suitable to mans intire nature to love God yet to love him so and so by obeying the command of not eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and some other Commands is not so connaturall but God might have commanded the contrair without any thing done contrair to mans nature Yet from this it followes no more that these are two Covenants then that there be two Covenants of Grace Because faith in God and the Morall Law in an Evangelick way are therein commanded and also some duties touching the seals by a positive Law are therein contained CHAP. VII It s not written in the heart of man by nature that GOD should promise life eternall to man upon condition of obedience 2. And that the debt of Justice can not tye GOD. 3. GOD punisheth not sin by necessity of nature 4. Nor defends he his own declarative Glory by that necessity 5. Nothing can be given to GOD Al-sufficient 6. No meriting of the creature 7. We should have humble thoughts of free-Grace 8. How low thoughts of our selves 9. Promises make no strict justice between GOD and us SUre it is not repugnant to the yet innocent and intire nature of man to know that God may reward all such as seek and serve him but that he must reward obedience either in the generall or so and so is neither written in mans heart nor hath it any truth For it were nothing against justice or bounty or any attribute of God not to reward his creature which is obliged to serve him and though there be a sort of quietnesse of conscience which is the naturall result of obedience in Adam and of all men yet it cannot inferre that there is an intrinsecall connexion ex naturâ rei between our obedience and a reward to be given of God Therefore nor will it be a good inference because there is disquietnesse in the conscience after sin and that it is naturall to a sinner to apprehend a revenging power pursuing sin committed that therefore it is naturall anâ— essentiall to the Lord to pursue sin with punishment in generall For a naturall conscience may and does know that God doth freely create the world and that he might not have created it that he doth good freely to his creatures and that he is not a debtor to his creatures Will it follow by any Logick that God creates the world by any naturall obligation And because by force of a naturall conscience all know that God is good and bountâ—full to his creatures in giving and doing good to them we cannot therefore infer that actuall beneficence is so essentiall to the infinite Majesty as he should not be God if he did not extend that goodnesse to them Common sense will say no more followeth but goodnesse and bounty intrinsecall are essentiall to God and these attributes are essentiall to him and were from eternity in him and are his good and bountifull nature Though not either man Angel or any thing else had been created to which he doth actually extend his goodnesse Ergo this actuall extension of goodnesse is not essentiall to God so neither is the actuall punishing of sin essentiall to God but free though Adam apprehended God would punish his eating of the forbidden tree Yet if he apprehended that he should not be God if he did not punish it his apprehension was erroneous And this only followes that there is an intrinsecall and internall Justice in God naturall and essentiall in God but so that the out-goings of his Justice the egressions are most free and that is said by some without all reason because the apprehensions we have naturally of God that he punisheth sin Vniversales apprehensiones nequaquam sunt eorum quae Deo vel adesse vel abesse possunt pro liberrimâ voluntate Universall apprehensions therefore they are not apprehensions of such things as may be or not be in God according to his free pleasure if the apprehensions of Gods doing good to Angels to men to all his creatures freely be in all by nature and cannot be rooted out and be universall then these apprehensions cannot be of such things as are in God according to his most free will and may be in the Almighty or not be in him But the conclusion hath neither reason nor sense for there are universall apprehensions in all men and they canot be rooted out that God does good to Angels men and creatures freely Ergo by this Logick the doing of good freely to Angels men and creatures is not a thing that is in God according to his free-will and may be in the Almighty or not in him Then the so doing must be in God essentially 2. Then must God not be God if he do not good freely to them 3. Then must God not be God except he create men Angels and creatures 4. But since he is God everlasting he must from everlasting have created men Angels and the creatures and from everlasting he must punish sin Life may be considered 1. As life 2. As such an excellent life to wit a communion with God In the former consideration life is either considered as the end or secondly as a free reward In the former respect To live an intellectuall life in obeying God was to Adam so created a connaturall end as to burn is to fire and to give light to the Sunne And God may put the respect of a reward upon any obedientiall end But that Adam should have such an eminent life for the reward of his obedience as a communion with God which is farre above his obedience is the free donation of God nor is there any necessary connexion between Adams perfect obedience and so high and eminent a life nor can this Covenant as touching such a promise be written in his heart God then never loved to make any Covenant yea even that of Works without some acts and out-goings of grace and the hyre was grace how is he not to be served who loves to hyre and allure us to be happy Arminius saith the reward of keeping the Covenant of Works cannot be spirituall nor can the punishment be spirituall because you teach saith he that the obedience is naturall Ans. It followeth not for the reward is spirituall yea and supernaturall from the free promise of God It was that God should recompence our naturall obedience coming from connaturall principles with so eminent a Crowne as communion with God Creator in a life of glory And this came from no innate proportion between a naturall work and supernaturall reward Otherwise we must say first that there is such an intrinsecall connexion ex naturâ rei between Adams work and so high wages as that glorious communion was as the Lord could not but in justice so have rewarded his obedience except he would be unjust but there is nothing in the creature that can conclude limite or determine his will 〈◊〉 wisdome who is infinite 2. It had been nothing against justice if
the Lord had followed Adams obedience with no reward at all For man as a creature owes himself to God and as sweetly and pithily Anselme saith as a redeemed one I owe my self and more then my self to thee because thou gave thy self who art so farre more then my self for me and thou promises thy self to me Now God who is more and greater then Adam promised himself to be enjoyed by Adam if he should continue in obedience For what can the highest goodnesse sayeth he give to one that loves it but it self 3. If God of justice give Adam life Adam might compell God to pay what he oweth him else he should be unjust But the creature can lay no necessitie on the Creator either to work without himself nor can he cause him to will 4. The proper work of merite saith great Bradwardine and of him that works must go before the wages in time or in order of nature And if the worker receive its operation and working for wadge from God first and by his vertue and help continue in operation and working he cannot condignely merit at the hand of God but is rather more in Gods debt after his working then before his working because he bountifullie receives more good from God then before especially because he gives nothing proper of his own to God but gives to God his own good But no man first acts for God for God is the first actor and mover in every action and motion As that saith Who gave first to the Lord and it shall be recompensed him 5. If this was yesterday just that life eternall is due to Adam for his work before God made it just and due then from Eternitie and before any decree of God it was just and due Certainlie God upon the same reason was debtour to make such a Covenant that was just before he made it just And this is no Covenant of God for God not making the justice of the Covenant and the juâ—t connexion between work and wadge he cannot be the Author of the Covenant But neither is Adam the Author of the justice nor of the just Covenant Upon the same ground it was then an everlasting justice without and before God from Eternitie Non datur justum prius primo justo 6. If God did more for Adam then he can recompence God for it as the Father hath done to the Son then he could not merit at the hand of God But God did more to Adam in giving to him being faculties mind will affections power habites his blessed Image then Adam can never be in a condition in which he can recompence God or give him more annuall and usurie in his acting of obedience then the stock was he received in proportion As the Son can never give the Father in recompence so much or the captive ransomed from death can never give to his ransome payer who bought him so much as the one and the other shall no more be under an obligation and debt of love and service to father and ransomer then to a stranger that they never knew Nor could Adam thus be freed of God so as he should be owing nothing to him If any say God may freely forgive all this obligation and debt To which Bradwardine Answers well 1. The forgiving of the debt when the debtor hath nothing to pay is a greater debt taken on 2. God saith he may forgive so in regard of actuall obligation that he is not oblidged ad aliquid faciendum sub poena peccati to do any thing under the pain or punishment of sin as the hireling is obleiged to work when he hath made a Covenant to work and so we are not oblidged to do as much as we can for God But in regard of habituall obligation God cannot forgive the debt that the reasonable creature owes to God for so he might dispence with this that the reasonable creature owe no obedience to God suppose he should command it which is impossible They seeme therefore with eyes of flesh to look upon God who say that God by necessitie of justice must punish sin yea that the most High cannot