For they shall enter into their masters joy and this is the reward the Lord promises Christ for his services with which he comforts himself Isa 45.4 3. Unto these Articles both parties agree and 4. they are bound by their own consent 1 Christ doth accept of this office upon the Fathers terms and doth freely submit unto the Fathers will he takes the nature of man and in that nature subjects himself Isa 50.5 He gave his face to the smiters and he did the work that the Father sent him to do and he failed not in a tittle thereof and he doth it freely and cheerfully 't is as his meat and drink Lo I come to do thy will O God And he is now in Heaven by vertue of office Psal 40.8 as he is God the Fathers servant as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 2 Upon these promises he doth exercise faith and his soul rests upon them Isa 5.7 9. The Lord will help me my God shall be my strength Heb. 2.13 Psal 16.10 he is near that justifies me he will not leave my soul in hell and upon the Cross he cries out My God c. It is his God by Covenant Christ is the highest pattern of believing and as a publick person trusts God for all the benefits of the Covenant for himself and us 3 The promises of this Covenant he doth follow by a continued Prayer for he doth obtain it by Prayer as we do Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee c. John 17.4 Now glorifie me now let the glory of the Godhead shine forth in the humane nature the time of my suffering being ended 4 All the glory that Christ has now in Heaven and Earth is nothing else but in performance of this Covenant that the Father made with him God hath exalted him and he hath received the promise of the holy Ghost Act. 2.33 Christ must first suffer and afterwards enter into his glory and he hath fulfilled it and the Lord hath given him as a light to the Gentiles Isa 49.8 and for salvation to the ends of the earth 5 He is in constant expectation of the full accomplishment hereof when the glory of Christ in his mystical body shall be full and his joy full and his sufferings full and his enemies perfectly subdued and his people perfectly glorified Heb. 10.13 and all this by vertue of the Covenant that past between God and him grounded upon the love and faithfulness of God in Covenant being a God that keeps covenant for ever § 4. Now the Uses and Corollaries that follows from this part of the Covenant which was made with Christ in reference unto the trust that he hath undertaken are many and of very great use both for matter of instruction and of practice Use 1. This gives us a great light into the election of Christ The Scripture doth commonly assert that he is the elect of God chosen both to duty and glory a work that he was to do Isa 42.1 and a reward that he was to receive and we are said to be chosen in him Ephes 1.4 which notes properly the order in which God elects his Saints First Christ God and Man as the head as primus foederatus the prime sederate after whom and in whom in the order of nature all the body are elected so that the grace of election begins first in Christ our head and descends unto us in him it notes the order in which we are elected and not the cause of our election not that we were first elected and then Christ chosen by occasion of our fall but he is the first born in the womb of Gods election The first born amongst many brethren Now the election of man is an act of sovereignty and meerly comes under the will of God Rom. 3. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy And as the Potter has power over the clay c. But Christ as God could not come under an act of his will as election is but by his own consent Ephes 1.5 It is according to the good pleasure of his will he is appointed Heir of all things as he was the Son he was haeres natus a born heir that being an act of his nature but as the head of the Church so he was hares constitutus a constituted heir and comes under an act of Gods will Christ was elected to be Gods great servant in reference unto man and that under a double
purchased possession Act. 20.18 whether it be in grace or glory and therefore Christ looks upon all graces and all priviledges as part of his due from God the Father and that they should be bestowed upon them for whom he laid down a price And therefore we read that though Christ while he was upon earth was a man of sorrows and had little comfort in this World yet he did take delight in this the fulfilling of the promises unto him in the conversion of Souls and perfecting Saints When the Woman of Samaria was converted he said Luk. 16.20 'T was his meat and drink to do the will of his father he rejoyced in spirit that souls were converted and that the mysteries of the Gospel were revealed unto babes And Joh. 11.15 when he called Lazarus from the Grave they said he is dead and he said I was glad for your sakes to this end that you might believe he rejoiceth that there was an opportunity to add unto their faith and that it might grow and increase one degree more It was the joy of his heart to see of the travel of his soul Isa 53. And there are three things that Christ hath respect unto herein 1 His sufferings past and therefore he doth in his intercession always sprinkle his blood before the mercy seat his blood is a speaking blood he hath laid down the price and therefore surely he expects the purchase 2 It is the joy of his heart now he is in Heaven to see the graces of his people grow and flourish it is the meat that he is said to seed upon as we see Cant. 5.2 I have mingled my wine with my milk and eat my honey c. and thou art the fairest amongst women thou hast ravished me with one of thine eyes c. It 's a joy to the Angels when a soul is converted and a joy to the Ministers the Angels upon earth when they grow in grace and stand fast in the faith And if the servants and children of the Bridegroom rejoyce in it how much doth the Bridegroom himself rejoyce in it 3 In reference to the glory that is to come at the day of Judgement he comes to be admired in his saints 1 Thes 1. and afterwards he doth present the Church unto God the Father which some conceive to be the giving up of his Kingdom that God may be all in all and he shall have an eternal glory that shall be reflexed upon him from the Saints who shall sing for ever hallelujah unto him who is the head and King of Saints Therefore all these promises are made first unto him and do principally belong unto him and he is most concerned in them that if they be not fulfilled he shall be the greatest loser by them lose his sufferings past and his delight for the present and his glory to come so that in the performance of them God hath a special respect to Christ and they belong unto us and are fulfilled unto us only as we are in Christ and no otherways 2. There is in these promises an active and a passive a giving and a receiving 1 They are made unto Christ as the giver and unto us only as those that must receive all things from him the Oil is poured first upon his head Isa 53. and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand of his fulness we receive grace for grace he hath given him power over-all flesh John Ephes 5. Heb. 12.2 that he may give eternal life unto those that are given him he gives repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins he washeth them and sanctifies them for he is the prince of life Act. 3.15 the author and the finisher of our faith the Captain of our salvation that in all things he may have the preheminence 2 The passive part of these belong unto the Saints but it is as they are one with him and as they have an interest in all this grace received by their head that it may by him be dispensed unto them for 1 Joh. 5.11 he hath laid up all their life in him for all the promises are made unto his seed though in a different order and in different respects some promises made formally to him and some promises fulfilled in his members Object 2 This will bring Christ under both Covenants for we heard before Gal. 4.4 that he came under the Covenant of works he was made under the Law and now this Doctrine doth bring him also under the Covenant of Grace Answ Indeed no meer man can stand under both Covenants Gal. 4. no more than he can be born of two Mothers The two Covenants are the two Mothers and a man can no more be under both Covenants than it 's possible for him to grow upon a double root to be a member of the first and at the same time to be a member of the second Adam But the Lord Jesus Christ came under both Covenants Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 1 The Covenant of Grace was made with him from all eternity and therefore there is a promise made and eternal life given us before the World began and it was in this Covenant that Souls were given to Christ all that he should save and therefore he hath a Book of Life Rev. 13.8 Those that were given him in Covenant he took their names and upon this Covenant he did rejoyce in the habitable parts of the earth before there was either earth or inhabitant Prov. 8.31 And it was the Covenant of Grace that was first made and was first intended as being stablished between God and Christ before the World began as a Parent may make a Covenant or take a Lease in behalf of his Child before he is born or in being but this Covenant was not actually to take place it being a Covenant of reconciliation and in the hand of a Mediator till the first Covenant was broken and then comes in the manifestation of the second Covenant life and immortality being brought to light by the Gospel 2 But when this Covenant was to take place Christ finds all mankind under the Covenant of their Creation and that broken and they brought under the curse of it and now the Covenant of Grace cannot take place unless he will come under the first Covenant and thereby abolish it the sin against the first Covenant could never be pardoned unless he be made sin and the curse of the first Covenant could never be satisfied unless he be made a Curse and the Covenant it self never abolished for any unless he be made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law as a Covenant that they may be translated Gal. 4.5 Only there is this difference Christ being under both Covenants man was first under the Covenant of Works and Christ came in in the second place as our surety standing in our stead paying our debt and therefore he puts his name to our bond
the will of man but of God why will the Lord have the same conveyance still continue for the externals and the priviledges of it when for the graces of it the intail is cut off for ever 9 How far the administration of the old Covenant should as a rule determine the administration of God under the new that we may be able to reason from one to the other he did so with Abraham and his posterity therefore he will do so with the Saints now and whether in Abraham there were not something personal and peculiar to him and his seed according to the flesh that they only that come in by a claim to the faith of Abraham cannot take unto themselves For Abraham in reference to the covenant is set forth two ways either as a begetting Abraham Rom. 4. or as a believing Abraham and whether the priviledges of both the children of Abraham according to the flesh or by promise be the same 10 How far the Jews by virtue of Abrahams Covenant as being his seed and as being taken into a Church-covenant in their parents being the only visible Church unto God on Earth could pretend to a right unto the ordinances and priviledges of the Church of God under the New Testament For if the parents were in covenant so were their children taken in at least into the externals of the covenant 11 How children can be said to be taken into Covenant when they cannot restipulate nor be said to be obliged by their Covenant 12 Seeing there is so much dispute about it were it not much better to leave children out of this claim For if they be elected we may rest quietly in that state and leave them in the arms of Gods electing love and resting upon that foundation for their eternal salvation the Lord knows who are his and to defer their claim to the covenant till they themselves are able to take hold of the covenant and to give their consent thereunto to give the hand unto the Lord and then they may claim it with comfort children from their parents right and parents for their children and then we may with comfort seal up that which we have good ground upon judgment to conclude to be a mans title and interest and then the parents covenant-interest will come in at second hand and a man having himself first taken hold and consented to the covenant in his own person it will be a good argument for a man to plead with God for the mercies and blessings of the covenant Lord thou art my God and my fathers God as Moses did Lord I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid and so the Church For thy servant Davids sake turn not away c. Remember the covenant that thou hast made with Abraham and Isaac c. And so did Austin after his conversion take a great deal of comfort in his mothers covenant-interest and in all the prayers that she did put up to God for him Confess l. 3.11 Salutem meam sempiternam chariùs parturibat corde casto c. till the Lord in a dream gave her great hopes concerning his salvation but till then a man can have little comfort in it Quest 1 Are all the children of parents in covenant taken into covenant with their parents or only some selected by God himself as he did in the children of Abraham when he said in Isaac shall thy seed be called Answ The parents covenant takes in all their seed and they are all in covenant with God till they be ejected Cain was in covenant as well as Abel till cast out of the presence of the Lord and Ismael as well as Isaac till the sentence upon his mocking cast out the bond-woman and her son and the Jews not only for their children immediately but those for many ages to come Deut. 29.13 14. Joh. 8. 