made with him an everlasting Covenant 2 Sam. 23.5 though he make it not to grow it was not spoken in respect unto himself alone but unto his Family and his House also and that was Luther's will I have neither Lands nor Possessions to leave them Tibi reddo nutri doce serva ut hactenus me qui pater es pupillorum judex viduarum And so a man may dye in faith not only in reference unto himself and his own Covenant-interest but the Covenant-interest of his Posterity also BOOK III. The Covenant of Grace its Nature and Benefits CHAP. I. Gods part of the Covenant doth consist in Promises SECT I. What Promises are why and how the Covenant of Grace doth consist of Promises and of what HAving spoken thus far of two general heads 1 the Person that made the Covenant and had the first great hand in it and that was God and therefore it 's called Gods Covenant and not mans I will establish my Covenant between me and thee 2 the persons with whom this Covenant is made and that in a threefold subordination 1 with Christ as Mediator as a publick person as the second Adam 2 with Believers in him 3 in them with all their seed Let us now come to look into the nature of this Covenant more particularly and examine the essentials thereof There are three things that are ordinarily distinguished by Divines a Law a Testament and a Covenant A Law depends upon the absolute Soveraignty of the Law-giver and requires subjection whether the persons commanded consent to it or no and so all the Laws of God do depend upon the absolute Soveraignty of God as he is a Law-giver able to save and to destroy A Testament is grounded only upon the Will of the Testator bequeathing of such Legacies freely without requiring the consent of the party to whom they are bequeathed but a Covenant differs from them both in this that it requires the consent and agreement of both parties and therein each party binds himself freely to the performance of several conditions each to other Cocceius doth ground it upon that place Heb. 8.6 A Covenant established upon better promises and he defines it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Divina legislatio promissionibus sancita It is a Law that God establishes upon Promises and therefore implies two things something on Gods part which is the promise and something on mans part which is the duty and unto both these consent of parties is required Gods consent unto the promise and mans consent unto the service and therefore by a Synecdoche the name Covenant is applied unto both parts of these and both of them are called the Covenant 1 The Covenant is sometimes put for the Promise of God which is the Covenant on Gods part Exod. 34.10 Behold I will make a Covenant before all thy people I will do marvels the meaning is no more but voluntaria promissione me obstringo c. I bind my self by a voluntary promise This is my covenant with thee Esa 59.21 says the Lord My Spirit that is put upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth c. Numb 18.19 All the heave-offering of the holy things which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord have I given thee and thy sons by a statute for ever it it a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord. It is spoken only of the free promise of God made unto Aaron and his sons in reference unto the Prieshood 2 The Covenant is sometimes put for the command of God in which he doth require a duty from man Moses was with the Lord in the Mount forty days and nights and he writ upon the Tables the words of the Covenant Exod. 34.28 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the ten Commandments and it 's common in Scripture-acceptation to put the command of God and the duty of man under the name of the Covenant of God So that there are in the essentials of the Covenant two things 1 there is the promise on Gods part which is Gods part of the Covenant 2 there is the duty on man's part in reference unto the command of God there is mercy and duty and mutual consent of both We shall begin with the Convenant on Gods part that we may see what of his free grace he doth oblige and bind himself unto though it 's true he is debtor to none any further than his own free grace makes him so Deus promittendo se debitorem fecit Austin Now Gods part of the Covenant consists in promises and rewards and mans part of the Covenant consists in services and in these two are the essentials of the covenant and these will be our three general heads to be spoken to First Gods part of the covenant doth consist in promises such is the covenant that he made with Abraham wherein he does promise to be a God unto him and to his seed after him and this will appear in four things 1 Because in Scripture we find the covenant and the promises to be put for one and the same thing Gal. 3.16 To Abraham and his seed were the promises made and this I say that the covenant confirmed before of God in Christ the law that was four hundred and thirty years after could not disannul or make the promise of none effect And hence it is called the covenant of promise Eph. 2.12 which though some of our Divines do put and may be not unfitly as a distinction of the covenant of Grace into two branches Ball of the Covenant 4. p. 27. the covenant of promise and the new covenant taking this for the covenant made with the Fathers before the exhibiting of Christ in the flesh who did only see the promises afar off and saluted them Heb. 11.13 and therefore they are called the children of the covenant and of the promise Act. 3.25 yet the truth is so long as there is any one part of it unaccomplished so far it will be the covenant of promise and consist in promises still till Gods people do come to Heaven and receive the happiness and the inheritance of the covenant which the Lord has now promised to the Saints 2 A people taken into covenant with God are said to be intitled unto the promises which before they were strangers unto Rom. 9.4 and could claim no interest in when God took the people of Israel into covenant with himself and they became unto him a peculiar people and treasure of all the people of the earth then unto them did belong ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the worship of God and the promises which all the other Nations of the Earth could lay no claim unto and upon this ground all those that are confederates with God and taken into covenant they are called the coheirs of promise because they have a title unto all those great things which God in covenant has ingaged himself to bestow 3 When the Lord
be reduced thereunto even the whole Doctrine of Moses so it is distinguished from the Prophets the Law came by Moses 2 Strictly for the precepts of the Moral Law Mat. 11.13 Joh. 1.17 as holding forth a perfect rule of righteousness and as promising life upon the terms of perfect and personal obedience thereunto and so the Apostle takes it in Rom. 10.5 The righteousness which is of the Law is thus described The man that doth these things shall live in them If we take the Law in the first sense it was a Covenant of Grace darkly revealed for therein God did enter into Covenant with that Church and State and unto all the Saints that were in Christ it was a Covenant of Grace 1. That the Law was given upon Mount Sinai as a Covenant cannot be denied for the Scripture does plainly call it so Deut. 4.12 13. The Lord spake unto you says Moses out of the middle of the fire and he declared unto you the Covenant which he commanded you to perform even ten Commandments and he writ them upon two tables of stone And Deut. 5.2 3. The Lord our God made a Covenant with us in Horeb he made not this Covenant with our fathers but with us even with us who are here alive this day the Lord talked with you face to face in the Mount out of the middle of the fire It was the same Covenant that God before made with Abraham for the substance of it but when it is said not to be made with their fathers it is to be understood only of the form and manner of the promulgation in that clear and glorious manner and taking a Nation into Covenant with himself in a publick eminent and solemn manner And it had all the parts of a Covenant there are two things make up a Covenant 1 Direction of something to be done by both parties something that they are bound unto and so the Law is the rule of the Covenant 2 There is a Sanction which is the consent and agreement of both parties binding themselves each to other and therein properly does the formality of a Covenant lye Now they were both in this here was a rule and therefore they are said to transgress the Covenant that is the precept or rule of the Covenant as Deut. 17.2 and here was a sanction or a promise you shall be my people and all good things were promised them And when the Lord does fulfill his promise he is said then to establish his Covenant Deut. 8.18 and to remember his Covenant So that the Law was given upon Mount Sinai not barely as a Law but it was given also in a Covenant-way 2. This Covenant was a Covenant of Grace 1 That Covenant wherein God promises to be our God since the fall is a Covenant of Grace but so he doth in this I am the Lord thy God 2 That Covenant which does hold forth pardon of sin is a Covenant of Grace but so does this set forth God as shewing mercy to thousands pardoning mercy for it stands in opposition unto visiting of iniquity 3 Circumcision was a seal of the Covenant of Grace Rom. 4.11 this was a seal of the Covenant upon Mount Sinai He that is circumcised is a debter to the whole Law Gal. 5.3 c. 4 That Covenant that was confirmed and ratified by blood was a Covenant of Grace but so was this Covenant that God made with Israel upon Mount Sinai Exod. 24.3 See Buckley of the Covenant He took the book of the Covenant and read it in the audience of the people and they said all What the Lord has said will we do And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord made with you 5 That Covenant that binds to the observation of the Ceremonial Law that is a Covenant of Grace for the Ceremonies were all Types of Christ and shadows of good things to come and the body is Christ The first Covenant had Ordinances of Divine service Heb. 9.1 and a worldly Sanctuary it is spoken of the Covenant made upon Mount Sinai and they were all of them enjoined in the second Commandment 6 The Covenant made in the hand of a Mediator was not a Covenant of Works for that was foedus amicitiae a Covenant of friendship that was made between God and man he being perfect and needing no Mediator Gal. 3.19 but this was given in the hand of a Mediator and therefore it was of Grace But if we consider the Law strictly so it contains the sum of the Covenant of Works which God did therefore reveal because it was even wholly obliterated and blotted out of the mind of man and therefore it was speculum primitivae hominis justitiae c. a glass of the primitive righteousness of man And unto all men out of Christ in an unregenerate state it remains as a Covenant of Works binding them to personal and perfect obedience if they hope to attain life 1 The Moral Law is the same to the sinner out of Christ that it was unto Christ the Surety for what it was to the Surety that it was to the sinner for he did put his name into our bond only in us it was necessary in him voluntary But Gal. 4.4 the Law was unto Christ a Covenant of Works therefore to every sinner out of Christ it remains so 2 That which teaches us Justification and life by doing that is a Covenant of Works but so does the Law strictly taken and it is therefore opposed unto the Gospel there is the righteousness of the Law and the righteousness of the Gospel 3 The Curse under which all unregenerate men are Rom. 3.20 Gal. 3.1 2. is the curse of the Moral Law but that is the curse of the Covenant of Works therefore the Moral Law is a Covenant of Works Gal. 3.13 Gal. 4.5 Gal. 4.23 24. 4 Therefore the Apostle makes it a distinct Covenant from the Covenant of Grace The Law thus taken strictly as a copy of the Covenant that God made with Adam and containing the sum of the Covenant of Works and being delivered in the form of this Covenant this Covenant has the Lord made subservient and subordinate unto the Covenant of Grace as Hagar to Sarah SECT II. The Subservience of the Law as it discovers Sin § 1. THE first part of the Subserviency of the Law is in point of Sin and so it has a threefold use or end There is a threefold use of the Law subservient to the Gospel Joh. 12. subordinate to the Gospel and the Grace thereof 1 As it is a looking-glass to reveal sin 2 As it is a bridle to restrain sin and in both these it is a servant to the Gospel 3 As a Judge to condemn it and the man for it There is one that judges you even Moses c. 1. The Law is a glass to discover sin it is called
Church with them when the Lord shall make the Church of the Jews the Mother-Church and should give them unto the Jews fââ daughters c. so in Abraham and his Posterity and that they might still lay claim unto the Covenant and the Promise made unto their Fathers being born the Sons of the Covenant To have any particular office prescribed by God in a Family is look'd upon and promised as a great mercy to have a Priesthood continued in the Family of Aaron and afterwards of Phineas as a reward of that great act of his in being zealous for the Lord in executing Judgement for the Lord gave him an everlasting Priesthood and to have the Kingdom continued unto David and his Posterity as he takes notice Thou hast spoken of my house for a great while to come there shall not want a man of his loyns to sit upon the Throne of Israel and it 's look'd upon as a great Judgment for a Family and a Posterity to be disinherited as for the family of Esau to be cast out of the Priesthood and the Family of Saul to be cast out of the Kingdom how much more then is it a mercy to have the visible Church of God continued in any mans Posterity for all blessings descend according unto this as it appears in the Sons of Noah there is a blessing upon Shem and Japhet and their Posterity but it is in reference to a Church-state but there is no blessing upon Cham but cursed be Canan God would never take a Church out of his loyns it should never be continued in his posterity There shall not be a Cananite in the house of the Lord for ever Zac. 14. ult and therefore a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren the curse and blessing is answerable unto the respect men have to a Church-state 4. It 's the greatest wrath that God doth pour out upon men in this life to cast them out of external Church-priviledges The Jews as when they were taken into covenant it was for themselves and their posterity that God would owne their seed as his and would avouch them to be his people so when God did cast them out and gave them a bill of divorce called them Loammi and did remove the Candlestick he did cast them out and their seed the natural branches were broken off if it be not a blessing to injoy it surely it 's no great judgment to be deprived of it but the Apostle saith Wrath iâ come upon them to the uttermost or to the end therefore it the wrath be so great in a casting out surely there is a great deal of mercy shewed in the taking in 5. The Apostle speaks even of an interest in the external priviledges of the covenant as a very great matter having shewed that all men by nature are in the same condition and in a mans spiritual estate outward and Church-priviledges make no difference he doth demand Then what advantage a man hath by Church-priviledges and what good there is in them Rom. 3.22 if they make not men to differ what excellency hath the Jew above any other men or any other people The Apostle says Much every way therefore though they may not differ in reference to a spiritual state yet there is a great excellency and advantage and the Apostle speaking of the grafting in of the Gentiles into the same Church-covenant them and the posterity when the Jews were disinherited he says Rom. 11.17 Privilegia beneficia foederis in Ecclesia patrum deposita Par. That they did partake of the root and the fatness of the olive-tree therefore in Scripture it 's commended as a great advantage and priviledge unto a man to be brought into the external rights and to have an interest in outward priviledges of the Church of God 2. But what are those priviledges and those particular benefits that come upon a person and his posterity thereby 1 Many of them shall be saved elected and converted to God for the Lord doth take the number of his Elect out of the loyns of his own the Church of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven is hid in the visible Church here as wheat in a heap of chaff 2 It 's the only ground of hope that parents have for the salvation of their children dying in their infancy David did hope it though he might say with Austin Ego in illo puero nihil habui praeter delictum yet he saith I shall go to him and his heart was quieted concerning his eternal state by virtue of the Covenant made with him We have no other promise but this I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and this is Gospel a man is as truly bound to lay hold of the promise and cast himself upon it for his seed as for himself 3 There is no ordinary way of salvation but it is amongst them that are taken into Covenant salvation is of the Jews Joh. 4. there was in an ordinary way salvation to be had no where else and therefore by being taken into the outward priviledges of the Church a man is brought into the ordinary way of salvation Esa 5.7 Exod. 15.5 Gen. 6.2 4 It 's a special honour to be the vineyard of the Lord the garden of the Lord hedged in from the rest of the world his wall a wine press a garden inclosed a fountain sealed to be called the Sons of God the people of God and the Lord to avouch them such publickly before all the world to be his peculiar treasure the Lord to be their God and they his people above all people of the earth theirs is the Adoption it 's spoken of this federal external sonship Rom. 9.4 Esa 22.1 29.1 Rom. 3.2 5 By this you have special priviledges Jerusalem is the valley of Vision and Jesuron the seeing people it is Ariel the Altar of the Lord chiefly to them are committed the Oracles of God which they are to keep and to transmit unto posterity it 's a depositum laid up and concredited to them In Judah is God known his name is great in Israel Psal 147. ult he hath not dealt so with other nations they are a people near unto him and the Lord hath promised that he will give them his special presence I will dwell in the midst of them Zac. 8.3 2 Cor. 6. Christ walks in the middle of the golden Candlesticks though he be in glory 6 By coming under the outward priviledges of this Covenant they have very glorious operations mighty works upon them that other men have never experience of and all this even in them that perish and they have this as a fruit of their external interest for Hos 6.5 there is hewing and slaying there is sowing and planting when the rest of the common fields lye untilled Mat. 13.3 1 Cor. 12.8 and there are great gifts bestowed such as the Lord doth not bestow on any
alsufficient he that desires nothing but God need fear none but God nimis avarus est cui non sufficit Deus he is too avaritious to whom God is not sufficient who has a self-sufficiency in him for his own blessedness for it is ones being a perfect good that he goes not out for a supply to any other nothing can add unto God to make him blessed and surely the same will make the Saints blessed also Blessed is the people whose God is Jehovah c. 4. He will have the creature perfect with him Gen. 17.2 Walk before me and be thou perfect he will have you perfect in his obedience to serve him alone and be unto him alone he 'l have you forsake all for him and this could not be required of the creature if he were not alsufficient and a full reward sin is nothing else but the aversion of the soul à bono incommuââtabili ad communitabile bonum from the incommutable to a commutable good as the School-men say when a man doth not believe the alsufficiency of God and so would go out to the creature to fetch in some supply to make it up as it is in the Righteousness of Christ when men go to their own duties to piece it out so it is here in matters of comfort and supply and so long a man is a double-minded man but when a mans heart is fastned to the alsufficiency of God so that he saith If I have him I need no other I need no friend if he be a friend nor no honour but that which comes from God only if I lose any thing he is able to make it up he can give me much more I desire no other God even our own God shall bless us he goes not out to the creatures to fetch in supplies and it 's the want of this that makes men to hasten after another God The only proper ground of a mans perfection with God is laid up in this alsufficiency of God that a man needs not go out unto any thing else he needs do service to no other and they that do so do proclaim that they look not unto him as alsufficient but when the soul is satisfied in this that he has God and can say In that I have enough then will he be perfect with him alone so it was with Moses the Lord would send him unto Pharaoh but Moses tells him Exod. 4.11 I am a man slow of speech I am not eloquent and they that speak unto Kings must speak well if they hope to be heard must speak with silken words if the subject is unpleasing and the words also if the message be disliked and the delivery of it what hope is there then to prevail but the Lord made him this answer Who made the mouth did not I I will be with thy mouth in that thing rest upon me and for words care not I will be alsufficient unto thee as if thou wert the most eloquent Orator in the world And so it is for all things else a man that looks upon God as sufficient for any work or any comfort so as he will be with him he will rest upon him and look no further this is to be perfect with him You 'l say What is perfection with God it's nothing else but when the soul looks upon God as an alsufficient God has an eye upon him alone expecting all his happiness from him and putting all his trust and hope in him The School-men say that God is objectum beatitudinis dupliciter the object of blessedness two ways 1 quia in ipso sunt omnes perfectiones simpliciter because in him are all perfections simply and so to cleave unto God is actus charitatis principalissimus the principal act of love 2 Vt suam perfectionem per ipsum consequatur As the creature obtains his perfection by him and both these are to be conjoyned in our happiness as God has all perfections in him and so is alsufficient unto us when God takes up the whole soul and Psal 18.2 The Lord is my rock my fortress my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler the horn of my salvation and my high tower he is the fear of Isaac the hope of Israel the love of Ignatius c. when he takes up and possesses the whole soul and a man looks no further does not hasten after any other God Psal 16.4 as they all do that joyn any thing else with him this mans heart is perfect with God Hos 3.3 Thou shalt be for me says God to the soul and thou shalt not be for another Mat. 6.22 23. so will I be for thee and that 's meant by a single eye Mat. 6.22 23. it is in opposition unto a double eye that is a double intention of spirit a single eye looks but upon one object but a double eye looks upon a double object it is divided between God and the world and knows not which to chuse but he would follow them both he has an eye to God and an eye to his pleasure and his credit and his profit c. that mans heart whatever his possession be is not whole with God he is not perfect with him and the ground of all is this because there is in God an alsufficiency that the soul may rest upon him alone and have no other God The Heathen multiplied their gods because one god served for one end and was good to them in one way and another in another but if there be a God that is sufficient for all things then there needs no other and therefore the soul is confined to him alone and in this is said to be perfect with him and if men go out unto any thing else they may truly be said to transgress without a cause for there was no need of any other but all good was to be found in him 5. That by this means the Lord may make up the banks against that which is the greatest temptation that doth ordinarily befal men it 's true that there are some motions that come from Hell immediately that are purely devilish a messenger of Satan that immediately comes into the soul as Lightning as thoughts of Atheism and blasphemy c. but the ordinary temptations that prevail with men are by a bait Jam. 1.14 Satan taking the same course that his instruments and his messengers do beguiling unstable souls 2 Pet. 2.14 promising them liberty there is some bait that he useth for all sorts of sinners are not fit for that immediate touch from Satan it belongs unto them most properly that have been much exercised in all spiritual wickedness their hearts and tongues are set on fire of Hell immediately but the way by which Satan deceives men is he doth bait his hook with the creature and therein lies the temptation he did first tempt our parents with the forbidden fruit it was fair to the eye good for food and desirable to
The word of the Prophet is but wind and the word of the Lord is not in them it will come upon themselves so let it be done unto themselves let it be eternal judgment that is threatned and men do scoff and say 2 Pet. 3.3 Where is the promise of his coming And the heart of man does from its pride infinitely scorn all those things and goes on with the greater resolution in any evil 4 There is in every lust a principle and root of enmity against God for men naturally are haters of God and enemies to God and there is nothing but lust makes them so Rom. 1.31 Col. 1.31 Now as in every man there is all sin vertually and seminally so there is all sin in every sin and there is in every sin a principle of sin that will produce all manner of iniquity as we may see in the first transgression it was but one sin and one act of sin yet there was in it all manner of defilement that has filled the nature of man with all manner of pollution The sin of the Devils was but one and that a spiritual sin also and it has filled the Devils with all that Devilish malignity that has manifested it self in them ever since Now as there is in every sin a principle of enmity against God so radically and seminally there is in every sin the sin against the Holy Ghost even the great transgression Psal 19.13 even secret sins they do make way for this sin against the Spirit of God Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which is direct enmity against God with despight and revenge and it is opposition that above all things in the world draws it forth and the more clear a mans light is the more spiritual the opposition that is made against him is the sooner the man comes into the great transgression And these are the great grounds in lusts which take occasion from the Commandment the violence of lust the more it is opposed the more it desires and desires by resistance are kindled and increased and from the pride of the heart it raiseth opposition with the greater impatience and resolution come what will come and all this coming from a principle not only of collateral but of direct enmity against God it is with despight and revenge In these sin takes occasion by the Commandment and the opposition thereof improves it and draws it forth As it is in grace affliction improves it and opposition draws it forth temptations and desertions confirm it as there were many acts of grace in Job that had not been drawn forth but by affliction so it is with many of the Saints many men had never been so gracious but by opposition as we see it in Luther and in many of the Martyrs that their Graces rose by their opposition and persecution So many men had never been so wicked as we see it in the Pharisees had they not lived under such glorious means of Grace and so clear Convictions which set bounds to their lusts which made them break out with the greater rage for Christ says to them If I had not come and spoken to you you had had no sin but now there is no cloak for your sin for by the opposition that their lust met with it was drawn forth more impetuously § 2. There is yet a further ground of this irritating power of the Law and that is from the curse of God that is come upon all men under the fall which came not only upon man but upon all things else for mans use and so though it be the curse of the Law yet it comes even upon the Law it self so far as it concerns man as well as upon all the Creatures yea the Lord Christ himself is so far a curse unto men in their sins that as he is a sanctuary to his people so a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence a gin and a snare unto others for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel Luk. 2.34 For judgment says he Isa 8.14 Joh. 9.39 I am come into this world and yet he says in Joh. 12.47 I came not to judge and condemn the world but to save the world This indeed was his intent primarily and per se but the other falls out through the sinfulness of men occasionally and by accident and that which is good in it self does become evil unto the man and that which is a blessing in it self doth to him become a curse so it is with the Gospel and with all the ordinances thereof 't is the savour of life to some but of death unto others the same meat is wholsome nourishment unto some to others it feeds the disease in an unsound body and the same light which is pleasant unto a good and a sound eye is a pain and a trouble to a weak eye which is sore or bloodshot c. And therefore it puts no malignant nor sinful quality into the Law or Gospel or the Ordinances but only these meeting with a man of an unsound spirit do occasionally stir up these corruptions and sinful dispositions which were in the men before and thereby do increase them and by this means it becomes a curse to the man though it be a blessing to the people of God There is a double curse that is come upon all things by the fall 1 They are all of them empty and deceiving 2 They are all of them corrupting and defiling this is the curse that is come upon all the Creatures 1 They do a man no good for they are vanity though a man looks for profit by them yet they profit not Eccles 1.14 and that is one part of the curse that comes on the Law in respect of men that a man shall receive no good by it it shall be but an empty word and it does fall upon a man as rain upon the Wilderness it has laboured in vain as even Christ himself says My work is with the Lord but in vain to the people for they received no good by it but they have sown the wind it is spoken of all their religious services Hos 7.7 they were empty and unprofitable and would do them no good at the last day bring them in no more harvest than a man might expect that did sow but the wind And in Jeremy 't is said They shall not profit this people at all for there is a vanity in Ordinances as well as in Creatures and the staff of the bread of life may be taken away even then when our bread it self may continue c. 2 They are polluting for though all the Creatures can do a man no good yet they can do him much hurt and add to the defilement of his spirit and draw out his sins and ripen them and fill up his measure they can ripen the briers and thorns Heb. 6. and this was all the fruit that many of the Jews had by the Ministery of
in him and this is therefore called the Covenant of Promise Ephes 2.12 2 As it was more fully revealed after Christs coming in the flesh Heb. 8.6 7. so the Covenant as to the Fathers being in the Promise is called the first Covenant and as performed and Christ exhibited ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Heb. 8.10 In quo nihil merito potuit requiri post dies veteris testamenti exactos Par. the second Yet the first Covenant comes short of the second in two things First because imperfect and only in Types and Typical representations 2. Because the people kept it not neither were made perfect by it but God found fault with them for their disobedience c. 3 As it shall be more gloriously revealed at the calling of the Jews when the Lord shall make this Covenant with them that is take them into this Covenant again and call them my people who were called Loammi and this is their grafting in again Rom. 11. as the Gentiles were grafted in upon their rejection and therefore Israel under this Covenant is fitly called by some Israel surrogatus c. And of this Covenant with Israel who are the natural branches to whom primarily all the Promises do belong does the Lord speak Ezek. 34.25 The dry bones shall live and they shall dwell in their own land wherein their fathers dwelt they and their childrens children for ever and my servant David shall be their Prince for ever and I will make a Covenant of peace with her and it shall be an everlasting Covenant and I will place them and multiply them and set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore my tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people c. 3 All the mercies and deliverances that God has given his people have been by Covenant ever since the fall Luk. 1.72 he sent Christ into the world a horn of salvation he raised up that is glorious and victorious salvation in the house of his servant David to perform his mercy promised to our forefathers and to remember his holy Covenant he pardons their sins and subdues their iniquities and carries them into the depths of the sea but it is to perform his truth to Jacob and his mercy to Abraham which he swore unto our forefathers from the days of old And he writes the law in their hearts and sanctifies them to himself Jer. 31.33 A new Covenant will I make with you I will take away the heart of stone and I will write my law in your hearts c. Gen. 6.18 And so for all temporal mercies God delivered Noah from the flood that destroyed the world of the ungodly but it was by a Covenant I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt come into the Ark thou and thy sons c. God brought Israel out of Egypt Exod. 6.4 5. but it was by their Covenant I have established my Covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan Zach. 9.11 the land of their pilgrimage And afterwards delivered them out of Babylon the pit in which there was no water But it is by the blood of the Covenant He did nourish the people of Israel in the Wilderness and fed them there but it was because he was always mindful of his Covenant There were many that did not fear him that were wicked but he fed the wicked for the sake of the righteous their meat was given unto them that fear him Psal 111.5 So that the Dispensations of God in all ages have been by vertue of and answerable to a Covenant § 4. A man for the state of his person cannot stand under both Covenants because the one is contrary unto and makes void the other so the Apostle reasons Gal. 2. ult If righteousness be by the law Christ is dead in vain Though in some respects the Law may and doth stand as a rule and as a hand-maid to the Gospel as Hagar to Sarah and so in subordination yet as a Covenant and in co-ordination it cannot stand so for the one doth actually destroy the other and make it void for if the second Covenant take place the first Covenant is made void and if the first Covenant stand there is no place for the second And this will more fully appear if we consider the direct contrariety in the Terms of these Covenants Tit. 3.5 1. The Righteousness of the first Covenant is in our selves the works of righteousness that we have done and he that doth them shall live in them but the righteousness of the second Covenant is the righteousness of another Christ is the end of the law for righteousness Rom. 10.4 Finis perficiens sed non interficiens Aug. all the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in him It is in the Ark that the law is laid up and the righteousness of the Law is in him alone and in no other else to be found made ours by Imputation only thereby we are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 Now a man cannot be righteous by his own righteousness and by the righteousness of another 1 Joh. 5.11 12. A man cannot have life in himself and in another and therefore the one destroys the other 2. In the Covenant of Works acceptation is first of the works and afterwards of the person for the works sake and so does the displeasure of God begin first with the work and then redundat in personam it redounds upon the person and therefore God speaks unto Cain Gen. 4.4 If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted there is not acceptation of the person if there be any imperfection in the work Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continues not in the law c. because of a failing in the work there is a curse upon the person Haec doctrinae nostra summa quam docemus profitemur personam priùs Deo acceptam opus fieri acceptum ex persona But in the Covenant of Grace the person is first accepted and the works for the persons sake God had a respect unto Abel and to his Offering and this indeed is even the sum of the Gospel that the work is accepted for the persons sake but if the acceptation of the person be grounded upon the works it is contrary to the Gospel that says The acceptation is first of the person then of the works 3. The Covenant of Works is a Covenant without a Priest there is none to present a mans person but he must stand before God in his own person for the first Covenant was made with man immediately there is none to bear his sin and there is none to offer his sacrifice for it was a Covenant made with man in the state of integrity wherein he needed none of these Adam had no more need of a Priest in this estate than the Angels have but now all unregenerate men that are under
shewed many ways ââw we will speak a little to the sin of it and that in these Particulars 1 Hereby thou endeavourest to make void the Covenant of Grace and all those gloriâus thoughts that God had towards sinners from everlasting as the highest way to glorifie himself He did therefore purpose it in himself and from himself Prov. 8.30 Psal 40.5 that he will gloriefie himself this way by a second Covenant and God delighted in it and spent infinite thoughts about it it 's the pleasure of the Lord and all this thou dost make void to thy self by continuing under thy former Covenant and if thou accept not the Grace offered in the second Now the Apostle speaks of it as a fearful evil to make void the Law but how great is their âvil that do their utmost to make the Gospel void 2 Thou hereby at once frustrates the whole end of Christs coming into the world for âhe came into the world as a second Adam with a Covenant and an Image and no man can partake of his Image unless he have an interest in his Covenant for all the Promises of renewing the Image of God in man are not the promises of the first but of the second Covenant Mal. 3.1 Heb. 12.24 Heb. 7.22 and it 's he that is in Christ that is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.14 For he is given as a Covenant to the Nations The Lord shall come speedily into his Temple even the messenger of the Conant in whom ye delight So that the great end of Christs coming into the world is that he might bring in a second Covenant by which God and man may be reconciled sins pardoned and the sinner saved and whosoever is not translated into this Covenant Christ is come and dead in vain as to him 3 Thou dost hereby reject and despise the greatest grace that ever was shewed to the sons of men for God to enter into a Covenant with man in his Creation was an act of meer Grace God might have required obedience and have promised no recompence for all was by right of creation due from man to God but God did not owe any thing to man again and yet this was but faedus amicitiae a Covenant of Friendship but when man had sinned and become faedifragus a Covenant-breaker now for God to try man again by a second Covenant that it should be a Covenant with man as a sinner is a far greater act of favour to be engaged to him Isa 26.18 19. and that upon higher terms and better promises it 's the admiration of all the Angels in Heaven that God should so far honour a sinful creature as to take him into Covenant with himself Jer. 13.11 Zac. 11.10 4 This is much heightned by this that the Angels that fell were as capable of mercy as we and Christ and his Righteousness as proportionable a good for the Salvation of the Angels as he is for man though they did sin ex destinata malitia maliciously and without temptation Bernard and so perire necesse est poenitere potentes yet had the Lord set his thoughts of mercy upon them and sent his Son with a Covenant to them The same Omnipotency that overcomes the heart of a man could have also overcome the heart of a Devil but he did catch at Mankind when he let the Angels go and never made them the offer of a second Covenant and this mans sin is beyond that of the Devils in that he refuseth to come under this Covenant of Grace 5 Hereby thou takest the name of God in vain and receivest no benefit by all his Ordinances and Promises and motions of the Spirit that thou enjoyest 1 All his Ordinances for to what end is the Ministry of the Gospel set up and appointed by God but only in the first place to bring men into Covenant with God God is in Christ reconciling the world and how is that done why by making a covenant of peace as this second covenant is called Ezek. 37.26 And by perswading men and treating with them to bring them under the bonds of this covenant 2 Cor 5.18 19. for as the Apostle says He has made us the ministers of reconciliation and all the offers that we make unto you of Christ it is but to perswade you to accept of him as God has given him as a covenant to the Nations and until you do accept of Christ in his covenant and consent to that you can have no other benefit by him that will be effectual to the saving of your soul And as for all other benefits of the Ministry without this they will never answer the great end for which the Lord appointed it It were but a low end in a Minister to propound no higher thing to himself than this that he might inform the judgments of men and draw them to some outward conformity or civilize men and to do some duties to satisfie their consciences but our end should be that which God did send us for and to count that we have laboured in vain Act. 26.18 if we miss thereof and that is to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God to translate men out of the kingdom of darkness into the glorious kingdom of his dear Son the greatest mercies of your lives be offers of Christ and his benefits which are all grounded upon the covenant of Grace 2 All the Promises do belong unto the second covenant and he has given us exceeding great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 whereby we are made partakers of the Divine nature There are promises of pardon and of grace and holiness and happiness promises of the life that now is and that which is to come There are conditional Promises and there are absolute Promises I will be thy God I will give thee my Son and my Spirit I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh But the bottom of all these is the Covenant and thereunto all the Promises of the Gospel are referred and therefore he that has no interest in the Covenant he in applying a promise takes the name of God in vain for if you be Christs you are Abrahams seed Gal. 3. ult and heirs also of the promise If you are Christs and are in him your Covenant is changed you then come under Abrahams Covenant for it is in respect of this Covenant only Rom. 4.16 Gal. 4.28 that he is said to be the father of us all and if your Covenant be changed you are heirs of the Promise We as Isaac are children of the promise c. And till a mans Covenant be changed there is not a promise in the Book of God that belongs unto him and whensoever he does apply them unto himself he doth wrest the Scripture and he takes the name of God in vain c. 3 As for the Sacraments whosoever has not his Covenant changed they can
which we did owe to the Law as a rule of righteousness but also as it was a Covenant of Life 3. Christ was not under the Law naturally and necessarily as other men are neither do I conceive that it is safe to say that Christ as a man was subject to the Law for himself and that he did owe obedience unto the Law for though it be true that Christ as man was a creature and indeed every creature is subject unto the Law yet looking upon Christ as God-man and all the acts of Christ as actiones suppositi actions of the Divine person so they were above what the Law required which is the ground of all his merit above the satisfaction of the Law for the Law required perfect obedience of a man but the Law did not require that it must be the obedience of him that was God and man and therefore Luther has well observed that he is the Lord of the Law whence there is no Law against him wherefore as he did freely and voluntarily take our nature so he having taken it did freely put his name into our bond come under our Covenant that he might in every thing become a surety for us having a right to redeem us being God our brother and being bound to redeem us as our surety and being engaged with us in the same Covenant and for us and therefore as he is said to be made flesh and to be made sin because it was by his own voluntary submission so he is said to be made under the Law also and by his coming under the Law he has both paid our debt and cancelled our bond and so the Law remains unto the Saints as a Covenant no more and has no more dominion over a man as a Covenant 2. He has fulfilled and satisfied for ever all that this Covenant required of us he did it in our stead and there is that full satisfaction given in him that the Law can never ask more of us for ever for this cause we must as it is a Covenant be freed from it and this is the reason given in the Text He has taken it out of the way and nailed it to his Cross that is with the same nails that he was nailed with the bond that bound us that is the Law as a Covenant was nailed also Rom. 7.4 and this is to be dead to the Law by the body of Christ or in the body of Christ that is we died in him and he bore our sins in his body on the Tree and whatever Christ did to the satisfaction of the Law in his humane nature as our nature was assumed by him it was for us his righteousness being imputed to us c. Christ has indeed fully satisfied the Law but yet if the Law should require perfect obedience of us also then it must remain unto us as a Covenant of Works still but as Christ hath done it so he hath done it for us and it is done once for all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for active obedience though the Law require duty of us Heb. 10.10 yet it is not unto Justification and all our own obedience is in this to be lookt upon as a filthy rag and though we do here undergo many sufferings yet it is not for satisfaction for he hath by one offering of himself for ever perfected them that he sanctified he is said to remain a Priest Heb. 10.14 Heb. 3.7 Dan. 9. and so doth his sacrifice and oblation remain in the vertue and efficacy of it for ever and therefore he is said to bring in everlasting righteousness So that if the Law look for satisfaction to the precept it is perfected in him and if it look for satisfaction to the curse it is perfected in him it can remain as a Covenant to us no more because it can as a Covenant exact nothing of us more and therefore to all that are in Christ and stand under the Covenant of Grace the Law requires their duties of him and their sufferings of him so that the Law as a Covenant has nothing to do with them but with Christ who is still under the same Covenant remaining their Surety and Priest for ever and therefore in this victory of Christ over the Law as a Covenant Luther makes the main glory of our deliverance to lye and this was indeed the great end of Christs coming into the world As for the other ends Legem docere miracula facere Duplici jure Christus legem vicit prostravit trucidávit primo ut Dei filius legis Dominus secundo ut sponsor noster in nostra persona Quod tantundem est acsi nos ipsi vicissemus quod à victoria Christi nostra est Gal. 3.16 Tit. 1.22 Tim. 1.9 to teach the Law and do Miracles these were but beneficia particularia particular benefits for his Disciples did teach the same truths and many things more than Christ did in his own person and wrought as great Miracles as he but his great end was Legem vincere abolere to overcome the Law and as a Covenant to cancel it because he has fully satisfied it once for all and therefore by way of satisfaction either in obedience or curse it can never require any thing of us to eterâity 3. By introducing of a second Covenant and translating men there into a Covenant of Grace and mercy and reconciliation and this Covenant Christ hath brought in for it was a Covenant made with him before the world began for there was light promised us and Grace given us before the world began in these eternal Transactions between God and Christ ând the Lord hath said That this shall be an Everlasting Covenant and all men that ever are âaved shall be saved by this Covenant Justified freely by his Grace by Grace you are saved c. Now as the Apostle speaks of the revealing of the Gospel Heb. 8. ult In that he saith new Covenant he hath made the former old and that which waxeth old is ready to vanish away ãâã the Lord Christ intending to bring in a second Covenant and that upon different terms âd conditions he hath made the former old and ready to vanish away Vse 1 § 3. See here the infinite Goodness and Wisdom of God as in Christ there are many ârious Unions in that one so there are also many very curious distinctions as in the one tââng that a man would never have thought could have been united so in the other thing that a man would have thought could never have been divided As for the Unions that a child and a son should be given and God and man should become one Person and such a word as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a God-man in the world and Immanuel God with us that he that bears up all things shoud be born he that made all things should himself be made flesh made of a woman that the beauty of Holiness should be made sin and he