be God except he punish sin and that he should not be God if all his Lawes imposed upon men were only promissorie and void of all threatnings What could not God have said eat not of the tree of knowledge for if ye eat not your obedience shall be rewarded with life eternall and no more might he not have laid aside all threatning What Scripture or reason teacheth to say that God if he create a reasonable creature and under a morall dependencie which it hath and must have of God then must God by necessitie of nature punish the sinner yea so as if he punish not he should not be God nor just but must fall from his naturall dominion except he make penall laws and so he should not be God except he say to Adam if thou eat thou shalt die or shalt be punished for eating but this is not proven by one word except this the reasonable creature is not nor cannot be subject to God Creator except God punish the sinner But that is denyed Adam should have had a Morall dependance upon God and God should have been God and essentially just if sin had never come into the World and if God had kept Adam under a Morall Law as he did the Elect Angels who never felt or knew the fruit of a Morall Law broken and transgressed And God if he imposed any penall Law upon the Elect Angels as penall which shall be an hard work to prove yet had a naturall dominion over the Elect Angels and suppose no Law but only a rewarding and remunerative Law had been over their heads should God be no God in that case and if any deny that God hath a perfect dominion over the Elect Angels he is not worthy to be refuted 2. Shew me in all the Old or New Testament any penall Law of active obediencâ— as penall imposed upon the man Christ or where is it written If the Man Christ sin he shall eternally die I tremble at such expressions Is the Lord therefore not the Lord and hath the Lord fallen from his naturall dominion over his Son the Man Christ Or 3 will any man deny but the Lord might justly have laid upon all men and upon the Elect Angels a Law only remunerative not penall at all a Law only with the promise of a reward and void of all threatning of death first or second or any other punishment and yet he should have been the Lord and had a naturall dominion over Angels the Man Christ and all mankind 3 Suppose the Lord had never imposed the Law penall forbidding the sin against the Holy Ghost upon the Elect beleevers nor any other penall Law but by vertue of the most sufficient ransome of the Blood of God payed for man he had made them now after the fall as the
1. The nature of obeence 2. The worth and excellencie of obedience The more the obedience be from our selves the more it partakes of the nature of obedience Hence four kinds of obedience are to be considered 1. Christs obedience was the most legall obedience and also the most perfect for he obeyed most of his own of any from his own will purely Ioh. 10.18 Mat. 26. â—9 42 44. His own blood Hebr. 9.14 Rev. 1.5 My blood saith he Matth. 26.28 He gave his life a ransome Matth. 20.28 He gave himself a ransome 1 Tim. 2.6 By himself he purged our sins Heb. 1.3 Gave himself for his Church Eph. 5.25 Offered himself Heb. 9.14 And therefore the satisfaction that he made was properly his own It s true the life flesh and blood which he offered to God as common to the three Persons was equally the life flesh blood of God by way of Creation and efficiency For God as God created His Man-hood and gave him a body but that Man-hood in abstracto was not the offering but all these in concreto and the self including the value and the dignitie was not the Fatâ—ers not the Spirits but most properly his own and the Sons only by way of personall termination and subsistence 1. There are contradictory tearms affirmed of this holy self the Son and of the Spirit and the Father The Son was God incarnate 2. The son offered himself his own life his own blood to God for our sins Neither the Father nor the Spirit at all is God incarnate neither Father nor Spirit offered his own life his own blood to God Neither the Father nor the Spirit hath to speak so a personall or terminative dominion over the flesh and blood of Christ. 2. Christ was in no sort oblidged to empty himself and cannot be under a jus or obligation to the Creator or the creature Of free love and his own will he became Mediâ—â—â—â— God Man and being creaâ—ed man and having said here am I to do thy will having stricâ—en hands with God as Surety of the Covenant none more oblidged being holy and true And therefore though Christ-Man was most strictly tyed to give the Father obedience yet he was not oblidged to give him such and such obedience so noble so excellent from a personall Union for Christ God cannot properly come under any obligation Hence the obedience of Christ is most meritorious because maximè indebita in regard of the God-head most undebtfull and yet obedience most debtfull in regard of the Man Christ. 3. Most from his own will personally considered the affection love the bended will highest delight to obey lay personally near to the heart and holy will of Christ God With desire have I desired to eat this Passeover He went foremost in the journey to Ierusalem when he was to suffer Much of the internall propension of the will makes much and as it were heightens and intends the nature of obedience so that Christs and our obedience have scarce an univocall definition 4. He gave and restored more glory to offended justice by such a noble incomparably excellent death then Adam and all his Sons took of glory from God therefore against impure Socinus it is a most reall satisfaction and compensation where glory by obeying and suffering is restored in liew of the glory taken away All that Socinians say that God cannot be a loser and needs not glory and nothing can be taken from him and nothing can be given to him proves nothing but that it is not such a satisfaction as one creature performs to another nor is it a satisfaction that brings profite to God For can a man be profitable to the Almightie Nor such a satisfaction as eases a disquieted minde Which proves not Christ to be a Saviour painted in a meer coppy to us and only a godly Martyr who saveth onely by preaching and witnessing and not by a most reall and eminently clear satisfaction 2. The Elect Angels next to Christ gave obedience in their Law course but not so properly of their own as Christ for some discriminating and strengthning grace they had from Christ Mediator their head Col. 2.10 that they should not fall and something from the Election of Grace which do not necessarily agree to the Covenant of Works which they performed without sin and the more extrinsecall help from grace the lesse merit so farre is grace from being as Jesuites say the essentiall requisite of merit that the work is lesse ours and so the lesse meritorious that it hath grace Let not any say then Christs obedience that came from the fulnesse of the Spirit without measure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must so be lesse meritorious which is absurd for the reason why grace in Angels and men who are meer creatures diminishes the nature of merit is because grace is not their own nor their proper due but supernaturall or preternaturall and so hurts the nature of the merit but to the meriting person Christ-God-Man nothing is supernaturall nothing extrinsecall nothing not his own Grace is his own as it were by a sort of personall dominion not to say that the Man Christ as man did not merit yet as man he was born sinless and with the full Image of God 3. Adam gave more faintly obedience more indeed of his own but it was lesse obedience and lesse will in it then the obedience of Angels and had he continued his obedience had been proper obedience but this is to be observed none did ever actu secundo and by the only help of simple nature attain Justification and Salvation by the simple Covenant of Works but men and evill Angels fell under both though that was a possible Covenant and holy and spirituall yet God set it up to be an inlet to pure Justice in the reprobate Angels and so to free grace in elect men 4. The obedience of faith or Gospel-obedience in the fourth place hath lesse of the nature of obedience then that of Adam or of the Elect Angels or that of Christs It s true we are called obedient Children and they are called the Commandements of Christ and Christ hath taken the Morall Law and made use of it in an Evangelick way yet we are more as it were patients in obeying Gospel-Commands not that we are meer patients as Libertines teach for grace makes us willing but we have both supernaturall habits and influences of grace furnished to us from the Grace of Christ who hath merited both to us and so in Gospel-obedience we offer more of the Lords own and lesse of our own because he both commands and gives us grace to obey And so to the elect beleever the Law is turned in Gospel he by his Grace fulfilling as it were the righteousnesse of the Law in us by begun new obedience Rom. 8.4 and to the reprobate the Law remains the Law and the Gospel is turned in the Law for all conditionall