1. If we look into Abrahams posterity we read that they were of two sorts a seed according to the flesh a carnal generation which the Jews stood so much upon and gloried in Mat. 3.9 We have Abraham to our father and there is a seed of Abraham that walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham and in this respect Abraham is called the father of us all here is a double paternity from begetting Abraham and believing Abraham and here is a double sonship children according to the flesh and the heirs of promise Rom. 9.6 7 8. They are not all Israel who are of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is they that are the children of the flesh are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for his seed and because they are the seed of Abraham they are not therefore all children and this is more fully set forth in that Allegory of the Apostle Gal. 4.22 23. where we have Abrahams family set forth as a pattern and a resemblance of the visible Church of God in which there are two sorts of sons and two sorts of mothers there is the bond and the free woman and so the Apostle says it was then and so it should continue in the Church of God while its militant state did last and yet both these seeds are taken into their parents covenant and therefore all the posterity of Seth are called the sons of God Gen. 6.1 and all without the Church the daughters of men all the Israelites were Jews outwardly Ye are the children of the Lord your God says Moses Deut. 14.1 his peculiar people and treasure called also the children of the Kingdom and the children of the Covenant Act. 3.25 Mat. 8.12 And this is not only so of the Jews but the Gentiles also Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and yet I suppose no man will say that all in the Church of the Galatians were truly really and savingly so therefore all their children were taken into the same covenant with their parents faith and holiness 2. The sentence of Excommunication hath passed upon such and they have been ejected and cast out of the Church and from all the visible Communion and Priviledges of it Now Church-censures are to extend to none but Church-members 1 Cor. 5.12 13. 1 Cor. 5.12 13. We judge them that be within what have we to do to judge those that are without We see 1 That Church-government is an authoritative thing a power of judgment and so the Authority of Christ is called Joh. 5.25 2 There is a distinction of men some are without and some within and this is a rule Differentia divisiva est etiam constitutiva there is something therefore that makes them to be without and something that makes them to be within and this can be nothing but their own personal consent or their coming in by their fathers covenant 3 This authority is not exercised upon them without they are
of right belong to them and God hath therefore separated them from other people that he might set his Tabernacle in the middle of them and they have his presence with them Rom. 9.4 Rev. 4. there the worship of God is there is a glorious Throne by which is meant the Lord Christ in the presence of his people and it is of a visible Church for there are Beasts and Elders there are Believers and there are Officers which cannot be in the Church invisible therefore this presence of God in Ordinances and the Ordinances themselves do belong unto this visible Church and the members of it have a right unto them all as being born of believing parents and they have not only jus haereditarium an hereditary right but jus actuale an actual right which is called jus in re when they shall be made fit for them and are capable of them it was the great honour of Israel that it was the valley of Vision and that because of the presence of God there it is called the holy City Esa 12.1 29.1 Rev. 21.3 Ezech. 48.35 Ariel the Altar of God and the great honour of the new Jerusalem is Rev. 21.3 That the tabernacle of the Lord shall be with men it is not meant of Heaven for it is a Tabernacle there shall be Ordinances therein and the same is spoken of Ezech. 48.35 Jehovah shammah 3. There is a special Providence that doth watch over them though it is true not the same peculiar Providence that doth watch over those that are really Saints and by union members of Christ but yet there is a special Providence towards the visible Church in reference unto all the works of God and therefore Zac. 2.5 to hurt them is as touching the apple of his eye and he will be a wall of fire about Jerusalem theirs is such a protection as other men have not and therefore when the Lord did unchurch them he says he will take away the wall and the hedge Esa 5.5 and they shall be trodden down that is that peculiar Providence that the Lord did before exercise towards them now he will remove and give them up into the hands of men to devour them as it is in Deut. 32.30 said that their rock had sold them God did put them into the hands of their enemies Thou sellest thy people for nought and we know amongst men what it is for an out-law a proscribed man to be put out of the protection of the Law and so when the Lord doth cast any man out of the Church he doth put him out of protection also 4. The great and special workings of the Spirit of Christ do belong unto such it is true that Christ hath a providential Kingdom as well as a spiritual and the Spirit is the Viceroy and Prorex in both the Spirit rules for him and therefore there are mighty workings of the Spirit of God raising up the spirits of men and fitting and preparing of them for to accomplish the Lords work and to bring about his ends but yet in the spiritual Kingdom there are the chief operations of the Spirit the Apostle counts three things as works of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. 1 Gifts of the Spirit 2 There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrations functions and offices and they are divers which these gifts qualifie men for 3 There are different fruits and effects works and successes that the Spirit doth give unto these gifts in different offices and administrations but unto whom doth all this belong they do all of them belong to the Church vers 12 28. he hath set in the Church offices and given them gifts and his saving gifts are amongst these and many very glorious common works by which even unregenerate men are sanctified for the Blood of Christ by which they are sanctified they may despise as an unholy thing and in this priviledge of being a member of the visible Church of God and having the Name of God called upon him and the services of God pertaining to him in this doth this holiness consist and a man thereby is separated from all other people in the world Quest 5 § 5. Is this federal right to the children only the priviledge of parents and so conveyed unto the child from the parents one or both of them being Believers or is there any other way of conveyance We read Gen. 17.12 how not only they came under Abrahams Covenant that were of his seed but he that was born in his house that was not of his seed or bought with his money or any stranger he was to come under Abrahams Covenant and was to be circumcised as well as any that did come out of Abrahams loyns and we find that the Church of God did therefore ordain Sureties which were to take upon them the care of the education of such children answerable unto that Religion into which they were baptized and they were admitted thereunto by their proparentes right which otherwise had no right thereunto by their natural parents and this is so ancient that I find in the second Century Hyginus Susceptores ad baptismum Christianorum adjecit c. Magdeb. And Tertullian has a hint of it as in use in his time also Tertul. de coron milit August which hath been justified by Divines since and therefore practised in the Church of God in succeeding ages to this day Aliquando filiis infidelium per statum haec gratia ut baptizentur cùm occulta Dei providentia in manu piorum qumodocunque perveniunt Aug. de Grat. lib. And hence our Divines generally have concluded that as there is a spiritualis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ doth convey unto the Saints a sonship before God so there is a priviledge that belongs to Christians of those that are taken by them into their care and charge Et adoptati pro liberis sunt habendi Gerh. loc com de baptis p. 582. they have a priviledge to convey a kind of sonship unto them by a spiritual Adoption And Mr. Calvin in an Epistle to Farel about the baptizing of a child of a Papist by father and mother the Grandmother being a Protestant and desiring the child might be baptized Calvin inquires if she would ingage to the Church for the education of the child the child then might be baptized and had an interest in the Covenant by her right undertaking for its education though it had no intetest nor right by the immediate parents And Mr. Perkins and many others Castes of Conscience pag. 76. And Am. Cases of Consc says That infantes illegitimè nati excommunicatorum interventu sponsorum idoneorum possunt baptizari si ab aliis piis educatio eorum suscipiatur p. 232. though they look upon sureties as not of divine institution and only for a civil use testifying the abundant care of the Church of the education of those that were received by them and
rejection by immediate parents that there is of reception but the rejection may be in the one without respect unto Ancestors therefore it must be so in the reception also 1. There are some Ordinances that are purely so and may be dispensed to all that will partake in them but there are some Ordinances that are such as carry also priviledges with them and belong not unto all men that will receive them but in Scripture are appointed to some only and amongst these chiefly are the seals of the Covenant which are not to be administred to all men for Christ did never appoint his Ministers to baptize all mankind but Believers only and their seed whom he takes into Covenant with himself 2. I look upon Baptism as a great Ordinance 1 As being one of the first Institutions of the New Testament and which the Lord Jesus Christ himself subjected unto by the hand of a servant 2 In respect of the things signified and sealed thereby which are our first union with Christ the great promise of the Spirit of Sanctification our Redemption by Christ and communion with him in his Death and Resurrection 3 It being the Ordinance of publick admission into the visible Church for as under the Old Testament the admission was by Circumcision so under the New it has always been by Baptism They were baptized and added to the Church 3. It being an admission into the visible Church it is a power committed unto men unto whom the power of the Keys is committed for as admission into the Church invisible is an immediate act of Christ so admission into the Church visible is committed unto the Officers under Christ Mat. 16.19 I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven in Scripture a Key is symbolum potestatis a symbol of power as Esa 22.22 and this power is twofold 1 Supreme and absolute which is in the hand of Christ who is said to have a double power the Keys of Hell and Death and the Key of the Church called the Key of David Rev. 1.18 3.7 and this is by some called the Key of Royalty he being the Head and King of the Church but there is also 2 A power subordinate and limited potestas oeconomi the power of a steward as Beza does expound it a power of Ministry by which all the affairs in his house as visible may be acted and ordered according to his mind for the ends that he has proposed and this is a Key of Ministry which some do call a Key of Charity Esa 22.22 Rev. 3.7 and these Keys are for opening and shutting the doors of the visible Church and therefore the persons to whom they are committed whether they be committed to the Church first as the first subject or to the Officers we need not now dispute they both have an authority to open the Kingdom of Heaven unto some and to shut it unto others 4. Christ owns their acts no further than in them they walk by his rule and observe his order as it is in Excommunications and Ejections if they be clave errante they do not bind in Heaven as we see in the putting out of the Synagogue by the Pharisees and by Diotrephes his usurped power as also by that of Antichrist who ordains Joh. 3.10 Rev. 13.17 Mede That no man must buy or sell save he that had the mark anathematis Ecclesiastici censura innuitur Now as such Ejections are not owned by Christ so neither are Admissions that are not according to the same rule because they are exercised errante clave and therefore all that labour is in vain and is a meer abuse of the power of the Keys and so a dishonour put upon the Ordinance of Christ in the one as well as in the other because the rule is transgressed in both for he has in his Word given rules for the one as well as for the other 5. The trust committed unto Officers in this kind is exceeding great and therefore the account will be dreadful for what is a particular visible Church but a golden Candlestick and the Sponse of Christ and the Body of Christ Now how great a trust is it to be imployed in things of so high concernment and how dangerous must the errour needs be to espouse a soul to Christ that he neither can nor will owne for his How great a wrong is it Now the nearer the relation the greater the transgression and so it is to place a member in the body of Christ that he abhors and therefore Admissions and Ejections of Church-members are some of the greatest acts of mens lives and should be done with greatest heed and the greatest solemnity and how shall that Officer appear before the Lord at the last day who through ignorance knows not Judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu summumque futuri judicii praejudicium Apol. c. 37 39. or through carelesness or custom regards not the rules of Christ in either of them which Tertullian says was the greatest mischief that could befal the Heathen Hoc solum sufficit neutra ultioni quòd vacua exinde possessio immundis spiritibus pateret To leave men out of the Church as a possession of Satan to leave a man to Satan and to deliver him to Satan admits not much difference and so for their receptions they were solemn things for what can be greater than to receive a man into the Kingdom of Heaven or to deliver a man unto Satan and bind his sins upon his conscience until the coming of the Lord 6. There ought to be as great care in one Sacrament that it be not misapplied as there is in the other It is granted that to administer the Supper of the Lord in a promiscuous manner to all without distinction were a great evil a giving of the childrens bread to dogs a great means to harden the hearts of profane men in an evil way looking upon themselves as having a right to all the priviledges of the Saints though they be such as hate holiness and by this means great breach of trust in them that do administer it and therefore the Church in ancient times did proceed with much wariness and tenderness in it as appears by the instance of Chrysostome and they took the same care for Baptism also they must be audientes and afterwards competentes before they were admitted unto Baptism and therefore the rule in the Nicene Council as it is recorded by Balsam is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That no unbeliever be baptized without sufficient instruction and tryal c. They were first to be instructed in the Principles of Religion and if well catechized yet not by and by to be admitted unto Baptism because the tryal of those things do require time and if a man had scandalously sinned there was a great deal of care taken of readmission as we see how much there was of the incestuous Corinthian before he
belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ only who knows both the counsels of God and the hearts of men and therefore they must admit such as in appearance and in the judgment of charity are so though it may be in truth and verity afterwards they prove not so to be 3. Excommunication breaks a man off from the visible Church and the visible priviledges thereof but it cannot cut a man off from the Church invisible and the truth of grace in the heart which the Lord has promised to continue to the end for into what a man is admitted by the Keys out of that by the Keys he may be ejected but no man is admitted for grace neither can he be ejected for want of grace if visibly a member Mat. 18.15 Let him be unto thee as a Publican it 's not spoken of one without but of one within for it 's an offending brother and he says he should be put into the same condition with a Heathen and Publican Amongst the Jews they did not hold communion with Heathens and Publicans Heathens were not admitted into Ordinances as Church-members till they became circumcised Proselytes so that the meaning is count them unworthy to be admitted to publick Ordinances and the publick priviledges of the Church which other Church-members may challenge a right unto and they themselves had a right before their scandal and ejection 1 Cor. 5.5 Deliver such a man unto Satan which I conceive cannot be meant of any miraculous work because the Apostle commits it to the Church to do it in the Name of God and by virtue of the authority committed to them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore I conceive it to be nothing else but casting a man out of the society of the Church and leaving him amongst the society of ungodly men over whom Satan rules and being put out of the Kingdom of Christ which is the Church and the care of the Church he is truly delivered to Satan to carry him whither he will as ungodly men are called by the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and yet the incestuous Corinthian was a godly man and he was not cast out from the promises of grace and the workings of the Spirit but from the external priviledges of the Church and so may a godly man for scandalous falls justly be and yet his grace continue an immortal seed and he remain a member of the invisible Church still even when he is cast out of the visible Church as Job and many of the Saints were members of the invisible Church and yet had not opportunity to joyn themselves unto any visible Church any further than their own family were such The Church then can cast a man out of what he was by them admitted to but that was not grace but outward priviledges and they can only cast men out of these It is not grace gives a man a right to external admission for then a man that had grace what offence soever he committed could not be ejected but a man that has true grace may for a scandalous offence be according to the rules of the word lawfully ejected therefore it was not his grace that gave him his admission neither is it grace that in his ejection he can be deprived of that being an act of God but they can only hinder him from visible communion 2. A visible profession will give unto a man in foro Ecclesiae a right of membership 1 Men can go upon no other ground for if the matter of a Church must be Saints they can judge no further of Saintship than by the visibility of it and because they cannot have certitudinem fidei ergo Deus judicium charitatis eis substituit for the Key of Ministry committed unto Officers doth but open and shut in reference unto the external priviledges and benefits of the Church into which a visible profession will give unto a man a visible right and is proper and proportionable thereunto 2 Upon this ground admissions have always been it was so that the Jews admitted Proselytes called Proselytae foederis upon their profession of the Jewish Religion and a subjection unto the Ordinances of God there and yet many of them were the children of Hell after they were made Proselytes as Christ himself tells us and so John Baptist admitted unto Baptism they were baptized of him after they had confessed their sins c. and Peter Simon Magus and Philip the Eunuch on his confession of the Faith and we read 2 Cor. 9.13 of a professed subjection to the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's in the Original a subjection or confession of the Gospel and all their after-obedience is but a manifestation of the truth of that profession of theirs and therefore I conclude that it 's but outward profession will give a man a right in the external court of the Church 3. Yet I conceive it 's not a bare profession how unanswerable soever a mans conversation be that will bring in a man being without or being within keep him from being cast out and this will appear in these particulars 1 The Lord in his Word requires that they should be visible Saints which we heard before a bare profession would not entitle them unto therefore Esa 54.12 He will lay their foundations with precious stones c. it 's not to be interpreted de doctrina of doctrine Calvin according to that 1 Cor. 3 10. but de hominibus ex quibus spirituale Ecclesiae aedificium construitur of men whereof the Church is composed Rev. 22.15 Without shall be dogs Rev. 22.15 and every one that loves and makes a lye Some do expound it of Hypocrites though I conceive that not to be the meaning but it is such whose heart does love and hanker after a way of idolatry specially that lye of Antichrist which should then be destroyed and when once the members of the Church began to be corrupt and degenerate it became an outward court into which all were admitted even without distinction then the Lord cast it out and gave it unto the power of Antichrist to tread it under foot in a most cruel and tyrannous way Rev. 11.2 Rev. 11.2 The court which is without the temple leave out c. and therefore it concerns all Churches to look that they become an outward court in allusion to the Atrium Gentium the Court of the Gentiles among the Jews for it was that which set up Antichrist and gave him in judgment that power that he has exercised over them And it was a great tryal how lightly soever we conceive of it that the Apostles had of all they did admit for if we suppose they did only require of them a confession that Christ was the Son of God and that upon this they were added to the Church yet if we consider that this was the great truth then opposed and persecuted the great controversie of the age and that which betrayed
the same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour Rom. 9. yet this Decree could not actually take place without sin had come between and now sin has interposed there are some that belong to the Election of Grace and they are chosen out by vocation which is nothing else but electio actuata election actuated and the eternal Decree of God doth exempt them from the common condition of the rest of the world as we see Rom. 9. there the Jews are cast off and they are all in one outward condition but the difference lies in this there is a remnant according to the Election of Grace and the Election does obtain when the rest are hardned and therefore we are said to be born of the will of God in opposition unto all things in nature whatsoever Rom. 11. Joh. 1.13 Rom. 8.29 for vocation is the first-born of Election Of his own will he begate us by the word of truth c. The generation of Christ was an act of his nature and therefore necessary but the generation of Saints is an act of the will of God and therefore free it 's wholly to the praise of the glory of his grace and this his will is manifested in this Eph. 1.11 That he did from all Eternity elect some and reject others according to the counsel of his own will Now that the Lord may make it manifest that it 's an act of free grace therefore he will sometimes reject the children of the Kingdom as the Jews are called men born in the Church Mat. 8. and unto whom the Kingdom of Christ did seem by a natural right to belong and to descend unto them and he will send forth and call men from the East and from the West to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God he will cast off the bidden guests and will send out to the high ways and hedges and compel men to come in that he may manifest that you are begotten of his own will for the praise of his grace 3 Because since the Fall the Lord has appointed another way to convey life unto his people and that is not by generation from the first Adam but by regeneration from a second Adam and therefore the Lord will surely honour his own way and he will not convey the grace of the Covenant from parents unto their posterity but from him only who is the second Adam and is therefore called the everlasting Father Esa 9.6 Esa 9.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint renders it that is as the Apostle says He hath subjected to him the world to come Heb. 2.5 so he is made the father of the world to come Heb. 2.5 and all the Saints that come thence shall acknowledge that they all hold of him as a father as it is said Psal 87.4 5. of the Ordinances of Sion Psal 87.4 5. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia this man was born there and of Zion it shall be said this and that man was born in her that is that what Nation or Kingdom soever any of the Saints were in they may for their first birth mention Egypt and Babylon but for their second their new birth they shall know and acknowledge that it was in Sion and by the mighty work of God in the Ordinances therein so I may say of the Lord Jesus Christ that whomsoever they may call father on earth whether within or without the Kingdom yet they shall all owne the Lord Christ as their Father in reference unto their eternal states and in reference unto the world to come and therefore he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non solùm Spiritus vivus but also vivificus not only a living Spirit but a quickning Spirit a Spirit that makes us alive also for Joh. 14.19 he says Because I live you shall live and the Apostle Paul saith The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. Bernard and Rev. 22.16 he is said to be the Root of David and he is therefore said to be the Fountain of the gardens Cant. 3.15 it is from hence that all flourishes therefore grace shall not be entailed upon posterity but as the Father quickens whom he will so also the Son shall have life in him and power of quickning whom he will Upon these grounds it is that the spiritual and the saving graces of the Covenant are not conveyed from parents unto their children by a lineal descent but the Covenant in reference to grace from the parents is wholly made void and as God many times has a seed of grace running through the loyns of the wicked so he does many times cast off the children of the Saints and as he said of Ismael But my covenant will I establish with Isaac Gen. 17.21 so God saith of Believers children that he will not establish his Covenant with them as to inward grace 2. Yet the Lord will continue the Covenant from parents to children by a kind of lineal descent in reference to the external priviledges of the Covenant and they shall be conveyed from parents unto the children who shall have a Covenant-right as the parents priviledge and the grounds of it are these 1 Because the Lord will have a visible Church out of the loyns of his own people therefore when he takes in their parents into a Church-covenant he takes in also their children they are the children of the kingdom because they are the children of the Covenant that God made with their parents He doth indeed take in as Proselytes some here and some there but the visible Church is chiefly and generally made up of such confederate parents and their children and to make a visible Church there is required outward ordinances and priviledges that there may be a difference put between them and the rest of the world Exod. 19.5 that they may be unto God a holy and a peculiar people and this may be where the graces of the Covenant are not dispensed yet the priviledges of the Covenant must It 's true there are tares among the wheat in the same field and there are goats feeding amongst the sheep in the same pasture it 's not grace as you heard makes a man a visible member of the Church visible for it cannot be seen it cannot properly come under any humane judgment but it 's grace makes a man a member of the invisible Church into which Christ only admits and that which Christ only judges and not man 2 The Covenant is entailed in reference to the priviledges thereof that the Lord might magnifie and exalt his love unto parents the more and that it might be a great inducement to come into Covenant with God because the promise shall be unto you and your children even unto them that are afar off or as many as the Lord shall call not only