ãâã ãâã an encompassing sin vvhich he cannot cast off Heb. 12.1 vvhich he has no povver to resist it so besets him in every faculty that he cannot take it avvay 4. The Lavv discovers the filthiness of Original sin that it is mire it is vomit 2 Cor. 7.1 Jam. 1.21 it is filthiness it self nay that it is the excrement of naughtiness it has defiled the soul it defiles all creatures that are for a mans use Hag. 2.11 as the Leper whatever he touched is unclean To the soul of man the Sun in his glory was not to be compared if a man had been cast into Hell as a Diamond into the dirt it could never have defiled him his Holiness like a Diamond would have shined bright notwithstanding but since the soul is defiled with sin the defilement is so deep that nothing can wash it out it is a stain that will remain to eternity upon all that are not washed in the blood of Christ as spots in scarlet and crimson much soap will not serve turn to take them out the fire of Hell will not purge sin and therefore when men have been there millions of years they are as black and filthy and as unpurged as at the first entrance into that place of darkness and horrour c. 5. The Law discovers that Original sin is the seed of all sin and it contains virtually all sin in it Jer. 6. Jam. 1.14 it is sin in the fountain an evil man out of the treasure of his evil heart casts out evil things murder and adultery A man is tempted by his own lust it is his father and it is his mother lust conceives and brings forth sin all actual sins are much more in the heart there is a beam in the eye and a dimness in the heart and I conceive by all occasions also sin is drawn out and he can look upon no creature but he conceives sin from it 1 Joh. 2.15 whatever is in the world is the fuel of lust there is nothing but is the object and draws out some lust in the heart 6. The Law discovers the deceitfulness of Original sin that all the lusts of a mans heart are deceitful lusts Ephes 4.24 Jer. 17.9 Jam. 3.15 Heb. 3.13 and the heart is deceitful above all things who can know it that a man can never fathom the bottom of it for there is a devillishness in it that whatever policy there is in Hell all this is in sin the wisdom of the flesh will take all opportunities to sin and make provision for the flesh and by often sinning mens hearts are hardned and they use much policy also in drawing others to sin and to keep them off from that which is good to set them upon things that are unlawful or else to pervert and poyson them in those things which are lawful to make an improvement of every occasion and to grow upon the sudden beyond what a man could have imagined as we see it in Peter from lying he proceeded even to cursing and damning himself Hab. 2. Deut. 25. Ephes 4.19 Jud. 11. Isa 56. 7. The Law discovers the unsatiableness and unweariedness that is in Original sin and the infiniteness that is in it it is compared to drunkenness the more men drink the more they desire and it is like Hell that is never satisfied the pleasures of sin enlarge the soul but never fill it there is a greediness in sin men pour out themselves they are greedy dogs that can never have enough there is such a dog-like appetite after sin they do evil with both hands earnestly always modo modo non haberet modum and therefore eternity of punishment is reserved for it God dealing with the creature not according to his actions but intentions the sinner would have it infinite extensively and intensively and therefore peccat in aeterno suo c. he sins in his eternity and God punisheth in his eternity 8. It discovers the demerit and effects of Original sin that it brings a man under the curse which is all evil and the wrath of God in Hell all the curses in Gods book and all the plagues of Gods Justice all the torments of Hell which either infinite wisdom can find out or infinite power inflict and that to eternity and that not only upon himself but upon all the creatures for his use Cursed is the ground for thy sake and cursed shalt thou be in thy house Rom. 8.20 and the curse enters into the timber and there is a vanity of corruption brought upon them all it turns a land into barrenness makes the Stars fight against them and the Clouds to drop vengeance and there is the desert of sin written in the drops of rain it hinders the influences of Heaven binds up the influences of the Pleiades which no man can do c. 2. The Law sets before a man and discovers his actual sins and that in many particulars It shews a maââ what dishonour every sin does unto Gods glory a man gives not glory to the God of Heaven but debases him as much as in him lies by casting dishonour upon him saying The way of the Lord is not equal Is God unrighteous I speak as a man says Paul he despises his Justice turns his Grace into wantonness and gives the glory of God to any thing else for in every actual sin a man sets up a new God and serves the Devil in it who is the God of this World The Idols of mens hearts as well as of their hands strike at the very Being of God and also at the excellency of Gods rule the Law being the Septer by which the Lord rules and that by which his Soveraignty is seen in the world Rom. 7.12 it is the glorious royal Law the perfect Law it is holy just and good infinitely surpassing all the Laws of men I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad And not only the holiness of the Law but the harmony of it is opposed he that breaks one is guilty of all he that neglects any one command willingly is undoubtedly an hypocrite and he disobeys all for sincerity is accompanied with universality Then the Law opened in its spirituality shews a man the intention of his heart much more than it does in his actions and the intent of the sin goes beyond that of the sinner it shews also the infection of it upon others for evil words corrupt good manners it is as rottenness a plague a gangrene there is an infection in them all This one act of sin would defile the whole man as we see it has done in Adam and the Angels that fell the act defiles the nature and the nature defiles the man the least vain thought deserves death and the least idle word qualifies a man for Hell and therefore there is more evil in the least act of sin than there is good in all the
wherein the Authority or Soveraignty of the Great King does appear for wherein does the authority of Princes lye but in their Laws and he is counted a rebell that does disobey them and that of the Apostle Rom. 2. Through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God and the Nomothetick power is that wherein the greatness and the height of Majesty lyes and this Law we are subjected to by bond of Creation as having received our being from the Lord and by a bond of Stipulation having given up our consent to the Law having given the hand unto the Lord c. and as being the rule by which the Lord will judge men at the last day and this kept Joseph in awe against the importunity of his Mistress How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God the Majesty and Authority of God is despised in it and the Soveraignty of the Law being exalted in his heart carried with it a kind of moral impossibility for there be natural and moral impossibilities as the Apostle in the 1 Cor. We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth And sometimes the people of God in the violence of a temptation have been forced to fly to the Commandment as in the point of self-murder one was fain to do the temptation was so impetuous that he was forced to repeat the Commandment for some hours together Thou shalt do no murder thou shalt do no murder 3. Sin is restrained from the Curse of the Law and the Judgements that it does denounce against offenders and the several examples of the executions of them says Job Chap. 31.23 Destruction from God was a terror to me and because of his highness I could not indure And 2 Cor. 5. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men And observing the several examples of Judgments and the Curse of the Covenant upon wickednesses which are wrought that others may see and fear and do no more wickedly When a man looks upon the Judgements that are abroad as the Curse of the Law executed a man should say I will not transgress It was the sin of Judah that at the Captivity of Israel she would not be warned and would not receive correction for that man that has the Law against him has God against him 4. Sin is restrained from the Harmony of the Law he that breaketh one is guilty of all c. This makes men stand in awe of the Divine Commands 5. From Gods love to the Law it being that which is so dear unto God Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not an iota of the Law which is dearer to God than Heaven and Earth The Saints are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and they have a conformity unto God in all things they love what God loves and they hate what God hates Says the Psalmist I hate them that hate thee Psal 119.10.4 yea I hate them sore as if they were my enemies Through thy precepts I get understanding He says He did love the Law as his portion and inheritance as that which was sweeter to him than honey and his obedience unto which did bring him in all his comfort and therefore I have refrained my feet from every evil way this is my life and this is my wisdom in the sight of the Nations Lastly What authority and command the Law of God has in the hearts of men is that that Gods eye is much upon and with such men he is pleased and the power of Gods Grace is seen mainly in the awe of the Law upon their hearts and lives which other men despise and cast behind their back says the Lord To him will I look that trembles at my word Isa 66.2 And there is a man that fears an oath My heart stands in awe of thy Word else I had broken forth and given way to corruption but I durst not Isa 11.6 A little child shall lead him that which is most easily done and 2 Chron. 32.12 see the charge against Zedekiah for he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. If a man come to us from God and in the name of God if we despise him we despise the Lord. § 3. How is the Law from its restraint upon lust a servant and a handmaid unto the Gospel This will appear also in these Particulars 1. The great end of the Gospel is to establish the Earth and to continue the World for by sin an utter destruction should have come upon men and upon all the creatures for mans use only there is a stop put upon Justice for a time the change of the Covenant bringing in a change of the Government and the Kingdom that was before the fall administred by God immediately is now committed into the hands of the Son as he is God-man our Mediator So Psal 8. He has put all things in subjection under his feet Isa 49.8 and he has given him as a Covenant to establish the earth And it is upon this ground that those expressions are Psal 93. The Lord reigns he is clothed with Majesty the world is established that it cannot be moved And Psal 97.1 The Lord reigns let the earth rejoice All this is spoken of the Kingdom of Christ and his Government that is committed to him by the Father under the second Covenant and by vertue thereof since the fall And this the Lord doth by the restraint of the Law two ways 1 Hereby the lusts that are in a mans heart are kept under that they destroy not one another for lust is cruel see it in the second man that ever was in the world and he that first actually brought murder into the world and Nimrod a hunter of men before the Lord and as cruel to men as if they were beasts nay they are themselves Beasts and have the cruelty of Beasts and men would be as the fishes of the Sea the greater would devour the less they have no King over them and are acted by the spirit of the Devil and his name is Abaddon the destroyer his delight is wholly in destruction and if the Lord did leave men to the violence of their lusts and the impetuosity of temptation they would overflow as water over-running all banks and bounds and blood would touch blood where either as some say by blood is meant murder Hos 4.2 or all manner of horrible wickedness and so some take it so there is all manner of cruelty and all manner of unnatural wickedness even to the destroying of one another as we see it in Egypt every mans sword shall be against his brother and in the cruelty at the destruction of Jerusalem Now how comes it to pass that it is not so every where Only from the restraint of the Law laid upon the spirits of men and by this means the world is quieted as Luther in Gal. 3. hath observed Diâbolus regnat in toto orbe terrarum impellit homines
sent which is a term of Office the Father sends the Son and the Son from the Father sends the Spirit Joh. 14. When the Comforter is come which I will send from the Father Now Christ is the Mediator of the Covenant Heb. 12.24 and the Spirit the seal of the Covenant Ephes 1.13 the Covenant is the Covenant of Promise and the Spirit of the Covenant is the Spirit of Promise and the Person that transacts all from each Person within us in reference to this Covenant as Christ does all with God without us in reference to this Covenant Thence in Prayer we are said chiefly to pray to God the Father and Christ teacheth us to say Our Father c. not that we are not to pray to all the Persons but because the other Persons have undertaken their peculiar Offices in reference to the Prayers of the Saints the Spirit within us as a spirit of supplication indites our Prayers and stirs up affections answerable to our Petitions and groans unutterable and Christ as our High Priest receives this Incense and offers it and as the great Master of Requests tenders our Prayers unto the Father and they are received out of the Angels hand therefore in Scripture we are chiefly directed to pray unto the Father so though all the Persons Father Son and holy Spirit do enter into Covenant with the Saints yet the Covenant in Scripture is said to be chiefly made with God the Father because of the Offices that the other Persons have undertaken in the administration of this Covenant and the Grace thereof 3. It will appear by this because all things in this Covenant are from him and the other Persons in all the Offices that they undertake do it by his appointment the original of all is in the Father 1. The plot and the project was his to reconcile sinners to himself by a second Covenant and all that the Son does therein is not his own will but the will of him that sent him and it is by this will of the Father that we are sanctified the original and foundation of all the benefits that we have from Christ in this Covenant is from this will of the Father Heb. 10. the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do The plot and platform was by him laid and as with reverence be it spoken David said the platform of the building of the Temple was shewed unto him and the design was his though Solomon his Son built it so it is here the plot and the form was laid by the Father but it was the Son that did build the Church 2. The Person with whom he would make this Covenant he did design Joh. 17.6 Thine they were and thou gavest them me And he shall give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me Rev. 13.8 2 Tim. 2.19 And therefore there is Gods book of Life and the Lambs book and they do exactly answer one another the latter being but a transcript only out of the former The foundation of the Lord remains sure and hath this seal c. 3. He doth appoint how much Grace and how much Glory he will dispense unto every one of them by this Covenant the Lord has made Christ the Treasurer 1 Joh. 5.11 and as it were a Feoffee in trust Ephes 4. but Christ does not dispense Grace unto all alike there is a fulness of the age of the stature of Christ but all Saints do not attain to the same stature in Grace neither shall they in Glory the difference is in the appointment of the Father for in dispensing of Grace as well as in meriting of the same Christ is but the Fathers servant and does his will To sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father 4. It was the Father that employed Christ in this great work to be the Mediator of this Covenant he did not take it of himself and of his own motion but as the Father enters into Covenant so he appoints the Mediator of the Covenant Isa 49.8 He gives him as a Covenant and he did call him to be a Priest therefore you read Mat. 12.18 My servant whom I have chosen 5. He did confirm this Covenant by an Oath and thereby made it unchangeable or else it could never have been And there is a double Oath 1 An Oath to Christ Psal 110.4 making him a Priest by an Oath 2 An Oath to all his federates Heb. 6.17 18. 6. He has delighted in this Covenant and spent infinite thoughts upon it and it is therefore called the pleasure of the Lord. Isa 53.10 How many are thy thoughts to us ward c. Psal 40.5 it is the speech of Christ unto his Father as appears afterwards If I should speak of thy thoughts unto us they are more than can be expressed and all these thoughts are in reference unto this Covenant and his thoughts of peace towards the Elect which he delighted in from everlasting And by all this it will appear that though all the persons be in Covenant with the Saints under the second Covenant yet it is chiefly God the Father § 2. God will after the fall deal with his people in a Covenant-way though mankind did prove unfaithful and break the Covenant of their Creation and so should have perished for ever under the curse of it Covenant breaking being the great aggravation of all transgression and therefore though it was an act of grace and meer goodness before yet now a man would have thought the Lord should have tried man in a way of Covenant no more but only have ruled him in a way of Soveraignty and given him a command and if he did not obey to have taken him away as he saw good but God will deal with man in a Covenant-way Mic. 7. ult Rom. 15.8 1. The Lord will do it thereby to make known his mercy and his truth and he doth manifest both these in the Covenant there is mercy in making the Covenant and mercy infinitenitely the more because it is now with a perfidious and sinful people whose hearts have not been stedfast with the Lord and there is truth and faithfulness in keeping it and there was no way for God to shew forth his faithfulness but this by continuing a Covenant and to be constant in it from a mans conversion unto his glorification for spiritual mercies and for temporal Psal 111.9 he is always mindful of his Covenant he has commanded his Covenant for ever that is to stand fast for ever his Faithfulness is as the Mountains and as the Ordinances of Heaven and you may as soon change the one as the other and this Faithfulness under the second Covenant is so much the more seen because of our unfaithfulness unto him when the unfaithfulness of man cannot make the faithfulness of God of none effect 2.
the Saints that in the Covenant God has undertaken both parts and therefore the Covenant doth commonly run I will be their God so shall they be my people He doth undertake for us as well as for himself he doth undertake that he will be a good husband and you shall be a good wife and in this lyes the great blessing of the second Covenant and the Grace thereof It is true that the passive part is ours and there are some acts that do belong to us properly we believe and we repent but it is he that works in us to believe and repent of his good pleasure Nos agimus sed acti nos volumus sed ipse facit ut velimus We act but as acted by him we will but he makes us to will Aust 6. We are kept in the Covenant by him alone he brings us within the bond of the Covenant and he doth also keep us there Jer. 31.33 I will put my Law in their hearts and they shall not depart from me And Hos 2.7 I will hedge up their way and will make a wall that they shall not find their paths They shall follow after their lovers but they shall not overtake them God will in mercy cross them in ways of sinning and make all ways of sin burdensome to them and all is that they may return to their former husband though they have committed adultery against him yet he saith unto them Return you back-sliding children and I will receive you you have gone a whoring from me yet return to me and I will receive you And Hos 3.3 The Lord will buy them unto him again with fifteen pieces of silver their base condition into which they were cast should be the ground of their returning unto God again their former husband it is the purchase that the Lord would give for them difficulties and disquiets and disappointments in ways of sin doth the Lord give men to keep them in his Covenant Christ tells them They should deceive if possible the very Elect Mac. 24. Rev. 13.8 they were deceived as many as were not writ in the Lambs book a special hand of God is towards them in their preservation and there is a power of God put forth for them that keeps their hearts as with a garrison he that brought them into the Covenant hath undertaken to keep them there 7. Every renewal of the Covenant is from the Lord Gen. 2.15 the Lord did make this Covenant with Abraham and fourteen years after renews it It is not Abraham that renews it with God so much as God with Abraham and so the Lord says Jer. 31.31 I will make a new Covenant it is but a renewal of the same Covenant and a further and more glorious manifestation of the mind of God therein he will shew them his Covenant Psal 25. Of this renewing the Covenant we shall speak afterward this is only to manifest that he who hath the great and the universal hand in this Covenant is the Lord we may say as the Scripture doth of Joseph whatever was done in Egypt he was the doer of it so whatever is done in this Covenant the Lord is the doer of it it is the act of God the Father SECT II. Free-Grace the Fountain of this Covenant WE come now to the fourth Head the ground and foundation of whatever the Lord hath done in this Covenant and that is Free-grace his own good will and his own unexpected love the Lord had no argument or motive out of himself and therefore he says I will give my Covenant between me and thee he hath no other aim in this whole work but the praise of the glory of his Grace Luk. 2. It is glory to God and good will to men Ephes 1.7 And thereby is God glorified under the second Covenant and this the Lord calls upon his people to observe Look to the Rock from whence you were hewed look to Abraham and to Sarah Isa 41.2 and when he was in Vr of the Caldeans and did with Terah his father worship other gods beyond the River the Lord did call him alone and bless him and alone singled out this one person and raised him up and did exalt him and set him on high and called him to his foot and led him on his way and the Lord passed on before him And so David made the Covenant to be only the fruit of free-grace 2 Sam. 7.21 What can David thy servant say more It doth exceed my apprehension or expression only thou hast done it according unto thy own heart out of thy own free love that thou mightest make thy servant to know even those great things And this will appear 1. If we consider the person that is first in this Covenant and that is the Lord who hath here expressed himself to be El-shaddai he is al-sufficient one that hath all in himself and within his own compass he is a Sun that is he shines with his own natural light and not as the Moon and Stars with a mutuatitious and a borrowed light for as he is debter to none so he stands in need of none he needs not borrow any excellency or glory from another and therefore for this God to enter into Covenant must needs be of Grace and by Grace you are saved 2. If we look upon man as fallen under another Covenant broken and perished under the curse of it and under that Covenant desiring to continue Gal. 4.21 They did desire to be under the Law Rom. 10.3 they looked upon it as a desirable condition they did seek to establish their own righteousness and were enemies to the Gospel and unto all others for the Gospel sake the way of the Gospel the heart of man is against and that now the Lord should unto such reveal this second Covenant that hate his Grace and shut their eyes and stop their ears and do their utmost to receive the grace of God in vain that though they be under another Covenant enemies unto this yet should rather chuse to be under their broken Covenant than accept of this 3. That this Covenant should be given unto some and not unto others that when the Angels that fell were under the same curse of the former Covenant with us yet that the Lord should not catch after the seed of Angels Heb. 2.16 but of Abraham and let them perish under their Covenant never give unto them an offer of another Covenant That when mankind were all of them strangers to the Covenant of Grace alike in their natural states and enemies that the Lord should be pleased to single out some to shew them his Covenant and for nothing but because he hath a favour to them Ephes 2.14 to chuse some out of a wretched family and a wicked stock and the Grace of this Covenant he will make known unto them and they shall know the power of this distinguishing love and when he shall pass by many of
conceive it was a body that was given him by the Father 2 There was Union from the Father and therefore there is a grace of Union as to us in Mystical Union it is the Father made up the match between us and Christ and we are united unto him for ever so in the Personal and Hypostatical Union it is the Father that made up the match and made the two Natures to become one Person and therefore it is said Luk. 1.35 That holy thing that is born shall be called the Son of God for it was in obedience to the Father that he did come to take this body into Union it is true he did take the seed of Abraham but it was by the Fathers command Heb. 2.16 Heb. 10.7 and in obedience to him and therefore he says A body hast thou prepared me and therefore he did take it upon himself as he did his sufferings The cup that his Father gave him he did drink and so in him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily 3. There is also the grace of Unction God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Joh. 3.34 Jesus of Nazareth whom God has anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power As it pleased the Father in him should all fulness dwell as the Sun of Righteousness and as the fountain of life and this is not in him only as God but as Mediator but all this is still as it pleased the Father acts of his free-grace 4. Assistance in this great work it is true that Christ was God and able to raise himself 1 Joh. 5.11 and did quicken himself and did overcome death and spoiled Principalities and Powers and triumphed over them openly but yet he doth ascribe all this to the gracious assistance of God the Father it is the Lord that made him a promise that he should go through with his work and Christ doth strengthen himself by exercising faith upon the Promises of God the Father who promised Isa 42.4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement in the earth I the Lord have called thee in righteousness I will hold thee by the hand that is by a mighty assistance and support and I will keep thee c. and with these Christ helps himself by exercising faith upon them I will trust in thee he is near that justifies me Isa 50.8 Who will contend with me the Lord is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal 16.8 9 10. therefore my heart is glad and my flesh shall rest in hope for thou will not leave my soul in Hell i. e. in the grave under the power and condemnation of that sin and wrath that now is upon me nor suffer my body to see corruption but thou wilt shew me the path of life c. And Psal 22. he strengthens his faith by experience of his forefathers Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou deliveredst them So that Christs assistance in all his managing of the work of the Covenant is wholly from the free-grace of God the Father and therefore in all the business of it Christ had recourse unto his Father by prayer continually 5. Acceptance It is true that Christ as his Person was in worth and value answerable unto all the Elect of God and beyond them so there was a worth and price in all that he did in his suffering answerable unto whatever the Law and Justice of God did require God did abate him nothing he payed the uttermost farthing else there could not have been satisfaction Isa 63.6 for it must be redditio aequivalentis pro aequivalenti it was a full satisfaction God did abate him nothing in this but God made our sins to meet upon him he did not abate him one sin and being made sin he did not abate him any part of the curse And what mercies soever the Lord doth bestow upon us Christ hath paid a valuable price for them because his obedience did deserve and did truly merit at the hand of God whatever the Lord shall bestow upon us to eternity either in Grace here or Glory hereafter it is indeed free unto us and a gift but yet it is unto Christ a purchase and therefore here indeed there is nothing of grace as it were but all is of debt that is Christ did lay down something answerable unto whatever God did either give or forgive But yet here is Grace in the Lords acceptance of all that Christ hath done and suffered for us and the imputation thereof unto us and that the Lord should account this by a Soveraign imputation to be as done in our stead and for us for the Law did say the soul that sins shall die it is Grace only that brings in the commutation of the Person though there be no commutation of the righteousness that was required of us Heb. 10.10 it is meerly of Grace that the Lord has accepted of Christ for us all the benefits of the Death of Christ as Pardon of Sin Reconciliation with God Justification and Adoption they do all depend upon this will of the Father for had he not appointed this work and thereby declared his acceptation had not he accepted it who was the Judge we could never have had any benefit by it and therefore it is by his will alone that all this is made over unto us there was free-grace abundantly in his acceptation By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 Joh. 6.38 by the knowledge of him and faith in him for of such a knowledge it is meant I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me the meaning is not as if Christ came unwillingly but that his Fathers will was first in this work and so much in it that the thing that Christ did principally aim at was to please his Father and to do his will therein Now because Christs great aim was to do his Fathers will and to please his Father doing all by appointment from him he knew he hath acceptance with him for though Christ had paid the price it was free with God to accept it or no. 6. There is a reward that is given unto Christ for all the services that he does perform He hath a name above every name Phil. 2.9 10. and a seed Isa 53. and a glory He being set on the right hand of the Majesty on high 1 Pet. 1. ult Angels and Principalities and Powers being made subject unto him and this the Lord hath given him as a reward of his service I will not now speak unto that Question put by some Divines Whether Christ did merit for himself which our Divines do deny in this sense as being the great end why he did come into the world to merit for his Elect-ones because the Scripture saith God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Joh. 3.16 And to us a Child is born to us a son is
Baptism is sealing He received the sign of Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of Faith a seal of the righteousness which was his by Faith and he is accepted of God thereby and what Abraham had by Circumcision the Saints have by Baptism Col 2.11 12. Mat. 3.16 Now the most illustrious sealing of all other was in the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus when he was baptized went straightway out of the water c. never any Ordinance was graced with such a Presence the whole Trinity appeared in the work and what was all this for but to make way for that great sealing which was grounded upon the Covenant between the Father and the Son This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So that in this the Covenant between the Father and the Son was visibly sealed Gods acceptation of him and of all the Saints in him 4. The Scripture doth hold forth this Covenant unto us in the terms of it Christ doth publish his commission unto the world Isa 49.1 2. how the Lord had called and fitted him from the womb made his mouth as a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand he hid me and made me a polished shaft and said Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified And what is the service that the Lord called him to to bring Jacob to him But then the Lord having undertaken the work and seeing how few of the Jews should be converted he seems to complain I have laboured in vain but yet he comforts himself it was for God he did work and his reward was with him Now the Lord does inlarge his grant not only to raise the tribe of Jacob but also to be for salvation to the ends of the earth I will give thee for a Covenant to the people to establish the earth and to cause them to inherit the desolate habitation Isa 49. We have in this Chapter related the very arguments that were between him and his Father who said of him Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified 2dly Why must such a Covenant pass between the Father and the Son in such a solemn manner The Lord will deal with Christ in this great work in a Covenant way 1. Because he will have Christ to be propounded unto the World as the second Adam For God did intend to bring all the elect under one head that as the offence was by one so the free gift by grace might also be so Rom. 5. God did intend that all man-kind should come under a double head and so be presented unto him in the last Judgment the first and second Adam and therefore the Lord speaks as if there were but two men in the World the first Adam 1 Cor. 15.47 and the second and the first Adam must be the Type of him that was to come therefore as the first Adam had a Covenant made with him and an Image stampt upon him for himself and for all his posterity so must the second Adam also have and therefore he must be the second Adam by Covenant made with him as a publick person and as a representative head for all his posterity that seed and generation that should be born of him 2. That he might thereby advance the free grace of the Father and of the Son 1. The free grace of the Father is much exalted by it in two things 1 In the motion of it it came first from him his taking of us actually into Covenant is a part of the purchase of Christ and he hath bought the Souls of the Elect it is the price of his blood and it is because he dyed that he doth not abide alone but the taking of Christ into Covenant it did not come first from Christ but the motion was the Fathers the Son can do nothing of himself I came not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me 2. Joh 5.19 In his accepting a Covenant it was free with him to make it and therefore the obedience of Christ was free with him to accept if Christ had offered himself and had laid down his life it is true it was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã all that God in Justice could expect and it was a price sufficient for all that ever Christ did purchase yet there is grace in the bowels of all this because it was free with the Lord to accept of the righteousness of another to become ours This gracious acceptation and imputation the Lord doth shew forth abundantly in the Covenant made with Christ himself for being a Covenant it must be free 2. It doth also exceedingly advance the Grace of the Son in this That Christ being God equal with the Father having a perfect dominion over his own actions and being Lord of his own life having a power to lay down his life as he saith No man takes it from me but I lay it down John 10.18 That he should freely and voluntarily bind himself in a Covenant in this manner to abase himself to stand in our stead to bear our sins and to be under a Curse for us and to consent unto this cheerfully and willingly as a thing in which he is pleased and delighted to shew forth therein the love of his Father and to his people and to undertake all of it Heb. 9.10 and to bind himself thereunto by his own voluntary consent who otherwise was not could not be bound For there is this difference between the Covenant of the first and the second Adam the first Adam was bound to obey by a bond of creation and he was bound to be subject but the second Adam was not so he was perfectly free and yet he is willing by Covenant to be bound And the Lord herein dealt as Aelian hath a Story of Zaleucus a Ruler in the City Locris who had made a Law against Adultery that it should be punished with the loss of both eyes and his son was afterwards accused and condemned of the same offence and the whole City in honour to his Father became Suitors unto him to spare his Son but the story says he did first put out one of his own eyes and afterwards one of his Sons and thereby satisfied the Law And so between a just legislator and a merciful father he divided himself Had the Lord so dealt with us and laid part of the punishment upon us and part upon Christ we had been undone but Christ undertook all for us to pour out his soul to death Isa 53. last and bear the sins of many being that to which he was not bound and that which he could not have been forced to and yet to make himself by Covenant a debter it exalts free Grace nothing more 3. The Lords intention was in the whole work of Redemption to deal with Christ in a judicial way as he is the judge of all the World that he may have his justice satisfied Rom. 3.25 He doth all to declare
and good will for his Purposes and Decrees are immutable as himself is and there can nothing arise de novo that should cause him to change his purpose but more that he proceeded herein to a treaty with his Son about it to be his Servant in this great work to bring Jacob again unto him Isa 49. and made a solemn Covenant pass between these glorious persons about it and that those thoughts should delight them before the World began and that the Lord should bespeak his Son with all the terms of dearness that can be to undertake this service Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and therefore being his Son it was only an office fit for him and as being his Son there was all fitness in him so there was all dearness to him and by this Christ did upon this motion of the Fathers undertake this service and there was a solemn Covenant passed between them Jer. 30.21 And thus the Lord did as it were bind himself and his Son unto this great work of your Salvation before the World was not only laying his love but also his faithfulness to pawn though not in a Covenant to you before you were yet in a Covenant to his Son and therefore there was a promise of eternal life given us in him before the World began 3 When he doth Covenant with Christ to be a Priest Tit. 1.2 it is a Covenant that he confirms by an Oath to shew that he doth never intend to alter and change his resolution Psal 110.4 The Lord has sworn and will not repent c. Psal 110.4 Heb. 7.21 This Priest was made by an Oath by him that said unto him Thou art my Son the Lord swore and will not repent and this was from everlasting for then it was that Christ was first appointed or set apart to become a Priest Now all this shews how much the heart of God was in it For the Word of God is as true as his Oath and as infallible and therefore if he had but said it it had been enough for there is a greater stability in his Word than there is in Heaven and Earth but yet it is observed by Divines that between the Word of God and his Oath there is this difference though the Lord speaks the word yet there may be some secret and tacite condition or some subsequent declaration of the mind of God As for Nineveh God said Within fourty days Nineveh should be destroyed yet there was an implyed condition of repentance which being performed the Judgement was not executed And so to Ely I said that thy fathers house should walk before me for ever but now I say Be it far from me and so the promise is reversed and it may be that is the meaning of the expression in Numbers You shall know my breach of Covenant But if God swears it shews the unchangeableness of his counsel an absolute act that nothing can arise de novo and nothing can be supposed that can cause God to change it he will never have a relenting thought for the pardon of sins and saving of sinners for ever and therefore he swore and made him a Priest by an Oath and this Oath some conceive to be the seal of God by which he did in a solemn manner set apart his Son for this great office and designed him to it from everlasting Joh. 6.27 John 6.27 Him hath God the father sealed So that as he has sealed up his decrees concerning you that they can never receive an alteration or change more how changeable soever you be 2 Tim. 2.19 as 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God remains sure having this seal the Lord knows who are his so he hath sealed up also his Covenant with Christ and that by an Oath Now if it were but a Kings Seal who could reverse it But this is the King of Kings 4 We see that their hearts were much in it for neither of these persons ever repented of it to this day 1 If God the Father would have repented a man would have expected that it should have been when he came to make his Son an offering for sin Oh! what relenting thoughts and rolling of bowels had Abraham when his Son must dye and he himself must have a hand therein and become the executioner So it pleased the Father to bruise him Matt. 26.29 and Matt. 26.29 there is a necessity or an impossibility spoken of and it lay wholly in the will of God for so he adds not my will but thy will be done If God could have changed his Will Christ might have lived and the Cup passed away but God had covenanted to make him a surety he had made him a Priest by an Oath and his will could not change he could not repent of it therefore this Cup he must drink Thus Isa 53.5 the same word is used and it signifies to beat a thing to pieces as in a Mortar and God was pleased with it Ephes 5.2 The offering of Christ was to God a Sacrifice of a sweet savour What made it so Only the end Finis dat mediis amabilitatem the end gives sweetness to the means Had it not been for that the Lord must needs have abhorred it 2 And Christ accepts of the Covenant and never repented he did never call back his word or change his ingagement he had the law of dying written in the middle of his bowels as it was the pleasure of the Lord so it was his with desire have I desired it and I have a baptism and I am straitned till it be fulfilled Vse 3. Thence we see the ground of the pardoning of all the sins of the ancient Saints under the first Testament Rom. 3.25 Heb. 9.15 The debt was not paid and the Sacrifice was not offered and yet their sins were pardoned and their souls saved it was by vertue of the Covenant and ingagement of Christ unto God the Father there was blood of Bulls and Goats and that could only signifie Christ but could not satisfie God but when Christ came and performed the Covenant now he satisfied for the transgressions under the first Testament and in this respect he was a Lamb slain from the beginning though offered in the latter days of the World because the Covenant immediately from the fall of man took place and God looked upon him by virtue of this Covenant as our surety and required all of him Vse 4. It is a mighty ground of Faith that all shall be performed for if these glorious persons could break Covenant with you yet they will not break one with another therefore surely 1 on Gods part all his promises unto Christ shall be made good every knee shall bow taken him all his enemies shall become his footstool all the persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down and the stone without hands shall fill the earth and the Mountain of the Lord shall be exalted upon the top of all the
Christ is the fountain of Consolation and is therefore called in the abstract the Consolation of Israel Luke 2.25 and the more immediate the Lord appears in ordinances the more sweet and powerful they are as it shall be in the Ordinances of the later dayes Rev. 21.22 I saw no Temple there all dark discoveries of God that were in former ages shall be done away and yet it is not spoken of Heaven for vers 3. it is the Tabernacle of the Lord is with men and a Tabernacle is to be removed and no abiding habitation vers 23. The glory of the Lord and the Lamb shall be the Light thereof v. 23. and therefore no need of the Sun or the Moon that is of any creature influences or comforts but it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Lucerna such a light as doth not make it a perfect day it is a light that doth argue its night still in comparison of what it shall be when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise in glory and yet this more immediate presence made them both more sweet and more powerful and that makes glory so infinitely sweet because the comfort that we shall have there shall come in immediately from the Lord here though Ordinances and Providences and Comforts be sweet yet they are conveyed by the creature and therefore they lose much of their sweetness and glory but then he will make us to drink of the Rivers of his pleasures Now for a mans comfort to come in from Christ immediately by partaking with him in the same Covenant and the promises thereof to have it in the same Fountain with the Lord of Life the consolation of Israel it doth very much sweeten them unto the soul and therefore it 's a Christians wisdom to drink his comforts as near the Fountain as he can and the greater cordials they will prove and the more reviving and therefore be you much in these things and your souls shall live they are the most quickning and reviving considerations that are in the whole Book of God To be much in creature comforts whether in delighting in them or depending upon them 2 Chron. 16.12 is a snare It 's said of Asa That in his sickness he sought not to the Lord and the reason is given because his heart was wholly in the Physicians and his hope and expectation from them But to be in these consolations is your duty because as Hezekiah observes Esa 38.15 by or upon these things men live by such experiments as these are by such promises and in all these is the life of my spirit And this was Davids consolation at the last when he came to dye 2 Sam. 23.5 2 Sam. 23.5 Though my House is not so with God yet he has made with me an everlasting Covenant in all things ordered and sure there is a threefold property of the Covenant that he takes comfort in it was everlasting it was sure it was ordered in all things the word in the Hebrew is the same with that in the Proverbs chap. 16. 1. The ordering and disposing of the heart is from the Lord and the word is used in a double sense in the Scripture Prov. 9.2 sometimes for the furnishing of a Table and for the ordering and marshalling of an Army 1 Sam. 4. they put the Battel in array every one keeps his rank and so it is in this Covenant every thing keeps its place Christ is first in it and then faith in its place and the Saints in their places and there is much comfort to be taken from this order of the Covenant and this will appear to us in several particulars for God is not the God of confusion but order and this being the greatest and the most glorious work of God there is the fullest and the most perfect order to be imagined and therein the wisdom and goodness of God doth exceedingly appear 1. It 's a great honour that the Lord has put upon his people that they should be conformed unto the image of his Son so that they should stand before him in the Covenant of his Son and have in their place and degree the same right and claim to mercy that Christ has The Scripture makes Christ the Sun in the Firmament of all excellency and the more any thing partakes of him the more glorious it is as the second Temple was and Johns ministerie the Law and the Prophets were till John but afterwards the Gospel comes which was a clearer discovery of Christ and they were all eclipsed though the Law had much more outward pomp and glory yet because it did discover Christ but darkly in comparison of the Gospel therefore that is said to exceed in glory and so in Scripture the Saints do ascribe glory one to another as they are in Christ and according to their priority in Christ as the Apostle saies Rom. 16.7 Who were in Christ before me and Paul saith in another place I was like one that was born out of due time because last of all he appeared unto me 1 Cor. 15. and therefore Austin saith It abated his earnest desire of some principal part of his own good works because nomen Christi non erat ibi the name of Christ was not there had the Lord put man fallen under the Covenant of the Angels that fell not it had been an honour and put them into the same condition with them but it is far beyond it to put them under the same Covenant that was made with him whom the Angels worship and the highest honour that we have by Christ is our union with him and our legal union standing before God in the same Covenant with him is the highest part of that honour for our natural union bearing with him the same Image doth flow from it It 's a great honour to stand before God in the righteousness of Christ but the ground thereof is because we stand before God under the Covenant of Christ the inheritance of Christ is in the Saints Ephes 1. they are therefore said to be the glory of Christ as Christ is the glory of the Father his glory shall be at the last to have a large and numerous posterity to have a beautiful and a glorious spouse without spot or wrinkle or any such thing and what is it that makes us have relation to Christ as a Spouse It is taking hold of his Covenant and therefore the Covenant of Grace is said to be a marriage Covenant And what is it makes the match between any but consent Hos 2 19. And therefore it 's generally concluded by our Divines amongst the essentials of marriage for parties to give mutual consent according unto that received rule of the Civil Law where there is not the consent of both parties it ought not to be held legal Matrimony There may be a wooing and a ravishment but truly and properly there can be no Marriage without consent It is therefore a consent joyntly