salvation upon their own Socinian faith that is their indifferent relying upon the Saviour Jesus and their own holiness watchfulnesse obedience love to God Sure the comfort joy peace assurance subjective that they have in their conscience can be no stronger then the objective and fundamentall certitude of standing persevering overcoming flowing from free-will which is woefully free and indifferent to persevere and stand or not to persevere not to stand but to fall away It s a stronger consolation and the strongest should be the Christians choise that is founded upon the Fathers giving and the Sons receiving of sinners and the faith of salvation to me which relies and leans upon Christs undertaking for me that I shall not be lost nor casten out then upon my undertaking for my self The fifth Argument is from Christs receiving the Seals Who so receives in his body the Seals of the Covenant of Grace Circumcision and Baptism and yet needs no putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by Circumcision and needs no forgivenesse of sin no regeneration no burying with Christ in Baptism as Col. 2.11 12. Rom. 6.3 4 5. and eats the Passeover and needs not that the Lamb of God take away his sins as Joh. 1.29 since he is holy and without sin he must be under the Covenant and God must be his God in some other Covenant then sinners are for these seals are proper to a Covenanted people strangers and Pagans might not receive them but these in Covenant only Gen. 17.7 Exod. 12.48 Matth. 28.20 Col. 2.11 12. and Christ must have received Seals for other uses and ends then sinners received them to wit to testifie that he was the God of both Jews and Gentiles and that he was the undertaker for us in a Covenant of suretyship for us to perfect a higher command then any mortall man was under to wit to lay down his life for sinners Joh. 10.18 and beside that for our cause he was made under the Law to fulfill all righteousness and so was Circumcised Luk. 2.21 Baptized Matth. 3.13 16 17. did eat the Passeover with the Disciples Mat. 26.18 19 20. Mar. 14.18 Luk. 22.13 14. he in coming under that state in which he must because a man fulfill the Law and be under even Gospel commands so far as they were suteable to his holy Nature testifieth in obeying all commands even of the Morall Law and as the Son of God he was under no such obligation that he was under a speciall ingagement and compact to God for the work of Redemption And we are taught to feel what imbred delight and sweetnesse of peace is in duties when Christ Covenants with God to come under the Law and under the hardest of commands to lay down his life for sinners because it was a Law and command by Covenant that hath most of obedience which hath most of a Law Q. Was Christ such an one as needed seals to his speciall Covenant with the Father Ans. He needed no seals at all to strengthen his faith of dependency for there was no sinfull weaknesse in his faith yet he was capable of growing Luk. 2.52 For the Law requires not the like physicall intention and bendednesse of acts of obedience from the young as from the aged 2. In that the receiving of the seals proves Christ to be Surety of the Covenant of Grace it makes good that he was under the other Covenant and to perform the obedience due to the speciall command of dying as to a command of Covenant 6. Argument is from the Lords libertie If God might in justice have prosecuted the Covenant of Works and Adam and his might justly have suffered eternall death for sin for the Law is holy and just and the threatning Gen. 2.17 just except the Lord had of grace made another Covenant then must the Lord send or not send a Saviour to suffer and be a suffering Redeemer and Surety as pleased him or not pleased him and if Christ may refuse to undertake or willingly agree as pleased him and Christ being Godâ—consubstantiall with the Father might have stood to the Law-way of works For who or what could have hindered him to follow a course of justice against all men then if both agreed to dispense with that Law-way to save man Here is Covenant-condiscension between JEHOVAH and the Son of quieting Law and pitching on a milde Gospel-way 7. Argument from the promises made to Christ He to whom the promises are made as to the seed so as in him they are yea and Amen and he who is eminently the chief heir of the promises as ingaged to make good the promises on the Lords part to give forgivenesse Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 perseverance Jer. 32.39 40. Isa. 54.10 Isa. 59.21 peace Ezek. 34.25 Lev. 26.6.11 12. yea and a new heart Jer. 31.33 Ezek. 11.19 Heb. 8.10 life eternall Joh. 10.28 and to make good the promises upon our part by fulfilling the condition and giving habituall grace Jer. 31.33 Ezek. 36.26 and actuall influences Jer. 31.34 to know the Lord Ier. 32.39 40. Ezek 36.27 to and with him God must strike a Covenant of suretyship that he shall have the anointing in its fulnesse above his fellows without measure to make good all these promises as Mediatour for it is not simply grace and life that the Lord bestows upon his people but grace out of the store-house of the Mediatour God-Man Now this must be given to Christ by promise Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ He cannot well mean mysticall Christ that is Christ and all his for they are indeed many and numerous as Isai. 2.1 2. Isai. 60.1 2 3 4 5 6. Psal. 22.27 compared with Rev. 5.11 Rev. 7.9 for the promises are made to Christ-God-Man eminently not formally For 2 Cor. 1.20 All the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen For the promise is made to us for Christ and through his grace then the promise is made first to him and more eminently and to us for him Propter quod unumquodqueâ—ale id ipsum magis tale 2. The promises are fulfilled and made good not because we fulfill the condition but for Christ in whom and by whose merit both the grace promised and the grace habituall and actuall to perform the condition be it faith repentance humility c. is freely given to us 3. Christ is he who makes the Covenant and all the promises Act. 7.32 Who said to Moses I am the God of thy fathers the God of Abraham 34. I bave seen I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Aegypt and I have heard their groaning and am come down to deliver them And now come I will send thee unto Aegypt And v. 35. Moses is made a Ruler and a deliverer by the hands of the Angel that appeared to
with God and his decrees under pretence of this what if he have not chosen me and I have no right to Covenant-mercies except I take a Law-way to earne them by fulfilling the condition 5. When we beleeve a conditionall promise if I beleeve I am saved faith relyes not fiducially upon the if I beleeve or upon the condition It s a weak pillar to a sinner to stay his unquiet heart upon to wit his own beleeving but faith rests upon the connexion if thou beleeve thou shalt be saved and it stayes upon the connexion as made sure by the Lord who of grace gives the condition of beleeving and of grace the reward conditioned so that faith binds all the weight upon God only even in conditionall Gospel-promises 1. Man is to be considered as a creature 2. As such a creature to wit endued with reason and the Image of God in either considerations especially in the former all that are created are obliged to do and suffer the will of God though they never sinned It s not enough to say that Sun Moon Trees Herbs Vines Earth Beasts Birds and Fishes cannot suffer the ill of punishment which is relative to the break of a Law for the whole Creation is subject to vanity for our sins Rom. 8.20 21. The Servant is smitten and sickened for the Masters sake and God may take from them what he gave them their lives without sense of pain and dollour for all beings yea defects and privations are debters to the glory declarative of God Prov. 16.4 Rom. 11.36 yea and no beings are under this debt God can serve himself of nothing yea that there are not created Locusts Caterpillars more numerous then that all the fruits of the earth can be food to them Preach the Glory of the Lords goodnesse to man and what are never to be no lesse then all things that have futurition or shall come to passe either absolutely or conditionally are under the positive decree of God else we should not owe thanks to the Lord for many evils that never fall out that the Lord turns away violent death violence of men and wilde beasts and many possible mischiefs contrair to Deut. 28.11 12. Lev. 26.6 Psal. 34.20 Psal. 91.5 6 7 8. And all these beings or no beings owe themselves to God to hold forth the glory of goodnesse wisedome mercy justice c. suppone there had never been sin Far more now who wants matter of meditation or can write a book of all the pains aâ—kings convulsions pests diseases that the Lord decreed to hold off so that every bone joynt lith hair member should write a Psalm Book of praises Psal. 35.10 All my bones shall say Lord Who is like unto thee Nor can any man write his debts of this kind But we are little affected with the negatives of mercies except we read them upon others and little then also Self-pain Preacheth little to us far more the borrowed experience of fallen Angels of Sodom of the old world c. leaves small impression upon stony spirits 2. Complain not that you have not that share of grace another hath if ye you think had it you would be as usefull to glorifie God as they but ye know not your self swell not against him that thou hast no grace O vessell of wrath thou owes that bit clay and all thy wants to glorifie his Justice 3. My sicknesse my pain my bands owe themselves to God and are debtors to his glory I and every one of men should say O that my pain might praise him and my hell and flamings of everlasting fire might be an everlasting Psalm of the Glory of his Justice That my sorrow could sing the Glory of so High a Lord But we love rather that he wanted his praise so we wanted our pain 3. God hath made a sort of naturall Covenant with night and day Jer. 31.35 For all are his servants Psal. 119.91 that they should be faithfull to their own naturall ends to act for him Ier. 5.22 Ier. 31.37 Psal. 104.1 2 3.4 and they are more faithfull to their ends then men Isa. 1.3 Ier. 8.7 The oxe and the asse being more knowing to their owner and the swallow and the cran being more discerning of their times then men are 2. They so keep their line that there is more self-deniall in their actings then in mans way as if fire were not fire and nature in it denied the fire devours not the three Children Dan. 3.27 28 The Sun stands still the Moon moves not Iosh. 10.12 13. The hungry Lions eat not Daniel ch 6.22 When the Lord gives a counter-command to them and that is a clause in the Covenant that the Lord entered with them that they act or no act as he shall be pleased to speak to them John 2.10 Isa. 50.2 Mat. 8.16 It is a most humbling Theame that an asse is more in denying nature and the cran and the fire then man yea then a renued man in some cases 4. But if man be considered as such a man endued with the Image of God and withall the Covenant be considered as such a Covenant as is expressed in the Ten-Commandements in which one of seven is a Sabbath to the Lord it will be found that many positives Morall are in the Covenant of Works that are not in naturall Covenants 5. So man must come under a three-fold consideration 1. As a creature 2. As a reasonable creature 3. As such a creature reasonable endued with the image of God In the first consideration man comes under the Covenant naturall common to all creatures So is Peters body carried above in the water as iron swims 2. As a reasonable creature he owes himself to God to obey so far as the Law written in the heart carries him to love God trust in him fear him But this can hardly bear the name of a Covenant except it be so called in a large sense nor is there any promise of life as a reward of the work of obedience here 3. But man being considered as indued with the Image of God so the Holy God made with him a Covenant of life with Commandements though positive and Morall yet not deduced from the Law of Nature in the strictest sense as to observe such a Sabbath the seventh from the Creation the not eating of the forbidden tree and with a promise of such a life And therefore though Divines as our solid and eminent Rollock call it a Covenant naturall as it is contradistinguished from the supernaturall Covenant of Grace and there is good reason so to call it Yet when it is considered in the positives thereof it is from the free will of God and though it be connaturall to man created according to the Image of God yet the Covenant came so from the Lords wisedom and free-will as he might have casten it in a new and far other frame And it cannot be denyed though it be most