For there are two great Institutions of the Gospel unto which the Lord has a special eye and so should all the Saints have 1 Christ and 2 A Church or Society of Saints and there was a distinction then between the Sons of God and the daughters of men Gen. 6.1 But none of these did enter upon their title by Circumcision and yet when the Lord did renew his Covenant with Abraham and his posterity and took them as a visible Church unto himself all that would lay claim to an interest in the Covenant must submit unto that administration and that being put to an end and the Lord having put the Covenant under a new administration all that do or can claim a title to it must freely and voluntarily come under the new administration which the Lord has in the times of Reformation put upon the external part of the Covenant Though therefore the Jews might for themselves and their seed lay a claim unto the Priviledges of the Covenant under former administrations yet those being done away and put to an end the hand-writing being cancelled now they can claim by that title no more and all federal right which they had to that administration ceaseth and they must together with the Gentiles begin their claim anew and upon a new title that is a free and a voluntary subjection unto the new administration of the Covenant and therefore it 's said Eph. 2.14 15. That the partition-wall was taken down Eph. 2.14 15. that was between the two sorts of people that then did divide the world the Jews and the Gentiles and that was the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances that is the present administration that so both people might be joyned into one that the Jew could now claim no more right to the external administration of the Covenant than the Gentiles because the Ordinances unto which they did claim a Covenant-right were taken away and God had published new ones and setled the Covenant of Grace in the world under new administrations and unto them the Jews must submit as well as the Gentiles or else they can have no federal right to the outward priviledges thereof either for themselves or for their seed and upon this ground though the Jews were members of the visible Church of God under former administrations yet they can claim no such visible membership in the Churches of the Gospel because the former administrations unto which they did lay claim was come to an end and the Jew must believe and repent and be baptized as well as the Christian and then the promise shall be unto him and to his children but never else Quest 11 § 11. How can children be taken into Covenant with God when they cannot restipulate can neither understand the terms of Gods Covenant nor give any consent thereunto We have been formerly told that a Covenant is grounded upon a mutual consent of parties and if either party withhold or withdraw his consent it is no Covenant the Covenant of Grace is a Marriage-covenant and the Civil Law hath this Rule Vbi non est utriusque consensus non potest esse matrimonium and therefore when the Lord takes any man into the spiritual part of the Covenant he requires their consent a Commandment is from God whether we consent to it or no but a Covenant is with our consent unto it and therefore faith is nothing else but the consent of the whole soul to accept of Christ upon the terms that God has offered him Rev. 22. and that is Whosoever will let him come and take of the water of life freely there must be a willingness to come to Christ or else you can never have him and it is a being willing of him and assenting to him that gives you truly and properly an interest in him the spiritual part of the Covenant therefore is not without our consent and so it is with the Church-covenant between men and men there is a consent to be both of the Church that receives and of the parties that joyn themselves and if either of them withdraw their consent the relation ceaseth immediately if the Church cast a man out and will owne him no more but reject him or if he will owne the Church no more as they 1 Joh. 2. They went out from us because they were not of us therefore all Church-fellowship is grounded upon consent How then can children be said to be taken into Covenant that cannot consent Answ 1. Some of our Divines do say that a Covenant cannot so properly be said to be between God and man as between man and man for amongst them consent is required to make the Covenant valid but an antecedent consent is not required in the Covenant between God and man and so they say the Covenant that God made with Adam did not depend upon consent and acceptation for he was bound to do what God commanded whether he would agree to it or no and he was bound to accept of what God required And it 's by some disputed Whether Adam did know or give his consent that he should stand as a publick person in the behalf of his posterity to stand and fall for them and they in him c. But this is an answer I cannot rest in I look upon consent as essentially necessary to a Covenant both between God and man as well as between man and man and so I find that in the Covenant that God made with Christ and with the Saints a consent has always been required thereunto and that Adam did know the terms of the Covenant by which he stood and did consent unto them for himself and his posterity we saw the grounds of it before in the Doctrine of the former Covenant 2. That Infants may enter into Covenant with God doth clearly appear 1 In that Circumcision amongst the Jews the seal of the Covenant was applied unto them and they must be foederati federates or else they could never have been signati sealed ones the seal of the Covenant is only to be administred unto them that are within the Covenant 2 God takes them into Covenant Deut. 29.11 12. as Moses tells them Ye stand this day before the Lord all the men of Israel your wives and your little ones that thou shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy God c. therefore the Lord did not only take the men into covenant that were grown and able to give an actual consent but also their little ones that neither were able to speak or consent to the terms of this covenant 3 It is plain that children are members of the visible Church Of such is the kingdom of heaven Matth. 19.14 which can be meant no other way but that of such is the visible Church of God constituted they are of the number of those that make up part of the Church here and that shall fill up Heaven hereafter Now to be a member of the visible Church and
order of Gods as we see in David the Lord was provoked against him that he smote Vzzah with death because they sought not God according to the due order and if matters of order be so great what is it for men to vary in matters of faith Col. 2. and to change the covenant of God it's made a great offence Esa 24.5 To change the ordinances of God much more that which is the foundation of all Ordinances the everlasting Covenant A man could not act upon a more dangerous way of sinning than to change the covenant of God that he hath made with his people 2 By this means there is a great injury done unto children which are the Embryo's of the Church of God and Christ saith It 's dangerous to offend one of these little ones they shall be sure of a rebuke from Christ for of such is the kingdom of God to admit any into the Church of God that the Lord would have secluded is a high provocation and a great unfaithfulness in them that have the power of the Keys but to seclude any that the Lord would have admitted is a greater provocation The covenant of grace is not only a covenant Gal. 3.15 but a testament and that is amongst men accounted so sacred that no man disanulleth it or addeth thereunto and if we could say that children were secluded from the covenant because they cannot restipulate then to blot their names out of the last Will and Testament of Christ is a horrible injury to the persons and a very great presumption in the man But there are two special places that I would name to you for this one in 1 Cor. 10.1 2. Our fathers all passed under the cloud and through the sea were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea The scope I conceive to be this where there are the like priviledges of grace there will be the like punishments but we have the like priviledges of grace that they had therefore we may expect altogether with them the like punishments Estius so Estius says of the benefits that they received they were eorum praefigurativa prefigurative of those which we now receive by Christ and therefore he pitches upon two extraordinary Sacraments of the Jews in which if in any thing they might seem to be priviledged but he says that they were also as types and examples unto us and that the Apostle had such an intention is plain to me and that he intended them as sacramental types 1 else he would never have called them spiritual meats and drinks 2 Else he would never have singled out barely these two giving to one the name of Baptism and to the other the name of spiritual Meats The first noted protection for them and their children passing under the cloud and direction also for the cloud did not only go before them as a guide but it was spread also over them as a covering it 's said Num. 9.15 16 19. That the cloud covered the Tabernacle and so it was always that the cloud covered it by day and this was a type of that special protection that the Lord seals unto parents and their children in their Baptism for they are baptized in the cloud and their passage through the red Sea and their preservation from Pharaoh doth signifie properly our deliverance from all our spiritual enemies and is commonly made a type of it in the Scripture and this was a mercy that was vouchsafed unto them and unto their children Now if the Apostles reason shall be of force we must have the same priviledges in Baptism that they had in these or else the Apostles reason doth nor can not conclude Again Baptism is typified by the salvation of Noah and of his family in the Ark and the resemblance seems to lye in this that as the Ark was the Ordinance of God appointed for the safety of the Church in the general Deluge and a family-salvation the father with the child so Baptism is the Ordinance that the Lord has appointed for the salvation of the Church from the general destruction that shall befal the world of ungodly and it doth run by families also Now by this means all these incouragements are denied unto the infants and the families of the Saints which are the great priviledges in the Scripture given unto them as they were unto Israel and happened unto them but for types only and therefore have their accomplishment in their antitypes under the Gospel 3 Hereby the practice and prayers of the Churches of Christ and all the ancient Saints of God are without any Scripture-ground causlesly condemned and rejected as profanations of the Ordinances of God Consuetudo Ecclesiae matris in baptizandis infantibus nequaquam spernenda est nec divina credenda nisi Apostolica esset traditio Aug. de Genes ad literam Tom. 3. p. 464. And it is a dangerous thing for men to blaspheme the Tabernacle of God and them that dwell in Heaven Rev. 13.6 it 's an expression of the true Church of God and to have a mouth given to a man for that end is not the least spiritual judgment as vers 5. there was a mouth given him so to speak and he opened his mouth this way 2. Hereby we may be informed of the cruelty of unbelieving parents men that do not only exclude themselves from the grace of the Covenant but as much as in them lies their posterity also Non parentes sed peremptores Bern. as far as concerns the ordinary way and means of bringing them into Covenant with the Lord. And these are of two sorts 1 Some that are actually without the Church of God 2 Some that are not cast out through the neglect of the Church but yet they ought so to be 1. Unto them that are actually cast out from being a Church unto God and of this number I look upon the Papists to be Abest ut eos baptizemus qui corporis integri membra conseri negarunt Quum in hoc ordine sint Papistarum liberi quomodo baptismum illis administrare liceat non videmus Calv. epist p. 175. whose children are to be secluded from Baptism themselves being not in Covenant nor owned as a Church of God for I cannot but assert with Doctor Whitaker and many others of the Worthies of this Nation Ecclesiam Romanam non esse Catholicam imò ne veram quidem Ecclesiam particularem sed deserendam esse dicimus ab omnibus qui servari volunt tanquam Antichristi Satanae Synagogam De Eccles q. 6. 1 That Church which the Lord has cast off as a Harlot and as the greatest enemy to the Church of God that ever was that he does not owne unto himself as a Church but so has the Lord cast off the Churches of Rome therefore he does not owne them as Churches unto himself it 's Babylon the great the mother of Harlots and she is set every where in opposition to