by living in any sin destroy your own prayers And take not only the example of the Angels but the example of our Lord Christ the rule and pattern of holiness for you to walk by he is your Prince your Leader c. all manner of terms that note out exemplariness and require imitation and he was faithful in the Covenant made with God he doth for the active part of his obedience fulfill all righteousness and for the passive part he paid the utmost farthing though the Lord did hide his face and his enemies did rage and triumph over him it was the hour of the power of darkness and if the flesh did desire its own preservation yet the will of nature did give way unto the will of duty and He did drink up the Brook in the way Psal 110. ult that Torrent of Curses and wrath that lay between us and glory and therefore did lift up his head and he is now in Heaven as Gods servant and so shall be till the last day that he shall give up the Kingdom unto God the Father he is performing the remaining acts of his Office there and by his Spirit on Earth and by his presence and intercession in glory and all is that he might be a faithful High-Priest and able to save to the uttermost those that come unto him But we have yet a higher pattern and that is God the Father himself he is alwayes mindful of his Covenant Psal 111.5 Psal 9.34 Mic. 7.20 Ezech. 16.61 My Covenant I will not break for he is a faithful God and he will perform his truth to Jacob and his mercy unto Abraham as he has sworn in the days of old And the faithfulness of God is infinitely seen in this that the unfaithfulness of man cannot make the faithfulness of God of none effect Says the Lord I will give thee thy Sisters thy elder and thy younger Sister unto thee as Daughters but not by thy Covenant it is a promise that though they had by doing more wickedly justified the Gentile nations and he instances in Sodom and Samaria and therefore worse judgements should come upon them yet the time would come that the Lord would remember his Covenant that he had made with their Fathers and he would make them the Mother-Church and all the Gentile Churches and Nations should flow unto her and it shall come to pass that ten men out of all the Nations under Heaven should lay hold on the skirt of a Jew Zac. 8.23 but all this shall not be by thy Covenant sic non desciverant ut Deus esset liber Cal. and therefore it was not in reference to their keeping Covenant with God but in remembrance of Gods Covenant with them and therefore he refers them unto his faithfulness and not to theirs and therefore when they should see it they should be ashamed and put their mouths in the dust to think that the Lord should continue faithful unto those that had been so unfaithful every way to him as they had been 4. The people of God in this life do miss of many of the Promises of the second Covenant that they are not accomplished unto them because they do not walk exactly according to the rules of this Covenant therefore Psal 25.10 But the wayes of the Lord are mercy and truth unto them that keep his Covenant The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting unto them that fear him Psal 103.18 to such as keep his Covenant and think upon his Commandments to do them but else though they shall not fail of eternal mercy Christ is the surety that the Covenant shall not be broken yet there be many promises of the Covenant that in this life they shall never have accomplished to them 1 Sam. 2.29 saies the Lord I said thy House and the House of thy Fathers should stand before me for ever but now that be far from me saies the Lord for they that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed The promises of God are of two sorts 1 Some are absolute which God hath undertaken to perform of his own free grace not only citra meritum but also citra conditionem not only without merit but without all supposed or prerequired conditions in us As I will be your God I will give you my Son I will pour out my Spirit I will pardon your sins c. I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh these are absolute promises 2 There are conditional promises which shew what God will do upon such duties performed by the creature which are such as without Gods special grace he is never able to perform and these are made for the encouragement of men in a way of obedience but they do not alwaies promise the purpose of God to give the condition of the reward for as it is in Judgements there are some conditional threatnings which upon a change in the creature never come to pass Jer. 18.7 At what time saies God I speak against a nation to pluck up and destroy if that nation turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them and if I speak of a Nation or a Kingdom to build and plant it if it do evil in my sight I will repent of the good I would do unto them so it is in the conditional promises Novit Deus mutare decretum si tu non noveris em ndare delictum God knows how to change his declared promise if thou know not how to change thy sin which I conceive to be the meaning of all those places where God is said to break Covenant with his people Numb 14.34 You shall bear your iniquity even forty years and you shall know my breach of promise that is by woful experience you shall find what a misery it is to have such glorious promises made unto you but by reason of your unfaithfulness on your part they being conditional shall never be performed and so the Psalmist has it Psal 89.39 Thou hast made void the Covenant of thy servant all his posterity were cut off from this mercy and promise in this life because they disobeyed the word of the Lord and walked not in his Covenant c. and so Zach. 11.10 I will break my Covenant with them it is spoken of a national Covenant and casting off the Nations from being a Church or people unto himself wherein even the Saints must needs be deprived of many temporal promises of the Covenant because they did not walk stedfastly with God therein And if a man shall consider the example of the sufferings of many of the Saints as of Eli David Sampson and Solomon though they were beloved of God and in Covenant with him yet by their unfaithfulness in the Covenant how many temporal promises of the Covenant did they miss Faith is the condion of the Covenant Foederis pacti
obedience the condition foederis praestiti Jer. 7.12 Jer. 11.5 They must obey that God may perform Esay 54.9 10. Jer. 32.40 and how many temporal afflictions were inflicted on them And so I may say to any soul that keeps Covenant with God thy sufferings will say to thee cavendae tempestates flenda naufragia Austin de Nat. Grat. cap. 35. And thus we should take heed of keeping the Covenant or else though the Lord continue faithful in reference to the promises of eternity because Christ is the surety yet in regard of temporal promises you may go without them and many of them never be performed unto you But you will say may a man that is in the Covenant of Grace break the Covenant may the Covenant of Grace be broken as the Covenant of Works was If it may not be broken to what end do you exhort us to keep it It 's true that the Covenant of Grace cannot be broken a man that is once in Covenant is ever in Covenant and the grounds of it are these 1. The Love of God that made the Covenant is an everlasting Love and therefore the Covenant it self is every where called an everlasting Covenant and the Lord saith If you can bring another flood upon the Earth and if you can stop the Sun in his course and change the Ordinances of Heaven then the Covenant might be broken that he had made with his people Therefore Rom. 8. the Apostle saies that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord for the Lord loves us with an everlasting Love 2. It is a Covenant made with the persons of men mens persons are first taken into Covenant and there is this difference between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works in the later Covenant the works were taken into Covenant first and then the person for the works sake and so long as their works continued holy so long their persons were to be accepted and find favour and honour with the Lord Gen. 4.7 If thou doest well there is an elevation and a lifting up of the face but if thou dost evil cursed is thy person for thy works sake and there is an ira redundans in personam wrath falling on the person that doth immediately follow thereupon but now in the Covenant of Grace it is quite contrary mens persons are first taken into Covenant and accepted and then their works for their persons sake the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering and therefore till the person be in Covenant the works are abominable before God Now the works of the Saints may not always be accepted of God he may be and is often displeased with the acts of his covenant-people but yet their persons alwayes find acceptance with him their persons are the same I will visit their offences with a rod and their sins with scourges but my loving kindness I will not take from their persons my Covenant I will not break Psal 89. there is an ira simplex simple anger that doth reach to the sin but not to the person he is never a child of wrath more after his person is taken into a state of adoption with the Lord. 3. Their union with Christ is that which puts them into the second Covenant Gal. 3.29 as this union gives them interest in Christs righteousness and Sonship so it doth first state them in the Covenant which is the ground of all the rest the intendment of God was that the union between Christ and them should be the means to convey all this to their souls all comes in by Union Now so long as the Union between Christ and a soul continues so long the Covenant cannot be broken but this Union is indissoluble sin cannot nay death cannot separate between God and a soul in Covenant with him and therefore as they live so they dye in the Lord and sleep in Jesus 4. The righteousness of this Covenant is an everlasting righteousness Dan. 9. The Lord hath finished transgression and made an end of sin in the great condemning power of it and brought in everlasting righteousness such as sin could never spend for he is the son of righteousness the Lord of righteousness and therefore his Covenant can never be broken seeing the righteousness of the Covenant can never be expended 5. Christ is the surety of this better Covenant and therefore though we pay not the debt that we owe he hath undertaken it and the Lord will expect all of him and thence he is said to lay help on one that is mighty Psal 89. he will take your words no more but Christ is able to pay it as he did the debt of the first Covenant so he is able to perform the duty of the second the Lord hath ingaged him in it and he expects all from him as from the surety of the Covenant which he hath undertaken 6. Lastly This Covenant can never be broken because there is an everlasting principle of Grace begun in the Soul that doth always lay hold of the Covenant and cleave to it and consent to it and work towards it for it is incorruptible and immortal seed and therefore Jer. 32.40 This is the Covenant I will make with you I will write my law in your heart c. that you shall never depart from me In a Married condition there may be many failings in a Wife or a Husband as neglect disobedience c. but the Marriage Covenant is never broken till she take another Husband and the Covenant of Grace is a Marriage Covenant Now though there be many errors and failings in a Wife yet unless thou chuse another Husband and subject thy self to another Lord the Covenant between God and thee is not broken It is a matter of wonderful consolation that the Covenant between us and the Lord is a Covenant of salt that the sins of the people of God though they be many yet they cannot break the Covenant How should the consideration of this rich Grace and Mercy make the Saints triumph over Death and Hell O death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory blessed be God we are more than Conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord. But yet you had need be exhorted not to break this Covenant 1. By reason of the falseness of our own hearts Jer. 2.24 for we are like a wild Asse in the wilderness that doth traverse her paths that no hedges or fetters can hold her in so much that the Lord speaks it with admiration How weak is thy heart Ezek. 16.30 That it 's not able to hold out against any temptation not able to bear any one affliction but immediately it 's ready to depart from God Gen. 49.4 unstable as water there is a treachery and a perfidiousness of spirit in the best of us and therefore we had need be often called upon Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall and let us take
Psal 10.5 though he may sometimes defer the promises of the Covenant yet he is alwaies mindful of it so as to perform it unto the heirs of promise in all generations not only to one age but to another unto a thousand generations Vt omnes posteri illius gratiae fierent participes Moller he remembers it so as no Son of the Covenant shall go without his share in the grace of the Covenant and this is termed 1 Chron. 16.15 Be ye always mindful of the Covenant as he is always mindful to give unto the heirs of promise the mercies of the Covenant and to improve all the grace of it for them and for their good so be ye mindful to perform the duty and to improve the interest you have in the Covenant that there may be nothing in it promised but that to you it may be accomplished as he waits that he may be gracious to you he takes his time to give you all the mercies of the Covenant in the season of it so do you perform the duties of the Covenant in the season of it also Esay 30.18 that as he is willing to give you the fruits of the Covenant so you may be willing to receive all the fruits of it and not undervalue them in the least measure he waits therefore do you wait for him he is mindful therefore be you mindful also for all Covenant-ingagements are mutual and do equally oblige both parties and as you expect God being in Covenant with you should out of his faithfulness perform his ingagement so he does expect that by reason of the same Covenant you should perform yours also Now the improvement of the Covenant is twofold 1 In reference to your selves 2 In reference to the Lord for there should be an improvement on both parts 1. In reference to your selves remember the Covenant and improve it and that in these particulars 1. Consider the matter of the Covenant in it you do give unto God your persons and your services 1 Your persons 2 Cor. 8.5 they gave themselves unto the Lord and also Esay 63.19 We are thine and Esa 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall subscribe with his hand to the Lord here is a full resignation of themselves and so doth the Church Cant. 6.3 I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine and in a special manner the heart is to be given to the Lord my Son give me thy heart for where the heart is there is the man So then a man in Covenant is to say I am at liberty and at my own dispose the propriety is in another he has possession of me and dominion over me I am lost in my self for ever Psal 4.3 God hath separated to himself the man that is Godly he has set him apart and he laies claim to him as his portion and there is no man can claim God for his portion that is not willing to give up himself to obey the Lord and to be his portion also so that when sin and Satan shall come and claim a share the soul assures him I am not mine own I am married already and therefore out of mine own power the vows of God are upon me sin and Satan did not make me as I am wholly the Lords by creation so I am his by stipulation and my ingagement binds me to him so Rom. 8.12 We are not debters to the flesh to live after the flesh I conceive it 's spoken in reference unto our redemption by Christ and all the benefits thereof you are not your own you are bought with a price 2 Cor c. but all the benefits of our redemption are founded in the Covenant and therefore the great ground of the debt lies in this we are debters to God because ingaged in Covenant but we are not debters unto the flesh because we are not in Covenant with it 2. As we owe our persons so also all our services unto God and that by this Covenant for it is answerable unto the electing love of God he hath chosen us to be vessels of mercy for the Masters use 2 Tim. 2.21 we may no more rob God of our services than we may of our selves Hos 3.3 the Lord saies thou shalt not be unto another so will I also be unto thee And they are either in matters of necessity or expediency 1 Of necessity and so all the duties that the Lord requires in the word that we should have respect unto all the Commandments this our Covenant binds upon us and this we should enforce upon our selves Quaedam suut quae etiam non volentes debemus August Josh 24.22 24. Ye have chosen the Lord to serve him and they said the Lord our God will we serve and his voice will we obey and David hath sworn to keep thy tried Judgements Psal 119.106 and so Nâhem 10.29 they did enter into a curse to walk in the law of the Lord and to observe and do all his Commandments So that what was a duty before they did by Covenant bind upon themselves and by the improvement of this Covenant a man having so bound himself he should inforce it upon himself because his services are not his own he belongs to another Lord and hath given his hand unto another 2 In things of expediency the thing being in a mans own power for in such cases the Covenant must be free and possible as Jonadab the son of Rechab did draw his posterity into a Covenant and they did promise him not to drink Wine nor to build Houses but to dwell in Tents Jer. 35.6 7. c. Jer. 35.6 7. Interpreters conceive that these Rechabites were the posterity of Jethro Moses his Father-in-law who did come to dwell with Israel in the Land of Canaan and that this was the same Jonadab who was a man of great wealth and authority in Israel and of noted integrity when Jehu being King made him ride with him and askt him is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart and this same Jonadab did bind his posterity and they lookt upon it though in a matter of expediency only as obligatory and binding in the sight of God partly that they might shew themselves to be strangers in the land of Israel and that they did not incorporate with them for secular but for spiritual benefits and therefore they did not desire to encroach upon their outward comforts and partly that they might be the better fitted to bear the affliction in the captivity which was ere long to come upon them c. So also it was lawful for Paul to have taken wages but yet he did ingage himself not to do it that he might cut off from them that desired occasion 2 Cor. 11.7 and that he might not be burthensom to the Churches so Jacob he engaged himself to God in his journey if thou wilt bring me unto my Fathers house in safety thou shalt be my God and of
all my goods I will give the tenth to thee and this stone shall be Gods house and I will build here an Altar Gen. 28.22 and this vow Jacob had forgotten at his return and the Lord sent affliction upon him to mind him of his vow the ravishing of Dinah and the horrible rage committed upon the Shechemites and yet Jacob still forgot it but the Lord in mercy put him in mind of it Arise Jacob and go to Bethel and build an Altar unto the God that appeared unto thee when thou fledst from the face of thy Brother Esau Gen. 35.1 And it was usual with the people of God of old when they did pray for mercy to vow duty Psal 116.12 13. What shall I render unto the Lord I will take the cup of salvation so it was in their Feasts and sacrifices of Thanksgiving they had a cup of salvation a grace-cup and I will pay my vows unto the Lord that I spake with my mouth when I was in trouble and so Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 1 Sam. 1.11 11. If thou wilt look upon the affliction of thine Hand-maid and remember me and give me a man-child then will I give him to the Lord all the days of his life and there shall no Rasor come upon his head and she did fulfill her vow the Lord hath heard my petition I asked of him and his name was called Samuel asked of God therefore I lent him or returned him to the Lord as long as he lived 2. In respect of the relation which this Covenant doth bring upon you and in regard of the duties of this Relation Now there is a fourfold relation which is the necessary result of this Covenant Esay 9.6 Heb. 2. 1 Hereby Christ becomes your Father and therefore he is called the everlasting Father and Heb. 2. we are said to be his children and he is said to see his seed and prolong his dayes upon earth Now Christ becomes your Father as he is the second Adam and that is by Covenant as well as by an Image and therefore this Covenant binds you to honour him in this relation Mal. 1.6 If I be your Father where is my honour Where is mine Image you ought to bear upon you What impression of my likeness is there upon you What beam of glory do you carry about you in all your conversation Are you denominated by the world to have my holiness upon you to be merciful as I am merciful to be conformable to my law in all things 2 It is a matrimonial Covenant Hos 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me for ever and the Lord Jesus becomes your Husband and his Church is therefore called his Spouse the Lambs Wife and he requires faithfulness and fruitfulness that you should be unto him and to none other for the Lord will have no Harlot nor barren Spouse she must not lift up her Eyes upon any other in any wanton love her desire must be to him alone 3 It is a Covenant of Friendship and so by this Covenant Abraham was taken into friendship with God and is called by God himself Abraham my friend and Christ saith I have not called you servants but I have called you friends for I have shewed you all things that I have received of my Father now if thou hast a friend thou must behave thy self friendly thou must impart thy heart and thy secrets and have no reserves from thy friend thou must have the same friends and the same enemies with him else never pretend friendship if any other person come at any time in competition with thy friend thou must be his at all times In foederibus eosdem amicos inimicos habere solent foederati In Covenants the Federates have the same friends and enemies Friendship is offensive and defensive c. we have the greatest obligation to God and 't is our duty to stick close to him at all times and this friendship is in a special manner tryed in adversity When he is a bundle of myrrh he shall lye all night between my breasts Cant. 1.13 and our choice should be the reproaches of Christ and the waters that do quench other fire do by an antiperistasis become oyl to this and make it to flame the more Cant. 8.6 it is Coals of Juniper which do burn the hottest the opposition that a Saint meets with in the world doth but raise his love to Christ the higher 4 It is a Covenant in which Christ becomes our Lord and we his servants for he is the Lord that bought us and therefore it is Pauls honour to be called the servant of Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 6.19 as by the Covenant that Christ made with his Father he is become the Fathers servant though he be the man Gods fellow or Deo proximus next to God Esay 42.1.6 so we also by our Covenant are become servants of Christ therefore say I must do his work only and be only at his command no man can serve two Masters much less may he serve Christ and divers Lusts and pleasures it is an abominable thing for a man to take wages of Christ and do the work of his enemy Satan for no man can serve two Masters therefore from him I am to receive directions and mine eyes are to be upon him as the Eye of a Servant is unto the hand of his Master and of a Maiden to the hand of her Mistress a mans guidance is from him and to him a man must give an account and from him receive wages and expect a probation and therefore servants nihil suum habere possunt ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Aristot Saluti dominorum non debent suam anteponere says the Law servants have nothing of their own and therefore must make their Masters will theirs Herodot has a story of the servants of Xerxes qui exorta tempestate in mare desiliunt ut domini sui saluti consulant who in a tempest leaped into the Sea to save their Master c. Malo in nos murmur hominum quà m in Deum I had rather mens murmurs should be against us than against the Lord said devout Bernard It was Luthers meat and drink his constant diet to be reproached for Christ All these relations are the immediate result of the Covenant and a man should improve the Covenant to inforce upon himself the duties that this relation brings with it what should keep a woman true to her Husband but this The Covenant of God is upon me and what should keep the Nazarites from cutting their hair and drinking of wine but the vow of God upon them and they would not break it So that the Covenant should be the great ingagement unto duty 3. Your hearts should be alwaies in such a frame as to receive the mercies of the Covenant for the Lord doth betroth the soul to him in righteousness and in mercy Mercy indeed hath a double rise either it is the issue of providence or else of
and therefore it would be hard to perswade them to put them away having convinced them of the sin and obtained of them a promise that they would put them away he doth bind them by a Covenant which they subscribe seal and confirm by an Oath and a curse for he that will keep Covenant with God may sometimes be smitten in the place of Dragons and sometimes his Father and his Mother may stand in the way of his duty to God when he should keep the Covenant they may perswade him to break it now this is praise-worthy for a man with Levi to say to his Father and Mother I have not seen him not to know his own Brethren nor his own Children Deut. 33.9 A man had need have his heart strengthned by all manner of Covenant ingagements or else he will do as the children of Israel did about putting away their servants Jer. 34.9 go back again and behave himself falsly and unsteadily therein 6. When a man doth receive the Sacraments any of the seals of the Covenant it is his duty to renew the Covenant as often as we set to the seal anew we should read over the obligation anew Gen. 15.18 The Lord made a Covenant with Abraham but yet Gen. 17.1 2 c. the Lord renews the Covenant and the occasion of it was v. 10. because the Lord did then institute the Sacrament of Circumcision the seal of the righteousness of faith Rom. 4. when the Lord institutes the seal he renews his Covenant and so should we as often as we set to the seal Psal 50.5 So Psal 50.5 Gather my Saints together to me that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice there is a double sense given of it some say it is a description of the people of Israel whom the Lord owned to be his people because in Covenant with him by sacrifice Exod. 24. Calvin Sigilla Syngraphae sc adminicula ad saciendum Dei foedus others think it to be spoken by way of opposition to them that did rest only in the outward rites the Sacrifices that they did offer and did never look upon them as signs and seals or administring helps to the establishment of Gods Covenant they did only use the sacrifices unto the end for which the Lord appointed or did look upon them as a renewing of their Covenant with God and their ingagement unto him for their obedience And so it should be in every ordinance of God these acts of obedience should lead us unto the Covenant which is the ground of our obligation unto the same obedience this is true of Baptism also 1 Pet. 3.21 1 Pet. 3.21 which I conceive to be an allusion unto John's Baptism wherein the people first confessed their sins and renounced them and afterwards inquired into the work that they were to do in promising and ingaging themselves unto obedience and so there was a restipulation on their part unto God again And so it is true of the Lords Supper it is the New-Covenant or Testament in his blood Now the fruit and benefits that the people of God have found by the renewing of their Covenant are many 1. It hath been a testimony to them of the truth of their repentance Math. 3.8 John calls for fruits meet for repentance and what is a right fruit of repentance but to abhor the former evils we have been guilty of and say Ashur shall not save us c. and to engage to perform the contrary duty for it is not testimony enough of the truth of a mans repentance that he doth abstain from the acts of former sins unless also he has a testimony unto his own soul that he doth endeavour to grow in the contrary graces 2. It is the foundation of consolation 2 Chron. 15.14 15. in the time of Asa the King of Judah they swore with a loud voice with Trumpets and Cornets and all Judah rejoyced at the oath for they had sworn with all their hearts A day of renewing Covenant with the Lord will be a day of great rejoycing and great consolation unto the ssoul for it 's like unto a new Wedding-day the Covenant with God being a Matrimonial Covenant and it brings the soul from its wandrings unto God again and the soul says I will return to my former Husband for it was better with me then than now 3. It is a means to establish and stay the heart which is in it self exceeding fickle and uncertain it 's unstable as water Josh 24.31 they bound themselves by Covenant to serve the Lord and they did it all the days of Joshua and the Elders that had out-lived him that had seen the great mercies of God unto them and their bonds and ingagements to God So Josiah made them all stand to the Covenant and all his days they departed not from following the Lord the God of their Fathers for Jer. 13.11 2 Chron. 34.33 As a girdle cleaves to the loyns of a man so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel that they might be to me for a name and a praise and a glory there is a principle of fixing and establishing in the Covenant that a man is thereby bound to cleave to God with full purpose of heart there is no going back therefore it is called the bond of the Covenant 4. It 's a special means joyned with fasting and prayer to prevail with God for mercy when a man is willing as well to ingage himself to duty as he is to expect mercy from the Lord they sought the Lord with their whole desire and he was found of them 2 Chron. 15. and the Lord gave them rest round about and there is no more effectual way to obtain any blessing or mercy from God than a renewing of Covenant and ingagement of obedience to God And the reason hereof is this because the more the will renews its Covenant with God the more subordinated it is to the Will of God now God doth in a manner to speak âith reverence submit the liberality of his mercies to a will subordinated to his will Again the more we renew our Covenant with God the more harmonie there is between our will and the will of God and O! what peace ariseth hence what contentment in âvery condition According to the tenure of the New Covenant a solid full will is acceptââ by God for the effect and therefore the more the will renews its consent to the Coveâânt the more it is accepted by God 5. It doth not only establish the heart but make it better as the will becomes good ât first by willing what is good so it is then best when it most strongly wills what is best âow when doth the will more strongly will what is best than when it doth most firmly reâew its Covenant with God its best good So many grains as there are of a deterâined will in adhering to God according to the terms of the
a special manner offered to you and unto you first because you are the children of the Covenant and therefore have in a special manner a right to it 2 To the Parents Act. 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins for the promise is to you and your children not only you shall have benefit by it but your children upon whom you have brought a curse and therefore were not parentes sed peremptores as Bernard speaks of all men in reference to their children in a state of nature they also shall have benefit by it and by your laying hold of the Covenant be brought in under the same Covenant with you your children that are now children of the curse they shall become children of the Covenant Now as it should be a great argument to keep men from sin that therein they wrong their Posterity it 's a Treason that taints the blood so it should be a great engagement unto all Parents to come within the Covenant that the Grace of the Covenant might also be extended in them unto all their seed 3. This is the great and only difference that God hath put in his Word between the children of Believers within the Covenant of Grace and the seed of Strangers who are strangers to the Covenant that their children belong unto the Family of God and are own'd by God as such in a visible way whereas all the rest of the Families of the world that are Unbelievers belong to the Kingdom of Satan and are to be looked upon as without Deut. 4.37 and therefore Deut. 4.37 the Lord chose their seed after them it 's not spoken of an Election to salvation but there is an Election to Priviledges as well as to Life and yet both flow from a special Love for there is but a two-fold Kingdom of God and of the World and of these there is a two-fold God there is Satan the God of this world and all they that are in this Kingdom have for their God the God of this world but there is a Kingdom of God and all that are in that Kingdom the Lord has taken to be his people and they have in a peculiar manner the Lord for their God as Israel had the Name of God call'd upon them and they only had the means of salvation for salvation is of the Jews and the Lord did take them as his peculiar Treasure and did avouch them to be his people above all people of the earth they were under more glorious Administrations under a peculiar Providence and care above all people of the earth and yet many of them nay the greatest part of them wicked and but a remnant amongst them according to the Election of grace and it were apparently to put the seed of Abrahams faith into a far worse condition in respect of their posterity than the seed of Abraham according to the flesh were when the Apostle in respect of the adoption made no difference between Jew and Greek bond and free And this also is the only ground as I may call it for though there be other arguments given yet they all have their stress from this and depend upon it for applying of Ordinances unto the children of Believers and therein to put a difference between them and the children of Heathen and this is not a ground of our making but of the Lords the Lord takes Abraham into Covenant and his seed also Gen. 17.7 and having taken them into Covenant he doth command him to apply the seal of the same Covenant unto them the command of God was the bond of applying the seal but the ground of the command lay in their interest in the Covenant being taken in together with their parents and so whereas it 's true as Tertullian saith fiunt non nascuntur Christiani men are made Rom. 1.2 3. not born Christians it is not a birth-priviledge such as comes upon them by nature for by nature one man has no more right to an Ordinance than another for there is no difference all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God but what they have not by nature Chrysostome in Rom. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they may yet receive by grace as a birth-priviledge to which by their fathers Covenant they were after a sort born as the posterity of Abraham according to the flesh were 4. It 's the only ground that I know that Believers can have of the salvation of their children if they dye in their infancy I do not now speak of Gods secret counsel for the foundation of God stands sure having this seal The Lord knows who are his and what number he has belonging unto the Election of Grace amongst them that are afar off we know not secret things belong to God but we find no promise of salvation made unto any out of the visible Church of God salvation is of the Jews and 't is Gods promise that is to be the rule of our faith and the ground of our hope and not our counsel Joh. 4. Now if the children of believing parents be not taken into Covenant with their parents they have no more a promise of salvation than the children of a Pagan For as I told you this world is divided into two Kingdoms either the Kingdom of Christ or the Kingdom of Satan Col. 1.13 He has translated us out of the power of darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son Now as long as a person is a visible Member of the Kingdom of Christ and under a promise of salvation that the Lord will be his God I have no reason or ground out of the Word to question their election or salvation but rather in the judgment of charity grounded upon the Covenant to hope and believe or be perswaded of the same till they visibly manifest the contrary though there may be some Reprobates amongst them on the contrary though we know Christ gathers his Elect out of the Kingdom of Satan and therefore many of the Elect remain yet under his power yet I have no ground to hope of any particular person that he is elected of God being still under Satans Kingdom till he give some testimony of the contrary for either all infants dying in infancy must be saved or they must all be damned or else there must be a difference by grace put between them that are saved and them that are damned for in nature there is no difference Now what difference the Lord may put in his secret counsel we know not but there is no difference put in his word but that which is grounded on the Covenant under which they stand being taken into it together with their parents What ground had a Jew if his child died to hope its salvation but that God promised to be his God and the God of his seed also and the same ground has a Christian to hope the salvation
root be holy so are the branches and if the first-fruits be holy the lump is also holy the root is Abraham and the Fathers and they are said to be the first-fruits because they were first consecrated unto God and the branches were dedicated in their root 1 Cor. 7.14 and the lump in the first-fruits and so 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your children unclean but now are they holy What 's the holiness that is here meant it's not a personal and inherent holiness that 's here spoken of for the branches that were thus holy were broken off which if they had been truly and spiritually holy they could never have been therefore it 's spoken only of a federal and derived holiness from their parents Covenant as Israel is called the holy nation Exod. 19.6 and the holy people Dan. 8.24.12.7 that is a people that God had separated to himself of all Nations under Heaven whom he would in a special manner owne and amongst whom he had set up his Ordinances and would dwell for federal holiness is nothing else but being separated from the world to become a member of the visible Church and thereby to have a right unto the ordinances and priviledges of a visible member though he be not truly converted or begotten unto God and this is called being a Jew outwardly that is a member of the visible Church and to whom the priviledges of a Church-member did belong but there is a Jew inwardly in whose heart there dwells converting grace Now how doth this holiness flow seeing that by nature all men are alike unholy and there is no more separation of one man unto God than another and one man hath no more right by nature unto visible and external priviledges than another for all are born in the same condition This is only by virtue of their being taken into their parents Covenant and because the first-fruits are holy so is the whole lump and because the root is holy so are the branches there is a holiness derived from one unto the other 5. We meet with very glorious promises that God has made to the posterity of the Saints Deut. 30.6 The Lord will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed Esa 59.21 fear not Jacob my servant and thou Jeshuron whom I have chosen I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and they shall spring up as the grass and as the willows c. My Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed henceforth and for ever Now though these promises shall not be made good unto every particular person in the Church yet it is the Church of God that is the proper subject unto whom they shall be made good and in an ordinary way they shall be acccomplished unto none else And by nature one man has no more right to a promise than another nor ground to expect it only the Covenant of God makes the difference they are all heirs of the promises as they are children of the Kingdom and Covenant Lastly This is Gospel and therefore to be believed and laid hold upon as well as any other part of the second Covenant for a Believer in the exercise of his faith is to take in the whole Covenant as in the obedience of faith he is to take in the whole Commandment A mans faith if it be sincere must be universal as well as his obedience that this is Gospel and a Gospel-promise I suppose that no man will deny I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Now how does the Lord become the God of the parents it's only by Covenant and so he is said to be the God of the Lord Jesus Christ he saith I ascend unto my God and your God and My God my God why hast thou forsaken me It 's spoken with reference unto the Covenant into which Christ had entred with the Lord now being the parents God in Covenant he says He will be the God of their seed that is theirs in Covenant also We may observe that God hath revealed this as Gospel and also that the people of God have believed it and exercised their faith upon it as Gospel in the behalf of their children 1. This God has revealed as Gospel and part of the second Covenant The first discovery that we have of the Gospel in Scripture is that Gen. 3.15 Gen. 3.15 where the woman being first in the transgression the Lord was pleased to enter into Covenant with her I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed Adam and Eve were a seminal visible Church for by them the Church as well as the world was to be built and at the same time when the Lord did reveal ââs grace unto her he joyns also her seed with her Now the combatants in that war and enemies Interpreters do observe to be three 1 Satan and the woman 2 The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent 3 One principal seed the seed of the woman by way of eminence and that 's the Lord Christ the promised seed and that old Serpent the Devil So then in the first dawning of the Gospel the Lord took the seed of the woman into the same Covenant and made unto them the same promise as unto the woman The next mention of the Covenant that we read of is with Noah Gen. 6.18 and the Lord intending to bring a Floud upon the Earth renews this Covenant with him and this is twice renewed with him It 's true the Covenant here spoken of is the Covenant of grace but it 's but one particular branch of it namely a temporal deliverance for the Covenant of grace takes in temporal as well as spiritual and eternal promises Pareus est novi foederis appendix de promissione terrena 1 The Covenant was renewed in delivering Noah himself from the Floud that was then to come on the Earth and therein his seed also was taken in for so it runs with thee and thy sons c. and also after the Floud in reference to himself and his posterity that the Lord would not destroy them by a floud as he had done their forefathers Gen. 9.9 Gen. 9.9 I establish my covenant with you and your seed after you so that the covenant still runs in those terms the Lord never made a covenant with the parent but he took his seed into the same covenant expresly The next mention we read of the covenant was with Abraham when the Lord would take his family into covenant with himself wherefore the covenant is said after a sort to begin in him Mic. 7.20 Mercy to Abraham and truth unto Jacob and still it runs with thee and thy seed and not onely his immediate seed but also his seed in many succeeding generations from one age to
another unto the end of the world thy seed after thee in their generations and therefore Abraham is call'd the rock out of which they were hewed Isa 51.1 and the hole or the pit out of which they were digged and he is call'd Rom. 11. the root upon which they did grow and out of which they did spring not onely in their natural estate but also in their covenant state the covenant did as it were begin in him And the next person with whom the covenant of grace was eminently renewed was David 2 Sam. 7.14.19 Psal 89.28 29 30. the Lord did not only speak of David's person but of his house for a great while to come and when the Lord took a whole Nation into Covenant as he did the Nation of the Jews it was not made only with them that were present and then alive or men grown up but with their seed also so that their children were taken into the same covenant with their parents though they were not able to understand the nature of the covenant nor to restipulate and not only they that were present but Deut. 20.15 with him that is not here with us this day Deut. 29.11 13 14 15. who are they that are hereby meant their Posterity unto whom this covenant did alike belong there was a foundation laid for them to come into this covenant as soon as they should be born into the world Ipsos Deus anteverterat gratiâ suâ multis antequam nati essent seculis Calvin Meaning thereby their Posterity in all succeeding generations and therefore Eezek 16.18 I entred into covenant with thee and thou becamest mine and then vers 20. Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me and hast sacrificed them to be devoured c. this is only spoken in reference to the covenant so they were children born unto God and so the Lord was their God Neither was this dispensation of the covenant of grace to the Jews only but also unto the Gentiles for Rom. 11. they were grafted in to be the seed of Abraham by vertue of the covenant of Abraham for he was the father of us all now as the natural branches were broken off so were the others grafted in but the Jews were broken off themselves and their Posterity disinherited for many generations therefore the Gentiles are grafted in they and their posterity and thence Act. 2.39 The promise is to you and your children and unto them that are afar off Ephes 2.17 i. e. the Gentiles also and their children the promise belongs to them whomsoever the Lord shall call it 's for themselves and for their seed after them Zacheus a Publican being converted Luk. 19.9 Christ tells him salvation is come to his house where by salvation coming to his house cannot be meant unto himself or his person but that his whole Family is taken into covenant with God thereby and the reason of it is given because that he himself is a son of Abraham that is he is brought under Abraham's Covenant the tenure of which Covenant is not only to a mans self but also unto his family and his seed Act. 16.31 c. and so Paul to the Jaylour Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine house the meaning is not that all of them should be saved eternally as if one man could be saved by another mans faith but salvation is commonly put for the ordinary means of salvation Acts 28.28 Now this Covenant-way is the only ordinary means of salvation Heb. 2.3 and when the Jews shall be taken in in the latter days of the world though it 's said that the Lord will make a new Covenant with them in those days yet it s but the old Covenant renewed they shall be taken into the Covenant of their fathers for so Rom. 11.24 the natural branches that were cut off shall be grafted in again to their own Olive-tree as they were cast off Parents and children disinherited so shall their grafting in again be so that 't is a part of the Gospel and a gâorious doctrine of the covenant of grace that children are taken into the same Covenant with their Parents and there is never a Covenant made with the Parents in the Scripture but the children are expressely mention'd as coming under it and therefore our faith is to receive it and rely upon it 2. The People of God have believed it and exercised their faith upon it and that both Parents for their Children and the Children for themselves 1 Parents for their Children it was this that Adam did rejoyce in immediately after the revelation of the second Covenant in behalf of himself and his Posterity when he Gen. 3.20 called his wifes name Evah Gen. 3.20 because she was the mother of all living and this is conceived by Interpreters to have a threefold respect 1 As an Expression of his own Faith in the Promise to shew that the woman that should have brought Death into the world and was first in the transgression and should have been the mother of none but dead children now he saith That she should be the mother of all the living the Covenant of grace and life beginning in her for life and immortality never saw light till the Gospel 2 An expression of thankfulness for so great a mercy that he might keep the mercy in memory and that was the ancient manner to give names sometimes to places Jacob call'd the place Bethel the house of God as the Altar Jehovah Nissi c. and sometimes the Monument of his mercy preserved in a child Samuel one asked of God and here Adam continues the memory of his mercy in the name of his wife it 's spoken by way of gratitude Merc. ut vel ipso nomine beneficium tantum agnosceret Merc. The Name is a Memorial of the Mercy 3 An expression of consolation the woman being first in the transgression was much affected with the displeasure of God from which they fled and of the misery that she had brought upon her self and all her Posterity if the Lord should prolong her days that they should labour in the sweat of their brows till they were turn'd to the earth c. Adam now comforts her and tells her Be of good cheer there is a seed yet that shall come from thee that shall overcome death and him that had the power of death that is the Devil and therefore he doth not call himself the Father of all living but her the Mother of all living and thus Adam did comfort himself with the Promise made unto his Posterity in the Covenant as soon as it was revealed And so did Evah exercise faith this way first in Cain as some conceive Gen. 4.1 Gen. 4.1 she said I have gotten a man from the Lord the Septuagint render it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the Vulgar answerable per Dominum by the Lord Trem. adds Ã