confirmed Angels and holy as the Man Christ and brought them so to glory should he not have been God in that case and should he have lost his naturall dominion over men in that case 4. The dominion of God over men is not only in one particular of penall Laws it is in remunerative Laws also in giving predeterminating influences to obey and persevere in obedience in not leading into temptation in hyring and alluring us to serve God in terrifying men with examples of the Lords Judgements on others he spared not the Angels c. 2 Pet. 2.4 Jud. 6. and therefore to say that God falls from his naturall dominion over man and leaves off to be God except he impose penall Laws upon men is first an errour in Logick à negatione speciei ad negationem generis nulla est consequentia If God have not a dominion over man in one particular of penall Laws he falls from his whole dominion naturall in other things It is an undue inference 2. It cannot be but too darring to tye the blessed God-head and his essentiall dominion over man to only making of penall Laws it smells of Scripturelesse boldnesse with the most High and limits the Holy One that he cannot be God except he be God in our way And saith he hath no way to preserve his glory but by creating a Hell And therefore let that stand as an unproven position since it hath no probation The reason that is given is as weak as the weak conclusion Though water may bear up water yet it cannot support the earth For 1. it saith if man be created a reasonable creature under a Law he may sin intercidi potuit obedientiâ and he may be created under a Law with perfect morall dependence upon God Creator as the Elect Angels and the Man Christ and yet never sin and yet God falls not from his dominion and leaves not off to be God 2. This lookes somewhat the Arminian way that man cannot be under the subjection of properly so called Morall obedience except his will be indifferent as Adams was to stand or fall to run to Heaven or Hell which indeed saith that the most perfect obedience of Christ who was obedient to the death Phil. 2.8 and delighted to do the will of God Psal. 40.8 John 4.34 is no proper obedience that is perfect obedience is not proper obedience And that obedience of Elect Angels the samplar of our obedience Mat. 6.10 Isa. 6.2 3. Psal. 103.20 is not proper obedience 3. Whereas it is said if man sin his morall dependency cannot stand except God punish him but so not only God shall not be God nor have dominion over man except he impose a penall Law upon man but he shall not be God except he actually punish man or his surety Christ. But the same pen saith that the out-goings of justice are free that is to say it is free to God to punish sin and yet he falls from his naturall dominion over man and leaves off to be God if he punish not sin But we do deny that God falls from his naturall dominion over man though he never impose a penall Law upon him and never punish and desire that this may be proven nor is it imaginable how God by necessity of nature must punish sin And yet in the way measure and degree of punishment and in the time when he can use moderation Which is as good as to say the fire must by necessity of nature burn the Sun cast light But the fire hath free will to burn when it pleaseth and at this time and not at this time and the Sun must shine by necessity of nature but it is free to shine at ten hours of the day and not at twelve and it may shine as bright as the Sun or as dimme as the Moon Or God the Father loves himself but it is free to him to love himself to day not to morrow and to love himself so much not so much And so he may say God is so mercifull and just to day as he may be no merciful no just to morrow and God is infinitly mercifull and just and yet he is lesse mercifull and more mercifull essentially according to his good pleasure which are speaking contradictions Yea this is that which misjudging Suarez saith that the creature may do a reall injurie to God and take away from God jus Dei ad gloriam his right to glory but the truth is the creature by sin darkeneth or overcloudeth his declarative glory but can take away no essentiall glory nor any reall right or reall good from God so Elihu Job 39.6 If thou sinnest what dost thou against him If thy transgressions be multiplied what dost thou to him To take his declarative glory from God is no lose to him no more then it is lose to the Sun that ye hinder it to shine upon the wall when yet ye take no light from the Sun for it shines upon an interposed body Job 35.8 Thy wickednesse may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousnesse may profite the Son of man It is needfull say some that God preserve his own glory safe but if sin be without infliction of punishment it is impossible that he can defend his owâ— glory Ergo of necessity he must punish sin The proposition is out of controversie for all confesse that God must preserve his own glory 〈◊〉 by necessity of nature he must do so quoniam seipsum non potest non amare Because he cannot but love himself and he hath said my glory will I not give to another To this is answered the glory internall eternall and essentiall to God the Lord must defend and love as he loves himself by necâ—ssity of nature and if any say that the egressions and out-goings of God to defend and love his own essentiall Glory and his own holy Nature so as he may use moderation in the degrees and time of these and he may love himself and his own essentiall glory more or lesse and touching the time he may delay to love himself and he may love himself and his own essentiall glory to morrow not to day As the Author sayes the out-goings of revenging justice are moderated in punishing he speaks wonders and things unworthy of God The place Isa. 42. speaks not of this glory for no idol no creature can more take away from the Almighty this essentiall glory of God nor his blessed Nature can cease to be but there is a glory declarative of pardoning mercie as well as of revenging justice It must be a carnall conception and a new dream that God by necessity of nature loves himself as cloathed with revenging justice or as just and his own glory of revenging justice but that God loves himself as mercifull and ready to forgive or his own glory of pardoning mercie freely and by no necessity of nature Which the Author must say for the place Isa. 45.
that Christ is the Son of God Luke 4.34 and so doeth the carnall Jew teach that it is not lawfull to steal to commit adultery Rom. 2.21 22. But in the Old and New Testament Devils never accuse themselves of sin but tempt to it and challenge the Law and God Gen. 3.4 5. of unjustice never themselves Divels are most properly under the Covenant of Works and by no command is the Gospel Preached to them and next to them are such as are found in the letter of the Gospel but never convinced of sin Such are most under the Law as have least Law-work and Law-condemnation upon their Spirits these that are under the Law most as touching their state are most under the letter least under the Spirit as touching any penall awaking To be under Law-bondage is a more punishment to Divels and men under a Law state for legall terrors are upon Divels Math. 8.29 Jam. 2.19 and Cain Gen. 4.14 punishment as such neither maketh nor denominateth any gracious it is but accidentall to prepare any for Christ many tormented with the Law have believed such a case to be the pain of the second birth when it was but a meer Law-feaver and have returned to their vomit and become more loose and profane 1. Because the Law as the Law can convert none 2. Wrestling with Law-bondage without any Gospel-Grace is but a contradicting of God and his justice and God recompenceth opposing and blaspheming of him in hell with more sinfull loosenesse 3. Law-light under legall terrors shines more clearly and the guiltinesse in not making use of rods of that nature is so much the more grievous Ye that have been scadded and burnt in this furnace and are come back from hell are taught by sense to believe there is a hell and though hell torment can convert no man yet it renders men more unexcusable Humbling wakning and sanctifying Law-bondage is more then a work of the Law when it brings forth confessing praying believing humble submitting to God in Job David Hâ—zekiah Heman and what a Physician is Christ who can heal us with burning and coals of hell 3. A man under a Law-work may give a legall and dead assent to both the truth and goodnesse of the promises liberally conceived as temporaries doe and Simon Magus wonders but Saul Acts 9. the Jaylor trembles Acts 16. but that is in regard of the conviction not of the mind only but of the conviction of affection and the yeelding to what shall I do But Foelix trimbleth but only in regard of literall conviction on the mind but neither he nor Magus comes to what shall I doe they differ as the burning light of a fire which both casts light and with it shiâ—ing heat also and the light that precious stones cast in the night which is both little and hath no heat Fyrie and piercing convictions are good there is a dead conviction of the letter that