never dying worm gnaw upon thy conscience when it shall tell thee I had a godly parent one within the Covenant of God by whom I had a right unto all outward priviledges of membership but I have walked unworthy of them all and abused them all and therefore now some come from the East and from the West others are grafted in by their own faith that were born of wicked parents and I that was as it were a natural branch grew upon a holy stock and in Covenant am now rejected and cast out as an abominable branch 3 The people of God have exercised faith upon their parents Covenant and have been able sometimes in distress to plead that when they have had little to say for themselves Exod. 15.1 when Moses prays he says Thou art my God and my fathers God and the children of Israel though they could say little for themselves for they were a wicked and disobedient people and their righteousness as a filthy rag yet they say Remember the covenant that thou madest to Abraham and the land that thou gavest unto Abraham thy friend for ever and so David Thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid And Austin pleaded his happiness in his good mother he was the son of her tears and of her Covenant-interest and he glories that in her prayers she did bring forth unto God his own bond and did plead her Covenant in his behalf do not walk unworthy of such Ancestors and be you not degenerate plants when you grow upon such glorious roots and thereby become a shame unto your father that begat you and your mother that bare you 3. It is also an Exhortation unto the Church and the Officers thereof that they have a special care and respect unto the children of the Church they being children of such glorious and great hopes being such as are in covenant with the Lord and the children of the kingdom those that the Lord owns for his children Ephes 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore would have them brought up in the nurture and the fear of the Lord they should be brought up as becomes the children of God 1 They are Church-members and therefore ought to be the care of Church-Officers for the power of the Keyes being committed to them they are by them taken into the Church and if so they come under their care also 2 Out of these the Lord does ordinarily gather the number of them that shall be saved as you have heard the greatest part of the Church comes out of the loyns of his own people and therefore it is of their seed that he will have the visible Church out of which he will have the Church invisible made up 3 It 's the greatest glory of a Church to be fruitfull and to bring forth many young ones to God and the greatest misery of a Church and an argument that the Lord will depart from it lyes in this that it is barren and barren Ordinances and a barren Church is the greatest plague in the world it 's that for which the Lord does threaten to give a people unto salt Ezek. 47.12 the barren has born seven and she that has a husband is waxed feeble it 's happy with the Church when she can say My bed is green Cant. 1.16 for the Church of God has a Posterity Jerusalem has her daughters and the glory of the last Church shall be that there shall be abundance of fish as those of the great Sea exceeding many Ezek. 47.10 11. that is abundance of Souls shall be begotten to the Lord. And children should come under the special care of Church-Officers in two things 1 For matter of Instruction and that in the Ordinances that they are capable of They had two sorts of Catechumeni in the Primitive times some Adulti who were ignorant some Parvuli who were such as were born in the Church and they did undertake the Instruction of them all the Scripture hath Milk for such Babes and the neglect of this makes Ministers to build without a foundation and in a great measure lose their labour all their dayes in preaching things that they never did teach the people when they were young to understand 2 To lay up constant Prayers for those that they receive and it 's not a small mercy for a man to have a stock going in the Churches Ship and to have a daily and a continual interest in their Prayers Christ gives an example of it Math. 19.14 15. He laid his hands upon them and blessed them Non erat inane symbolum nec frustra preces Calvin surely this was not done in vain they being Members of the Church Christ shews that the duty of the Officers of the Church is in this manner to pour out the Prayers of the Church for them being such as are to grow up and to hold forth the Name of the Lord in the succeeding generations the people of God their care should extend beyond their Lives 2 Pet. 1.15 and so did Peters and so should ours for a Posterity also to the Lord in this world of ungodly men that he may still have an increase of children Vse 3 § 3. It 's for consolation unto Parents and that in two things 1. Surely that God that has out of his free grace to thee taken thy seed into Covenant also out of the overflowing of his goodness will deny thee nothing that is a blessing of the covenant if the Lord shew so much grace unto another for thy sake and he be so much beloved how much more to thee Nay it 's said of the Jews when they shall be converted though now they be strangers and enemies for the Gospels sake yet are they beloved for their fathers sake there was little loveliness in them for their own sake but yet there is love for their fathers sake and it 's this free grace that will at last bring them in that God may accomplish unto them their fathers Covenant and if the Lord will do such great things to others for their sakes and in love to them O how may they judge of his love unto themselves thereby This may be a great stay to the hearts of many sinking Christians who doubt of the Love of God toward themselves 2. When you are to dye and be solicitous for the little ones you leave behind you now remember they have a Covenant-Father with whom thou maist leave them and they shall not be found to be Orphans who have God for their father now remember he saith leave thy fatherless Children with me and so could Jacob when he came to dye The Angel that redeemed me from all evil Gen. 38.16 bless the lads and let my name be named upon them and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and this was the great comfort of David when he saw that there was a decay coming upon his family the Sword should not depart from his House yet God had
Lord been on our side they had swallowed us up quick Psal 124.1 for they eat thy people as bread Zac. 12.3 and drink them also at sweet wine though they shall prove a cup of trembling in their hand and God will punish them who have punished his people 2 The Lord has spoken great things concerning his people for time to come specially in the latter days because the Mystery of God shall be finished Consider new Jerusalem shall come down from God out of Heaven and then the Churches foundations shall be laid with Saphirs Calvin which is to be understood non de doctrina sed de hominibus not of doctrine but of persons i. e. then the Lord will lay the foundations of Churches with choice men and not with common and ordinary stones that shall be built up a spiritual house unto himself and the glory of the Lord and of the Lamb shall be the light thereof and the name of the City shall be Jehovah Shammath and the Kingdom and Dominion under the whole Earth shall be given to the Saints and Satan shall be bound from raising up any persecution against the Saints for a thousand years so that there shall be as it were a triumphant state of the Church in this life that they that hated them shall be dumb before them and shall lick up the dust of their feet and the Lord will make them to know and acknowledge that he has loved them and this is a sufficient ground for it Rom. 8.32 If he has given us his Son shall he not with him give us all things So I say if he hath given himself Bernard we may reason from the greater to the less he will give all things else Qui dedit regnum nonne dabit viaticum He that hath given a Kingdom will he not give a viatic Wise men do use to make the building answerable to the foundation no man doth lay a foundation of Marble to cover it with a roof of straw and set upon it a mud-wall and this we should consider the rather because before the accomplishment of these promises there is a great cloud that will overshadow all the Gentile Churches in this Western part of the world and then our hearts are apt to fail us and say our bones are dry our hope is past He that could but look into the enlargement of the soul of the Almighty in this promise and could measure the height and breadth and length of it might easily read in the face thereof what great things he will do for his people even when he yet sees nothing in preparation or tendency thereunto 3 He may be assured of the acceptation of his services and that consists in two things 1 ut sunt in ordine supernaturali Deo grata as they are in a supernatural way accepted by God not only as natural actions but as acts flowing from grace and the immediate influence and motions of the Spirit of Christ 2 ut ordinationem habent ad vitam aeternam as they have respect to an eternal reward and the ground of all their interest in God for jure venit cultos ad sibi quisque Deos. And this is the ground of acceptation of services Lord thou art my God early will I seek thee and of expecting a blessing God even our God shall bless us A man can expect nothing from a strange god but the worshippers of Baal did expect he should hear them because he was their god and so do the Saints also and upon this ground it is that Luther said That one good work of the Saints ex fide in fide est pretiosius quà m coelum terra totus mundus non potest reddere dignam maercedem pro unico bono opere flowing from faith and in faith is more precious than heaven and earth c. it is accepted of our God and this is to walk before him to all well-pleasing Psal 23.4 4 They shall be sure of a special presence and providence 1 A special presence The Lord being Abrahams God tells him I will be with thee in all places where thou shalt come the Lord is my shepherd though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death yet I will fear no evil Ferer umbra quâ morientium occupantur oculi They were resembled by Shew-bread because God sets them before his face for ever his eye and his heart are never off them from one end of the year to the other 2 There is a special providence over them the Lord is their glory and therefore they are the glory of the world they being the image and glory of God unto them and upon all the glory there shall be a covering there is the secret of the pavillion of God Esa 4.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 26. v. ult Cant. 1.4 in which he hides his people they have their Chambers into which the King doth bring them therefore be not discouraged when you look without you he is no fool that is wise by the wisdom of God and he is not weak that can say he is strong by the power of his might therefore though innumerable difficulties in thy condition in the world and adversaries encompass thee round about and threaten to ruine thee fear nothing thy God is with thee 5 In the saddest condition of the Saints in reference to the decays of their inward man this is their cordial that God is their God There are two sad states of a Saint Apostasie and Desertion 1 Apostasie they may fall from God into sin and may relapse into sin again and relapses are very dangerous worse than the disease and yet the people of God are not secure from them they may fall into the same sins and their hearts may strangely depart from the Lord and then erubescit conscientia conscience blusheth Tertull Yet this is the way to recover the fall the Lord in his Covenant is thy God to restore thee Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God This was when they were under the sense of dreadful Apostasie from God 2 In a state of Desertion when the Lord hides his face takes away the light of his countenance and yet now this doth raise up the soul again to be able to say My God my God though thou hast forsaken me and this is properly to take hold of God when a man lays claim to his interest in him as his own God 2. How should a man know whether he has Jehovah for his God and whether he has an interest in God by virtue of this grand promise of the Covenant or no 1. If he has chosen the Lord for his God his will is the leading faculty and the primum mobile in the lower world and if it be an act of Election it must be free that as we become God's because he chose us as Christ says Thine they were and thou gavest them me so the Lord becomes ours