Domino but Luther renders it by apposition Virum Dominum a man the Lord and Solom Glass follows him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and makes the particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but an expression of the Accusative case and thereby she did manifest quanto desiderio expectaverit promissionis complementum c. with how great desire she expected the fulfilling of the Promise she was mistaken in the person yet it shews the exercise of her faith upon the Promise that her seed should bruise the Serpents head And when Cain had slain Abel his brother and the Lord had given her another son she called his name Seth God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel Gen. 4.25 It 's observed to be both Sermo verbum fiduciae Gen. 4.25 prophetiae a fiducial and prophetick speech that this seed should not be untimely taken away as Abel was but he should be fundamentum ecclesiae subsequentis Par. quae in hujus posteritate propagetur servetur usque ad Christum the foundation of the Church c. of Cain she had no hope for he was excommunicated and cast out from the presence of the Lord though his life was prolonged yet all the Church Priviledges were taken away and forfeited as Gen. 4.11 c. now was there not a man to be a seed to the Church of God in after-times yet then she had respect to the Covenant and she looked for a seed that God had promised her in whom as well as in her own person the Covenant that God had made with her should be fulfilled Noah afterward exercised faith in reference to his Posterity Gen. 9.27 God shall perswade Japhet c. he had a Spirit of Prophecy Gen. 9.27 which doth foreshew it self in that Canan and his Posterity shall be servants but as for Shem the Church of God should be continued in him for the present and for time to come God should perswade Japhet which either has reference to the conversion of the Gentiles when they shall be converted upon the rejection of the Jews and come into their Tents that is become the Church of God in their room they being the wild Olive but grafted into the true Olive when the natural branches are broken off so the Gentiles are surrogated Israel or else when the Jews shall be a Church the Gentiles the posterity of Japhet shall come in unto them either as Proselytes and be added unto them or else when they shall be again converted they shall lay hold of the skirt of a Jew and shall come into the same fold together with them and so both make up one fold under one Shepherd And thus doth David pray when he came to dye 2 Sam. 23.5 Thou hast made with my house an everlasting Covenant ordered and sure and this is all my hope and mâ salvation though the Lord make it not to grow he did foresee that there was a cloud and a darkness coming upon his family but then though the Lord did not make it to grow he could rejoyce in the Covenant that God had made with him in reference to his Posterity for he had spoken of his house for a great while to come and so Psal 102. last vers The children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be established before thee c. 2 Children have exercised Faith by vertue of their Parents Covenant and pleaded to God their Covenant-interest So David Psal 86.16 O turn unto me and have mercy upon me give thy strength to thy servant and save the son of thy handmaid truly I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid and so doth Ethan afterward Psal 116.16 Psal 89.49 Where are thy former loving kindnesses which thou swarest to David in thy truth Remember the reproach of thy servants and how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people Thus we see that this is a truth of the Gospel That under the second Covenant Children are taken in with their Parents and all the People of God have believed it and in all Ages exercised their faith thereupon and when I observe the Spirit of God in Scripture speaking so much of this it makes me the more wonder at those men that so much deride and scorn this Doctrine and the derivative right which they in scorn some of them call imputative § 2. Let us now come to take a view of the Reasons why the Lord will take children into their Parents Covenant and not take in the Parents alone and leave their children in the condition in which they were by nature the grounds of it are these 1. To shew the Extent of the Grace of the second Covenant the Lord hath not dealt with men as he did with the Angels he did make a particular Covenant with every particular Angel but he doth not so with men he has always delighted to take in man into a Covenant made with Parents for them that men might see that Grace prevented them and that they were engaged unto God and his Promise was out of Grace entailed upon them as a birth-right and therefore as in the first Covenant God takes in Adam and all his posterity and the second Covenant is made with the second Adam and all his posterity so that there may be a resemblance hereof kept in the world he hath taken in the children into their Parents Covenant that they may see Grace extended beyond their persons even to their posterity It 's a wonderfull enlargement of the Grace of God in the first Covenant that all the creatures came under man's Covenant and because they did so therefore they all fell in him or else why should the curse of Adams sin come upon the creatures Cursed be the ground for thy sake And so in the Covenant of Grace there is a Promise that they should be all renewed in Christ and therefore the creatures do wait for the manifestation of the liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.22 because when we shall be delivered then shall they be also from the bondage of corruption under which now they groan and thence when God is reconciled to his People and takes them into Covenant Hos 2.21 Then I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn c. and if this be a great manifestation of grace to take in creatures which are but a mans servants how much more to take in the children which are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Even as Noah cursed Cham Gen. 9.25 and denounced that the blessing of the Covenant should never come upon him and his Posterity There shall be no Canaanite in the house of the Lord for ever Zach. 14.21 and dearer to them than any creatures can be And therefore the Lord out of his abundant and overflowing grace in the second Covenant is pleased to make the childrens federal interest to be the Parents
priviledge and therefore 't is said Gen. 48. of Jacob that he blessed Joseph and wherein did the blessing consist not so much upon Josephs person as upon his posterity and that was that the name of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob should be called upon his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh this is spoken only in reference to the Covenant and the benefits thereof which was to descend upon them from their Parents and it became their right because it was their Parents priviledge and therefore though they had other personal names Ephraim and Manasseh yet this was a name given them from their federal right and is called the blessing of Joseph in his childrens covenant-blessing for it is a conveying of the benefit of the covenant from Gods abundant grace not only to himself but to his posterity and so David looks upon it and admires the mercy 2 Sam. 7.18 19. Lord who am I and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto And yet as if this were a small thing in thy sight O Lord thou hast spoke of thy servants house for a great while to come and is this the manner of men O Lord for thy Word sake and according to thy own heart hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant to know them It is therefore to manifest the extent of the grace of the second Covenant that God takes in their seed and gracious Parents do exceedingly rejoyce therein in behalf of their Posterity and look upon it as a special priviledge and their childrens peculiar right 2. God has so ordered the eternal decree of Election that the great number of the Elect of God do proceed out of the loyns of his own people and therefore the Promises being but the indefinite expressions of his Dâcrees they run to parents called and unto their children because the great number of them that shall be called are their children It 's true that God hath a seed of Grace that runs through the loyns of the wicked and the Lord will take Proselytes from amongst the Heathen and they shall be added to the Church but this is not the ordinary way but a more extraordinary way of salvation and very many of the children of believing parents within the covenant are wicked which we see in Cain Cham and Ishmael yet in their Posterity hath the Church of God been continued there is yet a Seth and a Sem and an Isaac in which their seed should be called and answerable to the Election of grace continued and this doth appear undeniably by this argument the visible Church of God is made up of Parents in covenant and of their seed and therefore while the Church of God was oeconomical and in families onely they were the families of those that were in covenant in which the Church was continued and after it did spread into a Nation they and their seed make up a Church unto God Now though there be many in the visible Church that are not ordained unto life for many are called but few are chosen and many shall seek to enter in at the strait gate and shall not be able c. yet the Church invisible is gathered out of the visible Church they are hid there amongst the Hypocrites and false-hearted men as wheat is hid amongst the chaffe now the Promises of God are suitable to his Decrees and the events answer unto both wherefore if the greatest part of the Elect proceed out of the loyns of a people in covenant as they do then the promises of the second covenant being but indefinite it was necessary that they should run unto them and to their seed upon whom if you look distributively there are many that shall perish yet if you look upon them collectively you can and may see the seed of the Lord is there and there are many amongst them that are ordained unto life and the persons upon whom God has set his everlasting love are amongst that number though we know not particularly who they are that 's a secret that the Lord has hid in himself 3. To shew his peculiar love to their seed Deut. 7.6 7 8. 10.15 therefore he will gather out of their seed a visible Church and if so he must make with their seed a marriage-covenant And therefore if any say Why doth not the Lord leave their children till they enter into covenant themselves and give testimony of their faith and conversion The reason is because God will make them a Church to himself and therefore will make a Church-covenant with them Now the children of believing parents are taken into a visible Church Deut. 4.37 Because the Lord loved your parents therefore he chose their seed after them There 's a two-fold election as there is a two-fold adoption an election to life and unto Church-priviledges it 's not an election to life that is there spoken of but as Zac. 2.7 the Lord shall yet chuse Jerusalem as he had rejected them and cast them off from a Church-state and called them Loammi so now he will chuse them again in reference to a Church-state And thus he is to chuse their children after them not unto life for that is grounded only upon his own love unto the persons of men but it 's spoken in reference to a Church-state which was grounded upon his love unto their parents therefore when parents were converted there was a Church in their house and the posterity and family was looked upon as a Church unto God and theirs was the Adoption the priviledges of sons externally belonged to them and God owned them for his above all other families in the whole earth now those that were taken into a Church-state unto them and their posterity there did belong a Church-covenant and that 's the meaning of Ezech. 16.8 I entred into covenant with thee and thou becamest mine 4. This is the surest ground of a mans judgment in reference to persons whether it be a private Christian or a chosen Officer There are some persons to be admitted into the visible Church and there are some priviledges of the visible Church that are to be dispensed by judgment in the person that doth dispense or administer them for we are not sent to baptize all mankind nor to administer Sacraments and censures unto all mankind as we are sent to preach the Gospel neither are we to expect a satisfactory convincing ground that this person is inwardly and spiritually holy and savingly interessed in the covenant of grace for that we cannot infallibly judge of but though it cannot come under our judgment yet our judgment must not be blind charity we must take the rule of the word and keep close to it And what is the surest rule There are two that are known either the mans profession or else the promise of God in respect of the childs Church-state by the Fathers priviledge Now as to the first of these my judgment may be deceived and I may
other sort of people in the world for the great gifts that come from Christ as ascended are upon the visible Church of God yea the thorns and briars in the Church have the rain and influences great and many common works of the Spirit raising and elevating and improving nature the least of which works and motions is more worth than the world it is so in the things though it prove at last a curse to the man 7 They by this means come under the care of the Church and under the power of the Keys under the prayers and under the censures of the Church which do restrain them and are many times blessed to bring men in as the Apostle says We judge them that are within 1 Cor. 5.11 8 They attain many temporal blessings and are delivered from many temporal afflictions thereby Ismael had many outward blessings by Abrahams Covenant the external blessings of the Covenant are made good to them God will not destroy Jerusalem and the judgment came not upon King Hezekiah for David my servants sake and I will not rent from Rehoboam because I will not put out the light in Israel There are two arguments that I would insist on 1 A visible Membership is promised as a very special mercy 2 The contrary to be cast out of it is threatned as a great judgment 1. Gen. 9.27 A visible Membership is promised as a special mercy Gen. 9.27 God shall perswade Japhet c. Noahs family was the Church of God but he did foresee a defection or an Apostasie that should befal the posterity of Cham and Japhet and that the visible Church of God should only be continued a long time in the posterity of Shem but yet he doth foretel that though Chams posterity should be for ever cast off yet there should come a time when the posterity of Japhet tandem redirent ad unitatem Ecclesiae Pareus should at length return to the unity of the Church Now we read Gen. 10.5 that by the posterity of Japhet the Isles of the Gentiles were overspread this is therefore a Prophecy of the bringing in of the Gentiles into the number of Gods people and they shall become a visible Church unto God for coming into the Tents of Shem is being made members of the visible Church There is a double conversion of the Gentiles which the Apostle speaks of Rom. 11.12 If the fall and diminishing of the Jews be the riches of the Gentiles how much more shall their fulness be If upon their breaking off the Gentiles were gathered in and inriched with their Church priviledges how much more when they shall be called and come in in their national fulness shall the Gentiles be inriched by them Rev. 7.3 4. This is prophesied Rev. 7.3 4. Hurt not the earth c. and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the Tribes of the children of Israel c. It cannot be spoken of the Church of the Jews for it is set after the seals as a Prophecy that ushers in the Trumpets and as the seals refer unto Rome Pagan so do the Trumpets unto Rome Christian Now there were four winds that were to blow upon the earth and by their blasts they would hurt the earth and the Sea for there was power given to them by God unto that end the winds do signifie motus bellicos and impetus hostiles c. warlike commotions as we read in Jer. 49.36 Vpon Elam I will bring the four winds and I will scatter them and there shall be no nation whither the out-casts of Elam shall not come Dan. 7.2 3. Dan. 7.2 3. The four winds contended upon the great sea so that hereby is meant the incursion of all the barbarous People and Nations with their power and might upon the Roman Empire but in this general invasion there are some that the Lord would specially protect upon whom these destroying winds should have no power and that is meant by sealing of them Glass Amoris singularis curae symbolum sigillum est The sealing is a symbol of singular love and care and yet when it is spoken of the Church of God of the Gentiles in the Roman Empire upon whom these storms should fall and over whom these winds should have power they are said to be of the Tribes of Israel There were sealed 144000 of all the Tribes of Israel whereas Israel was cast off and dispersed upon all the four winds long before and God had wholly cast off the care of them and reputed them as a people to himself no more why then are the Gentiles called the Tribes of Israel The reason is this Quia in Israelis vicem successerit fuitque Israel surrogatus They were surrogated Israel they are Japhet brought into the Tents of Shem that is become the Church of God and had all the Priviledges of the Church stated upon them instead of the Jews and therefore their sealing is called the sealing of the Tribes of Israel But there is yet another call of the Gentiles spoken of Rev. 7.9 Rev. 7.9 And after this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number out of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white robes and palms in their hands c. that is afflicto Ecclesiae statui succedit amplissimus foelicissimus ejusdem status This is to be referred unto the time of the seventh Trumpet when the Jews shall be called and new Jerusalem shall come down from God out of Heaven when the mountain of the Lords house shall be exalted on the top of the mountains and all Nations flow in unto it when the Gentile Churches shall be given unto the Church of the Jews for daughters Ezech. 16. and they exalted as the Mother-Church over all the world when the Nations that are saved shall walk in the light of it and the Kings of the Earth shall bring their glory and honour to it Rev. 21.24 and I conceive it 's to be understood of taking of both Jews and Gentiles into a visible Church by a first and second conversion and it is unto both promised as a special mercy it 's made also a special mercy by the Apostle Rom. 11.17 24. Rom. 11.17 24. and that both in reference unto Jews and Gentiles 1. For the Gentiles Thou being a wild olive-branch for that must be the meaning as Beza observes art made partaker of the root and fatness of the olive-tree c. By the Olive-tree is meant the Church of Israel Jer. 11.16 the visible Church Jer. 11.16 The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree fair and of goodly fruit and the Lord did thus honour it because this is one of the most excellent of all the trees the Fig-tree the Olive and the Vine and that 1 for its greenness for it doth flourish and is always green 2 for its
with thee and thou becamest mine Ezech. 16.8 then I cloathed thee with broidered work and shod thee with badgers skins and girded thee with fine linen and covered thee with silk I deckt thee with ornaments of gold and put bracelets upon thy hands c. Upon the removal of the Candlestick if the Lord unchurch a people all other blessings go away with it They shall take away thy eminent place Ezech. 16.39 and they shall strip thee of all thy cloaths and 2 Chron. 7.20 this house will I cast out of my sight and I will pluck them up by the root out of the land which I have given them 5. They have a special patience and long-suffering attending them and the Lord doth bear with them far for his peoples sake Mat. 13. he lets the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers Gather the tares in bundles to burn we know that the patience and long-suffering of God is salvation 2 Pet. 3. 6. They are delivered from many temporal judgments that others fall into there is a special preservation and protection over them in the time of common danger there is a sealing for the Church the Lord sets a special mark upon them Rev. 7.4 and wicked men receive much by this and so even a Cham may be saved in a common deluge where many a better man may be drowned There are priviledges belonging to the society that a man joyns himself unto that a man injoys for their sakes but not for his own as many a man saith Austin in the Invasion of the Goths did scape by joyning themselves unto the Christians August de Civit And Rehoboam shall be a Prince all the days of his life for David my servants sake that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem Jehoram the son of Jehosaphat 1 King 11.34 36. a wicked man walking in the ways of Ahab and the Kings of Israel and one who at the entrance of his Raign had practised that ordinary devillish policy in use amongst Princes to slay all his brethren with the sword and divers also of the Princes of Israel thereby to strengthen himself and yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David because of the Covenant that he had made with him to give him a light for ever and when Jerusalem was besieged in the days of Hezekiah by a mighty Army the Lord says Esa 37.35 They shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there but I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant Davids sake 7. There is a holiness that comes to them thereby 1 Cor. 7.14 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your children unclean but now are they holy 1 An inward holiness and sanctification it cannot be for it 's a holiness that is conveyed from the parents but so the graces of the Spirit cannot be which are not of blood nor of the will of the flesh 2 Neither can it be meant of legitimation Joh. 1.13 that they are legitimate for there is a lawful marriage between one man and one woman out of the Church as well as in the Church so that they are lawfully man and wife and their children lawfully begotten for the truth of those relations are not founded in grace a father is as truly a father a Magistrate a Magistrate a husband a husband in wicked men and grace adds nothing to the truth of them though it doth to the comfort and right use of them 3 It 's such a holiness as is derived from the faith of the parent for it doth not come unto the child through the unbelieving parent for if they were both unbelievers the children were unclean but it 's a holiness that comes upon the child from the faith of the parent which can be nothing else but a federal holiness being taken into the parents covenant which is either from father or mother derived unto the posterity Now all these are great blessings in themselves though they do ripen a mans sins and bring a greater curse upon him in the end for the marish places shall be given to salt there be no men in the world delivered over to such fearful spiritual plagues as they are Amos 8.1 Heb. 6.1 Quest 4. Answ and if any men prove Devils they doe the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out and the Lord will say unto them I know you not c. § 4. But what is this foederal holiness and wherein doth it consist This I shall speak to 1 Negatively and shew you what it is not 2 Positively and shew you what it is and both are very necessary in the present business both that the false glosses fastened upon this place may be removed and also the true nature of this Holiness cleared and established 1. Negatively what it is not and here I find three interpretations as false and corrupt glosses given of it 1. Of a Holiness of Regeneration but that cannot be the meaning of it for the gracious qualifications of the Soul are no more ex traduce than the Soul it self Joh. 1.13 no man is regenerated from his Parents that he proceeds from though they be themselves regenerate yet the New-birth is not by Propagation In this sence it is true and to be understood what Tertullian saith None were born Christians Here is a case propounded to the Apostle by some of the converted Corinthians 1 Cor. 7.12 1 Cor. 7.12 whether from the example of the Jews and the Law in force amongst them and their practice in Ezra to put away their strange Wives or whether it were really the fear and jealousie of their own spirits lest they might be corrupted by them and lest their converse with them should be displeasing to God and bring a Curse of God upon them for it 's spoken non de matrimoniis contrahendis sed retinendis Calv. not of contracting but continuing marriage Calvin for else the command holds be not unequally yoaked together with Vnbelievers and marry onely in the Lord but being married when they both continued in infidelity whether now one party being converted and the other continuing in Idolatry it be not the duty of the party converted to depart from such a yoak-fellow because of the danger of being defiled by such constant and intimate society In answer to this case the Apostle says if the unbelieving will continue let not the believing husband put away his unbelieving wife c. and the Apostle gives the reason drawn from the powerful influence that a state of Grace hath upon those that are brought into it for the priviledges of the Covenant of Grace are not like unto Conclusions in Logick which do follow in deteriorem partem the same grace that doth sanctifie the man hath a powerful and a gracious influence to sanctifie all things unto
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
jure have no right then they can derive no right unto those that come from them and as Calvin saith of the woman that lived in the Church and married her daughter to a Papist and afterward did demand Baptism for the child in her own name because she was a member of the Church he says the question might have been easily answered Si vigeret legitima disciplina excommunicatione digna erat quae Ecclesiam unâ re fraudaverat Epist pag. 175. c. and if it had been done there had been an end put to the controversie and so I say it is here for if they be without the Church they are not to be admitted being not qualified for members and if any man will say that they are within they are to be cast out because they walk so unanswerably unto the profession of members and so which way soever it be they can convey but a mean right unto their children who have none at least de jure according to the rules of the word themselves 2. That only immediate Parents can give a right will appear by the great Inconveniencies of the contrary doctrine which must needs follow upon it 1 This does make way for the Baptizing of all promiscuously that live amongst us for if we acknowledge that by their immediate Parents they have no right yet in the judgement of Charity it 's said that we are to conceive that some of their Ancestors were Believers and therefore we may upon this judgment baptize them which Divines do commonly say is a Profanation of the Ordinance as Calvin and Ames Cas Consc p. 232. Distinctio aliqua inter puros impuros debet observari in omnibus sacris Instituta Dei non aliter possunt ab omni pollutione conservari It 's spoken in the case of Baptism and putting a difference between persons that are received thereunto and Hildersham makes it a contempt done to the Ordinance 2 By this means they that are Officers are put to act upon great uncertainties as having no Rule to admit by for there is certainly a time when the federal Right of Ancestors will cease it doth not last in all succeeding Generations and how shall a man be able to judge of this Now I conceive we had need be as careful in Admissions as in Ejections and have as sure a Rule and as clear for the one as for the other if we look upon it as an Ordinance and an Institution of Christ And truly were we as careful of Admissions as we ought to be we should have less need of Ejections than now we have 3 By this means we put a great deal of difference between the Seals of the same Covenant as if one were far more honourable than the other therefore we must have such Rules to satisfie us for admission to the one but we may goe upon any uncertainty which we will call the Judgment of Charity for the other 4 By this means ungodly men are nourished in an evil way and are born up with a good conceit of themselves of their estates that they are in as good a condition as any and their Children have as good a right unto all Church-priviledges as any other men though they be never so wicked and prophane nay though they deserve to be cast out and by this means mens hearts are strangely hardened in a way of sinning for they say all the Lords people are holy every one of them Color omnibus unus and therefore the world have ever been great enemies to all differencing wayes whatsoever because all must goe under the common notion of Christians and of Protestants though it be in opprobrium Christi 5 I find that in the ancient Church there was a great deal of care and exactness this way touching him who was admitted unto Baptism as well as to the Supper of the Lord and so great was the strictness that Calvin sayes Nimia fuit austeritas in veteribus non permittere indignos qui arceri legitimo judicio nequeunt speaking unto this very case thinking it unlawfull to deprive such of what he did conceive to be their right but yet such was the strictness and exactness of the Ancients in this Ordinance and the administration of it that he looks upon it as too great severity And for that Objection of the Jews Object That the wickedness of the immediate Parents could not prejudice the Child of a Jew in his federal right and therefore say they it cannot the right of a Christian for we are gathered into the same Covenant and do enjoy the same Priviledges for our selves and our Posterity and the Covenant-grace of God is so far from being restrained under the New Testament that it is enlarged and therefore Calvin saith Vbicunque non prorsus extincta est christianismi Professio fraudantur suo jure infantes si à communi Symbolo arceantur Epist p. 442. 1. This is but asserted Answ That a wicked Parent amongst the Jews could not prejudice the childs Covenant-right and therefore all their Children were circumcised but this is but gratis dictum for that there were Church-censures amongst the Jews is commonly granted and that these censures did in some cases reach not only to the Persons but unto their Posterity also and we are told by men judged to be very skilful in the Antiquities as Buxtorf Godwin and Gillespy in Aarons rod blossoming p. 64. that persons excommunicated if they remained impenitent their punishment was to be increased according to the pleasure of the Judge and in the mean time their male-children were not circumcised and if that the Prophaneness of an immediate Parent might so far prejudice the Covenant-right of a child amongst the Jews it may also amongst the Christians but I build not much upon this because it is a humane testimony without the Word eâdem facilitate quâ asseritur rejicitur 2. There is a great deal of difference in the constitution of the Jewish Church and of the Churches under the Gospel theirs was National which is plain because they are National Officers and National Ordinances and a set place for the Church-meeting of the whole Nation to which by the command of God the Nation was to repair three times a year and therefore all that were of that Nation were to be admitted Church-members and to receive the Seal of admission and no man might live among them if they were uncircumcised Non poterant Hebraei habere domi servos incircumcisos The Hebrews might not have servants uncircumcised but if they were such as would not subject themselves unto the Ordinance of Admission which was Circumcision either they ought not to buy them or they might not lawfully retain them but it is not thus with the Gentile-Churches under the New Testament the Lord doth not take in Nations into Covenant with him but he takes them in man by man and therefore even in the same Nation some may be within and some without neither is there
God It was not enough for Jeroboam to say Ye shall worship the God of Israel but it shall be under the resemblance of a Calf and ye shall have the Ordinances of God every way as glorious and as rational at Dan and Bethel as ever you had at Jerusalem what can you desire more there is nothing for matter of worship to be had at Jerusalem but it may also be had here For every thing done in the service of God must not be ex arbitrio Tertullian sed ex imperio and if the reason of man in this perswade him and interpose whatever is set up so is an image of jealousie and will-worship as the Apostle speaks Ezech. 8.3 Jer. 17.31 Col. 2. and that which the Lord will one day return upon you and say Who hath required these things at your hands it's that which I never spake it never came into my mouth nor entred into my heart so far we are from setting up reason or the wisdom of men to have any place in the worship of God and to infer because this is rational therefore it shall be accepted For I know that as the power of Ordinances so the fruit and the acceptation of them come from the institution only and as it 's sinful in the things that God has commanded to dispute his commands in matters of obedience and to examine them by the rule of reason and bring them unto that Bar so it 's also to impose any thing upon God in matters of worship that he has not commanded It 's said Hos 11.14 Israel hath forgotten his Maker and builded Temples Hos 11.14 a man would think surely he that builds Temples has God much in his mind but he that doth build many Temples when the Lord had appointed but one this is to forget God under a pretence of worshipping of God and in vers 11. 't is said Ephraim hath made him Altars to sin and Altars shall be unto him to sin they had multiplied Altars beyond the institution of God therefore that was their great sin as Drusius expounds it or else this was the sin that God did give them up in judgment unto till they had destroyed themselves for vain man would be wise and he loves to shew his wisdom in nothing more than in imposing in the worship of God and this is so far from bringing God near to the soul Ezech. 8. that it 's an image of jealousie that does provoke him to go far from him 3. As for Institutions meerly typical it 's not safe arguing from them that there must be in the externals of Worship something answerable to them in the Ordinances of the New Testament and it will be no good argument to say It was so under the Law therefore by way of Analogy and proportion it must be so under the Gospel and the reason is because they were shadows of good things to come and therefore when the substance came Heb. 10.1 the shadows were to vanish for Joh. 1.17 the truth of all those legal Types and all those shadows came by Christ as well as the grace of them and therefore when he came they were all done away and of this kind are all the fore-mentioned instances the legal holiness upon the people and land was typical in the Priests and high Priests and their ornaments and vestures typical and their Temple a type and their Altar a type all fulfilled in Christ and so abolished he having taken down the partition-wall and taken the hand-writing that consisted in Ordinances out of the way by nailing it unto his Cross Col. 2. of all these Types we may lawfully argue that there remains something spiritual in the days of the Gospel there is a spiritual Temple and there is a great High Priest and there are inferiour Priests that are made Kings and Priests unto God and we have an Altar of which they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle Heb. 13.10 we have even under the Gospel a Circumcision without hands putting away the body of the sins of the flesh the inward workings of the Spirit of Christ circumcising our hearts and we have a spiritual Passover also for Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us The Apostle has a distinction Col. 2.11 Heb. 9.23 24. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã figures and shadows of the true and there are shadows of heavenly things themselves the one remains when the other are done away therefore it is confessed that arguments drawn from typical institutions are not valid so far as that there must something remain to answer them in the days of the Gospel they may justly be denied and rejected because they were shadows of spiritual and heavenly things and nothing external was to come in the place of them But I suppose no man will say that Circumcision was a type of Baptism nor the Passover a type of the Lords Supper they are all of them seals of the same Covenant under different administrations and therefore there may arguments be drawn from these in reference unto the externals of worship which cannot be from the other they being shadows only of heavenly things and spiritual under the Gospel 4. Though no institution of the Old Testament can be the ground of any institution of the New but barely the will of the Law-giver yet in many things the institutions of the Old Testament may give rules and in several particulars afford arguments to regulate those of the New As though I do not say that the Jewish Sabbath was institutive of the Lords day as some do and that it was no new institution but remained by virtue of the fourth Commandment and though the day be changed yet it hath the same institution still yet I suppose that many arguments may be drawn from the Jewish observations as directions for the Christian Sabbath as 1 The Jews in their Sabbath did consecrate to God the whole seventh day that is a natural day consisting of 24 hours and therefore were derided by the Heathen in losing the seventh part of their lives so it 's the duty of Christians to give the same time unto God as great a proportion in their Sabbath as the Jews did 2 The Jews in their Sabbath were to do no servile work only our Lord Christ lets them see that works of piety and of charity and necessity might be done upon that day and so are the Christians to celebrate their Sabbath also by doing no servile work 3 The Jews were not only to take care of the observation of the Sabbath themselves Nehem. 13.19 but also that all that were under their charge the Magistrate in his place as Nehemiah did give forth a commandment he did set his servants to observe that it was done and he did threaten even the strangers that if they did not reform he would lay hands on them which he would surely have done had the sin been continued in
need none of the Jewish Rites any more and because they stood much upon Circumcision therefore he gives that instance We are circumcised with a better Circumcision that of which the Circumcision of the Jews was but the Type and whereas they might have said but they had Circumcision which was to them as a visible sign the more to confirm them and therefore though we have the inward grace yet we are not so compleat as they because we want the outward sign therefore he tells them that priviledge is not wanting to the Christian no more than to the Jews for we have a Sacrament to the same use and end being buried with him in baptism 4 To those that are the children of the Covenant taken into Covenant the seal of admission into it doth belong because God took all the Jews into Covenant they and their seed therefore they were all of them circumcised The seal of visible admission can be denied to none that are within the Covenant but the children of confederate parents are within the Covenant also under the New Testament therefore unto them the seal of visible admission is to be administred so that as under the Old Testament none were admitted but by Circumcision so under the New none are to be admitted into the Church but by Baptism 5 The children under the New Testament are as capable of the grace of Baptism as under the Old Testament they were of the grace of Circumcision yea they are as capable being children as if they were men for nulla actio requiritur à recipientibus sed tantùm receptio passiva all that is done being acts of God upon a man unto which the person can contribute nothing at all they are therefore represented by Christ in his death and resurrection those that are united unto Christ receiving the Spirit of Christ are baptized for the remission and purging away of sins c. All the benefits that the Scripture speaks of Baptism the subject is passive therein and therefore we may upon these Principles safely conclude that the Lord having instituted this Ordinance in the room of Circumcision has conveyed the same grace and it being ordained to the same ends though the similitude of it be not expresly set down in Scripture yet we may lawfully fetch the similitude of it from that of Circumcision as we do many Rules for Ordinances in the New Testament from the Old wherein the New is silent Quest 10 § 10. How far might the Jews by being in Covenant or a Church unto God as the sons of Abraham before they were rejected of God pretend a right unto Ordinances of the New Testament The ground of the inquiry is this The Covenant under the Old and New Testament is the same and the Gentiles are grafted into the same root from which the Jews were broken off and this is the Covenant of Abraham which belongs to Abrahams posterity as he was the root of the Covenant the person in whom after a sort the Covenant began and therefore it 's mercy to Abraham and truth unto Jacob Mic. 7.20 and seeing the Covenant did run by way of entail then from father unto son and the same Covenant now continues only the outward administration is changed and the difference is in the elements only whether or no the children of a Jew being in Covenant before they were rejected from being a Church unto God might not claim a right unto Baptism by virtue of the fathers Covenant their 's being the same and the conveyance from parents to children the same only the outward Ordinances differing their Ordinance of admission being Circumcision and ours Baptism or whether all federal right of children did then cease upon the publication of the Gospel till parents did believe and by Baptism were personally brought under the new Covenant themselves and then their children were taken in but so as all federal right amongst the Jews from parents to children did then cease and every man that was taken into the Covenant under the Gospel was taken in by a personal right and he did convey a federal right unto his posterity why should the change of the outward administration cause so great a difference that it should put an end unto all federal right of children from their parents If it was good and valid in reference unto former administrations why in reference to this should it be invalid and of no effect If the natural seed of Abraham cannot at all pretend unto New Testament-ordinances as from their parents much less can the adopted seed of Abraham or those that are substituted in their room pretend unto them from any right derived upon them by their parents whatsoever Answ The answer I shall give hereunto shall be digested into these several Propositions 1. The Covenant for the substance of it is the same both unto Jews and Gentiles they were not under one Covenant and we under another but it 's but one Covenant for their Covenant was that of Abraham who is therefore called the Father of us all both them that are circumcised and them that are uncircumcised and our Covenant is the same we only claim from Abraham Rom. 4.11 12 16. and therefore do expect Abrahams reward and at the last to be gathered into Abrahams bosom the glory of Heaven and the happiness of the Saints is so expressed I conceive Luk. 16. mainly as Abraham is the Covenant-father and 't is the reward that the Saints have as coming under his Covenant the Jews were broken off and the Gentiles were grafted into the same Olive-tree Rom. 11.16 17. Rom. 11.16 17. upon the same root or stock which did remain when branches were broken off from hence these generals do plainly arise 1 The Olive-tree is the Church of God as formerly was shewed out of Jer. 11.16 The Lord called thy name a green Olive-tree c. it 's spoken of the Church of Israel which is in Scripture sometimes compared unto a Palm tree Cant. 7.8 and sometimes to a Vine Psal 80.14 I planted thee a noble Vine Jer. 2.21 therefore Jews and Gentiles make up one Olive-tree they are all of them but one Church all of them are branches of the same Olive-tree 2 The Root of this Tree was Abraham and the Church covenant that God did make with him and in him with his seed and so I conceive the root is to be taken 1 For the Covenant that God made with Abraham which was the root upon which Abraham himself and all his seed did grow and from whence their fatness was derived and that I conceive is meant vers 17. Thou partakest of the root of the Olive-tree it 's the Covenant upon which the Church is built and upon which as a root it grows and so though some of the branches are broken off yet the root is not taken up but it remains still for others to be grafted upon it is spoken of the Covenant which is the same whereupon both
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
the Name of God call'd upon them and by Covenant are the children of God and members of the visible Church of the number of those out of whom the Lord will take ordinarily the number of the Elect for he hath so ordain'd his eternal Decrees that the greatest part of those that shall be saved come out of the loyns of his own people and those he takes into a Church-covenant because the children of the Elect are mixed with and taken out of the Church visible and to be without such a title of Honour as God has put upon the Infants of his people is it better than to enjoy it seeing free grace bestows it 3. The one half of the Church of God as well as the one half of Man-kind dye in their Infancy and do never live to partake of the Dews and Influences of any other Ordinance but this only and if they might not be owned by God in having the Seal of the Covenant set to them as the children of the Covenant they should go out of the world without any visible owning from God at all or any visible way of blessing from him whereas the same Lord that will glorifie them with his Son in the world to come will own them for his in a visible way before they go out of this life and he has appointed this Ordinance of Sealing to this very end 4. If they live it 's an Obligation that lyes upon them that they are not their own for they were dedicated to God by their Parents in their Infancy There was under the Law a Dedication of the Males and that was an Obligation upon the child as we see in Sampson and Samuel though they did not actually consent unto the Vows which were made by their Parents yet their Dedication was a bond upon them and so must this needs be upon the children of Christians also 5. The fruits of Baptism have an influence upon a mans whole life and the benefits of it carry a man on from his Cradle to his Grave and it 's all the nourishment that children do enjoy or in Infancy can receive from Ordinances therefore Cant. 7.2 it 's said by some to be called the Navel by which the Child in the womb is nourished a mans Baptism and the Grace of it is never accomplished till he come to Heaven for Baptism saves and therefore having an influence upon a mans whole life it 's not best to leave it out in any part of a man's life 6. It lays a great engagement upon the Parents to bring them up in the knowledge of that God to whom they have dedicated them and whose Seal is upon them and that they pray for them and in their behalf take hold of the Covenant and it layes also a very great Obligation upon the Church to which the Parents belong for they looking upon those children as Church-members together with themselves they fall under their constant care and prayers in all these respects it is not better that it be deferred but it 's every way best that it be according to Gods Rule and that our will be wholly moulded into the discoveries of his will 7. As for the Example of Christ it 's true that he was not baptized till he was Thirty years of age but he was circumcised the Eighth day and so admitted into the Church of the Jews and so long as that building was to continue so long he continued a Church-member and walked in Church-communion with them but the time of Reformation being come that the Lord would by him set up another Church now he receives a new Sacrament of Initiation which was proper to the new Administration of the Covenant that he might fulfill all Righteousness but for us there is not the same reason neither have we now any other way to be received into the Church in our Infancy beside Baptism and children are as capable of the grace of Baptism in their infancy as they will be when they are grown men for it 's a good rule of some Divines Nulla actio requiritur Ames med p. 314. sed tantùm receptio passiva infantes igitur sunt aequè capaces hujus Sacramenti respectu principalis ejus usùs atq adulti In Baptism there is required no action but only passive reception therefore Infants are equally capable of the principal use of this Sacrament as adult persons SECT III. the Covenant-right of Children applied § 1. HEre is a threefold Use of this Point 1. Of information and that in two things Vse 1 1. To shew the evil and danger of the Doctrine of the Antipedobaptists who deny unto children an interest in their parents Covenant take parents into covenant without their children they must be left out until they come to be of years actually to take hold of the covenant for themselves but as for a parental right they acknowledge no such thing such an entail of the covenant upon Abrahams natural seed they cannot deny but unto the spiritual seed of Abraham they deny it because say they it 's every mans own faith makes him a son of Abraham And by this means 1 they make another covenant than God ever made a covenant with parents not respecting their children which is such a covenant as God never made either in the Old or New Testament Before the Floud as soon as the covenant was revealed we have heard that it was unto parents and to their seed Gen. 3.15 and therefore Eve was called the mother of all living it 's spoken in respect of the covenant Eve was a covenant-mother as Abraham is the father of us all Rom. 4.16 and it was continued in Seth a seed that God gave her not instead of Cain who was cast out of Gods presence that is out of the Church but instead of Abel whom Cain slew that is the covenant-seed Gen. 6.18 9.9 so to Noah before and after the Floud afterwards the Lord hews these spiritual stones out of another pit as the expression is Esa 51.1 2. and then with David and his seed And the Jews being rejected Psal 89.28 Rom. 4.16 Act. 2.39 the same covenant was continued for the Gentiles were grafted into the same Root and that root was Abraham and his covenant Rom. 11.16 17. and for this cause Abraham is called the Father of the Gentiles and therefore 't is said The promise is unto them that are afar off and to their children as many as the Lord our God shall call and when the Jews shall be grafted in again they shall be brought they and their children into the same covenant Rom. 11.24 out of which they were cast off they and their seed The Scripture speaks of no covenant that doth not comprehend parents and their seed therefore that which leaves out the seed of confederate parents is a covenant of mans making and not of Gods and it will be good for men to consider what a dangerous evil it is to pervert any