doth not profite 4. There is a strong Law-conviction that vengeance followeth the scaddings of Sodomie and the killing of parents because naturall instinct kindles and fires the soul with Law-apprehensions when the minde hath engraven sharpnesse to discerne undenyable principles but the conscience is more dull in apprehending that spirituall vengeance followeth such spirituall sins as unbelief because untill there be some supernaturall revelation we are dead to the Gospel truths and Gospel sins but when a common Grace hightens the soul to a supernaturall assent that Christ is a Teacher sent of God Joh. 7.28 Joh. 3.2 the conviction is more strong But because it is more supernaturall and in stead of kindly affection of love which it wants it is mixed with hatred and anger and so degeners into fierie indignation against the Holy Ghost as Joh. 15.24 compared with Math. 12.15 26.31 cleareth 5. Conviction which is no more but conviction is no godly principle nor makes any heart change yea it goes dangerously on to wonder and despise except it send down coals of fire to the affections 6. He who is under the Covenant of Grace findes a threefold sweetnesse in obedience 1. An inbred sweetnesse in the command 2. In the strength by which he acts 3. An inbred sweetnesse in a communion with God No man is any other way under the Law then under a yoak what is only written seems the oldnesse of the letter Rom. 7. and is dead of it self and layes on a burden but gives no back to bear He that is under Grace findes sweetnesse of delight in a positive Law though the thing commanded be as hard to flesh and blood as to be crucified Joh. 10.18 yet it obtains a sweetnesse of holinesse from Gods will Psal. 40.8 I delight to do thy will O God even to be made a curse and crucified Thy Law is within my heart and he would but fulfill all righteousnesse even that which seems to be the outside of the Gospel to be sprinkled with water Math. 3.15 and this Christ would doe as under the Covenant of Grace 2. The stirrings and breathings of the Spirit makes the work sweet hearing brings burning of heart Luke 24.32 willing gladnesse Acts 2.41 and some sweetnesse of stirred bowells comes from the Lords putting in his hand through the Key-hole of the door of the heart Cant. 5.4 where as to an naturall man under the Law to lift up a Prayer is to carie a milstone on his back every syllabe of a word is a stone weight which he cannot bear 3. Were there no more in praying but a communion with God how sweet is it when Christ prayeth the fashion of his countenance is changed Luke 9.29 There is a heaven in the bosome of Prayer though there were never a granting of the sute sure there is a sin in making heaven a hire and in making duty a relative thing a horse for a journey a ship for a voyage to fetch home gold where as there is heaven in praising God before the Throne such as is both work and wages and so in spirituall duties here 7. Suppose there were no letter of a command because there is suteablenesse between the Law ingraven in the heart and the spirituall matter commanded a childe of Grace under Grace sets about duties so that in a maner there is no need to say to David Get thee to Jerusalem and to the house of God for he sayeth Psal. 122.1 I was glad when they said let us go to the house of the Lord. As there needs no command that the Father love the child nor is there need to exhort the Sea to ebbe and flow or the Sun to shine nor are many arguments usefull to presse the mother to give suck to the child nature stands for a Law here the strength of the ingraven Law in the heart overpowreth the letter So the new nature the indwelling anointing as a new instinct putteth the child of Grace to act But here we are to bewar that we
bare commands without any Gospel strength given to obey and so they are legall commands in the letter oboblidging all visible Covenanters to obedience and so all Letter all Law no Gospel strength to performe speaks poor unmixed Law In this case God repeats and craves back again from broken men a sound heart which they sinfully lost in Adam and may justly seek heart conformitie to his holy Law from all men Or then these commands are backed with Gospel strength to obey and so they are both commands and blessings promised as Jer. 31.33 This my Covenant a Covenant and something more shall bee I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts 34. Ezech. 11.19 Ezech. 36.26 Heb. 8.6 10 11.12 so the more strength promised the more Gospel Neither is there any inconvenience to say that the Reprobate visible Covenanters are not thus as touching the speciall promises of a new heart and perseverance of the Saints really in the Covenant of Grace Q. Who are they who are to believe God shall give them a new heart Ans. No man is positively to believe it while God work it in him for no man is to believe that he is predestinated to Glorie while he first have the effects thereof in him the hid Manna the white Stone the new Name But no man is to despare or to create fatall inferences that he is Reprobate since God begins kindly with him with a Gospel call CHAP. XIIII Considerations of the Arguments from Gen. 17. Mark 10.15 16. Luke 18. Math. 19. Rom. 11. for Infant Baptisme IF God be the God of Abraham and of his seed Gen. 17. therefore every male child shall be entered in the Covenant by the initiall seal of Circumcision and so women also who eat the Passeover which the uncircumcised might not do and Peter was sent to the Circumcision that is to all the Jews men and women and so the women is some way in the men and they might be circumcised in them upon the same gound because the same promise is made to fathers and to children must infants be baptized Acts 2.39 1. This is the Lords own Argument Gen. 17.7 there were multitudes of differences between Circumcision and Baptisme as we grant but in the substance nature and Theologicall essence and in the formall effects they are the same We grant that Christ revealed in Types Sacrifices to come darkly offered may differ from Christ as clearly offered Preached without these already abolished shaddows and who is now come Yet he is the same Saviour to them who believed in him then and now Act. 10.43 Act. 15.11 And we 2. argue not simply from the letter of the Covenant I am your God Ergo be baptized for one might reply I am your God Ergo offer such beasts to me it shall not follow But I am your God and the God of your seed offering to you the same Christ and righteousnesse that was offered to Abraham in the same Covenant Ergo all of you be baptized who are under the same Covenant For 1. Circumcision of the flesh was a seal of the Circumcision of the heart promised in the Covenant of Grace Deut. 30.6 and of the cutting of the foreskin thereof Jer. 4.4 Jer. 9.26 Ezech. 36.26 27. and baptisme is the same Col. 2.11 12. Tit. 3.5 2. Circumcision is a seal of the righteousnesse of faith Rom. 4.11 so is baptisme as 1 Pet. 3.21 Rom. 4.24 3. Circumcision is a seal of the Covenant and by a metonymie called the Covenant of God in the flesh Gen. 17.7 13. so is baptisme a solemn installing of all Samaria Acts 8. in the Christian Covenant and so Acts 2.39 4. Circumcision is a solemne way of instituting any in the Church of Israel so we are by one Spirit baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.12 13. 1. The command of Circumcising is as large as Covenanting but that is with Abrabam the father and his seed Acts 2.39 make the command of being Baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one of you be Baptized as large as the promise of the Christian Covenant and call For the promise is to you and to your children and to as many as the Lord shall call 2. The command supposes that all the Circumcised the males of eight dayes old understand not the promise of the Covenant the nature use signification and end of the seal and the command to be baptized supposeth that the children to whom the Covenant promise is made do not understand the same as touching baptisme and the Covenant promise Acts 2.39 3. If the positive command be generall that all these in Covenant should be marked with the initiatorie seal of the Covenant As Gen. 17.7 8. I am thy God and the God of thy seed Therefore old and young be Circumcised then there was no other command in particular to baptize old or young but the institution of Baptism in place of Circumcision needfull As touching the application of it to persons old or young except the ground of externall Covenanting stand as warranting to administrate the seal to all so Covenanted Yea and if there be a positive command and warrand in the New Testament to tender the Seal of Baptism to none but to the aged that can give an account of their faith and do actually beleeve then should there be an expresse command in the New Testament concerning Baptism as concerning the Lords Supper that every one before they be Baptized try and examine themselves whether they savingly beleeve or not before they be Baptized otherwise they receive their own damnation as in the Lords Supper for self judging and self examination if actuall beleeving and being internally in Covenant as these in whose heart and inward part the Law of Grace must be ingraven be the necessary condition required in all these to whom the Church can warrantably tender Baptism as the seal of the Covenant And we require a positive command in the New Testament see that ye Baptize none though they professe they be in Covenant except such as can try and examine whether they savingly beleeve or not and here Anabaptists must flee to the consequences of the Word and reasons drawn from the Covenant of Grace as well as we and an express command they cannot flee unto nor is it in Old or New Testament It should not move us that Infants understand neither command nor seal nor Covenant for the Argument is against the Holy Ghost and they are oblidged to answer it for Infants are as ignorant of the promises the speciall mysteries of the Gospel as of Precepts of the Gospel And yet the promises of the Covenant of Grace are expresly to Infants of the New Testaments Acts 2.39 promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gospel promise made to Abraham Gal. 3.16 The Gospel and promise of righteousnesse of the Spirit of Life Gal. 3.17 18 22 29.23.28 Gal. 6.2 Rom. 4.13.16.20 Rom. 9.8 1 Tim. 4.8 Heb. 4.1 Heb.