is the visible Church and the labourers are the officers and the workmen that do labour therein and they are said to be hired 1 ratione pacti because there doth as it were a bargain and an agreement pass between God and them for answerable unto a mans end such is the implicite agreement that he makes with God and answerable unto that so God will give a man a reward if a man do it for profit he shall have it but then he is said not to serve Christ but his own belly and if he do it for praise of men Christ saith They have their reward c. 2 Ratione praemii in regard of reward because there is no man that shall labour in Christs Vineyard but he shall have his reward answerable unto the penny that he himself did agree for for no man doth labour there in vain there is a certain wages promised him c. And this belongs unto God the Father there is not a man whose gifts you injoy and whose labours you have and do prize but he is hired by the Father and he it is that gives him his hire Now we know that labourers in the vineyard have been very precious to the Saints and are the glory of the Churches a Crown of twelve Stars Rev. 12.1 they are all of them hired by him that is the Husbandman and the Lord of the Vineyard c. 4 It 's the husbandman that waters the vineyard and the vine that he himself has planted as it 's said Esay 27.3 I will water it every moment and there is a double watering sometimes he does it by the dew Hos 14.5 I will be as the dew to Israel and he shall grow as the lily c. that is in a secret silent and insensible way as the Manna fell in the dew without any observation there is a secret River that doth refresh the City of God Psal 46.5 and the Church is secretly refreshed and supported no man knows how and it 's also watered by the rain the former and the latter rain in a more glorious way Psal 68.10 the Lord comes in and doth revive the Church and all men shall see that it is his work and that it is from Heaven only and both put together as the dew and as showers upon the grass Mic. 5.6 which tarrieth not for man it waits not for the sons of men the Lord doth wait for no humane concurrence or the joyning in of any of the creatures but he doth water his own vine himself that it doth flourish and grow and these waters are all the gifts and graces of the Spirit which the Father doth send for the giving of the Spirit is called the promise of the Spirit Acts 1.4 for the succus vitalis the vital juyce of this Vine is the Spirit 5 He pruneth it as he is the Husbandman the unfruitful branches he takes away Joh. 15.2 Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away but yet there is the skill of the husbandman in it who will have in his Church no unfruitful branches though for a while they may continue yet he will gather out of his Kingdom whatever doth offend and whoever works iniquity and he prunes it in the fittest time in its season when it may be best for the vine It may be some do wonder that the Lord lets wicked men alone to continue in the Church so long why they are not immediately cast out truly if the Father be the Husbandman let us leave it to his pruning for it 's his work and he will do it in his time and season we must not undertake to direct him which season is best he keeps it in his own power and he doth it at the fittest time so that after this pruning the other branches may grow better and the Father hath undertaken it and though there may be some hypocrites that may a long time escape the eyes of men and the censure of the Church yet they shall not escape the Fathers eye who is the Husbandman There is a spiritual Excommunication that goes forth against them from him and he will surely cast them out as dead branches and he hath provided a fire for them and they are burnt and there is no man that burns so fiercely in Hell as such dry wood prepared for the fire for all the vessels of wrath are fitted to destruction as well as the vessels of mercy are prepared for glory 6 The fruitful branches he doth purge as the husbandman that they may bring forth more fruit and in this are the two parts of Sanctification 1 The destroying of the old man for the Lord Jesus Christ hath as well bought off in our Redemption the power of sin as the guilt of sin Tit. 2.14 he hath redeemed you from all iniquity that he may have the more communion with you Jam. 4.8 and that he may fit you the more for use 2 Tim 2.21 If a man purge himself c. and also that your services may be the more pleasing unto him Mal. 3.3 1. He doth it by Ordinances Eph. 5.2 6. He doth cleanse them by the washing of water through the word and they are clean through the word that he doth speak unto them 2. Sometimes by the inward motions of the Spirit discovering the filthiness of sin and stirring up a mans heart to hate it and himself for it that a man shall make it his business to mortifie sin and as Christ suffered in the flesh and ceased from sin so he doth arm himself with the same mind his resolution is the armor that strengthens and establishes his heart therein 3. Many times the Lord doth it by shedding abroad his love in the soul so that the sense thereof makes a man to purifie himself from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit as the exhortation also is 2 Cor. 7.1 Having this hope such exceeding great and precious promises let us perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 The reviving of the new man it 's the Fathers end that they may bring forth more fruit for they are ordained to bear fruit a vine is of no worth if it be not fruitful therefore Col. 2.19 they are said to increase with the increase of God 1. Some say the increase of God is a great and glorious increase as the mountains of God and the Cedars of God Col. 2.19 and the wrestling of God 2. Some say it is the increase of God quae est à Deo tanquam à primario efficiente which is from God as the prime efficient Paul may plant and Apollo water but God gives the increase therefore we should honour the Father in the work of Sanctification as well as we honour the Father in his Election 3. Some say the increase of God is ad Deum tanquam finem ultimum is to God as the last en◠And when doth a man bear more fruit 1 When he doth the duties that he did formerly neglect and
seek a sufficiency in themselves and too much omit fastning upon the Lord Jesus who is our Saviour to the uttermost c. Now we come to shew the evil of a self-sufficiency in both these more particularly 1. In respect of gifts for a man to look upon himself and grow in love with his own shadow and to depend upon them and glory in them consider the evil of it in these particulars 1 They are another mans goods they are not thine own men are ready to think so of riches and honours that which is without a man but as for the abilities of his own mind they think those are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their proper goods if any thing be but yet as it is said of riches it 's true also of gifts and all those inward qualifications Luke 16. they are another mans and they are so in a double respect 1 Because they are given thee from another What hast thou that thou hast not received he that doth boast of 1 Cor. 4.7 or trust in any thing that he has received he doth thereby say that it is his own and that he has not received it for if thou hast received it then thy dependence is upon another and not upon thy self mendax de proprio loquitur cùm autem in bonis laudabilis vita ducitur Prosper ad Demest p. 866. Dei est quod geritur Dei est quod amatur 2 They are another mans as riches are for they are given thee mainly for the good of another grace is given a man for himself and is properly his own 1 Cor. 12.7 but gifts are given for the Church and for the edifying of others the manifestation of the Spirit is given unto every man to profit withal and therefore thou art but as a steward of every gift and thou must dispense them and lay them out for the good of the family to give them their meat in due season and if not this will be the benefit that thou wilt have by thy gifts that thy account will be the greater and there will come a time that the same Spirit that is now thy Teacher will surely be thy Accuser Luke 16.1 for wasting thy masters goods Accepta bona dissipamus quando iis nec ad ipsius honorem nec proximi aedificationem nec ad propriam salutem utimur Stella There is a double difference between gifts and graces 1 Grace is for a maâ—â— own salvation but gifts are for the Churches edification and therefore they are but prâ— hoc statu for this state and there is an end the gifts that the Angels have are but for the edification of the Church Dan. 9.23 Rev. 19.10 1.4 He sent and signified it by the Angel unto his servant John and when the Elect of God shall be gathered and the Church of Christ perfected and the Kingdom given up to the Father then as the protection of Angels shall cease for there shall be no more use of it so these qualifications this influence of the Spirit of Christ upon the Angelical nature by way of gifts shall cease also 2 Some put this difference that the Spirit to some gives gifts as a Spirit assisting only but not dwelling there where he assists by gifts but where grace is there is a residence of the Spirit and that not only according unto the gifts and effects as in the other but according to the essence for we are said to be Temples of the Holy Ghost Now to dedicate a Temple to another is to give Divine honour which is not to be done unto the gifts and graces of the Spirit for they are but creatures and therefore the Spirit doth not dwell in them barely by his gifts but according to his essence Habitat verus Spiritus in credentibus non tantùm per dona sed quoad substantiam neque sic dat dona ut ipse alibi sit sed donis adest creaturam suam conservando gubernando addendo The Spirit dwells in Believers not only by gifts but according to his essence neither doth he so give gifts as to be absent himself but he is present c. Luther 2 He doth give them unto wicked men and therefore there is no sufficiency to be placed in that in which God puts no difference Psal 68.18 Christ received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also not only those that were rebellious and are now converted but those that live still in rebellion Christ received many gifts to dispense unto these Christ is in the Scripture set forth as a Head and as a Root he gives graces as Head unto the Church which is his body Joh. 15.1 2. the fulness of him that filleth all in all but as he is a Root he spreads himself into a visible Church upon Earth so he gives much sap and greenness unto those that bear leaves only and therefore it was a good saying of Luther in one of his Epistles Potentior est veritas quà m eloquentia potior spiritus quà m ingenium major fides quà m eruditio A little grace is to be preferred before abundance of gifts and a little of the Spirit of Sanctification above the fulness of the qualifications of the Spirit for the Lord doth cause this Sun to shine upon the evil and unthankful and doth continue it unto them for a while as a Spirit of Qualification to whom nevertheless he will be for ever as a Spirit of Condemnation hereafter 3 When a man depends upon these and places his sufficiency in them he serves Satan in the highest way that can be that is with the gifts and the graces of the Spirit of God Mat. 12.44 45. we read Mat. 12.44 45. there is a house swept and garnished it 's the house that Satan will chuse to himself to inhabit above all other places in the world and therefore he places a strong garrison there of seven Spirits for there is no soul whom he takes so much delight in and in which he doth love so much to dwell as he doth in such a man and therefore it was a great speech of Austin of Licentius a man of a great wit but of an unsound mind Abs te ornari diabolus quaerit Accepisti à Deo ingenium spiritualiter aureum in illo Satanae propinas teipsum The Devil seeks to be adorned by thee c. It was the abuse upon the vessels of the Temple that in Beltshazers time they must be brought forth and used in the worship of their gods which was but the Devil instead of a God the gifts that a man has are the utensils of the Temple of the Holy Ghost and therefore above all others Satan loves to be served with those and if the Devil do but puff a man up with either of these Luther Potentia justitia sapientia that 's the house he delights to dwell in now for a man to serve Satan with his wealth or his honour is a
because he is the Son of man that was foretold Dan. 7.13 14. Dan. 7.13 14. to whom the kingdom should be given by the Ancient of days and therefore is given unto him all government because he is the person that was foretold to whom it should be communicated 2 Because he is the Son of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred quatenus and so it is by Beza that is he hath all power given unto him and all judgment not only as he is God as he is the second person but as he is the Son of man quatenus homo c. non tantùm secundùm naturam divinam sed etiam humanam and so Chemnit doth from hence infer humana natura in Christo assumpta est in communicationem gubernationis rerum omnium praecipuè verò regno Deo in Ecclesia 3 It is by many others interpreted by that place Phil. 2.10 Because he humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that to the name of Jesus every knee should bow c. that is this is the reward that the Father hath given him for his obedience in his humiliation taking upon him our nature the form of a servant therefore he is exalted unto the highest pitch of Majesty and of Authority to be next to God himself Now which interpretation soever we take of these it will appear that this power is given unto him not only as he is God but as he is Mediator and that the formalis ratio of giving it unto him is as he is the Son of man and not as he is God for as he is God he had an equal hand in the Soveraignty of all things and an equal right to it with the Father and the Spirit and so it could not be said to be given to him but it is given him as the Son of man and as a reward of his obedience because he became the Son of man But to answer an Objection or two about this 1. It is objected It appears plainly by Scripture and is by you granted That there is a double Kingdom of Christ the one belonging to him by nature and the other given to him by the Father the one proper only unto Christ the Mediator the other common to the Father and the Spirit as well as to the Son the one to be exercised for ever and the other but for a time wherefore there are two distinct Kingdoms of Christ why therefore may we not say that as he is the second Person he rules in the world and as he is the Mediator he rules in the Church only Answ I do confess there are two Kingdoms and these are really distinguished one from another that Christ as God hath an essential Kingdom equal with the Father and a Kingdom which he doth receive by donation from the Father as he is God-man but I say That the exercise and administration of both Kingdoms are now in the hand of the Mediator and shall be unto the time of the restitution of all things for the Father judges no man Joh. 5.22 that is natura divina absolutè sine Mediatore judicium sive totam administrationem dedit Filio Mediatori incarnato c. Chemnit i. e. totius mundi imperium c. The Divine nature hath committed all judgment to Christ c. so that the spiritual Kingdom is administred by the Spirit in the ordinances of the Gospel and the providential Kingdom by the power of his Spirit working without ordinances who orders and disposes of all the creatures unto their several ends but yet all this is by the hand of the Mediator and he doth not simply as he is God rule in the providential Kingdom only for all judgment is committed to him that is the government of all things as he is the Son of man as he is the Son of man so he rules the Angels and they act the wheels and as he is the Son of man so he is appointed Heir of all things and as he is the Son of man so all things are put under his feet all sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field c. therefore it 's but a conceit to say That Christ doth rule the world indeed as he is God but he doth rule the Church as he is Mediator for it appears plainly That both of them are acts of his Kingly Office as he is Mediator as the judging of the world will be at the last day and he tells us that God gave him all this power for this end That he might give eternal life unto as many as the Father had given him Joh. 17.20 he doth rule all things in the world so as he makes them serviceable unto spiritual ends but it 's done by him not simply as God but as Mediator and so much Mr. Gilespy cannot but grant out of Calvin in Aarons Rod pag. 203. that all things are put under the feet of Christ the Mediator not only in respect of glory and dignity but in respect of his power and over-ruling providence whereby he can dispose of all things so as they make most for his glory c. which is all that I assert and that the Mediator is not barely Gods servant in the spiritual Kingdom but in the Kingdom of Providence also is plain from Psal 8.6 Eph. 1.22 Object 2. But Christ as Mediator is King Priest and Prophet but he is not so any where but in his Church therefore to say that Christ as Mediator doth it is as much as to say he doth it as King Priest and Prophet and so he shall be made a King Priest and Prophet unto the Pagans and unto all other creatures even to the Devils c. Answ It 's not necessary that whatever he doth as Mediator must flow from all his Offices for he doth many things as he is King that he doth not as he is a Priest or a Prophet he is unto the Angels a King and that as he is the Son of man for he is the Head of all Principalities and Powers and yet he is not unto the Angels a Priest yet as Mediator he rules them and they do belong unto his Kingdom as Mediator and as he is King so he shall judge the world also at the last day so he shall judge the Heathen he shall judge the Devils and so he doth rule them now and over-rule them for the good of the Church and yet he is not unto the Heathen a Priest nor a Prophet neither is he so unto the Devils But his rule and dominion over the works of God is as truly part of his Kingdom as his rule and dominion over the souls of the Saints the Mediator is not a Priest and a Prophet to every thing to whom he is a King and yet he is a King as Mediator and so far as any thing relates unto his Kingly Office so far it may be said to
prosperity of his servants he feeds them with food convenient for them We see in the story of the four Monarchies how they all wrought for their own ruine and the Churches advancement in the end and that they did all but lift at the Church as at a burdensom stone and they themselves were broken thereby all tended to the Churches glory and greatness And the mountain of the Lords house shall be exalted upon the top of the mountains and new Jerusalem shall come down from God out of heaven and all Nations shall come unto the Church and bring their glory unto it and lick the dust under the soals of their feet the Lord will make it manifest to the world that they are a people that he hath loved and therefore 1 Cor. 3.21 22. All things are yours things present and things to come all are yours the vials that are now poured out Christ hath the ordering of them and they shall all of them make for the good of the Church in the end 3. Christ is at the right hand of the Father and we sit there together with him Eph. 2.6 He is exalted unto the right hand of Majesty and hath all authority put into his hands and that not for himself but as a publick person as a representative head and therefore we have an interest in all his authority which he is invested with he doth administer all things for us as our head and as one that hath undertaken it in our behalf 4. God hath subjected all his Soveraignty unto the prayers of his people by virtue of the Covenant it being made over to them Esa 45.11 Concerning my sons and the works of my hands command ye me and the people of God therefore in their prayers have desired God to rent the heavens to shake the earth to remove mountains Awake for thy people unto the judgment that thou hast commanded the hand of the Lord is not shortned what Soveraignty and Power soever God hath over the creatures they can desire God to put it forth according to his wisdom as their necessity shall require and they do expect that it shall be done they dye in the faith of it that Rome shall be ruined and Antichrist destroyed verbo victus est mundus verbo Ecclesia est servata Antichristus ut sine manu coepit ità sine manu per verbum conteretur Luth. and they have cursed men in the name of the Lord upon this ground that the Soveraignty of God shall be put forth for their destruction the Saints of God have done so of old and so do the people of God now blast men by their prayers the fire that goes out of their mouths Rev. 11.5 devoureth their enemies c. and so doth Luther curse Antichrist Pereat igitur in aeternum maledicant omnes Angeli Sancti huic portento c. and he dyed in the faith of it that the Lord by his Soveraignty even the zeal of the Lord of Hosts should perform this SECT II. How the spiritual Kingdom of Christ is made over to the Saints Doctr. § 1. HAving thus in general manifested the truth of the point that there is a twofold Kingdom of God spiritual and providential and that both these are committed into the hands of the Mediator and both are committed unto him for the Churches sake we must now come unto the particulars that we may see how all the Soveraigny of God is made over and laid out for the good of his people I shall begin first with the spiritual Kingdom how that is ours and what interest we have in the Soveraignty of God in reference thereunto and so the Observation is That the Supremacy or Soveraignty of God in reference to the spiritual Kingdom is made over to the Saints The spiritual Kingdom is either in Grace or Glory Christ rules in them both Now in the handling of this I shall propose to you 1 The Subjects in this Kingdom who they are and having shewed that Christ is the King and unto what this kingdom doth extend for the matter about which both the kingdoms are conversant is to be preserved as distinct 2 The Agents or Officers that Christ doth imploy in the government of the spiritual kingdom under him 3 The Laws of this kingdom by which he doth govern them 4 The end or the intent of Christ in this government for what it is that he doth in this manner rule them 5 The Enemies of this kingdom for all kingdoms have their enemies and how they are in this kingdom ordered and subdued 6 The punishments in this spiritual kingdom and they are also spiritual according to the double Covenant by which Christ doth dispense himself an inward and an outward Covenant some being in Covenant in truth and reality and some by profession only 7 The Rebels against this kingdom who are within it and profess to subject themselves unto the Laws of it and yet do rebel against this kingdom 8 The consummation or the perfection of this kingdom when grace shall be swallowed up in glory and when the kingdom of grace shall bring in the kingdom of glory unto which men are in this kingdom but in a way of preparation to be made meet Col. 1.12 and if it do appear that the Soveraignty of Christ in all these particulars is made over unto the Saints and exercised for their good then it will be clear that they have an interest in the spiritual kingdom and that his Soveraignty over it is theirs and by Covenant belongs unto them 1. Concerning the Subjects of this spiritual Kingdom for if the two Kingdoms and the Lords government in them be distinct then we must keep the Subjects of these Kingdoms distinct through the whole discourse The spiritual Kingdom I conceive to have for its Subjects only those that live in the Church and that belong to it for out of the Church of Christ he hath no spiritual Kingdom for this is a Kingdom administred by Ordinances and the workings of the Spirit in them and by them Not that even in the Church there is not concurrent a providential Kingdom for that is universal and it 's that of which it 's said Thy kingdom rules over all he hath not a limited Kingdom as other Princes have Psal 103.19 that hath its bounds for God hath set men the bounds of their Dominion as well as of their habitation 't is said The head of Syria is Damascus Esa 7.8 and the head of Ephraim is Samaria caput in the Hebrew is summitas cacumen the top and the height of any thing is said to be the head thereof and it is as much as to say Ego met as constitui quas non egredientur I have set bounds which they shall not pass Calvin they are at the highest that ever they shall be Syria shall never be higher than it is its head is Damascus nor shall Ephraim be higher than it is its head is Samaria
without a yoke and consider that they have no Law but the wills of the flesh and of the mind the Law of sin and death we shall all say O blessed is the man whom the Lord rules and reigns over the Lord rules and reigns let the Saints rejoyce c. 7 In his government they do behold him in his glory for he that doth rule in them doth also dwell in them as in a Temple and he walks amongst them continually Esa 33.17 Thine eyes shall see the King in his glory Now there are many men that are ruled by Kings that never see them but this is a Court where they may see their King and it is the Palace of the great King where he is always to be seen by his Subjects the meanest as well as the greatest non factio sed curia dicenda est Cyprian It 's not a government at a distance in remote parts but so as he takes up his dwelling place there and they are joyful in their King let the children of Zion be joyful in their King always but never so much as when they see him in glory 8 They have a communion with his person all the while there are many that have a benefit by his government that have no fellowship with his person but the Queen the Bride the Lambs wife she has the fruit of his government and communion with his person and delights in his love and in his glory also and the King sits at his round table and we eat with him we sup with him and our souls rejoyce in his salvation his left hand is under our head and his right hand embraceth us he brings us into his banquetting-house and the banner of love is over us as a Bridegroom over his Bride while he rules us as a King he doth delight in us and we have communion with him as a husband continually § 2. There is an external part of the Covenant and so there is of the Kingdom which is the rule and the government that Christ hath over the spirits of those that are under the spiritual kingdom by profession only unregenerate men that joyn to the Church and are with them under the dew and influence of the Ordinances and of the common works of the Spirit of God in them for Rev. 4.5 Rev. 4.5 There are burning before the throne seven lamps of fire which are the seven Spirits of God the Throne is an expression of Majesty and government for unto the King belongs the Throne the Scepter and the Crown they are properly insignia regia c. and by the seven Spirits is meant the Holy Ghost that 's clear from Chap. 1.4 where he wisheth grace and peace from the seven Spirits of God by which surely is meant the Holy Ghost for we are to make our prayers unto God only but yet it is seven Spirits because of the variety of graces and gifts which he doth pour out upon the Church of Christ in his administration and government and here we may observe two things 1 That the spiritual kingdom of God doth not only extend to his rule over the Saints which are his subjects by election and regeneration but also that there is a great deal of dominion which he has even over them that are the subjects of this kingdom only by profession 2 That the rule and dominion that Christ doth exercise over these is for the sake and for the good of the Saints and that they themselves have no benefit by it in the end but all doth turn unto the advantage and the spiritual improvement of them that are heirs of salvation so that the administration unto unregerate men as members of the Church visible is for the good of those that are members of the Church invisible 1. The spiritual kingdom of Christ doth extend even unto unregenerate men who are the subjects of it by profession only where we are to take notice That there are many give their names unto Christ who never give their hearts who have the name of Christ written in their foreheads which have not his image instamped upon their souls 2 Cor. 9.13 there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a profession which is not always accompanied with a real and spiritual subjection unto the Gospel 2. These are all the while subjects to another kingdom for till vocatio alta secreta there be a deep and secret vocation a man is never translated Col. 1.13 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is è natali solo c. a man is actually under the kingdom of Satan still for while a man is of the world though he be in the Church he is of the worlds kingdom for they are not all of us that are amongst us not all Israel that are of Israel there are some do say that they are Jews and are not but do lye but are of the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 2.9 for the world lies in wickedness in aliquo positum esse est in ejus esse potestate as Cameron hath observed there are many enemies that live in a kingdom against which they conspire and endeavour to destroy it Jesus Christ after this life shall rule over his enemies but in this life he rules in the middle of them Psal 110.2 3. Yet while they do live and in outward shew continue the subjects of this kingdom so long they are to be looked upon in outward shew as subjects and the priviledges of subjects belong unto them they are servants Joh. 8.35 But the servant abides not in the house always there will come a time when the Lord will say Cast out the bond-woman and her son Gal. 4. but yet while they are in the house they do enjoy many priviledges and benefits by being in the family they partake of the sap and the fatness of the good olive Rom. 11.17 and yet be afterwards broken off 4. But they shall not continue subjects of this kingdom always though for a season the tares and the wheat the sheep and the goats may stand together till the day of separation good and bad be in the net together till the one be gathered into the vessel and the bad be cast away for though the spiritual kingdom in respect of Christ shall have no end but Christ shall be so a King in glory that he shall never cease to be a head of eminence or of influence or of guidance for the mystical Union shall never be broken no more than the hypostatical yet his kingdom in respect of those that profess it is but for the time of this life natural worship shall be in glory and they are only Saints that worship Christ therewith but there is instituted worship that is only for the time of this life and it is in this that they worship him and become subjects to him Mat. 8.12 but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out at the last Joh. 15.2 there are branches that bear no fruit in this Vine