doth perform any promise he is then said to keep his covenant and to remember his covenant to perform his mercy promised unto our Forefathers when he did fulfil his promises he remembred for them his covenant so that as when they do transgress his command that being part of his covenant they are said to break covenant with God so when the Lord does not perform his promise he is said to break the covenant Psal 89.39 Zac. 11.10 and to make it void 4 The end of the covenant is but to inherit the promises all the Saints are said to be the Sons of Abraham because they are taken into the same covenant with him with whom God did eminently make the covenant and for this cause the children of the same covenant are called the Sons of Abraham and Heaven being the same inheritance that Abraham had as the end of his covenant and the same that all the Saints enter into it 's therefore called in respect of them Abrahams bosome they sit down with Abraham in the kingdom of God that is having the same reward of their covenant that Abraham had and that 's nothing but the promised inheritance they do inherit the promises Heb. 6.12 so that all the glory that the people of God have in Heaven it 's nothing else but the accomplishment of promises it 's both a purchased and a promised possession it is true that one ingredient of the covenant is Law but that belongs unto the covenant as it contains the rules of our services and the covenant on our part and not to the covenant on Gods part for to make a Covenant is simply an act of Grace whereas to give a Law is simply an act of Soveraignty and absolute Dominion Here my purpose is not to handle the Doctrine of the promises in the extent or full latitude thereof but only speak of it as it refers mainly unto the point in hand First we will consider what a promise is It is the declaration of the eternal purpose of God concerning good things to come which he doth ingage his faithfulness freely through Christ to bestow upon his people Eph. 3.9 1. I say it 's a declaration of Gods eternal purpose the purposes of God are secret and hid in his own breast only these are Mysteries hid in God that is while it remains only in his own purpose and is not discovered unto the creature and this purpose of his as it is the ground so it 's the rule of all the good that he intends to do unto his Saints he doth call them according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 It 's true we read of a promise made before the world began Titus 1.2 but it was in respect of the covenant that passed between the Father and the Son and could not be formally made unto the Saints but is secret in his own thoughts and purposes and these thoughts of God to us-ward as they are innumerable so they were exceeding delightful to the Lord Jesus Christ Psal 40.5 How wonderful are thy works and thy thoughts to us-ward c. but the breaking forth of this purpose of God is seen in his promises There is a double consideration of the will of God 1 voluntas propositi his will of purpose 2 praecepti of precept there is the will of God that he would have us do and the manifestation thereof is his precept and there is the will of God which he himself will do and that is expressed in Prophecies that he will accomplish and Promises that he will fulfil And there is a great deal of difference between this his revealed will and his secret will for the whole will of his precepts is revealed and therefore the Apostle says he has declared the whole counsel of God Act. 20.27 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and there is enough to make the man of God perfect perfectly instructed to every good work and much of the will of his purpose what he will accomplish is revealed also though much of it be secret in the breast of God yet all the Prophecies he will accomplish and all the promises he will assuredly fulfil as he has declared his whole will concerning mans duty what he should do so he has also declared his whole will concerning all the good he doth purpose to do for men and this declaration of the will and the mind of God is called the promise of God 2. Promises are of good things to come threatnings and promises are both conversant about things to come but threatnings are about evil things to come Heb. 11.7 Zac. 1.6 Zeph. 2.1 2. Noah being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet c. And promises are of good things to come Josh 23.14 You know in all your hearts that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you c. As when the Lord doth perform any word of his it 's said he doth cause it to arise he has confirmed his word Dan. 9.12 excitavit or surgere fecit Calvin he has caused his word to arise so when it is not performed it is truly said to fall David says Thou hast spoken of my house a great while to come All the great promises that God made to David are of things to come and therefore David says 2 Sam. 7.19 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life As it was the happiness of the people of Israel that they had in the Wilderness a Rock that followed them not only for a present supply but for a future provision 1 Cor. 10. so are the promises also unto the Saints in mercy received they have the glory of the Lord going before them and his promises to follow them they have the glory to be their rereward they are compassed about with mercy on every side they have goodness that goes before them in performance and mercy that follows them in promises as the rereward that as a wicked man âgh there be evils tnreatned fall upon him here yet they are but the first-fruits ãâã âcium Divini judicii the prejudgment of Divine Judgment but the main of the evil thinââe threatning is to come so though godly men have much good that they receive aââsent yet the main of it in the promise is yet to come 3. Unto the performance of these though they be made freely yet the Lord does ingage his faithfulness by virtue of the Covenant If we look upon the promises in fieri in making so we must look upon his free grace only but if we look on them in facto esse as made so we must have an eye unto his faithfulness his love and mercy is the only reason of making promises but his faithfulness and truth is the ground of keeping and performing promises as it 's spoken of his promise made to David and his house for thy words sake according to thy own
till then our iniquities are then perfectly blotted out when the time of refreshment shall come then a man shall be perfectly acquitted from all sin for ever and have an absolute sentence past upon him by God and in his own soul for ever As the Lord did give his Son by degrees and yet there is a further giving of him when he that is gone before shall come again and fetch you also there are degrees of giving of the Spirit and there is yet a further degree to come when the weak shall be as David so the Lord will be your God hereafter more eminently than he has been in giving you not only grace but glory Now as the Lord doth take up and possess the soul to himself as his habitation so he does more and more become a God to that soul who is never perfected till he come to glory till he enjoy him as he is Vse 1 § 4. 1. Look on the promises therefore as precious and store thy soul with them for they are all that you have to shew for an interest in God in this life that by which you hold your inheritance all is in promises the richest adornment and furniture that the soul can have in this life is grace and promises and therefore have thy inward man filled with them Vse 2 2. Upon all occasions stay thy sinking soul upon a promise for it 's as firm as the faithfulness of God and it 's grounded thereupon If there be any truth in the Covenant of Grace it lies in the promises of it on Gods part and we should observe the performance of promises as we do of prophecies Psal 144. as Austin says Ingrate Legis debitum cernis redditum non credis promissum Vngrateful wretch thou seest the debt of the Law paid and yet believest not the promise Vse 3 3. Look unto all the promises for their accomplishment The heirs of a promise have a great happiness that they have such an inheritance It 's âer be as low as Hell with a promise Ego quidem sine Verbo ne in Paradiso optarim vivere at cum Verbo etiam in inferno vivere sacile est Luth. than with Adam in Paradise without it For it 's in the promises of the new Covenant in which the glory and the stability of the Covenant lies but if they be so sweet and precious in the contemplation and in the working of faith upon them while they are in hope only what must they needs be in the fruition The Wise man says The desire accompished is sweet unto the soul there is an unexpressible sweetness in it when the desire comes it's a tree of life it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vitarum of lives there are all lives in it and it sets a man as it were in Paradise again And this is one thing that will make Heaven the sweeter because it is a perfect accomplishing of all those promises with which the soul was feasted and entertained here with the hopes of in its pilgrimage ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysostom for Christ will be the sweeter when we come to Heaven because having not seen him yet we loved him here and we shall find him to be the same Christ in all things that before we heard him to be in the Gospel And so the society of the Saints Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the rest of the Saints in Heaven so much the more precious will they be by how much our hearts have been taken with any of them while they lived here and for this cause the promises may well be called precious 2 Pet. 1.4 2 Pet. 1.4 the word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and signifies either precious or honourable to him that believes he is precious 1 Pet. 2. or an honour 1 as they are the price of his blood who was the Saviour of the World 2 as they are the evidences of our inheritance and all we have to shew for Heaven 3 as they are instruments of purification and sanctification 2 Cor. 7.1 2 Pet. 1.4 But 4 they are specially precious in this 1 that they are Gods part of the Covenant 2 this has been the happiness of the Saints and the contrary is noted as an imperfection in their condition here Heb. 11.13 These all dyed in faith not having received the promises it 's spoken of the ancient Saints of whom it 's said some of them attained promises and others of them received them not but only saw them afar off and saluted them c. and to attain promises is reckoned with stopping the mouths of lions and quenching the violence of fire and hereby there is more of God made known Exod. 6.3 By the name of Jehovah I was not known to them It 's spoken in reference unto the accomplishment of the promises and their attaining of them there is something further that God discovered and his name Jehovah further manifested to the Saints 3 specially in our times upon whom the ends or as some render it the perfections of the world are come for as the great harvest of the Church shall be in the latter days of the world so there shall be the great harvest both of prophecies and promises for the ancient Prophets did speak of good things to come but it was manifested unto them that they did not administer for themselves but for us 1 Pet. 1.12 they should be gathered to their Fathers and never live to see the good things that the Lord would do but should dye in the Wilderness as many of the ancient Saints of Israel did and never inherit the promised Land for all the things that the Lord hath spoken shall have their accomplishment at the sound of the seventh Trumpet shall the Mystery of God be finished Rev. 10.7 They are glorious things that the Lord has spoken of the latter days of the world and it 's a great unworthiness and lowness of spirit in Saints that they should be content and sit down satisfied whilst they go without any part of their inheritance and that they should think much of any thing they have attained si dicas sufficit c. It 's true that we are less than the least of all his mercies and we should think every one of them great to express our thankfulness but we should not think any of them great to nourish our slothfulness He that has an interest in the great God must strive to have his heart formed into a holy greatness of mind there is a lowness of spirit that does no ways become men that have high hopes and high expectations to be content to go without any thing that God has promised he has promised not only truth of grace but growth as the willows by the water-courses strength of grace strengthned with all might according to his glorious power comfort of grace as the Apostle has it to be filled with a spirit of consolation and to walk in the assurance
to perform the promise is Gods part and to press God with his promise is our part I will do it for you says tne Lord yet I will be inquired of by you that I may do it for you ask and you shall receive knock and it shall be opened and there is no way that ever any creature could attain any thing of God but this way Upon this very ground Christ himself if he will attain from God he must ask and so 't is with the Angels and so 't is with the Saints in Heaven Dan. 4.17 they cry How long Lord How much more is it to be with dust and ashes 3. That the Lord may honour his own Ordinance and testifie how much he doth delight in the worship of a creature and that thereby he might make it a double mercy For ungodly men to receive blessings as a fruit of Providence unto them it comes always single that is in the thing only but unto a godly man that has it as a fruit of the promise it 's always a double mercy mercy in the thing and mercy to the man not only an accomplishment of Gods promises but the return of the mans prayers the exercise of Gods faithfulness unto us and of our graces towards God and there are no mercies so sweet as those that come in with the exercise of grace in the attaining of them Deum orationibus ambiamus coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus as Tertullian says of the power of the Saints prayers because of his delight in the exercise of their graces And there is no duty wherein the graces of the Saints do act with more life and power than they do in prayer there is magna conjunctio a great concurrence of grace in them as we see it in Abraham in his prayer what strong acts of grace he puts forth Gen. 18. The nearer the soul draws to God the fountain of its life the more lively it works and moves the swifter the nearer the centre and there is no duty in which the soul draws nearer to God than it doth in prayer and hath more immediate communion with him than when he is upon his knees before the Throne of grace 4. And lastly the way to attain promises is a patient waiting for them till the Lords time come for it 's true of promises as it is of prophecies though the vision be for an appointed time Hab. 2.3 yet wait for it for it will come and will not tarry It 's a speech like unto that in Luk. 18.7 8. though he bear long with them yet he will avenge them speedily it may tarry long in respect of the time prefixed by us and may seem long to us but it shall not be long when the time comes that is appointed by God The Lord commonly does in the answering of prayers as he does in the fulfilling of Prophecies it 's a great while before the Prophecy seems to speak or to give any hope of its accomplishment as it was in the deliverance out of Egypt and Babylon but yet when once it begins but to dawn its day immediately in a manner it strangely and suddenly breaks forth that the Saints of God can scarce believe their own eyes they are like unto them that dream And so it is in the return of their prayers also as in the calling of the Jews they are as dry bones and they are scattered here and there all the world over but the bones shall come together and it shall be so suddenly done that the Lord saith A Nation shall be born at once and before Sion travelled she brought forth and so it is in the answer of Prayers as it was with Elijah he prayed seven times and his servant looked and there was nothing and yet he continued praying at last there appeared a Cloud like unto a mans hand and by and by the Heavens were covered over with Clouds and then the rain fell when it begins once to appear that the Clouds do break away a little the Lord doth strangely hasten the work and there is a glorious concurrence and falling in of all causes to its accomplishment there is a time of the Promise's accomplishment Acts 7 1â and a great part of the Mercy is in the season of it the Lord doth not delay because he is unwilling to bestow it or because the Mercy comes hardly off for he knows that to our hasty Nature bis dat qui citò but the Lord doth defer it that he may improve the Mercy by the season of it for Gods time is best and not ours my time is not yet come though your time be alwayes ready all Christs Miracles were so much the more glorious by the seasons of their putting forth and so are Gods Mercies also the more magnified in coming to us in the fittest time he does wait to be gracious that is that he may bestow the Mercy when we are fittest to receive it and our hearts are best prepared for it As in judgement to a wicked man the Lord does watch over him for evil and he shall be ensnared in an evil time as a Bird in an evil snare judgement shall come upon him when he least expects it and is least prepared for it he shall be cut off as the foam upon the waters Hos 10.7 sicut aquae superiores ferventis ollae Jerome for the word spuma doth signifie a bubble that does arise from heat c. when they are swelled up and hold up their heads on high and be lifted up above the rest of the waters then they shall suddenly be cut off As I say there is a time for judgment that Justice doth watch over men for evil so there is also a time for Mercy that Grace does watch over men for good there is a time for the Promise to bring forth as well as the threatning and therefore it 's said That by Faith and Patience the Saints have inherited the Promises and there is as well a Patience in waiting as in Suffering Zeph. 2.1 2. let Patience have its perfect work in you in this respect also that you may be intire and perfect wanting nothing Hebr. 10.36 But the Soul will be ready to say I could be willing to wait Gods time if I could be sure to attain the Promise at the last but what grounds are there to support and underprop my heart that I shall receive the Promise and not miss of it in the end Now the grounds to assure the Soul thereof are these 1. The faithfulness of God the Promises are therefore confirmed by an Oath Heb. 6.17 that by two immutable things wherein it 's impossible for God to lye we might have strong Consolation Quid est Dei juratio nisi promissi confirmatio Aust. infidelium quaedam increpatio An Oath amongst Men puts an end to Controversie much more should the Oath of God put an end to all Controversie and Disputes in the Soul and
vent it upon all occasions but he cannot do it himself but it must be by Instruments as the Devil casts men into prison by Instruments Revel 2.10 now when he meets with fit Instruments for his work and God in judgement gives them over unto an efficacy of deceit that they do vent the Doctrines of Hell the depths of Satan then they do receive in judgement the Key of the bottomless pit to open it that the smoak of it may be let forth and the world receive its vent which before was shut up in Hell in the hearts of the Devils only but now it is let forth to over-spread the Earth and thereby the Sun and the Air is darkned so all the Truths of God are expressed it 's darkned as to all spiritual light for that Satan doth aim at Some do apply this to the Doctrines of Mahomet and some unto several abominations of that Idolatry that brake forth in the West about that time as Brightman understands it of both And out of the smoak came Locusts upon the Earth by Locusts in Scripture two things are commonly intended 1. That they are a devouring Creature and are therefore threatned as a judgement that they should seize upon all and destroy and devour all 2. They do go by great troops Joel 1. and strangely over-spread the Earth wheresoever they come and this some do understand of the followers of Mahomet and some of the Discipline of Antichrist as Paraeus but still Brightman takes in both and this I do assure you never doth the smoak arise out of the bottomless pit but it breeds Locusts there doth arise out of it abundance of wicked and worthless men that go by troops and would surely devour all and it 's Satans plot against the Church of God and therefore the most dangerous and that in which he doth put the most confidence he doth love to raise persecution and to roar like a Lion when he can but if that do not accomplish his end then he betakes himself unto this he casts a flood out of his mouth but still his end is the same that the woman that was not devoured by the great red Dragon might be carried away with the flood Austin hath given warning to the Churches of a three-fold Persecution that they should surely undergo Revel 12.17 Prima Ecclesiae persecutio fuit violenta per mundi principes secunda fraudulenta per haereticos tertia erit violenta fraudulenta simul c. The first Persecution of the Church was violent by the Princes of the world the second fraudulent by Hereticks the third violent and fraudulent also Objection Object Now they that deny the persons in the Trinity this Argument is very rife and common amongst them If there be Persons in the God-head they are either something or nothing either they are substances or they are accidents if something then there was something from eternity that was not God and if nothing that cannot be the ground of a distinction for Non entis nullae sunt affectiones that which is not has no affections and if finite then there is something in God that is finite and if infinite then there are three infinites which cannot be in one God the very Argument of Arius that he did use and was refuted by Athanasius and from him Socinus had it and there have been some in our Age that have asserted the same who are Stars fallen from Heaven to whom the Key of the bottomless pit is given in judgement to themselves I am sure and we may fear to the Nation who have not received the Truth in the love of it and therefore God gives up to the efficacy of deceit to believe a lye to whom I say this Key has been given to give vent to this smoak again in the world And this I pitch upon because it is the great Argument that they glory in Answer Answer For Answer to it I would first lay down these positions 1. It 's plain in Scripture that there is but one God and that an Idol is nothing in the world there is none other God but one as it is 1 Corinth 8.4 The Lord thy God is one Lord. 2. The Scripture speaks of Father Son and Spirit and they are said expresly to be Three and therefore are distinguished from one another 1 Joh. 5.7 For there are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are one 3. The God-head in Scripture is attributed to them all and the essential properties of an infinite being He is called God the Father John 1.1 1 Cor. 8.6 and the Word is God the same Word that was incarnate and was made flesh and this Word is God and the Spirit dwells in the hearts of the Faithful all the world over and that both in Heaven and Earth and therefore must be every where present changing the hearts of men which nothing but an Almighty and a Creating Power can do and doth know their hearts for he doth supply them with graces and influences daily and helps their infirmities and teaches them to pray c. all which can be done by none but he that is God and they are therefore said to be one because the God-head of the Divine Essence is but one 1 Joh. 5.7 4. There is something attributed unto one in the Scripture that cannot be said of another the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father the Father doth beget and is not begotten the Son is begotten of the Father and cannot be said to beget the Son is said to take flesh the Word was made flesh and so did not the Father the Son was said to be sent and so is not the Father therefore they are distinguished yet it 's plain that they are but one God this is plainly the Doctrine that is delivered unto the Saints Now let us apply this unto the Argument in hand and we will 1. Retort it they are Three Father Son and Holy Ghost these are either something or nothing they are substances or accidents they are finite or infinite and the same inconveniences will return upon themselves for they must assert them to be Three and yet one for a Trinity in Unity the Scripture doth clearly hold forth 2. It 's not strange even amongst the Creatures that the same person should be a Man and a Father yet as a Father distinguished from himself as a Man and a Son distinguished from himself as a Man therefore it 's not strange in this that the Father should be distinguished from himself as God and the Son also The Scripture does clearly speak to us of certain actiones ad intra which are in God which do not refer to the Creatures but to Father Son and Spirit amongst themselves as the Father does beget and the Son is begotten and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both and from these actions do arise the relative properties of
Idols of silver and gold unto the moles and to the bats It 's not honourable for the great God to put himself upon a people to be their God against their will and therefore there goes forth an illumination upon the hearts of his people by which they chuse him for their God and they will own no other and this mutual consent between God and them doth compleat their interest and propriety in him How did Dagon become the God of the Philistins and Apis the God of the Egyptians and Chemosh the God of the Ammonites it was because they chose them unto themselves to worship them and there is no means to set up a God over a people and to intitle them to him but by their own consent and so it is with the God of Israel it is because they yield themselves to give the hand to the Lord 2 Chron. 30.8 They gave themselves first to God says the Apostle Paul and then to us by the will of God 2 Cor. 8.5 And by this means it is that he that is taken into covenant with God doth change his God and take the Lord for his God The Lord doth make over himself unto him in the Covenant to be his God and he does consent to it and says This God shall be my God for ever and ever and I will have no other God but him Vse 1 § 2. First see here the miserable condition of all those that are out of covenant with God for they that are strangers to the Covenant of Promise Eph. 2.12 they are without God in the world and that will appear 1. in this it 's the greatest sin to live without God it 's against the great Commandment of the Law and against the grand promise of the Gospel the great Commandment of the Law is Thou shalt have Jehovah for thy God and thou shalt love the Lord thy God If he that loves his wife loves himself much more he that loves his God must love himself most for he is as the School-men speak intimior intimo nostro more intimate than our most intimate part he is nearer unto a man than a man is to himself and therefore conversion being a writing the Law in the heart this being the great Commandment this is specially written there to love the Lord our God with all our heart and the truth is upon this all the other Commandments do depend on this hang all the Law and the Prophets and therefore Austin well observes Qui non diligit Deum non diligit proximum quia non diligit seipsum He that loves not God loves not his neighbour because he loves not himself A man ought to love his neighbour as himself but he that loves not himself cannot love his neighbour and he that doth not love God neither doth he nor can he love himself he hates his own soul and as this command to love God is the greatest it is the grand promise of the Gospel that the Lord will be our God Now in a mans conversion as the precepts are written in the heart as soon as he is new-born to God as the rule of his obedience 2 Cor. 3.2 3. so also are all the promises written in his heart as the ground of his faith Ye are says the Apostle the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God in the fleshly tables of your heart And therefore as it is in vain for a man to speak of obedience unto lesser precepts if the great Commandments be wanting so it 's in vain to claim an interest in inferior promises if the great promise I will be thy God thou hast no part in 2. The baseness and unworthiness of a mans spirit is seen in nothing so much as in this that a man can take any thing for a God The Lord doth justly deride his own people that they turned their glory into shame Jer. 2.11 12. they changed their glory for a thing of nought the word in the Hebrew is * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To worship the true God is a mans glory and to have an interest in him he is said to be the glory of his people Israel Psal 62.7 nihilitates nothingnesses and the Heathen man could well scorn the Egyptians for that porrum caepe nesas violare frangere morsu Men commonly count it a great matter what servants they have and much more what yoke-fellow they take as the companion of their lives or what Prince they subject themselves unto but here is the baseness of the spirit of man that he cares not what God he hath but he is contented to worship the creatures which God has subjected to him as servants nay to honour the Devil as a God who is his enemy and cursed above all creatures and yet all men that have not the God of Heaven for their God they worship the God of this world the Prince of the air the Devil Therefore to be mistaken in a mans God and to joyn himself unto a strange God Hos 9.10 is the greatest reproach that can befal a man It 's said of Israel That they joyned themselves unto Baal-Peor and separated themselves unto that shame and they were abominable secundum amorem eorum according to their love that is as the Gods that they loved as God is called the fear of his people 3. It is more to lose God than to lose all blessings that come from God And therefore Hos 1.9 that 's made the top of the judgment Lo-ammi it 's more than Lo-ruhamah for to have God is more than to receive any mercy from God and therefore this is the true difference between an hypocrite and a gracious heart one is content with what comes from Gods hands the other can be satisfied with nothing but God Sicut mea tibi non placent nisi mecum sic tua non satiunt nisi tecum c. As my good works please not thee without my self so thy good things please not me without thy self Bern. Let a man tender to God thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oyl yet all this doth not please God unless we give our selves to the Lord and so it is with the Saints of God Should God bestow all the creatures upon them in Heaven and in Earth yet all this would never make them happy without God himself Now if the Lord should strip you naked of all the comforts of the creatures Luk. 16.25 as one day he will all ungodly men for it shall be said Son remember in thy life time thou hadst thy good things you should neither have bread to eat nor cloaths to warm you nor the Sun to give you life If the fig-tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vine you would think your selves miserable men to want all these Now the people of God can rejoyce in the want of these can rejoyce and triumph
in the God of their salvation Hab. 3.7 and yet at the last day to depart from God and to lose your God to all eternity shall be much more for the greatest judgment that doth befal men is the loss of God and it 's very just with God to take men in their own sin as they in the Gospel being invited to the marriage made excuses and would not come therefore that which was their sin was their judgment and plague they shall not come those that were bidden shall not taste of my supper you will not come you shall not come and so they will have none of God Israel will have none of me that 's your sin and shall be your plague you shall have none of me I will not be your God for ever for he that has not the Lord for his God in this life shall have no interest in him in the life to come It 's the misery of all unregenerate men that they speak of God as another mans God and not as their own as Laban said to Jacob Gen. 31.29 the God of your fathers and Pharaoh I have sinned against the Lord your God But this is the happiness of the Saints that they can say The Lord is our own God as Tertullian said to Marcion Christus in Evangelio tuo meus est Christ in thy Gospel is mine c. 4. He that has not the Lord for his God shall surely have him for his enemy and as he doth rejoyce over his own Covenant people for good so he will rejoyce over you for evil Deut. 28.63 Jer. 44.27 he will watch over you for evil you shall have all evil to befal you here as pledges of eternal wrath Heb. 10.27 As a people in Covenant with God do receive all mercies as pledges of glory in Heaven so do they there is an expectation of wrath c. Heb. 10. All acts of common goodness are in wrath to them if the Lord do suffer them to prosper and they be fed as a lamb in a large place it 's in wrath that their table âay become their snare and to fat them against the day of slaughter Nihil est infoeliciùs foelicitate peccantium quâ poenalis nutritur impuritas voluntas mala roboratur c. There is nothing more unhappy than the happiness of sinners whereby their penal impurity is nourished and their evil will fortified August And if the Lord forbear to punish them it 's in wrath why should they be smitten any more And if the Lord do hear their prayers and grant their desires it 's in wrath he may grant their request but send leanness into their souls Qâosdam ad utilitatem exaudit quosdam ad damnationem Some he hears for their profit some for their damnation Aug. And if he bestow mercies Iratus dat amanti quod malè amat The whole design that the Lord hath in all his dealings is against such a one for evil Lord who knows the power of thy wrath Psal 90.11 Vse 2 2. We may hence learn what the happiness is of a people in Covenant with God they have the Lord for their God 1. Consider every man has a treasure which in this life he doth lay up one man hath treasure in Earth and another hath treasure in Heaven as that wherein he does place his happiness which is the chief good upon which he sets his heart which if he may attain he says it is enough and by this he values himself and all things else in which he glories the rich man glories in his riches and the wise man in his wisdom and the strong man in his strength c. Now in this a godly man doth glory that he is the Lords treasure For Saints are his Jewels Exod. 19.5 and as a godly man is Gods Jewel so God is his and in him he has full satisfaction and without this chief good they contemn all things else Omnis copia quae non est Deùs meus egestas est All abundance that is not my God is want The Scripture pronounceth a blessedness upon such Psal 144. ult Blessed are such who have Jehovah for their God Now unto happiness as the Philosophers say there are three things required it must be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã perfect proper and eternal good which properties are to be found no where but in God in Covenant 1 It must be bonum perfectum a perfect good a general and universal good extending unto all things and all times and all conditions for the Lord is a God all-sufficient Gen. 17.2 he can make a man happy according to the whole life as Moses said to Israel The Lord alone led thee and there was no strange God with him And the people of God shall need blessings from none but their own God God even our God shall bless us 2 It must be proprium proper good there is nothing can be said to be a mans own that can be taken away from him all a mans estate and riches and honour here are but this worlds goods and they shall cease and fail him and not follow him into another world naked he came in and naked must he go out nay his gifts and tongues will fail I but God is a mans own that he can never lose It was the folly of the Heathens which Austin derided that they tyed their Gods that they might not be stoln such are the dunghil-gods of the world qui non possunt custodire custodes who cannot keep those that keep them But this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us it is our own God 3 It must be perpetuum eternal Esa 25. the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath is the everlasting arms they tempted Basil with money but he replied Da pecuniam quae permaneat ac gloriam quae semper floreat Give me money that will abide c. Therefore you see how the people of God may satiate their souls with fatness and how God has promised they shall be satisfied with goodness Jer. 31.14 for with him is the fountain of life and it will run for evermore there are pleasures at his right hand for evermore 2. This is the ground of all the great things that the Lord hath done and will do for his people as David says The Lord has done great things for us whereof we rejoyce Psal 126. This lets us see 1 the fountain of all the great things that have been done for his people and truly you have lived in the times when the towers fall and the mountains skip and the Sea goes back c. Some trust in chariots and some in horses Psal 107.8 but we will remember the name of the Lord our God they are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright for their rock is not as our rock nor their God as our God our enemies themselves being Judges Therefore say Had not the
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
57.17 18. of a man in a wicked way and the Lord corrects him but he goes on freely in the way of his heart now what should the Lord do Felix cui Deus dignatur irasci c. Happy man with whom the Lord is angry but if this avail not casts he him off as he did the Devils and the Angels that sinned nay the Attributes are now ingaged and though the man be unfaithful to God yet the Lord has engaged himself to be his God and therefore he says I have seen his ways and I will heal him I am his God and he is mine for all this c. 2. Under the Second Covenant there is a fuller and a more glorious discovery of all the Attributes than there was under the First Covenant As the Saints have a greater interest in the Attributes of God than the Angels have so they are more fully revealed unto the Saints than they were to the Angels and therefore they are said to go to School to the Church to learn Ephes 3.10 for by the Church they are taught the manifold wisdom of God The Lord Christ as Mediator is a Glorious Stage upon which all the Attributes do strangely act their parts Exod. 23. and therefore the Lord saith of Christ My Name is in him and he is therefore called Colos 1.15 the Image of the invisible God because all the Glory of God doth shine forth in him 1. Here are some Attributes that could never have been discovered under the first Covenant and those are 1 the mercy of God as it respects misery for had the first Covenant continued there had been no misery and therefore no place for mercy 2 the love of God to mankind when he did catch at man fallen and did let the Angels go as it is Heb. 2.6 3 the patience and the long-suffering of God for there had been no place for these if the Lord had not been provoked by sin against the sinner for it is it that hardens them in their impenitency and magnifies this patience of God that he can bear so long with such sinners 2 All the Attributes under the second Covenant are discovered in a far higher way than they could have been under the first Covenant 1 There was higher wisdom discovered than in the Creation indeed there was great wisdom in making a World and in giving a Law but there is a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã manifold wisdom in this Eph. 3.10 that the Angels that had studied the wisdom of God in the first Edition ever since their Creation now do desire to look into this Mystery ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or they stooped and with great diligence and observation looked into it but now there is such a discovery of wisdome as was never known to the world before which is a second Edition and has put the Angels to School again and therefore Aquinas says There is a threefold knowledge of the Angels 1. matutina morning that which they had of God in their Creation 2. respectiva respective that which they did attain further of God rebus ipsis from their own experience and observation 3. the knowledge that they have of God in Christ and that he calls meridiana meridian knowledge 2 There is a greater power under the second Covenant than was under the first Covenant for that was but to command a creature to stand up out of nothing and it was done by a word but now for the Godhead to joyn it self into a personal union with the creature is much more the power of God over a creature is not so much as the power of God over himself for to forgive sin is an act of power Num. 14.17 to support a creature against himself and his own revenging hand under the guilt of sin shews the depth of wisdom and grace 3 There is greater Justice under the second Covenant for the first Covenant being broken Gods rejection of Adam was but rejecting of a creature and the Angels they were but Gods Servants and he might punish them for their sin but herein is higher Justice when God will not spare his Son and his strong crys and tears moved him not nay and God himself was to be his Executioner and yet his Justice is pleased with it It pleased the Father to bruise him Esa 53. conterere it signifies to grinde one to powder for that is to make one contrite c. he hath put him to grief and he was wounded for our transgressions and was bruised for our sins 4 There was a greater discovery of Gods truth under the second Covenant Under the first Covenant the Lord had spoken the word the day thou eatest thou shalt dye and the Lord was as good as his word and had cast off man and Angels by it but they were as clay in his hand he had no need of them but now if his Son will undertake it surely one would think God would either abrogate his Law or mitigate it but the Lord will do neither his truth shall stand rather than Heaven or Earth and therefore if the Son of God be made sin he shall be made a curse also 3. Under the second Covenant we have a firmer hold upon all the Attributes than we could ever have had under the first Covenant the Lord was the God of Adam and also of the Angels but yet so as he might by their Covenant become their enemy if they were not confirmed by his grace in the new Covenant therefore the Angels are beholding to Christ for their confirmation as well as men are for their reconciliation but the Lord becomes the God of his people so under the second Covenant that he is their God for ever and ever this God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 The wisdom of God is eternally thine and shall never be turned against thee as the manner of enemies is they turn your own ammunition against you many times His mercy is everlasting mercy and his power is everlasting power and his loving-kindness is everlasting § 3. What is the manner how the Lord makes over all his Attributes unto his people This Question is of moment that so we may know the tenure by which we hold so glorious an inheritance Now the manner of it is this 1. Man by the Fall having departed from God and thereby lost and forfeited his interest in him and become to him wholly a stranger and an enemy Col. 1.21 there was no way to restore a man to a title in God again unless sin which was the cause of enmity were taken away as that which did take God off from man as if ever a mans inheritance in the creatures were restored that must be taken away which did deprive man of them therefore the great business that God had to do and which was the great thing in his eye by Christ was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Heb. 10.5 to take away sin to prepare him a body
might cause his power to be acknowledged 2. God hath made over his attributes to his people that they may take from them all grounds of faith with an assurance that they shall be all exercised for them according unto their necessities Psal 13.5 so the Mercy of God I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation Here is mercy the object of faith and an assurance that this attribute shall shew forth it self in a work of salvation and deliverance for him I have trusted in the mercy of God for the bringing me out of this and another affliction and I have been delivered Psal 52.8 therefore I will always exalt the mercy of God So for the Power of God the soul can argue from thence Dan. 3. when men threaten and Devils rage and the fiery furnace may be heated seven times hotter to consume the soul that has no help amongst creatures yet says Daniel and the three Children the God whom we serve is able to deliver us And the Lord encourages the soul from the assurance of his power Is my arm shortned that I cannot save is any thing too hard for the Lord is there any restraint to omnipotence And so also Christ puts them upon it in this With man it 's impossible but with God all things are possible it 's spoken in reference to a work of Sanctification when the Disciples said Who then can be saved Esay 26.4 Esay 27.5 So for the Eternity of God Trust in the Lord for ever for the Lord Jehovah is a Rock of Ages and so men are said to take hold of the strength of God And so of the Holiness of God I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David and therefore Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life And so Abraham believed God was able to raise him up again from the dead if it might stand with his glory he did not question his will but that his power should be put forth for the accomplishment of his promise We know that the ultimate object of faith is God through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 our faith and hope is in God now the highest object of faith in God is the attributes of God that he has discovered for we can believe in him no otherwise than we know him and as he has revealed himself and the way of Gods revealing himself unto his people in this life is only by his back parts which are his attributes and therefore this is the way of the acting of faith in this life and all the promises of God and the precepts and the threatnings of God are all of them founded on his attributes and in these doth the strength and stability of them lye because the Lord Jehovah is a rock of ages As it is in ends all intermediate ends work in the strength and the power of the utmost end so it is in objects also Objectum mediatum fidei movet in virtute objecti ultimati ab eo perfectionem accipit The mediate object of faith moves in the virtue of the ultimate object and receives perfection from it Eph. 4.18.23.24 3. That from these the soul may receive all principles of grace grace is called the Life of God and the Divine Nature the Image of God created in the soul it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã according unto God Now in an image there are two things required 1 Proportion or similitude and resemblance 2 There is a deduction or a derivation it must be taken from it As there is a resemblance of the nature of God so there is a derivation of it from God Now though the incommunicable attributes of God are so called because there are in the creatures no footsteps or resemblances yet there are of the attributes that are communicable from them the image of God is derived unto us and we are made partakers of his holiness holy as he is holy Heb. 12.10 Jam. 1.5 and merciful as he is merciful and wise as he is wise If any man want wisdom let him ask it of God as all of them shall be employed for man without him so all of them shall work in man an image or a resemblance of himself within him that a man beholding the glory of the Lord is transformed thereby into the same image And this is to be made the rule to judge the measure of our graces by for primum est mensura reliquorum c. The first is the measure of the rest in that kind So far as they do come short of bearing a resemblance with the communicable attributes of God I say of bearing a resemblance for they are in God by nature but in us by grace and by new creation they are nature in him they are not so in us so far we are to bewail the defects of our graces and so far grace is the image of God in us but in part a good work begun and no more and it is a discovery of his attributes which are the original pattern that doth perfect his image in us which is but the counterpane and therefore we shall be perfectly like him when we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 4. God hath in Covenant made over his Attributes that from these the soul may take all rules of duty and as the highest objects of faith are in God so from him are the highest rules of duty and therefore Eph. 5.1 the exhortation is Be ye imitators of God 1 Pet. 1.15 and be you holy in all manner of conversation because he is holy and so from the Soveraignty of God it 's the ordinary argument thou shalt do thus and thus for I am Jehovah thy God And David takes his rule from this in the preparation he made for the Temple the house must be exceeding magnificent and therefore all his preparation though the wealth of a Kingdom was but an act of his poverty for it is for the Lord who is a great God and dwells not in Temples made with hands c. And it 's the argument that he himself useth as the rule unto them in their performances Mal. 1.13 I am a great King and my name is dreadful amongst the Heathen As the soul is never rightly bottomed upon a promise till it is carried out into that attribute upon which the promise doth depend so the soul is never grounded in duty till it looks beyond the precept and sees the attributes in God which are the foundation of the duty and this is properly to walk worthy of God Col. 1.10 That ye may walk worthy c. It doth not note exactam proportionem Daven sed quandam decentiam convenientiam not an exact proportion but a certain decence and convenience when a mans duties are done by rules taken from so great a God and proportionable unto the nature holiness and excellency of that God God is a Spirit
Esau who did despise the birth-bright Heb. 12. and partly that the soul understanding it may receive satisfaction and see an all-sufficiency in it Aristotle for godliness hath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a self-sufficience going with it as it is 1 Tim. 4.8 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Perfect good seems to be self-sufficient and for this cause the Apostle prays for a spirit of illumination Eph. 1.18 That the eyes of their understanding being opened they might know what is the hope of their calling and the riches of this inheritance which God has prepared for the Saints that God whose are all things and of whom are all things yet his portion is his people they are of all people his peculiar treasure and what a glorious inheritance the Lord has chosen to himself in them making up one glorious body with the Lord Jesus Christ Now if it be necessary the eyes of our understanding should be enlightned to know the glory of Gods inheritance in us how much more the glory of our inheritance in Gods attributes that the soul may be able to rejoyce in the goodness of the Lord and say Thou art my portion says my soul that as Calvin observes upon that place Zac. 9.12 Satis praesidii in uno Deo There 's safeguard enough in one God so it may be said of all things else there is wisdom enough and holiness enough and all to be had in him and it is enough if it be in him alone There is a threefold inheritance that Christ hath stated upon his people for Christ is heir of all things 1 by Nature and Generation 2 by Donation as he was man now the first belongs unto him alone and he cannot communicate it and the other he doth impart unto us as we are one body with him and as we partake with him in the same Sonship so we do also in his inheritance Eph. 1.14 and this inheritance of Christ the Saints have a treble benefit by 1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as he is the Heir of all things we have by him an inheritance of creatures as Christ is God he comes not under an act of Gods will and therefore it 's spoken of him as he was Mediator 2 He has an inheritance of promises for they are all made first unto him Gal. 3.16 2 Cor. 1.20 to him were the promises made not of seeds as of many but as of one who is Christ and therefore it 's in him that all the promises are Yea and Amen as we were chosen in him he was first elected and we in him so the promises were first Yea and then Amen in him and by virtue of our union with him unto us 3 There is a higher inheritance and that is Psal 16.5 that the Lord is the portion of Christ The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup Psal 45.7 c. Answerable unto this is the inheritance that Christ has made over unto the Saints who as they are fellows with him in his Unction so they are Coheirs with him in his Inheritance Rom. 8.17 as they have an inheritance in creatures for all all things are yours whether life or death and also in promises 1 Cor. 3.22 which is beyond what they have in any of the creatures so they have an inheritance that is far beyond both these and that is in God himself Rev. 21.7 He shall inherit all things I will be his God Heb. 6.12 Now if we consider it we shall see that there are great riches in this to have all the attributes of God theirs is greater than to have all the creatures and the promises of God made over to them 1. The Attributes of God are nothing else but the transcendent perfections that are in God the Divine Nature shadowed forth to us according to the capacity of the creatures in which the Lord as in his back parts that is pro nostro modulo according to our capacity makes known himself unto us and causes his goodness to pass before us and if the Lord would take any soul of us as he did Moses and in this manner discover himself there is nothing in the world would affect the soul like unto it for if these be the perfections of God how infinitely must they needs exceed all things that are in the creatures for they are all in him after the manner of a God and therefore all the attributes may be predicated of God in abstracto he is Wisdom and Holiness and Mercy c. because they are all of them the Divine Nature all the excellencies that are in the creature are received from him and therefore surely there is infinite more in himself Thence the Saints have been more taken with the Divine Excellencies that are in the Nature of God immediately than in all the blessings and benefits that come from him 1 Sam. 2.2 as Hanna after the blessing she had received from him she admires his goodness and the excellency that is in him there is none holy as the Lord and who is a Rock save our God and if the Saints did not do so their love were not of a right kind Austin plus diligere attractum quà m sponsum meretricius amor to love the token more than the bridegroom is adulterous love 2. This is the foundation of all our interest and all the comfort of it either in creatures or in promises How comes it to pass that all things are yours and promises yours c. but because the Lord is our God and therefore it 's brought in as the foundation of all blessedness having spoken of all creature-comforts in the highest he adds this Psal 144. Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. There is a blessedness therein without the creatures and the only foundation of blessedness in the creatures lyes in this 1 In creatures consider this is the difference between the portions of godly men and wicked men they may both possess the same thing but with a different temper and the one has only a title unto creatures as a gift of God but the other as he has a title unto God the one has them by a single and the other by a double title and so a little that the righteous has is better than great riches of many wicked because he has all that he has conveyed unto him from his interest in God as the Original thereof 2 In promises it 's true that their inheritance in them is very glorious far beyond that of Adam in Paradise but yet the foundation of all the promises is an attribute and they must all lead the soul unto God and his interest in him that did promise for Faithful is he that has promised and he will also do it There is a promise of pardon of sin but still it is to be resolved into an attribute 1 Joh. 2.1 He is faithful