of Works and also under the Covenant of Grace for they are contrair dispensations and contrair wayes of salvation He who is under the Law is not under Grace and he who is under Grace is married to Christ as to another Husband Rom. 7.4 and not under the Law 3. Saving grace is not in vain but effectuall 1 Corinth 15.10 1 Tim. 1.14 And wee are saved by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 15.11 and no greater mercy can be wished to any then the grace of our Lord Jesus Rom. 16.20 2 Cor. 13.14 Rev. 22.21 by which we are called justified and glorified If it be said that this grace is not that effectuall saving grace bestowed upon the Elect but a generall remote gracious power by which we may acquire the saving grace proper to the Elect. But so 1. that grace saving proper to the Elect by this means is in the power of all Pagans and all must be gifted with a power to purchase that grace proper to the Elect That must be strange conquishing we must all be made our own efficacious Redeemers and Christ is a Saviour by merit not by efficacy For if this saving grace be infused it is either infused we doing nothing to which they cannot stand Or then it is acquired and so we make the generall grace saving and proper to the Elect which everteth the nature of saving grace and makes it the purchase of works And they must say that Christ hath merited a generall ineffectuall power to some and that he dyed to merit a speciall saving grace to others Let us have a warrant for this that Christ both died equally to save all and yet with two contrary intentions to purchase a power of believing which should be effectuall to some to save them and ineffectuall to others If it be said that Christ dyed to merite the same generall power to all but some make it ineffectuall some not This saith thus 1. That Christs death might have it's fruit and effect though all perish 2. That Christ dyed to merite a far off lubrick and possible venture of heaven such as was the case of the first Adam 3. Christ dyed not to purchase a new heart more to one then to another whereas 1 Pet. 1.18 19. the blood the Lord shed is to Redeem us from our vain conversation in a naturall state aswell as to save us from the wrath to come Then must Christ have died to buy Pagans from Paganism and Idolatry and that either absolutely and then why should multitudes so die in their sins If conditionally what can be the condition going before conversion to wit that we should be delivered from our vain conversation so we be willing before our conversion to be delivered from our vain conversation And shall not the Question recur concerning that condition In a word they will have Christs death to buy Heaven but not to buy faith without which Heaven is impossible Yea he no more bought to men a grace sweetly and strongly inclining the will to believe then he bought such a grace to the damned devils He purposed to give to all Pagans a power by which they should be made fit to perform all that the Gospel requires and be fit to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints Col. 1. And yet Paul gives thanks to God for that bestowed on the Colossians and God must by this call all men to Christ either mediately or immediately And say that God is prepared ever to give more and more as we use the former well and that all by sufficient grace saith Corvinus are disposed to conversion but that sufficiency is not habituall grace but actuall assistance conveying the Preached Word which is to bring all to free-wills power rejecting all infused power and to make an influence of grace which is in the power of free will to use or not to use and to stand in two 1. In a measure of heavenly Doctrine 2. In the stirring upon the heart Whence 1. Grace habituall so is denyed then the will needeth no healing 2. Grace universall is limited to the Word Preached then it is not universall For Pagans hear not the Word Preached 3. There is no other help given to free-will in every act but 1. Information by the Word that was the grace of Pelagius 2. Some influence of God in every act But that addes not new strength to the will Shortly they say Any man may know understand and believe the Gospel if the object be sufficiently proposed and revealed And so the naturall man can no more know and receive the things of the Gospel then he can understand the Metaphysicks the Acromaticks of Aristotle for these he cannot receive but judgeth them folly And so we are the same way blind dead stony-hearted to believe the Gospel as we are to know and believe the mysteries of Aristotles Philosophy Lastly this power of believing and coming to Christ cannot be in all men since the Scripture saith of all men even these within the Visible Church not excepted that untill the light of the Gospel savingly enlighten them they sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death Isa. 9.1 Math. 4.15 16. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man can come to Christ without the Fathers drawing and God teaching the heart Joh. 6.44 45. The naturall man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot understand the things of God but judges them foolishnesse 1 Cor. 2.14 His wisedome cannot be subject to the Law of God Rom. 8.7 He cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 call the Lord Jesus except by the Spirit of Jesus 1 Cor. 12.3 He is a withered branch being out of Christ and can do nothing Joh. 15.3.4 It shall be clear to any that the Holy Ghost denyeth any such power as they affirm It reckons not much to tell that Jesuites as Martmez de Ripul Swarez Alphonsus Curiel Duvallius Lod. Molma Did. Ruiz Vasquez Bellarmine Phili. Samachaeus Sorbonicus Gulie Estius Dominica Toletus Cardinalis Pirerius Salmeron teach that without saving grace men may and can first know morall truths shining vertues as heathens be free of sin as touching these vertues in their due circumstances 2. Keep the Commandements and Law of Nature 3. Dispose themselves for and obtain the grace of Conversion by their own industrie 4. Be victoâ—rious over this or that weighty temptation singly taken 5. That there is no intrinsecall hurt of free-will that it is wounded a little because of the darknesse of the mind and langour of nature but not dead to actions supernaturall 6. That we may love God as the Author of nature and Creator sincerelie And Arminians teach that we may without the Spirit of God know all truth quantum sufficit ad salutem sufficiently to salvation and so may will love and beleeve without the infused supernaturall habit or grace so their Apologie And the Socinian Catechism c. 6. pag. 212. and Socinus himself Praelect Theol. Cap.
by doing whereas it is he and he alone that hath merited to us Grace and Glory and all title to Heaven Not to say that a Charter of life from such a noble Superiour as Christ by the purchase of blood and of such blood the blood of God Act. 20.28 is some better then to have eternall liveliehood and free-hold from our duty and lubrick best works which are polluted with sin and by which though we were Evangelically conscious to our selves of nothing yet should we not be therefore justified 1 Cor. 4.4 for the righteousnesse in which is Davids blessednesse before Christ and Abrahams before the Law and ours under the Gospel is in forgiving of iniquity covering of sin not imputing of sin Rom. 4.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. But in all the Scripture our sins are never said to be pardoned and not imputed to us by our own most Evangelick doing for we are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 not by the Redemption that is in us and are washen from our sins in his Blood Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Mat. 26.28 Rev. 1.5 and sufferings not by our Evangelick doings and if such a case could stand the Martyrs sure might well be justified by their own blood and since no pardoning washâ—ng Law-satisfying vertue can be in faith works or our Evangelick deservings they can not justifie us nor keep and occupy the Chair of Christ. And the fault were the lesse if our works were onely called the way to the kingdom not the cause of raigning but they are called perfect both in their nature and conforme to the rule and also in order to the end to justifie us before God and to save us And if so all in Christ may say we have no sin contrary to Scripture Jam. 3.2 1 King 8.46 Eccles. 7.20 Prov. 20.9 Jam. 2.10 Yea though he that is guilty in one offends in all yet in the sight of God all flesh shall be justified this way Psal. 143.2 Nor can it be said that such works are perfectly conform to the Gospel because the doers beleeving in the lowest degree fulfills the condition of the Gospel But where it is said that the Gospel commands only faith in the lowest degree Then the Centurions faith the faith of the woman of Canaan and the greatest faith shall not be required in the Law For the condition of the Covenant of Grace cannot say they be required in the Covenant of Works and it is not required in the Gospel under the pain of sinning against the Covenant of Grace and of damnation for then all who have not faith in the highest degree should be damned and violate and break the Covenant of Grace contrary to the whole Gospel which saith that these who have weak faith are justified and saved and so the greatest faith shall be will-worship and a work of supererogation And because this way saith that all and every one of mankind are under the Covenant of Grace then 1. there shall be none living under the Law 2. no Law but only to beleeve in CHRIST shall lay an obligation on any Jews Christians under pain of wrath And if James be to prove that we are justified by works and yet mean that both faith and works concur as causes though faith more principally how can Paul deny that we are justified by works If Peter and John jointly work a miracle and heal the creeple man suppose the influence of John in the miracle be more yet it is not to be denyed that Peter wrought the miracle Nor doth the Scripture say that we are more principally justified by faith and lesse principally justified by works but the places alledged for salvation by works if works have a causative influence specially Matth. 