of persons they may as Eli did misreprove a Hannah in the Church of God and as David believe a Zibi against the son of his friend for commonly the best deserving Christians are clouded by the glaring light of the lamps of Hypocrites who make it their business to raise false reports against such as outshine them in true grace and holiness but at last God will discover them and cast them out of the Churches prayers and affection they shall not always abide with them 1 Joh. 2.18 that they may be made manifest not to be of them and they that are approved shall be made manifest and so shall they that are corrupted also they shall be found lyars and they shall be cast out the Lord will cut them off that they may deceive the expectations of the Saints no more the Lord doth delight to do it and we should wait his leisure in it who will certainly shew himself a God that judges in the earth 3 That thereby the Saints may be awakened and admonished when Hymeneus fell then 2 Tim. 2.7 is that exhortation most seasonable Let him that names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity and let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall when a man observes horrendas tempestates flenda naufragia horrid tempests it is a hint to the Saints look to your standing see that you be built upon a Rock that storms and tempests may not overthrow you 5. In their judgments for they are terrible judgments that the Lord doth execute upon unregenerate men in the Church there are no mercies like those out of Sion and there are no judgments like them no men are so eminently under the curse as they are Out of the Throne came thundering and lightning and voices Rev. 4.5 for the Churches sake and by their prayers And this is 1 that the Saints may be thankful how great a mercy is it that I had not fallen away as well as he Joh. 14.22 2 That they may take heed of the same sins lest they be overtaken by the same plagues Remember Lots wife the natural branches are broken off thou standest by faith be not high-minded but fear they entred not through unbelief let us fear lest we also come short c. Heb. 4.1 § 3. There belongs also unto the spiritual Kingdom reductivè all the works and the dispensations of God amongst the creatures for though only men that live in the Church be the proper subjects of the spiritual Kingdom and in respect of the spiritual part of it only the Saints yet as the Mediator undertook the government of all other things for the Churches sake so in the government of all things he has a special respect unto their good Eph. 1. ult Joh. 17.2 so that all the creatures and the government of them all comes under the spiritual Kingdom two ways 1 As they tend to perfect the graces of the Saints 2 As they belong unto the priviledges of the Saints so reductivè they belong to the spiritual Kingdom 1. Christ in the spiritual Kingdom doth so order and dispose of all the creatures that they do all tend to perfect and increase the graces of the Saints Rom. 8.28 Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God the Apostle speaks it in reference unto affliction but yet because there was a general doctrine in it he would not restrain it and therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is all creatures and all events 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 1 they shall not work so of themselves but by a blessed and gracious concurrence of God with them all as it is said That Ministers are workers togethers with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6.1 Alas it is not any thing we can do or by any power that is in us but only there is a concurrence of the principal with the instrumental cause for instrumentum agit dispositivè in virtute principalis agentis 2 Some refer it unto the creatures themselves that they do not do this apart as if any one action or any one dispensation meerly did it but they do it as it were in a conspiracy or concatenation they all joyn together in the work that if we take any one particular we may seem to go backward and it may tend to the disadvantage of the spiritual Kingdom but we must take them all together as we are not to judge of the works of God ante quintum actum so neither are we to judge of the fruits of his works but by laying of them all together and see how they work in a due order and subordination one to another c. and unto what is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is ad aeternam piorum salutem for sine summo bono nil bonum As there is nothing good without the chiefest good so there is nothing good that doth not lead a man unto the chief good and therefore when it 's said That all things work together for good the meaning is they shall all make for the increase of their grace here and their glory hereafter all of them shall work for the eternal good of their souls whereas unto all wicked men all the creatures and all the dispensations of God in the ordering of the creatures cedunt in perniciem tend to their perdition they are unto the one in praemium for a reward unto the other in supplicium for punishment as Prosper has it Or as Cyprian saith of the Sacrament it was Petro in remedium Judae in venenum a remedy to Peter but poyson to Judas so it is here all the creatures that the wicked do enjoy they are indeed seemingly blessings but really curses outwardly bread but in verity a stone a fish in shew but in truth a scorpion for they do all of them tend to the ripening of their sins and the hastning of their ruine but to the Saints 1 Cor. 3.21 22. All things are yours he was speaking of glorying in men they should not boast of their Teachers though it is true indeed that the Primitive Church had their Crown of twelve Stars yet they were all the servants of the Churches debent tam corpori quà m capiti servire they ought to serve the body as well as the head and therefore some will have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Apostle doth speak here as in the fore-quoted places as I conceive where though speaking of one particular yet there being a general truth in it he doth propound it generally for it is not to be restrained to persons as the after-enumeration shews for he speaks of life and death things present and things to come now how doth he mean that all is ours that is aedificationi saluti destinata as ordained for our edification and salvation there is a special design of grace in ordering and disposing of them all so as
water and it 's all but the vain presumption of his own spirit 2 Cor. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee my strength shall be perfected that is shall be declared to be perfect in weakness therefore I take pleasure in infirmities for when I am weak then am I strong it is an easie thing for the potsherds to contend with the potsherds of the earth but when we come to contend with Spirts and they strengthned by the darkness that is within us now the strength of grace is put to it indeed now we see what power of Christ is in us for there is no power but Christs power that can hold out against temptation 5. That we may know the benefit of Christs Intercession that having so great an Accuser as Satan is we may go to him and strive to find the benefit of such an Advocate O what an advantage was it to Peter to hear this sweet word of Christ to him But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not Christ was tempted in all things like unto us and he is sensible of our infirmities and with the temptation we shall find a way to escape for this very end Christ suffered himself to be tempted by Satan that he might succour us in all our temptations he is pleading for us against the accusations of our subtle adversaries and if he had not undertaken to be our Advocate we had been undone but he still saith to Satan The Lord rebuke thee c. 6. And truly hereby we have experience of the power of our own prayers how many times have the prayers of a Saint stilled the enemy and the avenger that pursued them furiously how many times hath Satan fallâ—n before them like lightning and all the devices of the enemy have come to nought Rev 11.7 And if any man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies c. and they shall not only kill men but Satan shall also be trod under their feeâ— and it 's a great honour to the Saints that in their conquests they can overcome Satan for resist the Devil and he will flye from you that so proud a Spirit should be so subdued by mankind in fide fortes Diabolum despiciunt quasi vermiculum c. Bern. pag. 1309. cùm viderint contemnunt 7. It quickens the people of God to wisdom and watchfulness to wisdom that they may discern the devices of Satan and to watchfulness as the exhortation is 1 Pet. 5.8 Watch therefore and put on the whole armour of God because he is as a roaring lyon seeking whom he may devour Austin observes that there are two ways that Satan hath 1 In times of persecution cogit Christianos negare Christum he compels Christians to deny Christ 2 In times of peace and prosperity he raiseth up Hereticks and so docet Christianos Christum negare teaches Christians to deny Christ Tom. 8. pag. 233. therefore we had need be wise and watchful 8. There is a time coming when this over-ruling power of Christ will put an end unto this dominion of Satan he shall not be the god of this world always but when Christ puts down all rule and all authority and power his Kingdom will for ever be broken it must last no longer than the day of Judgment for there will be no further use of him either in tempting accusing or tormenting but as after the day of Judgment Christ in glory shall make up the head of that great body the Church which shall be gathered unto glory by him as they were here on earth gathered into his Kingdom of Grace so Satan in Hell also shall make up the head of that great body of the wicked that he hath been gathering into his Kingdom here upon earth and he shall be tormented together with them and it is no small comfort that we can look beyond the power of the enemies though they be so powerful for the present it is but for a while Nebuchadnezzar had power to do what he pleased in the world but after a little while this great Monarch shall be destroyed My anger says the Lord shall cease in his destruction c. Lastly The temptations and accusations of Satan shall tend to the greater increase of the glory of the Saints for if these light afflictions that all Saints meet with in the world from lesser evils do work for us much more will such great afflictions Potest inimicus excitare tentationis motum sed quoties restiteris toties coronaberis Bern. p. 11 15. They had their several Crowns in their Triumph answerable unto the several Victories that they won therefore Christ hath upon his head many Crowns because of his many Conquests so it shall be unto the Saints matter of great triumph Satan himself who did above all things desire to keep them from glory his very temptations and his accusations shall be so far useful as that they shall add unto our glory and they that have been most tempted and accused by him and have by grace resisted him shall be most glorified in the day of the Lord. § 3. The next thing propounded was Gods providential Kingdom as it respects men and these either good or bad which belong both unto the providential Kingdom and the Soveraignty of God over them is laid out wholly for the good of the Saints And here first we are to consider Providence ordering all things either in reference unto the Saints own spiritual good that the ordering of all things towards them shall tend unto it or else in reference unto the good of others Providence shall so order things that they shall become a common and a publick good unto others in the generations in which they live yea and it shall extend also unto after-ages 1. Providence shall so dispose of all things as they shall tend unto their own spiritual good and all by reason of their interest in the Soveraignty and the Supremacy of God as 1. If we look upon their conversion Providence doth strangely order things so that they shall be cast upon such societies and opportunities which they never thought of nor lookt after and in these they shall be converted and brought home unto God there is an instance in Onesimus Philem. 10 11. he ran away from his master and by this means was brought to Rome unto the Apostle Pauls ministry and there the Lord was pleased to convert him unto the faith a thing that he little thought of or aimed at in going from his master and yet now he that was before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unprofitable Is profitable both to thee and me says the Apostle Paul to Philemon c. And so it was with Junius his father laying the Scripture before him Joh. 1.1 he fell occasionally and carelesly upon Joh. 1.1 In the beginning was the word c. he was so taken with the majesty of the stile and with the excellency of the matter that he did