their own had not they neglected it by observing lying vanities it might have been truly their own whereas none of the things that they so observe could be for it is but this worlds goods if we are not faithful in that which is another mans ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã who shall give you that which is your own goods Now God may be a mans own but it cannot be said of any creature-comfort without God and therefore here is your folly to be observing these lying vanities and forsake your own mercies 4. God will set himself against all these things in which you do place your happiness apart from him and there is no such way to engage God against the choicest contentments as this is that thou shouldst place thy portion in them for thou makest that creature an Idol and the Lord will set himself against them in a special manner Esay 2.18 The Prophet Isaiah speaks of a Judgment that the Lord would bring against that people and the daughter of Sion should be left as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers and as a besieged city and what is that great inquisition that God makes at such a time it's only for the Idols and upon these he will suddenly stretch forth his hand the Idols he will utterly * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã abolish he will utterly divide them or cut them in pieces The Lord said he would search Jerusalem with candles Zeph. 1.12 the meaning is that the Lord would make a diligent and a very exact search and therefore accensa lucerna quaerere is a Phrase for exactness in this kind and it notes not only things open that are discovered in the face of the Sun and may be seen by its light but the most secret things that are hid in the dark abstrusissima in tenebris latentia the Lord will in this manner search Jerusalem with candles and the great things that the Lord doth search for and discover are the Idols as appears in Ezech. 8. he doth shew the Prophet the things which are done in the dark in the chambers of their imagery and be sure if it become an Idol the Lord is engaged against it to destroy it for he will not give his glory to another nor his praise unto graven images 5. It 's a folly in this because there is no need of it for there is a sufficiency in Goâ you may be happy in him though you have nothing else for he is all-sufficient to himself and his happiness lies in himself he is God blessed for evermore and shall he not be sufficient unto thee He useth this as an argument to Abraham he will need no other Gen. 17.1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Rev. 21.6 I am the All-sufficient God walk before me and be thou perfect He will need no other he shall inherit all things I will be his God If a man can be happy that has all things then surely he may be whose God is the Lord he is the happiness of the Angels and of Christ himself and of all the Saints after this life when all the comforts of the creatures shall be no more and therefore can you seek happiness in any other As I may reason it with you concerning Christ have not you need of a Saviour and is there salvation in any other has the Lord any more sons in his bosom to bestow and is there any defect in this Christ can you look for a better do you expect one that shall be able to save you more perfectly than he who is able to save you to the uttermost will you go away whither will you go if you depart from Christ So I say also concerning God as your happiness have you nâ need of happiness You are neither the fountain of your own being or well being can it be had in any other but in God who is Lord of all and is there any defect in him that he cannot make thee happy in himself as well as he has done the Lord Jesus Christ who says Psal 16. ult With thee is the fountain of life and in thy light we shall see light It 's a great folly for a man to go far and labour hard for that which may be had near home and at an easie rate it 's the folly that the Lord did reprove in Judah Esay 30. They went down to Egypt for help and they sent their Ambassadors and they were at Zonan and Hanes and they were at great cost they sent their gold and silver on the back of Asses and the bunches of Camels c. and they did trim their way turn themselves into every fashion and every shape abased themselves unto the dust and all to attain the favour of man whereas it might have been had from Gods protection at an easier rate for your strength or security is to sit still and rest upon the Lord for ever for he is a Rock of Ages so it is in point of provision as well as of protection we knock at every door of the creature and with great weariness and pains labour in the fire * Hab. 1.13 To labour in the fire is cùm operis nullus sit fructus c. sed igne statim ut confectum est absumpto and so by labouring in the creatures in this manner a man doth sustain duplicem jacturam a double loss 1 Operae 2 Materiae both of labour and matter a man doth lose the creatures and his labour about them also for the Lord of Hosts doth in judgment make them labour in the fire and weary themselves for very vanity whereas all might be had in God easily and at a far better rate surely Nimis avarus est cui non sufficit Deus He is too avaritious whom God doth not suffice 6. There will come a time when you will have need of God who did offer himself unto you to be your portion and you have refused him and then you can expect no other but as you have rejected him so he should also reject you Israel would none of me Psal 81. so I gave them up c. There will be a time when the chanels of all the creatures shall be stopped and your portion in them shall be no more but it shall be said Son remember that in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things they were given thee but they were only for thy life-time and in them thou didst place thy happiness and thy portion and therefore they are called thy good things for that which a man doth chuse to himself to place his happiness in that is his good things and then the soul must return to God that gave it and at this time will the Lord send thee unto those things wherein thou placedst thy happiness and thy portion Go now unto the Gods that you have chosen and let them deliver you When we come unto God in the day of our distress he will say Go to the
a restless life is a miserable life it was that which David did groan under Psal 55.6 Oh that I had wings like a dove then I would flye away and be at rest and there is no unquietness like to that of the soul a restless spirit is one of the greatest miseries that can befal a man Eccles 2.23 speaking of men labouring in the creatures he saith his heart takes no rest at night even when he is taken out of the mill of his calling and his body is laid down to rest yet has the man a restlesness all the while and therefore it is that Christ speaks Mat. 11.29 and promises as the great inducement Come unto me all that are weary ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and you shall find rest unto your souls Psal 38.8 I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart A mans heart trades up and down amongst the creatures and he is always driving on such troublesom trades that he is never at rest in his own spirit and therefore a man by believing is said to enter into rest and the greatest judgment that can befal a man is Heb. 4.3 that God should swear in his wrath against him that he should never enter into his rest it is not spoken of Heaven any otherwise than as faith gives a man an interest here for we that believe are entred into it because it is faith gives a man an interest in God and bottomes his soul upon him and upon nothing else for there is a threefold rest there spoken of in that Chapter 1 A rest of the Sabbath that men did enter into according to Gods institution when he ended his works which is one of the strongest places against the imaginary anticipation of the Law of the Sabbath that is in the Scripture for then men entred into this Sabbath when God ended his works but that was from the foundation of the world 2 There is a rest of Canaan into which Joshua brought them and they were entred in Davids time therefore that cannot be meant for then he would not have spoken of another rest Now 3 what rest is it then that remains yet for the people of God That rest is a ceasing from their own works from all their sinful cares labours practices and supplies which are to be had in the creature and a quieting and resting the soul in God which is our salvation and answerable unto a mans enjoyment of God Inquietum est cor donec requiescat in te such will this rest of his soul be and when he doth perfectly enjoy God then shall his rest and the Sabbath of the soul in glory be fully perfected 2. He that hath not the Lord for his portion will chuse unto himself any thing else and set his heart upon it and it 's the greatest misery of all unregenerate men that they have their portion in this life Now what is a mans portion Psal 14. but that which he chuses unto himself and that in which his soul rests and receives satisfaction that is the mans portion and this all men that are unregenerate have in the things below something that is not God though it be the works of God it 's not the Essence of God and the greatest spiritual judgment that can befal a man in this life is this to be given up to the ungodliness of a mans own spirit to have his portion in any thing else in that which is not God this is to lay out his money for that which is not bread whereas a gracious heart saith Thou art my portion O Lord. And Esay 57.6 Lam. 3.24 Esay 57.6 Amongst the smooth stones of the streets is thy portion They did use by the rivers to worship their Idols and to build Altars to them there as well as upon the mountains and under every green tree and because they could not all of them have smoothed stones fitted for it therefore they made choice of the fittest they could find the smooth stones of the brook which the water by its continual running had smoothed and in these you have placed your portion and the happiness that you expect is to come in by these and seeing you have chosen it you shall be sure to have it and Ipsi erunt sors tua ut non nisi lapides inutilia saxa possideas Forer They shall be thy portion thou shalt possess nothing but stones And by this means a man turns his glory into shame Phil. 3.19 God is a mans glory and it is highest honour to have an interest in him or have any relation to him though it be but by way of office much more is it an honour to have a portion in his Essence and therefore the Lord calls himself their ornament as Jer. 2.32 Can a maid forget her ornaments but they have forgotten me their ornament days without number and they turned it into shame all Idols are so called they offered sacrifice unto that shame it 's spoken of Baal-Peor that which is filthy in it self and so is matter of shame Hos 9.10 which is malum turpe and that which is dishonourable unto the man and therefore truly his shame which is nothing else but the apprehension of an excellency abased Now the greater the excellency the greater must the shame be and the confusion in the apprehension of the abasement thereof 3. For a man to have no recompence for all his labours but barely creatures and the comforts of them is a great misery It 's true that the Saints may lawfully have respect to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.26 so had Moses and so had Paul We make says he things not seen our scope and aim in all our labours and endeavours 2 Cor. 4.18 and so did Christ For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross and despised the shame It 's true there is a recompence in obedience Psal 19.11 in the keeping of Gods commandment is great reward the excellency and honour of the work is a sufficient reward for the worker though there were no reward afterwards to come Now Christ having bought all the services of the creatures he doth imploy them all in his Kingdom they are all sent by him to work in his Vineyard and there is no man shall labour for Christ one hour in vain but as ungodly men do perform to him unsanctified services so they shall have unsanctified rewards and as their services be seemingly services but really sins so shall their rewards be seemingly blessings but really curses And as Christ said of the Pharisees they fasted and they prayed and gave alms but they had a reward here below only they did it to be seen of men to be well spoken of for it which they obtained now to have a mans reward in any thing that is below God that 's a mans misery But the recompence of the Saints reward lies in God himself when he will take from
have fancied but it is Gods dispensing himself in wrath Heb 12. ult for our God is a consuming fire It 's disputed amongst the School-men Whether the Devils who were unto men incensores in culpa abettors in the sin shall be also tortores in poena c. tormentors in the punishment And it 's denied by some of them solidly upon these grounds 1 The Devils ministery shall last no longer than the time of the ministery of good Angels and that shall be but for the time of this life for Satan shall be the God of this world no more after this life and the good Angels shall be Principalities and Powers no more for all rule and all authority shall be put down whether good or evil and therefore what power soever Satan has over wicked men while they are here for he works effectually in them he shall have no power over them hereafter 2 The Devil himself being the greatest in sin shall be the deepest in torment for Hell is prepared chiefly for the Devil and his Angels Now who shall torment the Devils who can have power over them this must be by God immediately it must be done by his own hand Therefore man being appointed to partake with the Devil in the same torment and by the same fire look what it is that torments the Devil that also must be the torment of those that in a way of sinning have given themselves unto him 3 No creature can make a man perfectly miserable there is no creature that can deprive the soul of God and shut out all hope of mercy make it utter darkness if the soul did not apprehend it to come from Gods hand his hope in God would still be continued but as God hides his face in mercy sometimes here from his own people so he shall shew the wicked his face in wrath for ever and therefore as in Heaven he is immediately the happiness and the glory of the Saints so in Hell he is immediately the torment of the wicked and the Lord Christ as he is man shall pronounce the sentence against them but it is as God that he shall inflict the punishment As the sufferings of Christ here upon earth the greatness of them lay in this that God hid his face and it pleased the Father to bruise him so the same way will God tâ with all unregenerate men and therefore cursed art thou O man if thy portion be ãâã in the Essence of God for good and for blessedness it shall lie in the Essence of God for misery and torment for ever Vse 2 § 3. Therefore let your hearts and thoughts rise unto this height to seek God for himself and be satisfied with nothing else for all the creatures and the good things of this life are but given by the Lord to try men whether they will prove baits to them and to see whether they will rest satisfied in them without God and herein lies the power of godliness when a man is carried towards God for himself and when there is nothing that comes from God will satisfie without God for a regenerate mans happiness lies in the Essence of God and in the vision thereof and in this lies the happiness of Christ as Mediator Psal 16. that the Lord is the portion of his inheritance and of his cup. It 's true that Christ hath a great deal of satisfaction in seeing the travel of his soul and is satisfied in the Saints they are his friends and his Spouse and his brethren c. but yet the happiness of Christ as Mediator doth not consist therein but only in the enjoyment of God himself the vision of his Essence and in this is the sincerity of a mans heart made manifest when his heart is right with God and he can say Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee And truly in God a soul shall have all things he that gives himself will deny thee nothing Oh the height of the happiness of the Saints that that which is the happiness of Christ and the blessedness of God himself that shall be thy blessedness also and therefore we may cry out O the blessedness of that man whose God is Jehovah Now the ways of attaining of this blessedness are these 1 Pet. 2.21 1. By way of Vnion with Christ for God is first Christs God and then our God Christs end is to bring us unto God and it must be by entring into Covenant and there is no way of coming into Covenant but by Union be one with Christ and then God is thine in Covenant Joh. 3.3 2. By a work of Regeneration Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Grace is above nature and grace is a principle that doth qualifie a man for the enjoying of God there is no beatifical vision without a fiducial vision no seeing God without holiness no man shall see the Lord for it is by this that a man is made a meet inheritor with the Saints in light Rom. 12.1 3. There must be Self-resignation to God Give your selves unto the Lord for he that will have Christ to be his must be Christs he that will have the Lord for his portion must also himself be the Lords portion and therefore the Scripture speaks it reciprocally The Lord is the portion of his people Vse 3 3. See the riches of the Love of God under the second Covenant called the riches of his grace Eph. 1.7 Indeed it was great Love that the Lord was pleased to shew to man in his Creation when he did make over all his creatures to him for his use even all the works of his hands and great was his bounty therein but all this is nothing in comparison to the second Covenant for so bountiful is his love that he gives himself that he will not only act for you but he will be yours truly wholly entirely yours so as your happiness shall consist in him and not in your self he will be your chief good and your utmost end and the bottom of free grace lies in this the ground of his giving his Son and of all the great things in the new Covenant is this they were the men of his good will that should be happy in himself and he will bestow himself upon them And that he may do so he gives them his Son to bring them to God all tends but to this end Vse 4 4. It 's the highest ground of comfort and assurance unto faith in the world if God give his Son if he give himself therefore he will give them all spiritual and temporal blessings There is unto the Saints all things in God therefore when the Lord desires to give unto his people full assurance Heb. 6.17 as if he were in dispute about it it 's said When he could swear by no greater he swore by himself as if the Lord had been solicitous
about it and so desirous to give a man ground of fulness of assurance that if there had been a greater God would have sworn by it but because there was no greater he swore by himself and so it 's here in this particular also the Lord is desirous to shew his Love unto his Saints to the utmost and Love is mainly seen in the bounty of it Now if there had been a greater gift than himself he would have bestowed it but because there was no greater he gave himself and made over his own Essence to them which is not only a strong ground of assurance that you shall be happy for he is the blessed God and his blessedness lies in himself and he is his own blessedness but that he shall according to the possibility of the creature become thy happiness also and it 's a sure ground that he that gives himself will deny nothing that may conduce to bring thee unto that glorious end which is the vision of Gods own Essence in which the height of his Love and of thy happiness ãâã and therefore Psal 84.11 He will be a sun and a shield he will give grace and glory and he can withhold or hold back nothing non prohibebit c. He that has given himself and could not withhold himself and his own Essence surely there is nothing else that he can withhold from thee that lovest him Vse 5 5. Admire the happiness of the Saints blessed men that you are who have your portion in the Lord Psal 144. ult O the blessedness and the infinite happiness of that people who have as their trust so their portion in God alone O happy must that creature be that hath his happiness in an infinite Being It is the glory of the righteousness of the Saints that it is setled in another and not in themselves and therefore the Saints should glory in their portion and make their boast of God Psal 34. My soul shall make her boast of God in God we boast all the day long The word in the Original is laudabit se shall praise it self ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã admire its own happiness and blessed condition every man answerably unto what he places his happiness in so he doth solace himself and glory in it Psal 44.8 Rich men boast themselves in the multitude of their riches and praise their condition as the only happy men in the world but this doth properly belong unto the Saints and therefore though thou art in never so mean a condition below though thy commons be short and thou art fed in the world as a Lamb in a large place yet thy happiness ends in God and that doth please thee more than all the corn and wine and oyl in this world as it did Christ Psal 16. the Lord is my portion the lot is fallen to me in a fair ground I have a goodly heritage Who is able to measure that happiness that lies in an infinite Essence and an infinite goodness I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandments are exceeding broad so say all the Saints nothing is to be compared with a God Vse 6 Lastly If this be the happiness of the Saints then look through all the means that lead unto this end and let this be the great thing in your eye for Christ and Promises and Ordinances all of them are but to this end to bring you to God therefore look through them all to a further end Christ himself is but a medium thereunto and therefore for this happiness sigh and groan and be not satisfied with any thing else no not with the graces of God and communion with Jesus Christ but consider the enjoyment of the ultimate object of faith is God and then will our happiness be compleated when we shall be ever with the Lord then and not till then CHAP. IV. In the Covenant of Grace God makes over all the Persons in the Trinity SECT I. The distinct Offices and Acts of each Person in the Trinity in this Covenant § 1. I Now come unto the third Head in this great and glorious Promise and that is When the Lord doth promise to be the God of his people he doth make over to them in Covenant all the Persons in the Divine Nature for they had all of them a hand in the making of the Covenant and therefore all the promises of the Covenant come from them all they all of them do make over themselves unto the Saints and this will appear 1 by looking upon them all as free Agents and those that are absolute Lords and have dominion over their own acts and they have all given themselves 1 God the Father has made over himself I will be unto him a Father it 's spoken of Christ and therefore he is called by the Apostle the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and by this means he is our Father my Father and your Father my God and your God say Christ Joh. 20. Esay 9.6 2 He gives the Son unto us Unto us a Son is given and therefore he is called by way of eminency the gift of God Joh. 4.10 Rom. 8. He that spared not his own Son but gave him to death for us all And yet the Son is not so given by the Father but he doth also freely give himself for he saith I and my Father are one not only one in essence but also one in will Joh. 10.30 in reference unto the great work of Redemption and therefore God doth âo sooner make the motion to him Psal 40. it is brought in as the consultation held in Heaven before the Lord dispatched Christ into the world but Christ saith Lo I come to do thy will O God Psal 40. Joh. 10.18 I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me There is none that takes away my life but I lay it down of my self 3 And the giving of the Spirit it 's sometimes said to be the gift of the Father and therefore called the Promise of the Father which they were to wait for Acts 1.8 and sometimes the gift of the Son I will send the Comforter again Joh. 14.26 The Comforter that I will send you from the Father Joh. 15.26 and the Comforter whom the Father will send in my name Which is not to be interpreted as a promise only of the gifts and graces of the Spirit to come in but at second hand but as the giving of the Son is a giving of his person and giving us an interest therein so giving the Spirit is a giving of the person of the Spirit also and giving us a personal interest in him and as the Father and Son are one so is the Spirit also one with them and therefore has the same will with them and doth freely bestow himself upon the Saints for their portion as the Son doth to accomplish the great designs of the Gospel 2. This will
c. Thou art Christ the Son of God it 's the confession of Peters faith and is also called the Foundation of the Churches faith 1 Cor. 3.11 And so there is Divine Worship given to Christ as Mediator they worship the Lamb this is by reason of union and yet it is evident Rev. 4. that the humane nature remains a creature after its union and therefore it is as he is the Son and so is coessential with the Father this is the formalis ratio the proper cause of this Divine Faith and Worship and so the Holy Ghost also he is to be believed for himself and his own testimony the Spirit is truth 1 Joh. 5.6 and the Scriptures are to be believed only for the testimony of the Spirit 2 Pet. 1.21 But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost therefore we are commanded to hear what the Spirit says unto the Churches he is called therefore the Spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4.13 4. That we may honour them in our prayers distinctly for whomsoever a man is to believe in him he may pray unto Rom. 10.14 How can they call on him in whom they have not believed And therefore in our prayers we are not only to go unto God but unto each of the persons with distinct petitions suitable unto the acts that they have undertaken and the offices in which they have made over themselves unto the Saints under the new Covenant Christ he prays to the Father Holy Father righteous Father I will that those that thou hast given me be with me sanctifie them by thy truth And Stephen at his death Lord Jesus receive my spirit And the Disciples Lord increase our faith And so doth the Church Tell me where thou feedest c. The Apostle commonly speaks of them all together The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Spirit be with you And Rev. 1.5 6. Grace from him that is and was and is to come and from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne and from Jesus the faithful and true witness And as it is a mans duty to believe in the Son as well as the Father so it is to pray to the Son distinctly as also unto the Father for as our faith must distinctly take in all the objects of faith or else it is imperfect for there are two things that tend to the perfection of any grace 1 When it takes in all the objects in their extent and latitude 2 When they do put forth compleat and perfect acts upon these objects thus I say as faith must take in all its objects or else there is something wanting in it as the Apostle speaks of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the wants of faith so must faith give unto each of these their due and proper glory and Christ being to be believed in he may be prayed unto nay it 's an honour that belongs unto him and therefore our faith must give it to him 5. That the soul may have a distinct fellowship and communion with them all and there is a fellowship with the Spirit 1 Joh. 1.3 we are by the Gospel brought into communion with God and it 's a distinct fellowship and communion that we are to have with all the persons our communion is as large as our relation and the soul is to look upon himself as reconciled to them all and therefore all of them are become our friends and we have a particular and distinct interest in them all Now how is a man said to have fellowship with God or to walk with God it is when the thoughts of a mans heart are taken up with God and he has an eye unto him and unto his glory from day to day As a man is said to have communion with the Devil when he walks with his temptations and the desires and thoughts of his heart do run out towards the unfruitful works of darkness a man has fellowship with the Devil in all things as it is said Prov. 6.22 The law shall talk with a man waking and keep him when he is asleep and lead him when he goes how is this is it is but in the thoughts and the meditations of a mans own heart by the suggestions and directions thereof where it doth richly dwell so it is in this also it is communion with God and Gods dwelling in the soul animus ascendit frequenter c. the soul frequently ascends there is gratiarum decursus recursus a flowing down and reflowing of graces and in this doth our communion lye Now a man having an interest in all the persons all of them having undertaken something for a mans good by way of office and a man receiving something from them all and returning praise to them all there is in the soul a distinct fellowship to be exercised with them all sometimes the thoughts of his heart being drawn out to the Father and sometimes unto the Son and sometimes unto the Spirit and observing the witnessing of them all and the sealing of them all unto the evidences of the Saints sometimes we walk with the Father and sometimes with the Son and sometimes with the Spirit and the more distinct a mans communion is the more sweet it is 6. That a man may draw arguments and motives unto duty and against sin from them all and a mans interest in them all We are said to be baptized in the name of them all Mat. 28.20 Mat. 28.20 Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Now what is it to be baptized into the name of the Father it's conceived to be taken from the manner of marriage wherein the wife doth transire in nomen in familiam c. into the name and family of the husband or of servants who had their masters name called upon them 1 Cor. 1.13 and therefore no man might be baptized in the name of a creature it is that which Paul detests that he should baptize in his own name and therefore the meaning is to be baptized in fidem in cultum into the faith and worship of God and so you are unto them all and give up your names unto them all and therefore unto each person we owe both faith and worship distinctly all manner of duty and obedience because we are distinctly baptized unto the faith of them all to believe in them and worship them and a man should draw arguments to keep him from sin from them all and his interest in them all the Father is greater than all and it is by his will we are sanctified If we call him Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1.15 And he says of Christ I send my Angel but take heed of him obey his voice provoke him not for my name is in him And grieve
that they have not their appropriata any peculiar works appropriated unto them but whatever is done is done by the Godhead joyntly and the same thing that is said to be done by the Father is said to be done by the Son also that as God the Father is said to create all things so is the Son also Joh. 1 3 4. All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made and so it is said of the Spirit also Gen. 1.2 The Spirit moved upon the face of the waters Job 26.13 By his Spirit he has garnished the heavens which doth not note the instrument or the minister by whom the Lord wrought but only the order of the working in the Trinity for the order of working is answerable to the order of subsisting the Father works by the Son and the Son works by the Spirit and therefore Job 33.4 The Spirit of God made me and the breath of the Almighty has given me life It 's attributed unto the Spirit alone and not only in the work of Creation but also in the upholding of the things created for Joh. 1.3 4. In him was life that is omnia per ipsum sustentari c. which is expounded by that in him we live and move and have our being and that Col. 1.17 By him all things consist as well as were made by him and in a more special manner the image of God in which man was created was from them all Gen. 1.26 Let us make man in our own image which was but one and the same of all the persons for it is added in the image of God created he him Joh. 1.4 the life is the light of men which is as much as to say hominem per ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ad imaginem Dei creatum as Chemnitius Thus under the first Covenant all things were carried on by the Godhead joyntly and whatever was done is said to be done by them all without any appropriation of any thing unto one person more than another But when we come to a second Covenant then though God works all in all yet there is a special kind of appropriation of the actions some more peculiarly unto one person and some unto another vel quoad agendi modum vel quoad actionis terminum in quo se unius personae operatio potissimùm elucet c. Med. p. 37. Synops purior c. p. 103. In which though there be a joynt concurrence of all the persons by way of consent for they have all but one will yet they may be in a special manner so appropriated unto the one as they cannot unto the other so the Father is said to send his Son and the Son cannot be said to send himself and so the Son is said to be incarnate the word was made flesh and to take upon him the form of a servant which cannot be said of the Father and so the Father and the Son are said to send the Comforter which cannot be said of the Holy Ghost Mat. 1.20 and the Holy Ghost is said to form Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary the holy thing conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost is the bond of Union between the two Natures and the bond of Union between Christ and us which cannot be said of the Father or the Son though there be a consent of will and so a concurrence of all the persons unto every action that doth tend unto our salvation for having one and the same Essence they have all of them one will also yea they have so taken upon themselves the special offices and acts that per solennem quandam appropriationem by a certain solemn appropriation some of them are said so to be done by the one as that they cannot be said to be done by the other and it is according unto these appropriated Acts that the persons are made over unto us under the second Covenant for though the will of the Father and the Son be one and the same because the Essence is but one yet as the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father so eadem voluntas distinctè appropriat se alteri ut donanti mittenti alteri ut dato misso Cocceius de Testament Dei Disput 9. Thes 92. The same will doth distinctly appropriate it self to one as the giver and sender and to the other as given and sent Now answerable unto this consent of will such are the offices that they have undertaken and such are the actions and operations that they do put forth and by this distinct consent of will unto the several actions which in the Scripture we see they do appropriate unto themselves for it is the Word of God and the Lord speaks it of himself and not any man according unto these do they under the second Covenant make over themselves to the Saints that answerably to these several acts and offices they may be able to look upon each person to whom in Scripture they are appropriated and from that person in faithfulness to expect the accomplishment of them because they have each of them undertaken it speaking so of themselves in the word as if such acts did properly belong unto them and thereby manifesting the distinct appropriation of their wills unto each of them This being premised let us now see how each person has made over himself unto Believers in reference unto the second Covenant 1 As a distinct object of their faith for there are distinct acts of faith to be exercised upon all these persons answerable unto their appropriated acts Joh. 14.1 Ye believe in God says Christ believe also in me for though the ultimate object of faith be God for by Christ the Mediator we believe in God yet the several persons are to have faith distinctly exercised upon them 1 Pet. 1.21 answerable unto that distinct revelation of themselves Joh. 5.23 Rev. 1.4 2 As a distinct object of worship That every man might honour the Son even as they honour the Father Grace and peace from him that is and was and is to come and from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne 3 As distinct grounds of their consolation for though God be the God of all consolation yet there is a distinct consolation comes from each person answerable unto their appropriated acts which is the ground of a distinct communion 4 For their salvation each of the persons having their proper work in bringing many sons to glory but it has been shewed that these appropriated acts which I called Acts of Office are but for a time taken up with reference unto the mediatory Kingdom and when that shall be ended and all the Saints perfected and glorified and the Kingdom again given up into the hand of the Father then God shall be all in all and the persons shall act joyntly without any such appropriation for ever and look what the Spirit in
the Word has spoken of each person that we may be assured of that each person has undertaken for the Spirit of God knows the mind of God and the things of God and the Lord would never have spoken so of himself but that he would have us to look upon them as acts that the persons had each of them undertaken for the Elect and these we way build upon in the new Covenant that they have and will perform SECT II. The Actions undertaken by God the Father in this Covenant § 1. GOD the Father has spoken of himself distinctly and has taken upon himself some appropriated acts and hath in them made over himself unto the Saints for their consolation and salvation which we shall demonstrate unto you in these particulars 1. All things begin at God the Father he is first in order of working as he is in the order of subsisting he was the first Plotter and Mover in this great work of mans salvation for the Son saith He can do nothing of himself in it Joh. 5.19 but what he sees the Father do and therefore Luke 24.9 Christ calls it his Fathers business as though Solomon built the Temple yet the Platform was revealed unto David and by him was left unto his son so though Christ this Solomon was to build the Temple the man whose name is the Branch yet the Platform of all was laid by the Father and therefore he is in Scripture every where said to have the first and the great hand therein and I shall reduce these to two heads 1 The Actions that are undertaken by the Father 2 The Relations in which the Saints stand unto the Father 1. The Actions that according unto Scripture-acceptation the Father has undertaken and these are of two sorts 1 There are some acts that are eternal and before time 2 There are some that are done by the Father in time 1. The actions of the Father before all time and they are these 1 He did from Eternity purpose to glorifie himself in the Son for the Father will be glorified in the Son Phil. 2.11 The great end of all the acts of Christ and of all his life is this that every tongue might confess Joh. 14.13 That Jesus is the Lord unto the glory of God the Father for this is the highest way of glorifying the Father and therefore Christ knowing that to be the Fathers end that he might shew himself to be the Fathers servant he did aim at this end and it was always in his eye in all things that he did I seek not mine own glory but the glory of him that sent me Joh. 8.50 There is one that seeks not his own glory and therefore Heb. 1.2 3. he is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is the shining forth of the glory of the Father for his great aim was from Eternity to be glorified in his Son and therefore 1 Cor. 11.7 Christ is said to be the image and glory of God and the woman the mans glory the head of Christ is God Now glory is the manifestation and the shining forth of some supereminent and transcendent excellency And it was an argument of great excellency that was in man that all the creatures were created for man and put in subjection unto him but the highest honour of man was the woman who was created in the same nature having a reasonable soul as himself had and souls know no sexes being created after the same image and unto the same glory with himself and yet this glorious creature should be created for man and put in subjection unto man for the woman was created for the man so also God hath great glory by all his creatures for Prov. 16.4 He made all things for himself and he has a more special honour from the reasonable creatures the Angels and the Saints but yet the top and the highest of God the Fathers glory is that the Son who thought it no robbery to be equal with God in glory yet shall give up himself to the glory of the Father and this is a far greater glory than the Father has by all the creatures in Heaven and Earth And there is a double glory that the Father did seek by the Son 1 That the Son himself should give him glory should seek his glory in all things reflect all his own glory upon the Father and attribute all to him and be content to veil his own glory that the glory of the Father might appear 2 He has the glory of all that glory that is given to the Son by the Saints it 's all ultimately resolved into his glory who is the Father as all the promises of God in Christ are in him Yea 2 Cor. 1.29 and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us Phil. 2.11 All the confessions and acknowledgments that are made unto Christ do all of them redound unto the praise and glory of God for the more the Son is glorified the more it redounds unto the glory of the Father whose glory the Son seeks in all that he does and therefore in every respect the Father is glorified in the Son and this was the great plot that God made from everlasting 2 The Fathers purpose was to glorifie the Son in the Saints that he might make him the head of both the Creations of God 1 To them that stood so he is the head of all Principalities and Powers that they should all hold of him and so they should all honour the Son as they honour the Father Col. 2.10 and therefore it 's said Heb. 1.6 the Angels do worship him and so Angels are round about the Throne Rev. 5.11 The Father will receive glory from no creature but it shall be by the Son for the great glory of the Father we must still remember comes in by him and all the honour that they do unto the Son redounds unto God the Father 2 As for them that should fall as well as those that stood Joh. 5.23 Joh. 17.10 All men must honour the Son even as they honour the Father and he that honours not the Son honours not the Father and therefore Christ says All thine are mine and mine are thine I am glorified in them so that all the glory that the Son had its foundation was laid in the plot and purpose of the Father I speak of his manifestative glory as for his essential glory he had that from himself as he is God of himself and was therein equal with God and did no more receive his glory from another than he did his essence from another but having one and the same essence they must needs have one and the same glory but as for the glory that he hath amongst the creatures and from them all it 's from and by the plot of God the Father to this end was Christ the head of both Creations Esay 42.1 Eph. 1.4 3 The purpose of the Father was to glorifie the Elect
for wrath and poured it out abundantly when all the graces of Christ did act to the highest to take hold of God and to uphold himself To have been in Abrahams bosom then when he was about to slay his son even his only son and seen what strivings of heart and rendings of bowels what great grief possest Abraham at that time how should a man of compassion have been affected But there was much more love in God to his Son Christ and yet to bruise him was that which he delighted in it was unto him a sweet smelling savour when he was offered up upon the Cross God that doth not delight in the death of a sinner yet he doth delight in the death of a Son that the sinners may live and be saved eternally 8. God the Father being in this manner satisfied by his Sacrifice he doth raise him from the dead he is said to be raised by his own Godhead that is the Spirit spoken of Rom. 1.4 Heb. 9.14 he himself saith I have power to lay down my life Joh. 10.18 and I have power to take it again he received a commandment from the Father concerning both but he is said to be raised by the Father because he was by the Father as a Judge condemned as an offender and malefactor executed cast into the prison of the grave which I understand by that in Esay 53.8 Now the debt being paid the Father doth grant him a deliverance and sends an Angel a publick Minister of Justice to manifest that his debt is paid and the Father satisfied thereby and therefore it is unto the Father that he did look for it Psal 16.10 thou wilt not leave my soul in statu separato in a separate state nor my body in the grave c. thou wilt not suffer thy holy One to see corruption 9. God the Father gave him glory and exalted him far above all Principalities and Powers and might and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come Eph. 1.21 He has a glory that he is invested with above all the Angels in Heaven as he was Man whiles he was upon earth he was made lower than all the Angels for a little while but now he has more glory as he is Man than all the Angels are capable of as he has more grace than they have therefore he must needs have more glory and that as he is Man by this means he is gone to Heaven as our Fore-runner to take possession for us Joh. 14.2 I go before says he to prepare a place and therefore it is expedient for you that I go away Acts 2.33 10. He receives the fulness of the Spirit from the Father Christ waited for the promise of the Spirit as well as we for the full accomplishment of it for as the faculties of Christ were inlarged so did his grace exalt it self though he was always full of grace and truth and therefore as he was said to grow here in all things he was like unto us only without sin so in the growth and in the degrees of the perfection of his humane nature therefore when he came to Heaven his faculties were inlarged as ours shall be and so there is the fuller measure of his receiving the Spirit in glory than he had when he was here upon earth for when he was here on earth he knew not the day of Judgment Of that day knows no man no not the Son while he was upon earth but when he came to Heaven it was revealed unto him it was first revealed to Christ and by Christ unto his Servant John and therefore he did himself open the book which was sealed to him as well as it was unto us but he did open it and looked therein c. They were such discoveries as the Lord did not communicate unto the humane nature of Christ till he came to glory and then his knowledge as also his grace was perfected therefore Joh. 7.39 that 's given as the reason why the Spirit was not yet given in its fulness Joh. 7.39 because Christ was not yet glorified he did not fully dispense it unto us because he had not in fulness received it for every promise is first made unto him and in him unto us and it is first fulfilled in him and through him in us also 11. God the Father has put him into the actual administration of his government as he is man Dan. 7.14 all Angels Principalities and Powers being made subject to him and so much his sitting at the right hand of the Father does imply 1 Pet. 3. ult namely the actual administration of all things and that as he is man for he must as well rule as man as he shall judge as man as he is God in prosecution unto the Covenant that God the Father made with him so this Kingdom has been in the hand of the Son ever since the Fall and so it 's true that the Father judges no man but the Son has all judgment committed to him but while he was man here he was in a state of humiliation and it was the time of his ministery but in Heaven is the time of his Magistracy and the Lord hath now made him to be both Lord and Christ and now he doth actually rule the world as man whereas before his ascension he could not for as he was man he received not himself up into glory and this is the glory that the Father did promise to give him and to glorifie him with himself therein before the world was that that nature which he should take should be exalted above all creatures and the actual government of all things should be committed thereupon unto him and so as man he is made the head of all things for the Churches sake Eph. 1.21 22. § 2. But there are some Acts of God the Father that more immediately respect the Saints and are terminated on them and they are also very many as 1. the work of Vocation when men are turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Joh. 6.44 that 's attributed unto the Father Joh. 6.44 45. No man can come to me except the Father draw him he that has heard and learned of the Father cometh to me To come to Christ is to believe in him as appears vers 35. He that comes to me shall never hunger and he that believes on me shall never thirst He expounds coming to him by believing in him for he knew who they were that believed not vers 64. And therefore said I unto you No man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father And the Lord speaks not of the will here no man will come but of the power ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã no man can come There is a dispute between us and the Arminians about the power of nature unto acts of grace and they say there is auxilium