25. speaks more for the preheminence of works Nor doth the Scripture insinuate any thing of the first and second Justification or of growing in Justification in having our sins not imputed to us to our very day of death and the Question must be Rom. 4. whether Abraham was justified by works done before circumcision or not Rom. 4. when as faith was not reckoned to Abraham when he was in uncircumcision and the blessednesse of righteousnesse by faith cometh both upon circumcision and uncircumcision vers 9. and he had faith and righteousnesse and was in Christ and regenerated when he was justified Though some taught Justification by the works of the ceremoniall Law yet Paul Gal. 3.10 states the Question of works agreeable to the Morall Law that are absolutely perfect and must be done by Grace And Paul might justly in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians have excepted himself David Abraham and all the regenerate for they are justified by giving almes to the poor Mat. 25. as was Rachab by receiving and lodging the spyes The English Divines say How could the Scripture conclude from Abrahams being justified by works whence he offered his Son Isaac unlesse by works here we understand a working faith the Apostle must mean the same by works vers 21. that he meaneth by faith 23. for he cannot say vers 23. the Scripture was fulfilled in Abrahams being justified in the work of offering his son v. 21. which saith Abraham beleeved God and it was counted to him for righteousnesse Except it must be meant that the work of offering his son Isaac was counted to him for righteousnesse Now the letter of the Text expresly vers 23. saith that beleeving God was counted to Abraham for righteousnesse then the work of offering his Son must either be the beleeving declared by offering his son and faith working by that act of offering or if they be two sundry things he must then say this in effect Abraham was justified by the work of sacrificing vers 2â— causatively before God Ergo the Scripture is fulfilled vers 23. and Abraham is justified by beleeving causatively before God vers 23. which we cannot ascribe to the Apostle according to their minde who make faith and works the two collaterall and joint causes of Justification before God as if one would say Peter wrought the miracle Ergo the Scripture is fulfilled that Iohn wrought the miracle So Abraham was justified by works vers 21. Ergo Abraham was justified by faith 23. 2. The faith which Iames debarres from Justification must be the faith Iam. 2. by which Paul strongly proves Rom. 3. c. 4. we are justified without works If faith and works concurre as collaterall causes in our Justification before God as the Papists contend but the faith which James excludes from Justification is no faith at all But only 1. fair words to the hungry and naked and giving them supply for no necessity either of hunger or nakednesse and which cannot save and so is no faith and so can have no saving influence with works to justifie and save but such is the faith which James excludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 14 v. 15. the
he had offered a sacrifice for sinners 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ once suffered for sin that is for sinners 1 Cor. 15.3 I delivered unto you how Christ died for our sinnes that is for the persons of us sinners 1 Joh. 3.5 He was manifested to take away our sinnes 1 Joh. 4.10 Herein is love that he sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sinnes Rev. 1.5 To him that loved us and washed us from our sinnes be glory Gal. 1.4 He gave himself for our sinnes Now it must not be asserted but proven that in all these places where he is said to be a propitiation for the sins of the world and hath taken away our sinnes speaking as these Authors say of the whole Visible Church and not of the elect onlie that Christ hath died and by his death hath taken away some sinnes and hath suffered for some sinnes and not for all sinnes not for the finall unbeleef of sinners if it be said that we cannot teach that Christ suffered for finall unbeleef we grant it But then we say that Christ suffered not for finall unbeleevers and for the other sins of finall unbeleevers since suffering for sins and for persons that are sinners to bring them to God 1 Pet. 3.18 are conjoined And God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5.19 Therefore there must be a pardoned and a justified world and so a truely blessed world as Paul and David teach Psal. 3â— 1 2. Rom. 4. and so a loved John 3.16 and chosen world followed with the separating love of God to man which saves some foolish ones and serving diverse lusts and saves not others and so there must be a love and mercy of predestination amor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not common to all the world as is clear Tit. 3.3 4 5. Eph. 2.1 2 3 4 5. We seek a warrand of Gods not imputing to this loved world their trespasses against the Law and of his imputing to the same world the trespasses of rebellion and finall unbelief And how Christs blood shed for persons both reconciles them to God and leaves them in wrath imputes not their trespasses to them and makes them blessed as David sayes Ps. 32.1 and imputes their finall unbelief to them and leaves them under a curse Nor shall it help the mater to say that finall unbelief may be considered as both against the Law and as only forbidden in the Gospel And in the former respect Christ hath suffered for it not in the latter For if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the contrariety between finall unbelief and the first Command as it is a rebellion against God manifested in the flesh be satisfied for by Christ on the crosse How can it condemn the person as sure it doth Joh. 3.18 36. Joh. 8.21 24. It cannot be said that Christ died for finall unbeleef so we beleeve 2. What speciall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and repugnancie to the Law of God is there in finall unbelief that is not a repugnancie to the Covenant of Works and Grace both And what repugnancie to the Covenant of Grace which is not also contrair to the Law This I grant which I desire the Reader carefully to observe the Law and the Covenant of Grace do not one and the same way command faith and forbid unbelief I speak now of the Covenant of Works and of the Covenant of Grace as they are two Covenants specifically and formally different For 1. the Law as the Law commands 1. Faith in the superlative degree as it doth all acts of obedience and so doth it Gospel repentance Because the Law commands all obedience most exact and perfect and condemnes faith in the positive degree though sincere and lively as sinfully deficient The Gospel doth only require sincere faith and condemneth not for the want of the degrees of faith most perfect though the Law of thankfulnesse to the Ransone-payer which Law is common to both Covenants require that we believe in the highest degree because Christ hath expressed to us the greatest love Joh. 3.16 Joh. 15.13 2. The Law as the Law requires faith not finall only but faith in Immanuel for ever and that we be born with the Image of God that we beleeve at all times under the pain of damnation But the Covenant of Grace because it admits of repentance and holds forth the meeknesse forbâ—arance and longaâ—iâ—itie of Christ is satisfied with faith at any time or what hour of the day they shall be brought in 3. The Law requires faith with the promise of Law-life The Covenant of Grace requires faith promises grace to beleeve with promise of a Gospel-life 4. The Law requires not faith in Christ with sinners Covenant-ways as a work to be legally rewarded for it finding all sinners and all by nature Covenant-breakers cannot indent with thâ—m that have broken the Covenant to promise life to them by tennor of the Covenant which now ceaseth to be a Covenant of life and cannot but condemn and is now rendered impossible to jâ—stifie and save by reason of the weaknesse of the flâ—sh Rom. 8.3 All the reprobate then are this way under the Covenant of Works that they are as it were possible Covenanters lyable to suffer the vengeance of a broken Covenant but not formally active Covenanters as Adam was But if Christ suffer for finall unbeleef as it is against the Law as the Law how is it charged upon reprobates as a sin against the Gospel only Since no wrong done to God Redâ—emer can be any thing but a sin against God and a â—reach of the first Command I deny not but finall unbeleef hath an aggravation that it is the nearest barre and iron gate between the sinner and the only Saviour of sinners but yet the putting of such a barre is a sin against the Law Neither can it be said that only finall unbeleef is the only meritorious cause of damnation to such as hear the Gospel For beside final unbelief there is also a contrariety betwixt the murthers Sodomies c. of professours and the Law for which they suffer in hell eternally Rev. 21.8 c. 18.7 Quest. Whether doth the Lord Mediator as Mediator command the same good works in the Covenant of Grace which are commanded in the Covenant of Works CHAP. XXI Ans. ACcording to the matter of the thing commanded quâ—ad rem mandatam he commands the same and charges upon all and every one the morall duty even as Mediator for he cannot loose the least of these Commandements but simply they are not the same quoad modum mandandi It shall not be needfull to dispute whether they be commands differing in nature For not only doth the Mediator coÌ„mand obedience upon his interposed Authority as Law-giver and Creator but also as Lord Redeemer upon the motive of Gospel-constraining love In which notion he calls love the keeping of his Commandements if they love him Joh. 14. the new
and every one and such persons by head name birth c. Yet it is not the justifying of me or John or Paul for I nor no man can know that Christs satisfaction stands for you or me by name and person while first I or you beleeve because it is the hid Decree of God 3. Nor is this legall imputation beleevable nor is it revealed as â—t is terminated to single persons to me or to you untill by faith we apprehend it 5· But the imputation of application is that in which our justification standeth And the faith by which as by an instrument we are justified presupposeth three unions and maketh a fourth union It presupposeth an union 1. Naturall 2. Legall 3. Federall 1. Naturall that Christ and we are not only both mankind for CHRIST and Pharaoh Judas the traitour and all the sons of perdition are one specie naturâ true men but one in brotherhood He assuming the nature of man with a speciall eye to Abraham Heb. 2.16 that is to the elect and beleevers for with them he is bone of their bone and is not ashamed to call them brethren Heb. 2.11 12. Ps. 22.22 2. It presuppones a Legall union between Christ and them that God made the debter and the Surety one in Law and the summe one in so far as he laid our debts on Christ Isa. 53.6 â— Cor. 5.21 3. It presuppones an union Federall God making Christ our Surety and he was willing to be our Surery and to assume not only our nature in a personall union but also our state condition and made our cause his cause our sins his sins not to defend them nor to say Amen to them as if we might commit them again but to suffer the punishment due to them And our faith makes a fourth union betwixt Christ and us whether naturall as between head and members the branches and the Vine Tree or mysticall as that of the spouse and beloved wife or artificiall or mixed between the impe and the tree Or 4. Legall between the Surety and the Debter the Advocate and the Client or rather an union above all is hard to determine for these are but all