have Gods inheritance is in them Eph. 1.18 and theirs is chiefly in God therefore Heaven is called the Kingdom of the Father in this life it is the Kingdom of Christ There is a progress and a regress of this Kingdom it is from the Father and returns unto the Father again 8. Christs great comfort in departing this life was that he should go to the Father If you loved me you would rejoyce Joh. 20.17 Joh. 14.28 Luk. 23.46 because I go to the Father this would make the thoughts of death sweet and the thoughts of Eternity desirable Christ at his death resigns his soul into the Fathers hand the people of God in this world are as it were orphans but they have a Father in Heaven and who would not make haste to him for your happiness and your home is in your fathers house Joh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions and Christ is gone before to prepare a place for you 1 Joh. 3.1 2. Now we are the sons of God but it appears not what we shall be that is adoptionis fructus nondum apparet It 's in our Fathers house that our portion is laid up therefore long for the adoption even the redemption of your bodies and in the mean while keep the truths that you have heard that you may continue in the Son and in the Father 1 Joh. 2 2â 2 Joh. 9. that you may have both the Father and the Son abide in their favour and their fellowship having once attained it keep the commandments of the Father and abide in his love as Christ the Son did Joh. 15.10 and the day will come that thou shalt shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of thy Father Concerning the relations of the Father under the second Covenant we are to take this general rule that in the same relation that he stands unto Christ in the same according to our place and station he stands unto us yet so as Christ in all things is to have the preheminence for that in all things must be reserved unto him Col. 1.18 and the ground of this rule is from that Joh. 20.17 I ascend unto my Father and your Father my God and your God This benefit the Saints have by their union with the Lord Jesus Christ that they not only stand in many sweet and comfortable relations unto him but through him in their own sphere they stand in the same relation unto God the Father together with him § 2. The second relation of the Father unto Christ is that he is Christs King and his Lord 1 Cor. 11.3 The head of Christ is God the head of every man is Christ 1 Cor. 11.3 and the head of the woman is the man It 's not spoken of Christ ratione naturae in regard of his nature for he is God equal with the Father and he counts his equality no robbery he takes but what is his own but ratione oeconomiae in respect of his office that he has undertaken by the appointment of the Father Now how is the Father the head of Christ as Christ is the head of the Church and the man of the woman that is in respect of the guidance and government he has over us and so Christ is the Churches head is called the Churches King and it is usual in the Hebrew to call Princes heads of the people Num. 14.4 Let us make us a head and return into Egypt ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a prince a ruler Judg. 11.8 They said unto Jephtath Be thou our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead be thou our King ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hos 1.11 it 's spoken of the conversion of the Jews after they were called Loammi and therefore it 's not yet come they shall appoint unto themselves one head Ezech. 37.24 David my servant shall be King over them and David my servant shall be their Prince for ever it 's spoken of their chusing Christ to be their King and their glory in the day when the Lord shall raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen down So here by Head is meant that the Father is Christs King and he doth rule him as a King in the whole work of his Mediatorship and he is Christs Lord so he himself doth call him Psal 16.2 It 's the speech of Christ as appears by the whole Psalm and he saith unto Jehovah Thou art my Lord Adonai Now in this relation the Father also stands to all those that are Saints and members of Christ he is their Lord and their King also Mat. 22.1 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king that made a marriage for his son God the Father is the King Mat. 22.1 Christ the Son is the Bridegroom the Elect of God is the Spouse the Lambs wife their marriage is their union with Christ and the marriage-feast are the Ordinances unto which the guests were by his servants invited and of how great consequence this is we shall see in the person of Christ himself as God the Father is his Lord and King 1 He doth give unto Christ a Law as he is his Lord and King for God the Father is the great Law-giver Christ doth nothing but as the Fathers subject and in obedience unto him so Esay 42.1 he is called but the Fathers servant and he does only the Fathers business Luk. 2.49 and he receives a Law from him Joh. 10.18 This commandment have I received of my Father this law is in the middle of my bowels and it was a law commanding him to lay down his life for his people and so do the Saints for Christ is God the Fathers King Psal 2.1 1 Because he receives his government from him he it was that did anoint him and set him up he did receive his Kingdom from the Ancient of days Dan. 7.14 2 He hath from him the laws and rules of his government for he says I came not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me therefore all the laws that he gives they are no other than those he has received from the Father 3 For the ends of his government they are also prescribed him For I seek not mine own glory but the glory of him that sent me Now it 's a happiness for any people to have a wise and a righteous Law-giver and this is a comfort and an honour to the Saints that they have Christ their King and the law that he has given them is a royal Law Jam. 2.8 much more should the Saints rejoyce in this that he that is Christs King and Lord is their Lord also and he that is Christs Law-giver is also theirs the subjection of the Angels should be enough unto a man that he should be brought into subjection but much more we should be content to receive the law at his mouth and rejoyce in it when he is unto Christ himself a Lord and a Law-giver 2 As he is King and Lord
aestum infoelicitatem by reason of its splendour it notes felicity and by reason of its scorching Isa 60.19 20. Rev. 21.23 infelicity thy Sun shall no more go down for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light the city shall have no need of the light of the Sun for the glory of God shall enlighten it It is not spoken as some would wrest it of the Scripture and Ordinances but it is of all temporal prosperity and felicity they shall have such a supply from God immediately that though they shall have abundance such as never was in the world yet they shall have no need of it by reason of the immediate supply that they shall have from God himself Amos 8.9 and so Jer. 15.9 Thy Sun shall set while it is yet day I will cause thy Sun to set at noon day that is all thy comforts and thy prosperity shall suddenly and unexpectedly depart when you looked for nothing less so that by the Sun is meant all happiness all comfort all prosperity and there needs but one Sun and when this Sun doth shine there will be no need of the light of the Moon or the Stars and he that having God doth take in any other comfort it 's but Lucernam ad Solem accendere setting up a candle when the Sun doth shine there is enough in him there needs no more And this will appear first in this life and that by these three demonstrations 1 He that hath God has all things else Rev. 21.7 He that overcomes shall inherit all things I will be his God and it was all the portion that Christ looked for and gloried in Psal 16.5 The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup the lines are fallen to me in a pleasant place c. Mar. 10.30 He shall have an hundred-fold more in this present time it cannot be in kind and therefore cannot be understood formally but eminently that is he shall have in God the comforts of all these if they were an hundred times nay if they were a thousand times multiplied 2 It will further appear by this if there were not an alsufficiency in God he could never give a self-sufficiency unto the Saints for they have no sufficiency in themselves 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves as of our selves we have a sufficiency but it 's not in our selves as of our selves but it is that which we receive by grace and is by God communicated unto us but a godly man hath a self-sufficiency 1 Tim. 6.6 Godliness is great gain I know how to want and how to abound I am instructed in all things yet this is not to be understood of self as divided from God but of self as united to God he hath his sufficiency in him alone now he that can give a man a self-sufficience must have in him an alsufficience 3 It will appear if we consider the particulars whatever a man can in this life stand in need of it is all to be had in God in such a way as a man shall not need to go any whither else for a supply but unto him alone Jer. 2.13 1 For Provision he needs none else he is the fountain of living water for by water all good things are expressed that are necessary for the support of a mans life and when we depart from God we go from the fountain unto the streams for all is in him and from him the creatures are all but streams and they are supplied from him and therefore it is far more glorious in him than it is in them and far more sweet and therefore it is well observed that when Christ cursed the fig-tree it withered by the roots to shew that the growth and greenness of it did not depend so much upon its own root as it did upon the blessing of God thereupon and therefore take Moses for an instance and he lived forty days without food upon the mountain and so did Eliah in the wilderness and if the bread that comes down from Heaven which is Christ can nourish the heart of man much more the bread that is in Heaven it is this that is the Angels food upon him they live and on him they feed unto Eternity 2 For Protection they need none else but he is a Shield as well as a Sun Zac. 9.12 Return to your strong hold there is safety enough in one God they need no other defence but himself it 's true that the Lord doth nourish us here by creatures Psal 84.11 and he doth protect us by Angels they pitch their Tents about us c. but it is not to supply any defect in God for there is all protection in him and 't is in him that the Saints rejoyce and place their defence God is the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God Psal 62.7 it 's taken from the City of refuge when the avenger of blood did pursue Now I have no City of refuge to fly to when the danger is eminent but God alone and therefore it may be that is meant by the Chambers spoken of Esa 26.20 Come my people enter into your chambers it is God and the several hiding-places that be in him Zac. 2.5 it 's the secret of his pavilion in which he will hide me I will be unto Jerusalem a wall of fire it 's true that they had no walls for the City lay waste and in its ruines but there is no wall like to that of fire There is a story of an Island in Lycia Ephestion incolae vocant quam sine ullo damno ignis innocuus circuit Sen. epist. 79. regio laeta herbida which is encompassed about with fire c. This is a fit resemblance of the shelter of the Saints in the God of their Salvation they shall have salvation for walls and bulwarks when the rest of the world are exposed to the wrath and the judgments of God which shall burn and consume them 3 For Pleasure and Delight they need none but in him God is the Well of life to his people and shall make them to drink of the river of his pleasure Psal 36.10.9 Job 22.26 and therefore the Saints are said to delight themselves in the Lord thou shalt delight in the Almighty and to delight themselves with God is the highest satisfaction a creature can be capable of and then God gives us the desire of our heart and we are exhorted to rejoyce in the Lord always Psal 37.4 and there are no delights amongst the best of the creatures that hold any proportion unto those that the soul takes in God O they will sweeten all the bitterness of the creatures In the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts delight my soul it 's true may a poor soul say Psal 94.19 that I have had great variety of troublesom thoughts which have much perplexed me for there is nothing disquiets a man so as the
them as if his sufficiency were in them then immediately the creatures have left their place and they have gotten the rule over the man and this is an evil that many times befals the best men they do not keep the world at a distance and confine it to its own place as they ought to do but when a man saith The creatures are my comfort but my sufficiency is not in them my portion is not in them ubi omnia mea sunt tu scis this will keep the creatures from incroaching upon a man and usurping authority over a man Tenet and bring them into subjection unto his servants which is contrary to the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free hence it comes to pass that men set their hearts too much upon them contrary to Psal 69.10 If riches increase set not your hearts upon them The more any mans heart runs out upon the creature and the more he doth place his happiness in any of them the more his soul departs from the alsufficiency of God And hence if you take away the creature from a man he saith you have taken away my heart and therefore he sorrows as a man without hope when another man can see the creatures departing and melting as ice under his feet and he can rejoyce in their departure and bid them farewel with joy because he has had the Moon under his feet and these being gone he knows he shall be restored unto that wherein more immediately his alsufficiency doth consist And the way to cast off this weight is to keep up the alsufficiency of God in the soul all my sufficiency lies in him alone and because he has made over his alsufficiency to me therefore I will not look upon any thing else as my sufficiency and happiness the man whose eyes are opened to see his alsufficiency to be in God in the middle of the creature-enjoyments is in a blessed condition 8. That the soul may upon this ground live in God immediately as in whom his alsufficiency doth consist 1 Thess 1.1 Joh. 3.21 there is a being in God and a dwelling in God he that dwells in love dwells in God and a working in God he comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God and therefore Nazianzen speaks of grace that it doth after a sort deifie the man ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not only begin a divine nature in him but making him to live out of himself in the alsufficiency of the Divine nature and the School-men speak of an illapsus Dei a certain illapse or coming down of God into the soul he is said to dwell in us 2 Cor. 6.16 that is cum infinita quadam opulentia with a certain kind of infinite plenitude and by this means spiritus nunc ab omni velle liber est acsi in coelo aut terra c. as if there were nothing that he did stand in need of in Heaven and Earth for when Gods love dwells in us it is in the manifestation of God and when God in his sufficiency dwells in us it is in the manifestation of it Harp p. 678. c. and therefore the soul looks upon God ut mare quoddam infinitae magnitudinis Harp pag. 666. our sufficiency comes from him and returns unto him again but all is in him and the soul looks upon all the creatures as things indifferent but if he sin he looks upon alsufficiency to pardon him Who is a God like our God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin and he looks upon alsufficiency for healing and if he has a work to do for God he looks upon alsufficiency for strength and if he has a cross to bear he looks for the support of everlasting arms and if there be creatures either to work with him or against him he saith that they can do neither good nor evil they work but as instruments in the hand of God and the wicked man is but thy sword Nebuchadnezzar that great King is but the staff of mine anger and if there be no creatures Psal 17. he saith there is no need of any for he is as able to save with few as many and his supplies tarry not for man he waits not for the sons of men nor for any humane concurrence in his work Mic. 5. and therefore his eyes are turned away from beholding vanity and he lives upon God alone for he saith What is Heaven and what have the Angels of God and the souls of just men made perfect to feed upon they neither eat nor drink they marry not all earthly comforts and relations cease they are but for the time of this life and no more but then God is all in all now if it shall be enough to live upon him in Heaven and it shall be there my happiness and perfection surely the more my heart is staid on him and the more it is setled upon his alsufficiency the nearer it comes to happiness and the less shall my spirit be disquieted by the changes and uncertainties of things below and unto this Christ did train up his Disciples Do not say What shall I eat and what shall I drink but say There is an alsufficiency in God which I have an interest in and it shall be manifested for me either for my provision or my protection for he that hath made it over to me by Covenant will lay it out for me and therefore I leave my self with him and cast my care upon him for my sufficiency is in him alone § 3. This Alsufficiency of God belongs unto none but unto his own Covenant-people it 's a joy that no stranger can intermeddle withal it is the hidden Manna that they only do feed upon who are fled for refuge to the hope set before them Gen. 17.1 2. I am God alsufficient walk before me and be upright and I will make a covenant with thee to be a God to thee and he is a Sun and a Shield not unto every one but unto them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 there is a secret river the streams whereof do make glad the City of God when the earth is moved and the mountains cast into the middle of the Sea Psal 46.4 there is an Olive-tree that doth drop oil into the golden Candlestick Zac. 4.3 Zac. 4.3 it is new Jerusalem that comes down from God out of Heaven that has no need of the light of the Sun but the glory of the Lord and of the Lamb are the light thereof it is spoken of the light of creatures Rev. 21.23 and not of Scriptures as some would interpret it it 's only upon the glory that there is a covering 1 It is only by Covenant that he is thus made over and therefore it can be only unto his Covenant-people all men in Adam have forfeited their interest in God and they can lay no claim to him though it 's true that men in
and prove a curse and not a blessing 4. Because it is very sweet to God when we follow him through a wilderness and see nothing but an alsufficiency in him through a land not sown Jer. 2.2 then you shew your love to him and he looks upon it as the day of your espousals Hos 9.10 I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness it is a proverbial speech when you have none to look to but God Drusius when you are in a land of drought it is never so pleasing unto God as when we are brought into a wilderness and yet there to follow him and the Lord doth never speak so sweetly to us as when he doth deprive us of these outward things that our hearts may stay upon him alone and therefore Hos 2.14 he says I will allure her into the wilderness what was there in the wilderness that might allure her The wilderness has a double consideration 1 It was a place of affliction and so there was nothing to allure for no affliction for the present is joyous but grievous 2 The wilderness was a place of manifestation where God did shew himself in his Ordinances and in his mighty works and if the wilderness be so there is an alluring in it and then saith God will I speak to her heart O when God brings into the wilderness and gives discoveries of himself there are the greatest comforts and the sweetest speakings unto the souls of his Saints the Lord doth not fail them in their time of need 5. Gods great glory is to manifest his Attributes in the sufferings of his people and it is the great work that he doth in the world and the greatest comfort that the Saints have is to see the Attributes of God drawn forth and to work for them Jer. 2.31 Have I been a wilderness to Israel It 's true says the Lord I brought them into a wilderness and did allure them thither but when they were there I was not a wilderness unto them they found all in me though the earth afforded them nothing yet there was nothing wanting from Heaven it was not a wilderness when they were in the wilderness See an instance of it Jer. 29.22 there were two false Prophets that did strive to make provision for themselves and they pleased the people Jer. 2.29 and said The King of Babylon should not carry them away captive they spoke lies in the name of the Lord and we see what became of them but Jeremiah that made no provision for himself did not as Baruck seek great things for himself we see how he is provided for even in the enemies hand Jer. 39.11 12. Look well to him do him no harm but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee how good is it to look up to God for all our supplies and not to distrust his goodness and power in any danger or strait that we may be exposed to 6. As our supplies do come from God so also there is a special token of love and interest discovered in his sufficiency and that is sweeter than the mercy it self the Lord loves to give unto his people every mercy that they need and as it is lined with love so it shall be faced with love that the mercy shall come in according unto the promise and he can look upon it as the birth of the promises as a pledge and a fruit of interest in the alsufficiency of God it 's a great thing and is much more than the blessing it self if it were a thousand times multiplied that all the promises lead a man to Christ the foundation of them all 2 Cor. 1.20 they do lead a man as beams to the Sun so when the mercy leads a man to his interest in the alsufficiency of God that 's more than the mercy it self when a mân sees it 's given in to the bargain when he seeks first the Kingdom of Heaven all things in this world shall be added to him Psal 6.33 though they are in themselves but small yet they are magni amoris indicium there is a great deal of difference between a kiss and a reward though there may be a greater bounty in the one but there is more love in the other and so far as the people of God taste that the Lord is gracious so far they taste his love is sweeter than all unto them for if there were not love in the gift there were no relish in it we use to despise the gifts only of enemies and indeed the hearts of all the Saints do so far undervalue them as Luther that they can tell God Let thy gifts of this worlds goods only be to another but let me have a smile from thy face one kiss of thy mouth and it shall chear me more than corn or wine and oil as for all other things they are but as Luther said of the Turkish Empire mica canibus projecta a mite cast to the dogs because there was no love in it therefore a little that the righteous hath is better than the riches of many wicked as a little that the righteous doth is better than the pompous services of many wicked persons because there is love in the one and none in the other and without this all is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal Object 2 You say that none have an interest in the alsufficiency of God but his Covenant-people But we see that the men of the world have great sufficiency Psal 73.7 they have more than heart can wish they enjoy all manner of abundance that one would think the alsufficiency of God were made over to them rather than to the Saints one would have thought it to have been the portion of Dives rather than Lazarus For the wicked fare deliciously every day c. Answ It 's true indeed that many wicked men who are strangers to God and his Covenant have great sufficiency in outward things but yet 1 though it be from the alsufficiency of God for he it is that is the Fountain of common mercies he doth cause the Sun to rise upon the unjust c. he opens his hand and fills every living thing it is he therefore that is said to fill their bellies with his hid treasure Psal 17.14 but yet it is not from their interest in his alsufficiency they have all from God but they have no interest in God it 's one thing to receive mercy from God ex largitate from an overflowing of his goodness and another thing to receive it ex proprietate from an interest in his goodness There are some benefits by Christ that wicked men have that have no interest in Christ there are many works that the Sun doth effect in the earth when it never shines and so it 's with Christ he vouchsafeth good things to many a soul in whose Horizon he doth never rise there is a great difference in the manner of conveyance 2 A sufficiency they have
has bid Shimei curse and if Job lose all that he has though by the hand of creatures yet he saith The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away there is no evil in the city that the Lord has not done and therefore Christ saith Thou couldst have no power over me unless it were given thee from above Now as you look upon them as vain that worship an Idol and stand in fear of it though you know they do but bow down to the stock of a Tree yet a deceived heart has turned him aside c. that he cannot discern the deceit and say Is there not a lye in my right hand Esa 44.20 so when men fear creatures it is but as if a man feared an Idol that can do him no hurt and they can do you no good though every man seeks the face of the Ruler and they think that he is able to shew them much favour in judgment yet let him do what he can Prov. 29.26 Psal 33.15 and intend never so much good to you all that is good to you is from the Lord in his judgment He doth fashion the hearts of men and he considers all their ways c. they have the same apprehensions that he gives them and the same affections and intentions if they do thee any good it is because the Lord has assisted and touched their hearts for they have but such a fashion as he gives them therefore he is said to ascend and descend Prov. 30.2 3 4. it 's conceived by some to be an expression taken from Jacobs Ladder in which there were Angels ascending and descending as it is Joh. 1. ult but yet in all the administrations of the best of creatures it is he that ascends and descends for all the good of the creature is at his dispose and he must give the creature a commission to do good as well as to do us evil and will you flye unto that for sufficiency that can neither do good nor evil 4. Will you place your sufficiency in the creature when it cannot reach unto that which is best in the man Every holy man doth take a measure of all things as they relate unto his soul and that which doth his soul most good that he judges best for him and that which doth the soul most hurt that he judges worst for him for Saints measure all prosperity by that of the soul but all creature-comforts are but food that perishes and therefore we are exhorted not to labour for them for they will all die unto us Joh. 6.27 and therefore that men might not dote upon carrying them with them into another world consider we brought nothing into this world 1 Tim. 6.7 neither shall we carry any thing out of this world as soon as we have put off this Tabernacle all the necessary supports thereof will be of use to us no more for they are all in reference to the Tabernacle it self ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He only can cure the heart that formed it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrys de poenit hom 4. when God establishes the heart in peace no creature can move it 5. The creatures have no good in them but what is borrowed All the good that is in the creatures is either real or apparent 1 If there be any real good in any creature it is derived unto it from God they are all cyphers and they have no good in them of themselves but what is put into them if God will put much of his Spirit into a Magistrate as he did into Moses the abilities of many men shall be in that one man he shall rule his people with great success and if the Lord will afterward take it away and divide it amongst men it is as he will dispose of it whether to fill the vessel or empty it and if the Lord will create the fruit of the lips peace a Minister shall be able to speak peace and administer a word that shall be in season unto him that is weary but else though he speak with never so much eloquence it will be to no purpose there is no more in it than God puts into it 2 There is appearing good and that is put into the creatures by the subtilty of Satan and by the lusts of men 1 By the subtilty of Satan for he intending to make use of the creature to betray the soul of a man doth put a fair gloss upon it and a varnish as we see he did to Christ when he represented to him the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them in a moment of time so doth Satan represent the creatures to us in his own glass and deceives us with the apparent good that is in them 2 There is also something that the lusts of men do add and that is a conceit that there is some such excellency in it Prov. 18.11 it is a strong hold and a high wall it 's desirable for food and pleasant to the taste but it is but in his own conceit and all the pomp of the world is but fancy and all the great things of the world are not great in reality but only that great affection and the high apprehension that men have of them makes them seem so to be Psal 36.9 but with God only is the fountain of life by life is meant all good and it is in God originally as in a fountain it is in the creatures but derivatively as in a stream and therefore it 's the greatest folly for a man to leave the fountain to go to the streams and to forsake the Sun to take our light from the Moon and the Stars which shine only by a borrowed light and upon this ground the Saints are not much troubled at the miscarriages in creatures when they promise fair but by and by their hopes are nipt and it brings not the work to perfection therefore they regard it not and say it is but a bucket broken and a stream dried up a pipe stopped but there is as much water in the fountain still as ever and unto that he has immediate recourse 6. A man's retiring unto creatures in any of his straits is that which doth cause God to leave him for no man is to have a double dependence because that argues a double heart God will be all in all for supports and supplies as well as Christ will be all in all for righteousness and salvation 2 Chron. 26.15 and therefore it is said That Vzziah was helped till he was strong he was marvellously helped but then his heart withdrew from God unto his own supports and then the Lord left him to them which proved his overthrow for with him only the fatherless find mercy they that are truly so in their own esteem and account and have none to look to or make provision for them any more than fatherless children have it is in him that they shall find mercy but they that say unto
beggerly rudiments and Nehushtan a little piece of brass God will abase the excellency of all creatures that we make an Idol of and the Lord will let you see that your grace cannot preserve you and therefore there are two reasons why God hath let the Saints fall and hath set before you their example 1 Ostendit infirmitatem nostram ut timeamus Luther 2 Judicium suum quòd minus nihil ferre possit quà m superbiam He shews 1 our infirmity that we may fear 2 His judgment how much he hates pride For it is for this cause that he doth give up the Saints unto such gross and dangerous falls either to prevent pride or to cure it and therefore Bernard demands Why when the people of God do pray for grace above all things God many times denies them the degree of grace that they desire Oportet ipsam gratiam temperari ne in elationis vitium incidamus pag. 521. interdum subtrahitur gratia interdum retrahitur To keep from pride c. all is grounded upon pride vel superbia quae jam est vel quae futura est c. pag. 729. either the pride that already is in the heart or that which may be 6. The supplies of grace the more immediate they are the sweeter they are for they come with a greater favour from the fountain of grace from which they flow 2 Cor. 12. My grace is sufficient for thee and a Saint hath more sweetness when grace comes in from God and Christ immediately than if it were in his own power or hand to lay it out upon himself at his own pleasure and as in respect of creatures a supply from God immediately is sweeter than all the second causes in the world as the womans meal was better than if she had it still in her own hand so much more is the supply of grace dulcius ex ipso fonte c. for hereby Christ is immediately honoured and there is a continued love testified it was the first sin and the first temptation to be simile Deo scilicet ut bonorum suorum ipse sibi sit fons ipse sibi copia to be like God the fountain of good to himself Prosper c. a godly man hates it and curseth it to Hell from whence it came as God hath laid up all grace in Christ as the Steward to dispense it so a gracious soul desires and delights it should be in Christs hand rather than in his own and he would not take it out of Christs hand or make himself the fountain of his own grace for a world for he says My life is in Christ and because he lives I shall live also Vse 3 § 3. It serves also for exhortation unto all you that have chosen the Lord for your God that you be content with him alone though you have nothing else for there is an alsufficiency in him he that was sufficient unto himself before there was any creature in Heaven and Earth his self-sufficiency shall be thy alsufficiency it is your Election that gives you an interest in God Josh 14.22 you have chosen the Lord unto your selves the Lord will not put himself upon any man but he doth inlighten their minds and sets the will at liberty to chuse him for himself for every mans portion is of his own choice he is in this sense though not in the Arminian notion propriae fortunae faber c. so Dagon became the god of the Philistins and Chemosh the god of the Amorites it was by their own election and having chosen the Lord God Jehovah to be your God O study him let your heart be rapt up in the contemplation of him there is a kind of ecstasie in love there is a rapture which is nothing else but supremus contemplationis gradus mentis excessus the supreme degree of contemplation and excess of mind and be exhorted to use all the means to know God There are three ways by which we may know God 1 Viâ negationis by way of negation denying all the imperfections that are in the creatures to be in him 2 Causalitatis in a way of causality all the good that is in the creatures comes from him as its proper cause 3 Eminentiae in a way of eminence and therefore all is in him and in him in a more glorious manner than is or can be in the creatures a man should use to set God before him in his greatness and in his glory see him as a Sea as being without banks or bottom this is life eternal to know God O it is good for a man to drown his thoughts in this Sea to cast himself into it by a holy meditation and think till his thoughts be at a loss till he can think no more As a poor troubled soul when he looks upon the wrath of God his soul is swallowed up with it and he can think himself into an endless maze till he lose himself so you should do in the alsufficiency of God they are the narrow thoughts that we have of God that are dishonourable to him and are also uncomfortable to us my thoughts are not as your thoughts he is able to do above all that we can ask or think according to thy fear such is thy wrath and when you have viewed him in this manner and found that there is a good in him beyond all things more than thy thoughts and desires can reach and what thou canst desire is not to be compared to him and yet the heart of man can frame to it self vast desires now say This God shall be my God for ever and ever and in him alone will I place my happiness and hope I will be content with him alone though I have nothing else Lam. 3.4 and let this be the full resolution and bent of thy heart so to do The Lord is my portion saith my soul It 's true that all men will acknowledge that God is the Fountain of life and the chiefest good but it is in ore tantùm only in mouth but the Church brings in her soul speaking it as verbum mentis the word of her mind it 's that which my soul doth embrace and consent unto and that will make a man to be contented with him alone Psal 37. and he will go out to no other and so it was with David Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee c. Now wherein is this contentment of soul in God to be found and manifested 1. The soul lays up all in God in him alone it hath nothing out of God as it hath nothing apart from God for a godly man enjoys all in God and God in all things so that there is nothing that is not to be found in him Thou art a shield for me my glory and the lifter up of my head the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my
ground of a double fear that is in the Saints they fear the Lord and they fear sin which provokes God to depart from them and therefore Chrysostome speaks it of Paul and it was the same Spirit that is recorded to be in himself and therefore he did intimate it de laudibus Pauli ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and therefore it was the same message that he sent to Eudoxa when she breathed out threatnings against him and sought his life tell her that I fear nothing but sin and therefore Rom. 8. If God be with us who can be against us All the creatures are reconciled when God is reconciled and they can do neither good nor evil but as they are acted by him and therefore the creatures are never against us till God arm them against us for they are all of them at his dispose and it 's no matter who is against us if God be with us for they are but as the briars and thorns in battel against the fire walking in the middle of stubble and truly this is the very condition of Saints in this world when God is with them there is a fire that goes out of their mouths and destroys their enemies Rev. 11.6 and he that will hurt them must in this manner be killed they are never in any danger while their portion is with them but wo to them when the Lord departs from them therefore all their care is to keep with God 4. They are not much troubled with the loss of all other things It 's true they know that they must part with them and they can do it with comfort when it is to enjoy God A man that has a yoke-fellow that is truly the wife of his bosom whom he loves as his own soul in whom he delights above all creatures both in her person and in her graces yet he saith Farewel I can part with you with joy as the Martyr said My Christ is dearer to me than all if I were to live here I would chuse you above all the creatures but now my portion is in him that is all in all farewel A man can with joyfulness bid an everlasting farewel to many comforts here having his heart born up with his interest in God and his alsufficiency whereas other men if you take away their estates and creature-comforts you take away their hearts also Gen. 44.30 for as it was said of Jacob That his life was bound up in the life of the lad so it is with them if a friend be taken away they sorrow as men without hope and will go down to the grave mourning but it 's not so with a Saint when he lives upon his portion he considers when he loses a creature-comfort there is a bucket broken indeed but the fountain remains the way of conveyance is changed but the same God that was all to me in that comfort will be the same to me in another and therefore his soul is not troubled much at the loss of any of the creatures for his portion lies not in them he is as rich as he was before for they are no part of his treasure his treasure is in Heaven Luther Mat. 6.21 Moritur tibi pater filius uxor amittis rem gloriam sed non Christum quid magni est quòd uxor quòd liberi perierint cùm non periit Deus And therefore when a soul comes to dye his eye runs unto the recompence of reward the glory that is set before him and that makes him forget that which is behind and what he doth leave behind also the sight thereof is so alluring and ravishing to his soul that it 's a small thing to part with any thing for it he that can sell all for Christ with joy when the glory of Christ is discovered in the Gospel surely much more can he with joy part with all when he has the glory of God set before him and is now about to enter into his masters joy 5. Do not envy at the prosperity of the men of the world for he that doth envy another mans condition it argues he is not content with his own it 's true there is a spirit in us that doth lust unto envy Jam. 3. and it may prevail far upon a godly man as we see it did upon the Psalmist Psal 73. Because waters of a full cup are wrung out to him and therefore many godly mens hearts are bitter because of the prosperity of the wicked Now compare thy portion with theirs as it 's said Two Ambassadours met the French and Spanish and one boasting of the greatness of his Masters Dominions he was King of Spain and King of Arragon Catalonia Portugal the other answered to them all That his Master was King of France implying that there was more worth and wealth in his one Kingdom than in all the Dominions of the other set them all together and so it is here one man hath wealth but I have God saith the Saint and he hath honour and esteem here in the world but saith the Saint I have God there is no compare between the portion of the wicked and the portion of the godly nay we should rather pity them in two things 1 They have their portion here they have received their consolation it is all that ever they are like to have from the Lord as when you see a young man have a portion of money left him and he flaunts it out and is in all his glory you say it will be spent and he hath no yearly income this is all it hath no root that it may grow again as all the contentments of the Saints have 2 To have a fulness of all things here and to have their eyes closed up by the creatures and their spirits drowned in them to go out of a great estate to meet nothing and leave all behind them as Dives from all his riches to want a drop of water to go from all his glory to shame and everlasting contempt to say as Adrian the Emperour did Animula vagula c. what a misery is it and it is a token of a mans content when he would not be in anothers condition but thinks his own to be best as Paul said to Agrippa when he stood to be judged he did not wish himself in the Kings condition but the King in his as the greatest Kings will do one day O that I might dye the death of the righteous 6. Rejoyce in God Phil. 4.4 bless your souls in your choice let thy soul go out to him with a holy kind of complacency from day to day As a man that hath chosen a yoke-fellow and is pleased in his choice he can delight himself in her she is to him as the young Hind and the pleasant Roe Prov. 5.19 so it is with God much more a Saint takes more comfort in the thoughts of God and meditation of him than in all the comforts of the creatures in Heaven or
a Saint looks upon himself and the greatness of the service that he is called to he says Who is sufficient who can do any thing of this great work but when he looks upon the alsufficiency of God for his supply then he saith Who is insufficient I can do all things and the greater the service is that any man is called unto and the greater difficulties he encounters with the more he is to take hold of the alsufficiency of God 3. It doth disburden the soul of all its troublesom afflictions of all a mans cares and fears and sorrows it 's this that doth discharge the soul of them Psal 27.1 2. The Lord is my light and my salvation Psal 118.6 whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my glory The Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do to me It is an interrogation of knowledge and of contempt c. it doth silence all a mans doubts answers all his objections when the soul saith I am a child I cannot speak God saith I will give thee a mouth the people are hard-hearted and insufficient but I will give thee strength of spirit answerable to thy opposition We know not what to do but our eyes are unto thee I fear death but God is in life and death alsufficient he is the God of the dead as well as of the living the creatures are but vials in the hand of God I will not pour out my wrath upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak 2 Chron. 12.7 he is but the vial and they are no other who are imployed by Christ as instruments of vengeance against Rome the vials are put into their hands it is but so much wrath in such a measure and executed by one hand and by another hand so they are for good also it is but such a measure of good done by them and of service but the alsufficiency is of God still and this brings a sweet rest unto the soul fies Sabbatum Christi there is a gracious and a holy rest of Christ in such a soul as this is 4. It 's this that doth fulfil all a mans desires Open thy mouth wide saith the Lord and I will fill it Austin pateres in te angustias thy straits are not in me but in thy own heart in thy own bowels open thy mouth wide and I will fill it for I am the fountain of thy life there is no man can open his mouth so wide that the alsufficiency of God will not fill it so that as the Lord is called the fear of Israel that is he was the sole object of his fear the adequate object of it he did fear him and he did fear nothing else so he is the desire of his people also as Christ is called the desire of all nations they desire him and they desire nothing else it is all terminated in him so that a man hath not any thing else to desire and the greater difference the Lord puts between men the higher he doth advance them the more he doth make over this as their portion and they are satisfied with it Levi was separated unto the Lord of all the Tribes of Israel but he must have no portion in the Land of Canaan but the Lord is his portion and who would not prefer the lot of Levi before that of all the Tribes though he had no inheritance with them And this makes the soul in all dangers bold as a Lyon quiet in the greatest commotions De me comburendo consultatur Luther at coelum non ruet credo certus sum habeo qui causam defendat etiamsi totus mundus in me solum insaniat Luth. ad Stampic If there want means he can work without them if the means be weak he can act above them and so the soul is in his sufficiency at rest Now study and try your interest in this alsufficience if we delighted as much in spiritual things as we do in the things of the earth it would be unto us the sweetest study for what can be more delightful than for a man to read over his own evidences that having tasted the sweetness of all his comforts he may also take a view of the tenure and title by which he holds them 1 Pet. 1.7 the Apostle saith that there is a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Pet. 1.7 the tryal of a mans faith that is more precious or more honourable for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies both the tryal of faith is better than the tryal of gold 1 By tryal a man attains a certainty and that is precious for according unto the excellency of the thing so we do prize a certainty in it gold being of all metals the most in price therefore we are the most exact in our tryals of it we have the test the touch-stones and the scales c. and all because we would not be deceived but faith is more precious therefore a certainty therein is more precious that a man may know that he doth not embrace a fancy his faith is not adulterate but is the faith of Gods Elect. 2 There is a purity that doth arise from the tryal for by the tryal of gold its dross is purged ab adulterino distinguitur à scoriis purgatur c. so it is with faith also when it 's tryed by affliction from God or by examination from our selves it appears the better when the infirmities that cleave to faith are as dross to the gold for there is something wanting in faith still 3 The tryal of gold is but for this life ad exiguum tempus est utilis for it is gold that perisheth but the tryal of faith refers to the life to come for by faith a man lays hold of eternal life and the purer the faith is the surer the hold is 4 The tryal of gold makes it the more precious unto men we esteem tryed gold above other and therefore the most precious gold is set forth by it Rev. 3.18 so it is with tryed faith it makes it the more precious unto God and therefore he doth try it ut coram ipso gratior fiat tryed faith is more precious in Gods eyes as tryed gold is to ours as the word of the Lord is a tryed word though the people of God do prize the whole word of God that it is dearer to them than thousands of gold and silver yet there is no part of the word that hath so high a price with them as a tryed word as the word of faith the more it 's tryed is the more precious with us so the grace of faith the more it 's tryed it is the more precious with God and if the tryal of faith be so precious what is the tryal of a mans interest which is that unto which the tryal of all graces tends for the witness of water as well as of blood is that we may know whether we have eternal life abiding in us
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