comparisons and this Christ prayes for Joh. 17.23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one 6. Now to the Question as the Law condemns not a man but him who is first a sinner and an heir of wrath by nature in the first Adam for the Law is essentially just So God justifies not a man but the man who by order of nature is first by faith in CHRIST Rom. 5.18 Therefore 〈◊〉 by the offence of one judgement came upon all men unto condemnaâ—â—â—n even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon aâ—l men in Christ as the other were in the first Adam unto the justification of life and so we must say that all ere they be justified and before God impute faith to them that is Christs believed righteousnesse to be theirs must have faith and so believe and so be one with Christ. And this imputed righteousnesse is ours because we believe and not untill we first believe and the other imputation goes before faith So the faith of Gods speciall mercy is two wayes so called 1. As it leaneth upon and apprehendeth God in Christ for the obtaining of mercy and remission of sins and imputed righteousnesse So faith goes before justification and we believe that our sins may be pardoned and that our sins may not be imputed and that we may be justified and freed from condemnation so by the act of believing righteousnesse is imputed to us And thus justification and remission i. e. relaxing of our persons from a state of eternall condemnation as is meant Rom. 8.1 are not the object of faith but the effect and fruit of faith 2. The faith of speciall mercy to me is considered as it apprehendeth and believeth or rather feelingly knoweth speciall mercy imputation of Christs righteousnesse now given to me and as Christ hath payed a ransome for me and satisfied justice for me and so imputed righteousnesse and justification are the object of faith Or rather the object of the sense of faith which is most carefully to be observed To answer Bellarmines unsolide Argument we either believe remission of sins past or to come c. But remission is liberation from punishment eternall or temporall but justificatâ—on is freedome from the fundamentall guilt-deserving punishment and remission is a consequent thereof Q. Whether or not is Justification taken one and the same way in the Old and New Testament Ans. The Apostle is clear Rom. 4. where he proves both Jews and Gentiles are justified as Abraham and David But 2. Justification by Grace hath not in iisdem apicibus in the same points the same adversaries 1. Moses and the Prophets contend most with Ceremoniall hypocrits who sought righteousnesse much in Ceremonies Washings Sacrifices New Moons and also their own inherent godlinesse Deut. 5. Deut. 7. Deut. 10. Deut. 11. Isai. 1.10 11 12 c. Mic. 6.6 7 8. Psal. 50.7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. Ps. 4.2 3 4 5. 1 Sam. 15.22 23. Isa. 66.1 2 3 4 5. Jer. 7.1 2 3 21 22 23. 2. Paul had other Adversaries Rom. ch 3. ch 4. ch 5. ch 9. ch 10. especially Antinomians who drew the Doctrine of free Justification by Grace to licencious loosnesse then we may sinne if so and so we be justified said they then is the Law of none effect Rom. 6.1 But his chief Adversaries on the other extream were men that stood much for Justification by the works of the Morall Law And Paul Rom. 3. proves that all Jews Gentiles David Abraham could be justified neither by works of Nature nor of Grace and casts down the Jews righteousnesse by Law-doing Rom. 9. Rom. 10. 3. There were a third Classe of Adversaries to free Justification Galatians seduced and false Apostles who contended for Justificatication by Circumcision and the necessity of keeping the Ceremonial Law if they would be saved Act. 15.1 2 3 4 c. Gal. 2. Gal. 3. Gal. 4. Gal. 5. ch 6. Who mixed the Gospel and Moses his Law and Paul proves Gal. 3. that we are not justified by the works of the Morall Law for that Law Deut. 26.27 involves all that omit the least duty of the Law Gal. 3.10 11 12 13. under a curse and Christ was made a curse for us And Paul proves in the generall we are justified by neither the works of the Morall nor of the Ceremoniall Law 4. James had to do with another gang of loose livers the Gnosticks who contended for justification by a bare nominall faith without love or good works And James proves that we are justified before men and to our selves by faith working by love and not by a dead faith 5. John contends much for reall and speaking marks of justification and conversion against dead Professours void of
This Christ mends the broken gold ring which was broken by the first unattentive and rash Heir Adam So that now Heavens Earth Mountains Isai. 49.13 sea trees fields Psal. 96.11 12 13. are commanded to sing a Gospel-Psalm of joy because Christ the new King and Restorer of all is come to the Throne yea let the stoods clap their hands Psal. 98.9 and he purposes to purge with fire the great Pest-house infected with sin and under bondage of corruption Rom. 8.21 2 Pet. 3.10 11. that he may set up the new world in Gospel-beauty the new heavens and the new earth 2 Pet. 3.13 Isai. 65.17 Isai. 66.22 Rev. 21.1 Oh what a life to have a cottage and a little yard of herbs in that new World and how base to be but Citizens of this World CHAP. XII The condition and Properties of the Covenant of Redemption Q. WHat need is there of any condition to be performed by Christ or of any Covenant Ans. The same Question may be of the need of an oath to Christ Psal. 110. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest c. 2. The same necessity in regard of infinite wisedome that our Redeemer should be obedient to the death of the Crosse Phil. 2.8 and be under the Law Gal. 4.4 and keep his Fathers Commandements and abide in his love Joh. 15.10 requires also a Covenant of obedience upon the part of Christ-Man for all men being born under the Law and Covenant of Works Christ-Man also must be under the same And then Christ the Mediator was to give obedience to a particular Commandement of laying down his life for sinners and this required an ingadgement by way of Covenant and so a condition of obedience to perform what this peculiar Law of Suretyship required of him to wit to lay down his life 3. It s not a condition of indifferency which is required of Christ such as is required of Adam in which there is a hazard of failing and coming short of the reward Adams Covenant had both threatnings and promises and so hath our Covenant of Reconciliation though in another way see Psal. 89.30 31 32. But the Covenant of Suretyship hath promises most large that are made to Christ but no threatnings are laid before the Man-Christ that are to be read in the Scripture There was no hazard nor possibility in regard of the Personall Union that Christ could sin yea in regard that Christ from the womb was both a Traveller a Viator and an enjoyer and Comprehensor and had the Spirit above measure from his birth as Man he had gifted to him the confirming grace which is now given to the Elect Angels in their Head Christ And therefore there was somewhat like a condition necessary and as the members enter to glory through obedience so also the Covenanted Head Luk. 24.26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter in to his glory Q. 2. What was the speciall condition of the Covenant of Suretyship Ans. The Covenant being a bargain of buying a people to God then the payed price and ransone must be the duely formall condition As for obedience to the Morall Law it was the condition of the Covenant of Works to which the Man Christ as Man was oblidged that he might have right to Law-justification and life eternall jure merito foederali operum by the Law and federall merite I mean merite by paction and faithfull Law-promise not of condignitie of the Covenant of Works that he might be saved But this Law-holinesse had influence in that most solemn act of obedience in offering himself a sacrifice to death for our sins And the Law-holinesse of the Man Christ did not exclude supernaturall grace as the Law-holinesse of Adam for it was the perfect conformity of Christs nature his soul understanding will affections and all his actions internall and externall with the holy Law of God Hence the heart and inclinations of Christ stood ever right and stright to the Law He exercised no affection in puris naturalibus his anger came not out in pure naturall anger and no more but it came out in acts of zeal Nor his joy in pure naturall joy though sinlesse but in joy of the Holy Ghost And in the whole Man Christ was a perfect masse and as it were a compleat body of all gracious qualifications Isai. 11. He received the Spirit of knowledge and was ignorant of nothing he ought to know Disputed with the Doctors being of twelve years old The world knew not his School or Teacher Hence his wisedome and practicall understanding of the Law of God and practicall conclusions He had the Spirit of counsel as the greatest of Statesmen for Government Isa. 52.13 Behold my Servant shall deal prudently And so when we are in perplexities and know not what to do he can lead the blind in a way they know not Isai. 11.1 2. He hath the Spirit of might and courage an undantoned Spirit yet conjoined with counsell no fool hardinesse but the resolute ventoriousnesse of faith Isai. 42.4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged Heb. broken till he have set judgement in the earth Our softnesse of unbeleef at the blowing of a feather or stirring of a leaf brings on falling of Spirit and swooning He hath the boldnesse of faith to beleeve victory before the battell Isa. 50.9 Lo they all shall wax old as a garment the moth shall eat them up He hath hope from the womb Psal. 22.9 Thou art he that took me out of the womb thou didst make me hope when I was in my mothers breasts And for the joy set before him he endured the crosse and despised the shame Heb. 12.2 And the Spirit of the fear of the Lord made him quick in understanding that is the high and reverent apprehensions of God made him quick to smell or sent so the word imports the snares and temptations in the work of Redemption plotted by men and devils So excelled he in righteousnesse which as a girdle went about his loines both in judging and in discharging the trust put upon him by the Lord who laid the key of David and the Government upon his shoulder his obedience to his Father and continuing in his love Joh. 15.10 and thirsting to do the will of the Father Joh. 4.34 His zeal to his Fathers house should be a fair coppie for us to follow He was meeknesse it self Isa. 53.7 1 Pet. 2.23 24. much in praying beleeving rejoicing in spirit Luk. 6.12 Psal. 16.9 10 11. tender to the weak of the flock Isa. 40.11 He shall feed his flock like a sheepherd he shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosome and he shal gently lead these that are with young Isa. 42.2 He shall not cry nor lift up a shout nor cause his voice to be heard in the street 3. A bruised reed shall he not