they shall be truly our servants that is they shall tend unto the advancement of our spiritual and eternal good Rom. 8.38 what he had before spoken positively that they shall all do us good here he speaks negatively that they shall never be able to do us hurt I am perswaded that neither life nor death via extrema secunda adversa the highest pitch of prosperity and the lowest ebb of adversity or affliction shall not be able to hurt us nor Angels good or bad nor principalities and powers that is all the powers of Empires and Monarchs of the world nor things present nor things to come not any intermediate events that now do or hereafter may befal us nor heights nor depths nor any creature i. e. if there be any creature that comes not under the former enumeration whether it be in heaven above or in the deeps beneath it shall never be able to hurt us in respect of our eternal state because it shall never be able to separate us from the love of God which has so sure a ground for it is love born to us in Christ in whom he has elected us c. therefore you see there comes no disadvantage but a continual advantage unto the spiritual Kingdom by all the creatures and by the dispensations of Christ in the ordering and the government of them all Let us see this by an enumeration of some particulars 1. If the Lord give unto his people prosperity it shall be to the advantage of the inward man and in their outward prosperity their souls shall prosper 2 Chron. 17.6 Jehosaphat had silver and gold and riches in abundance and his heart was lifted up and encouraged in the ways of Gods commandments and thereby the people of God make them friends of the unrighteous Mammon and they lay up a good foundation that they may lay hold of eternal life Eccles 7.11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance it is good in it self without an inheritance but there is a special advantage by wisdom with an inheritance and so it 's better to the man or it is good to a mans self but it is not so good unto another and so Prov. 14.24 The crown of the wise is their riches but there are to other men riches reserved for the hurt of the owner and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 1.32 wisdom is the better with an inheritance but folly is the worse with an inheritance for the folly of fools is foolishness he speaks it of rich fools there are no men discover their folly more and whose foolishness is more eminent and notorious than these mens as riches draw forth the graces of the one so do they also the sins of the other 2. If the Lord give unto his people afflictions it shall be to the advantage of their inward man Rom. 5.3 Tribulation works patience surely patience is a fruit of the Spirit as all other graces are and cannot be wrought in any man by affliction unless it be given him by the Spirit A man must have patience 1 if ever he will bear affliction fruitfully but 2 the word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which doth signifie to work a thing out and bringing of it to perfection Phil. 2.12 It is this therefore that when patience is wrought in the soul by the Spirit it is improved and exceedingly drawn out by affliction it doth improve the graces of the Saints and upon this ground it is said Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations Jam. 1.2 Esa 27.8 9. in measure God shoots forth the affliction and the mercy of God is greatly seen in the moderation of the affliction By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is the fruit to take away the sin of his people when he makes all the stones of their Altars to be as chalk stones and therefore Esa 24.15 Glorifie the Lord in the fires ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Heb. 12.10 he doth chastise them that they may be made partakers of his holiness 3. Temptations for the Lord Jesus doth order all the temptations of Satan and directs them unto spiritual ends for even the very enemies of the spiritual Kingdom he doth over-rule so as he makes them servants to it even the vessels of dishonour have their use in the great house as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2.21 Satan is an enemy ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that enemy in two things to the Saints 1 In his accusations unto God he is therefore called the Accuser of the Brethren and so he did move God against Job to destroy him without a cause Job 2.3 there was cause enough in Job if the Lord had been extreme to mark what he had done amiss but there was not that cause that Satan did alledge and it is a mercy to the people of God that though there be cause enough yet he doth hide the true cause from their malicious accusers that that which they fasten upon them is no cause to set God or man against them but the more the Lord doth appear for his servants to justifie them had not Satan accused Job so impetuously God had never so eminently appeared for his justification This should quiet and comfort the Saints in all the hard measure and reproaches that they meet withal in the world that yet the Lord will arise for their justification and their enemies confusion that though a child of God may lye under the blast of the wicked for a season yet God will vindicate him at last so that false friends as well as true enemies shall be made to say Surely there is no inchantment against any of the seed of Jacob Jude 15. c. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him and his children c. 2 Satan is an enemy by his temptations unto the Saints and so the strength of God is made perfect in their weakness that is manifestly declared so to be 2 Cor. 12. for thereby their strength is tryed there is nothing tries grace so much as temptation unto sin because nothing is more opposite unto grace and gratia vexata seipsam prodit grace vexed discovers it self thereby also their corruption is purged for the Lord doth commonly temper that poyson into a medicine and Satan that seeks to kill shall be instrumental to cure he that doth intend to stab the man shall but give vent to his imposthume and therefore Luther says of temptation when the Papists did object unto Luther that he himself granted Purgatory I do indeed saith he but it is but that Purgatory of temptation and he adds Hoc Purgatorium non est fictum and hereby the enemy is conquered for we are more than conquerors Rom. 8. It was said that the Carthaginians did prevail against
last days of the world Acts 3.21 there shall be a wonderful change in the creatures doubtless before the last day when the Ass shall eat clean fodder Esa 60.17 or provender and when the stones shall be silver and gold and out of the earth shall come brass c. and when the lyon shall lye down with the lamb Esa 11.6 which some as Lactantius do understand literally to be fulfilled terra aperiet foecunditatem suam rupes montium melle sudabunt non bestiae sanguine alentur non aves praedâ Lactant. lib. 7. cap. 4. The earth shall discover its fecundity the rocks sweat honey c. When Christ shall come to the wedding his servants shall put on their gay apparel and this is the new Heaven and the new Earth which shall begin before and shall in the glory for the substantials of it remain after the Lord by the last fire has purged the world unto which the world is reserved now in this also all the creatures belong unto the spiritual Kingdom of Christ § 4. We have seen that the spiritual Kingdom is in the hand of Christ for the good of the Saints and that 1 in that inward dominion that he has over them in whose hearts he dwells by a spirit of regeneration 2 over them that belong unto this Kingdom by profession only 3 over all the creatures reductivè how they all belong unto the spiritual Kingdom 1 as they tend to perfect their graces 2 as they belong to the priviledges of the Saints There is yet one head remaining and that is how Christ the Mediator who is King in this spiritual Kingdom doth rule and order the Angels that they have an influence and do conduce to the advancement of the spiritual Kingdom and they are of two sorts Angels on Earth his Ministers and the Angels in Heaven for they are both Officers in the spiritual Kingdom under Christ the King and their Kingdom begun with that of the Mediator and he that did set them up will also put them down before he give up the Kingdom unto the Father for they must give up their account unto Christ and Christ must give up his unto the Father for he saith Heb. 2.13 Behold I and the children that thou hast given me 1 Cor. 15.24 1 Cor. 15.24 He shall put down all rule and all authority and power the word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some refer it unto all powers opposite unto the Kingdom of Christ and they say that all these he shall put down non modò ut non praevaleát sed ut planè non sit Now he doth over-rule them so that they do advance that Kingdom which they intend to oppose for he rules in the middle of his enemies but then they shall not be able to oppose now he defeats all their plots but then he shall destroy their persons also but others do refer it unto the powers set up by Christ which then he shall put an end unto when the end of that institution is accomplished and that not only unto the mediatory Kingdom which is to last but until the Saints are perfected and till they all come unto the unity of the faith and to a perfect man c. but it is expounded also de principatu Angelico they shall have no further hand in the government of the spiritual nor of the providential Kingdom but during this present state both these powers are to continue till he that did set them up shall put them down and in the continued ordering and rule of these much of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ doth consist and they do much conduce unto the perfection of the spiritual Kingdom and therefore I shall instance in them both 1. For the Angels upon Earth for so the Ministers and Messengers of God are stiled Judg. 2.1 Judg. 2.1 An Angel of the Lord came from Gilgal to Bochim it is most probable that it was a Prophet one that spake to them in the name of the Lord and some conceive it to be Phineas the Priest because he is said to come from Gilgal whereas Peter Martyr well observes if it had been a heavenly Angel it would have been rather said Coelo descendisse c. Eccles 5.6 That he descended from Heaven and Eccles 5.6 Say not before the Angel it is an oversight that is before the Priest before whom the errours of their rash vows were to be confessed Rev. 2.1 Levit. 5.4 5. Rev. 2.1 To the Angel of the Church c. and it is both a term of office and a term of honour for they as well as the heavenly Angels are sent forth for the good of the Elect and they are but Messengers they must do their office and it is also a term of honour for the Lord takes them into the highest imployments and administrations and therefore it is unto an Officer that the promise is made Zac. 3.7 Zac. 3.7 If thou walk in my ways and keep my charge thou shalt judge my house and keep my courts and I will give thee galleries to walk in amongst them that stand by Now Christ being the King of the spiritual Kingdom we shall observe how he doth govern and rule and order things for the Saints sake that he did set up a Ministry in his Church it 's true that he doth give them a Commission to preach the Gospel to all Nations and the sound of it goes forth unto all the earth it comes unto them that are hardned as well as to them that are converted by it but it was only for the sake of the Saints that he did it or else he had never appointed such an office therefore Eph. 4.12 the end of the Ministry is for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the body of Christ there are indeed many inferiour and subordinate ends there is finis minùs principalis and many of these are attained also by one and the same action and yet it is the principal end that was really the intention of the efficient without which he would never have done it though he also takes in many lesser and inferiour ends it 's true that there are many ends that by the preaching of the Gospel the Lord doth accomplish upon the wicked of the world but yet he had never sent the Gospel for these ends nor set up a Ministry for the publishing thereof but it was only for the Saints for their gathering and their perfecting c. 2. It is for the good of the Saints that he doth furnish them with gifts and abilities for so great an imployment it is onus humeris Angelicis formidandum who is sufficient for these things It requires the highest abilities attainable by the art of man and the grace of God 1 Cor. 4.1 we are stewards of the mysteries of God Parmenid non ad politias regendas aut bella gerenda c. but that the mysteries of God the truths of the
Gospel are committed unto them and the Lord doth lay them up in them as in a common Treasury 2 Cor. 4.7 We have this treasure in earthen vessels c. It is not committed to them for their own sakes or for their own use but it is for the good of the family and so Christ speaks unto his Disciples Mat. 13.52 they should be as a Scribe instructed unto the kingdom of God it was the office of the Scribes to teach the people the mysteries of the Word of God and to give the sense as Ezra the Scribe did and therefore Christ makes use of the word and applies it unto the Ministers of the Gospel and he must be endued with all sorts of knowledge he must have variety he must have old things which he has treasured up long for he is to be a Treasury of it the Priests lips are to preserve knowledge and also he must not be content with old things but he must seek after new discoveries new degrees of light he must grow in knowledge daily and therefore he must have new affections also and this he must not hide and reserve there but he must bring it forth it is what a godly man that is called by God to teach others should be affected with and afflicted for if he come short in any grace or gifts that some of his flock are eminent for Non quod ferre potes sed quod profers Cajet Esa 50.4 and all those that the Lord does call to this work he doth in some measure qualifie for God doth not send a Messenger and cut off his feet now all this is for the Churches for the Saints sake and for their good 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Let no man glory in man for all things are yours all for your sakes the highest offices and the greatest gifts and the greatest variety Paul Apollo and Cephas all is for your sake for your edification and salvation We preach not our selves but Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake we are not Lords of your faith but helpers of your joy c. Eph 4.11 12. he gave gifts unto men to qualifie them for their offices and all is for the perfecting of the Saints 3. He puts into them suitable affections and inward dispositions of heart towards them Paul says I was amongst you as a Nurse with much pains and unweariedness 1 Thess 2.7 and with much patience and forbearance bearing with your frowardness and the crookedness of your spirits and dispositions Phil. 1.8 I long for you all in the bowels of Christ Phil. 1.8 bowels you know do signifie the tenderest affections 1 such as are not natural but wrought in me by Christ for I had them not of my self and so it notes causam efficientem 2 With great affections such as Christ their Saviour did bear to them having their names written in his heart even to lay down his life for them with such bowels do I long for you being willing to be sacrificed unto the service of your faith and so it notes causam exemplarem 2 Cor. 8.16 he put the same care into the heart of Titus Phil. 2.20 it is said of Timothy Phil. 2.20 he doth naturally care for your things ad animi sinceritatem refert Theodor. it is not from any outward respect or fleshly end but from a natural principle wrought in him by the Lord that he doth it naturally from an inward principle in nature as the natural affection of the father and mother is put into them for the good of the child so there is a natural principle put into them for the good of the Saints c. 4. He doth set them in their places stars they are and he doth appoint them their orbs where they shall shine for the seven Stars are the Angels of the Churches and are in the right hand of Christ are at his dispose who sends them to a people where they shall be fishers men do not know where the sholes of fish go for we fish under water but the Lord saith Go and speak to them for I have much people in this city and when he has gathered in the number of his Elect in any place then he takes away the Ministry from thence and when there are any to be gathered in then he doth bring them again This is the reason why he doth cause it to rain upon one city and not upon another also As he sets them in their stations so quoad protectionem he it is that doth preserve them from the rage of men which truly we know not how soon we may be exposed to for I fear the time draws near yet the witnesses shall not be killed till they have finished their testimony and it is not all the power of the enemy shall be able to remove them 5. He doth over-rule and order them in their Ministry for the good of his people sometimes the Spirit of the Lord comes upon them and they speak beyond their intentions or meditations Heb. 1.1 he speaks ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he orders their hearts and he doth over-rule their tongues he doth make discoveries unto them for the good of his people as sometimes he doth pour a darkness upon them for the sins of his people and sometimes God in judgment hides his truths from a Teacher because the people are not fitted to receive them It 's true not only of the Magistrates that the Lord gives them up to commit follies as he did David because he was provoked against Israel therefore he tempted David to number the people but also it is true of the Ministers Mic. 3.6 Pro divinatione erit caligo ye shall have darkness and the Lord will give no Visions unto the Prophets and though they seek it Esa 29.10 yet they shall have no answer from God he will pour out upon the Prophets and the seers the spirit of a deep sleep Now as the Lord doth sometimes hide his word from his Prophets and his Messengers of purpose in judgment unto the people that they that say to their Ministers Prophesie not the Lord says They shall not prophesie so he doth also give light unto them and answerable unto the good that he doth mean to do unto a people such is his presence and assistance with the Prophets that he doth imploy and all the discoveries of God in the Word shall be to them to whom he intends evil as the words of a sealed book that they shall say I cannot read it because it is sealed as the Lord opens the book in mercy to his people and to his Prophets so he doth seal it in judgment to other men that seeing they shall see and not perceive and hearing they shall hear and not understand Acts 18.5 Paul was pressed in spirit and testified unto the Jews pro violento impulsu ad solitum instinctum plus accessit fervoris Calv. There is sometimes a greater impulse upon the Ministers of
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
up the spirits of wicked Magistrates for the good of the Saints as we see it in Cyrus though he were a cruel and a bloody Prince yet he takes care for the building of the Temple and gives forth commands for that work and therefore Esa 44. ult he doth say unto Cyrus Thou art my shepherd and so Alexander when he came to Jerusalem and Jaddus the High Priest came forth to meet him by the providence of God it was so ordered that he did give the Jews great priviledges greater than any of the neighbour Nations insomuch that the Samaritans did stile themselves Jews also that they might partake in the same priviledges with them Nebuchadnezzar gave commandment unto Nabuzaradin the Captain of his Guard concerning Jeremiah God over-ruling his spirit therein that the Prophet was cherished rather than evilly intreated by him c. 3 By stirring up the spirits of wicked men to stand for a good cause and to assist the people of God therein as we see when Lot was carried Captive by the Kings that Abraham did pursue them Gen. 14. ult and there did joyn with him Aner and Escol c. they that were but Heathens yet were assistant unto Abraham in such a work as this the Lord did stir up their spirits and so he doth many times by an over-ruling power stir up the spirits of men otherwise uningaged and uninteressed to be instruments and means that the people of God may attain their rights and all of it is only by this over-ruling hand of the Soveraignty of Christ even over ungodly men 4. By their Persecutions the Lord doth stir men up many times to persecute his people Nebuchadnezzar is the rod of mine anger and I send him against an hypocritical nation though he know it not but this is all the fruit it is to take away their sin for by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged Esa 27.9 it is to make them to beat their Altars into chalk-stones c. and let me tell you because we may look for times of persecution that great hath been the victory and the glory that the people of God have gotten even by the persecution of ungodly men nunquam majore triumpho vicimus Nay if it be but a mock a scoff a reproach a false report from an evil spirit the Lord makes his use of it as we have an instance in Austins mother she had by custom rather than inclination learned to drink up full cups inhianter but after a while the maid of the house and she fell out and in their difference the maid objecit hoc crimen amarissimâ insultatione vocans meribibulam quo illa stimulo percussa respexit foeditatem confestimque damnavit exuit Confess lib. 9. cap. 8. 5. By their sins the people of God are warned the Lord doing as the Lacedemonians setting them forth as patterns of evil that his children might flee them heresies arise in the Church that so they that are approved may be made manifest and Apostates that Hymeneus and Philetus's Apostasie might make the rest of the people of God the more careful that they that name the Name of the Lord Jesus may depart from iniquity when they see such eminent and dangerous falls as these and the Lord doth make use of their sins in a way of admonition as of their judgments also 6. Their desertions and proving false to the people of God many times and forsaking them as Egypt proved a broken reed turn to the Saints good that so they might cleave to the Lord alone and that they may see that there is a deceit in all their former Lovers there is no trust unto such men that speak lyes in hypocrisie and follow Gods cause and people only for loaves c. and God permits them so to do that the people of God may say their trust is in the Name of the Lord only Assur shall not save us any more nor King Jareb they have all deceived us as a brook that passes by c. I might instance in many more particulars as 7. Their restraints for their good God puts a hook and a bridle upon them they shall not be able to hurt the Saints they shall hear a rumour that shall divert them another way § 5. As the providential Kingdom is circa maxima so it is circa minima and all these are ordered by the Soveraignty of God for the good of his people they have an interest in the Soveraignty of God even in the ruling of them also here are two things to be spoken to 1 That the smallest things come under the providential Kingdom of God that is under the Soveraignty and Supremacy of God 2 That in the government of them he doth order all for the good of the Saints that the Soveraignty of God works for them in small things as well as in great things 1. That the smallest things are subjected unto the Soveraignty of God and that his Kingdom is seen in the government of these also This I shall clear to you in a few particulars 1. The Lord is called commonly in Scripture the Lord of Hosts and that not only in reference unto the Angels and the Sun Moon and Stars which are the Hosts of Heaven but even as to the Hosts that are here below Gen. 2.1 there is an Host of the Earth as well as of Heaven and as there is not the smallest Star in the Heavens but belongs unto the one so is there not the meanest the poorest creature upon earth but is part of the other the Locust the Canker-worm the Caterpillar and the Palmer-worm my great army says the Lord Joel 2.25 And they are the Lords Host in three respects 1 Propter multitudinem Joel 2.25 for multitude there are many of them gathered together for they are not a few that make an army 2 Propter praeparationem in regard of preparation every one comes armed and prepared for the slaughter or any work that the Lord hath to do either for relief or for destruction 3 Propter subordinationem by reason of their subordination they all act in their places and do the service unto which they are particularly appointed they do every one keep their ranks fire and hail snow and vapour wind and storm fulfilling his word they do not thrust one another out of their place but there is a military order observed amongst them 4 Propter obedientiam in regard of their obedience they do all of them obey the word of command which they do receive from the great Commander for they are all of them under command as the Centurion said of his servants I say to one Go and he goes so doth the Lord also say unto the creatures for it is said that even before an army of Locusts Caterpillars and Palmer-worms the Lord doth utter his voice he doth command the winds and the sea and they obey him 2. Christ himself doth extend the care and the rule of God unto the
yet amongst the Israelites not a Dog did move his tongue Signum est magni silentii dum canes silent A great love may be seen in an ordinary Providence to a man as Grapes to be had in a wilderness as a Messenger sent one of a thousand a word spoken in due season a Scripture opened to me when I had need it was directed to me in my necessity such a comfort administred at such a time when I was in extremity and it came in the season of it it is an argument of great love as when David was besieged and Saul thought that he had them sure now a report must be brought that the Philistins had invaded the Land and so change his Counsels and divert the forces from pursuing David 6. Small and ordinary things shall be for their preservation Exod. 23.25 He shall bless thy bread and thy water and will take sickness away from the midst of thee that whereas other mens food breeds and nourishes diseases his food shall be blest unto him that it shall be healthful and not hurtful and when Sennacherib is come to besiege Jerusalem after all his ranting and threatning he shall hear a rumour a report shall be brought him that the King of Ethiopia had invaded his Land and so change his purpose and it shall be for the preservation of the people of God 7. Ordinary things shall tend unto the destruction of the enemies and they shall fall by the turning of an ordinary providence the smallest things shall even ruine persons and nations as Pharaoh and all Egypt were even destroyed by flies and lice c. the Sun shines upon the water and they shall say that it is blood The Kings have destroyed one another 2 King 3.22 23. Sometimes by the turning of the wind great things have been done for the people of God great battels have been won both by Land and Sea and sometimes by rain strange things have been wrought for the defeating of the counsels of enemies Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an East-wind c. And we know what small providences have cast the balance for the people of God against the enemies and that in many doubtful cases when they had nothing but providence to work for them 8. Consider how by small and ordinary things the Lord doth preserve the lives and support his people in the world by causing the Sun to shine and the rain to fall the earth to bring forth the fig-tree to blossom and we see he gives them food out of the earth and the beasts do them service and they do it willingly and readily Now what a miserable life were the life even of a Saint here if it were not for such common and ordinary refreshments if the Lord should as a Lion watch over us as he doth threaten them he would be as a Lion and a Leopard in the way to observe them There is a providence that hath given these unto the sons of God as their inheritance so that they do injoy the comfort of them and eat the fruit of them day by day the service of thy hand maid and of thy beast all act for thee as being made by God to be thy servants It is true that the service of the Angels is comfortable but it would not be sufficient without these which are ours in a way of ordinary providence Cogita te esse in regione deserti in peregrinatione vitae Aug. and such as we account less though we taste the good of them from day to day Surely therefore all things even the smallest things shall work together for good to them that love the Lord for the good of their spiritual and temporal state also SECT IV. The Saints Interest in Gods Providential Kingdom both mediate and immediate necessary and contingent § 1. WE have gone thorow the first distinction of the providential Kingdom we come now to the second which is that Providence is either immediate or mediate The one is when the Lord works without means putting forth his own power immediately to the producing of any effect without the concurrence of any means or help of second causes and this is called making bare his arm or making it naked Esa 52.10 So long as the Lord doth work by means though there be his hand yet his hand is hid and covered under the appearance of creatures so that our eyes are either wholly or mainly upon them but when the Lord lays creatures aside and his own arm doth appear to bring salvation so that nothing else is seen but the hand of God in it without the concurrence of creatures the Lord is then said to make bare his own arm that is to shew forth his own power Hab. 3.9 purely and nakedly so Hab. 3.9 His bow was quite made naked c. he speaks it of the discoveries of Gods power in an immediate way and his bow is vis tua robur tuum Drus he speaks it of the dividing of the red Sea and the turning back of Jordan in its own chanel the power of God did immediately appear without any concurrence of means and any instrument or second causes and therefore his bow was naked c. the Scripture doth speak of the Lords smiting with the rod and with his fist c. And here there are three Propositions that I must lay down 1. That whatever the Lord does by means he can work immediately by his own hand without all means he that did give being unto the second causes can without those causes produce their effects he is independent in his working as well as in his being and doth not depend upon means and second causes in any thing that he doth and therefore if he do deprive his people of the means and will supply it in himself it shall be infinitely better they shall have a hundredfold more in this life eminenter the Sun shall be no more thy light by day but the glory of the Lord shall be the light thereof if he deprive them of the light of the Sun yet he gives them his own glory to be instead thereof and it shall abundantly answer it He hath indeed bound us in duty to use the means but he hath not bound himself he is still at liberty either to work by his own immediate hand or in the way that he hath set in the order and subordination of causes yea as much as if no such order had been made by him and therefore the time will come when God shall be all in all and this order of causes shall surely cease and then all effects shall be produced by God immediately and that in a far more glorious manner than now they are by the influences of their causes amongst the creatures 2. In the means which he doth use there is an immediate concurrence of his own power to the producing of the effect concurrit immediatè c. and without this the second cause could do nothing men
he is strong not by his own power for the ten Kings give their kingdoms to him and he doth exercise the power of the former beast before him and it is said Dan. 8.25 He shall be broken without hands that is by the breath of the Lord and the brightness of his coming 2 Thess 2. by an immediate manifestation of God against him not by any power of second causes for the people of God may expect the same immediate workings of providence for them that they have had in times past Esa 10.26 He will stir up a scourge for them according to the slaughter of Midian and he shall lift it up after the manner of Egypt Now as for that of Egypt it was by an immediate appearance of God when there was no means used and so for that of Midian Judg. 7.19 20. they blew the Trumpets and they broke their pitchers and that was all that was done which was a means that of it self had no influence into the effect but the Lord set every mans sword against his fellow and such immediate discoveries and actings of providence the Lord doth promise unto his people and they may expect them from him in all their straits when the enemy comes in like a floud c. 5. They may expect immediate deliverances Laban came out against Jacob with an evil intention but he saith Gen. 31.29 It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt but the God of your fathers spoke to me yesternight saying Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad And so Balaam had a will to curse the people of God and he wanted no incouragement and solicitation from the King of Moab to do it and yet remember what Balack consulted and what Balaam answered And the instance of Abraham when his hand was up to flay his son and the Lord called to him out of Heaven Stay thy hand Mic. 6.5 and thereby it was a Proverb reserved in the Church of God ever since Jehovah jireh In the Mount will the Lord be seen that is when all means and hopes of preservation is past that they look upon themselves as to be sacrificed now they may expect an immediate appearance of God for them 6. For their immediate Support if the Lord call Moses to him into the Mount he shall there be mantain'd forty days and nights and neither eat bread nor drink water but his support shall come from an immediate hand and so it was with Christ also in his temptation by Satan when he had fasted so long when the Lord does deny his People the means he doth give them a support in himself that they shall have no want of the means as it is in a spiritual way so it is also very often in a providential way that when the Lord denyes the means he doth give unto his People a support in himself that so they may learn to trust unto him and to know that they have an interest not only in his mediate but in his immediate Providence and that the special Providence of God towards his people has both these parts in it to shew that though they see not Providence in the use of all the ordinary means yet that they tempt not God nor look for all things in a common way in the use of means that it may appear that they trust in God alone and can shut their eyes and say I know not how it will come in I see no means but there is a Providence that is above means with him the fatherlâss find mercy So it is in all inward afflictions also and distresses of Conscience the Soul has many times nothing to look upon but an immediate and almighty hand all means fail they have gone from Ordinance to Ordinance and they have waited when a Messenger one of a thousand should be sent to them but there is none that can speak peace to them there is no fruit of the lips to refresh them and when the mans soul draws near to the Grave and his life to the destroyer then he doth immediately lift up the light of his countenance and thereby his soul is revived again and delivered from going down into the pit that as the Lord Jesus Christ when there was nothing of creature comforts to uphold him for they all forsook him and fled then the Promise of the Lord was made good Isa 42.6 Isa 42.6 I will hold thee by the hand and I will keep thee when all the creatures withdrew their succour not one of them did hold forth their hand to him now there was from the Father an immediate and a secret support so it is with the Saints also Psal 37.24 Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast away for the Lord upholds him with his hand but there is sometimes an immediate income that is known unto the Soul the Lord lifts up the light of his countenance in the darkest night when he sees nothing but Hell and Destruction before his Eyes which is called the hidden Manna Rev. 2.17 and the new Name and the white Stone Rev. 2.17 They had no Manna till they were in the Wilderness and all hope of support from creatures did fail now the Manna comes and such are the incomes of the Spirit into the Soul and a new Name and a white Stone when he comes to judgment upon himself and he is ready to pass an eternal sentence upon himself counts himself free amongst the dead like them that lye in the Grave whom thou remembrest no more never to have a good look from God now the Lord comes in with a sentence of absolution and gives a man a name that none knows but he that has it but then the Lord will make him to know it it is speaking peace from the Lords immediate voice as the Martyr when he came to the Stake and had no means of comfort in a Desertion before now he cryes out He is come he is come It is with many a Soul as with the woman that had the issue of blood twelve years and had waited upon the Physicians attended on the means which God had appointed and spent all her time and pains upon them and yet was not the better but rather the worse and she is reserved for an immediate cure by Christ and an immediate rouch from him shall do the work that as Bernard observes concerning the time when Christ came in the flesh which is in Scripture call'd the fulness of time Non apparebat Angelus non loquebatur Propheta cessabant velut desperatione victi tunc dixi ecce venio c. so it is with the coming of the Spirit also when all means have been used and all fail and the soul is ready to sink under the burden now the Spirit saith Lo I come the soul did before find that there were everlasting arms under it and that it did hang as the Earth upon nothing did not know how it was
upheld but now the Spirit comes in and makes bare his arm dispells the darkness and saith Behold me it is I now I come and so a mans comforts and supports come in from an immediate discovery of the Light of Gods countenance as if it were a voice from Heaven as it was to Christ This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 7. He doth sometimes give unto his People courage and assistance immediately beyond what is natural unto them Zach. 4.7 and above and beyond all the means Zac. 4.7 Not by power nor by might but by my Spirit saith the Lord it is spoken of the Spirit of God immediately strengthning and stirring up the spirits of instruments beyond their own natural strength as Samson was the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and then he had the strength of many men in him Isa 35.6 and Isa 35.6 The lame shall leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing it is spoken of immediate strength and healing by the grace of Christ that as the Lord Jesus did heal men and with a word only and without means their feet and ankle-bones received strength and they did leap as a Hart and praise God so here they have immediate assistance as David had in the business of Goliah the spirit of fortitude came upon him for that service and the promise is Zac. 12.8 The weak shall be as David as full of courage in any difficult services that they should be called unto as David was when the Lord shall say to him that is of a fearful heart Be strong and it shall be so Esa 35.4 and so Mat. 10.19 It shall be given you in that hour Luk. 21.25 I will give you a mouth and wisdom that all your enemies shall not be able to resist for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you that as Samson was not acted by his own strength so neither did they speak by their own spirits but by an immediate assistance from the Spirit both directing their minds suggesting to them the matter and also guiding their tongues and directing them unto words what to say and how they ought to speak that as 't is said of the Prophets the Lord speaks in them Heb. 1.1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Heb. 1.1 for they are said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as they were transported or carried by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.20 they were not acted according to their own spirits 2 Pet. 1.20 neither did they speak according to their own parts or light but as they were directed by the immediate assistance of the Spirit of God at the same time so there is an immediate assistance that the Lord hath promised unto his people when he doth call them forth unto any service wherein the immediate presence of God and power of the Spirit is necessary and required it is beyond the power or strength of a man and it is that which the Lord many times doth he will bring his people into such a condition that there shall be no means for them to look unto that they shall be wholly fatherless and have neither Sun-light nor Star-light in the creature receiving the sentence of death in themselves that they may look for Gods immediate appearing 2 Cor. 1.9 But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves that we could see no means to escape but now must have an eye to an almighty and immediate power of God that we might trust not in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead that our deliverance must be a kind of resurrection from the dead And the people of God if they have the means yet they look upon them as nothing We have no might against this great multitude but our eyes are towards thee and if they have no means they can look upon him that hath a creating power that can make waters to break out in the Wilderness and streams in the Desart and the parched ground shall become a Pool and the thirsty ground Springs of water in the habitation of Dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes that which only was fit and delightsom unto the Devil the Satyrs that shall be good for the glory of God and the use of man as it is Esa 35.7 8. 2. There is in the next place a mediate Providence and that is in the manner of Gods ordering of all things in the use of means and so all the means that the Lord does use are for the good of his people Rom. 8.28 All things work together for their good that though the Lord doth work by means and doth make use of second causes to produce their effects yet they do all concur in this that they do conspire for the good of the Elect of God Hos 2.21 22. I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth Hos 2.21 22. and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel the Lord doth work for the good of his people by second causes he doth not rain corn from Heaven as he did Manna in the Wilderness but the Earth shall hear the corn and he will give it them out of the earth and in all the actings of second causes it is the Lord that hath the great hand he doth make them to be a means of blessing or else they could never prove so to be it is the Lord that doth hear the Heavens it 's a mighty strain of speech that the Heavens and the Earth that were before deaf and dumb to them that took no compassion upon them in their necessity and answered them not now when they are reconciled are brought as it were to be humble suitors and petitioners for them the Heavens shall say Lord I would give my influence rain to refresh thy people and the Earth shall say Lord I would give my strength for the good of thy people also c. For as it is by virtue of the Covenant of the Saints that all the creatures stand so it is by their Covenant also that they do act it is by being betrothed unto God that all the creatures are in Covenant with them and it is for them that all means do act freely and all creatures willingly do serve for it 's their redemption that they wait for and long for but unto other men they are made subject not willingly but the Lord hath subjected them in hope Rom. 8.20 21. but their subjection is an act of Soveraignty and not of choice for they would not serve the lusts of ungodly men though they are willing to serve the necessities of the Saints therefore all the means that the Lord doth use are for the good of the Saints and it is for them that they work in all that they do 1. He it is that doth provide and appoint means there is in
them to have the Remainders of sin in them in this life and they shall never be freed from it till their dissolution We shall easily see that he as the Lord of all has ordered this by his Sovereignty and Supremacy for the good of his people and that it was for their sakes 1 That hereby he may exalt the Grace of Justification unto the Saints for God to pardon sins past it were rich mercy infinite mercy but for the Lord to leave sin remaining in a man and while he is conflicting with it and fears he shall be overcome with it every moment sees himself still to remain a sinner and yet the grace of Justification still to hold out that as there is in me a Fountain of sin so God is the Father of mercies and he doth not only pardon at first but when I sin and endeavour to make a breach upon my Justification again he shews mercy still and doth multiply to pardon Isa 55.7 this exalts the Righteousness of Christ imputed in justification for tolle morbos tolle vulnera nulla erit medicinae causa Dam. Therefore a man doth daily wash his feet and sees the Sun of Righteousness to rise upon him daily that he may be justifi'd not only from the Acts of sin but also from the remainders and Reliques of sin that are in him Joh. 13.10 And this also doth exalt the grace of God the Father justifying When the Apostle had had more than ordinary experience of the remainders of corruption in him and was much afflicted looking upon himself as a miserable man by reason thereof and judging himself worthy to be destroy'd for it and might by reason thereof have expected the sentence of death every moment now he looks upon the grace of the Gospel as justifying and he finds a new sweetness in it there is now no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 Not only the sins committed before Conversion but the sins remaining after do justly make the soul liable to condemnation but such is the grace that justifies us that there is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus 2 That there may be a continual Conflict kept up in us our life is a Warfare and therefore Job 14.14 it is said all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã all the days militiae meae of my warfare this is not against enemies without against spiritual wickednesses in high places only but against enemies within in a special manner the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and by this means the war is maintain'd The Lord will have the time of this life to be tempus militiae a time of warfare and the other life laetitiae of triumph as Bernard speaks this laboris of labour that mercedis of reward and there is no conflict in the world like unto this to have two contraries in the same place each of them striving to destroy one another and yet neither of them compleatly and totally prevailing for they are contrary Gal. 5.17 and there is a greater opposition against sin than there is against the Devils themselves or any enemies without there are the sorest battels fought between flesh and spirit in the same soul and with greater displeasure and indignation against them than Saints against the Devil himself for this is the greatest evil to them because it is in them and because the Lord will have a conflict that so the graces of his People may be both exercised and also tryed and improved the power of Grace and the truth of it would never have been so gloriously seen if there had not been such a principle of corruption drawing it forth daily 3 That he may keep his people humble there is no one thing that the Lord takes more care of than that the Saints should not be lifted up it is the end of Affliction to hide pride from their hearts and of temptations and desertions in the flesh that they might not be lifted up in themselves and exalted above measure Now it 's true it 's matter enough to humble one if duely considered to call to mind what he has been as it did Paul I was a persecutor and a blasphemer and injurious 1 Tim. 1.13 As some of the Heathens having risen to be Kings from small beginnings would keep something still to put them in mind of their Original as one being a Potters son would be served only in Earthen Vessels all his life-time The remembrance of what is past might humble a man to say Such were some of you such were ye but it is much more effectual to humble a man to consider that very iniquity is not fully purged unto this day but there are still some remainders of it upon me there is still a law in my members that rebells against the law of my mind that when I would do good evil is present with me and this makes me to look upon my self as a wretched and a miserable man and makes me to loath and abhor my self the same sore is running upon me still I am sensible I have the leprosie and therefore I can take no pleasure in my self the Devil comes and hath something in me there is a Principle that is prone to close with any temptation there is a sea of corruption that doth but wait for a wind nay if the Devil should never disquiet it yet it is a Fountain that will cast mire out of it self c. 4 That the Saints may be exercised in Prayer and Repentance daily Now it is that which the Lord requires of them every day Pray without ceasing and a man is Nulli rei nisi poenitentiae natus c. Now that there may be something that we may ask of him daily to give us that is a further degree of Grace a greater measure of purging and that we may apply the Righteousness of Christ for to mortifie sin in us as well as to satisfie God for sin and that there may be always something that we may confess and bewail before God and repent of and mourn for this sin is still left in us And look what benefits the people of God do receive from these constant and daily exercises all these do flow from the Sovereignty of God towards them in leaving of the remainders of sin in them and by this means we come to have a part in that great honour which belongs to Christ and that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã taking away of sin It 's true Christ only doth it by way of satisfaction and he is the only original of our sanctification but yet we do it as having our spirits also acted by the Spirit of Christ and so our wills and desires joyning and concurring with him in that work therefore we are said to mortifie the deeds of the body and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts to purge
our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 which we do by his Grace yet there is a concurrence of ours therein 5 That the Patience and forbearance of God even towards the Vessels of mercy may be so much the more exalted Num. 14.17 Moses says Let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken the Lord long-suffering and of great mercy even his forbearance is an act of his power it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is an impotency in a man that he cannot forbear if he be injured it is utterly a fault amongst you but it is not so with God it is his Power that he can forbear 't is the patience of his power and therefore we are not consumed when we daily provoke him the imagination of a mans heart being continually evil he is God and not man Gen. 6.5 Gen. 8.21 Hos 11.9 therefore Gen. 6.5 and 8.21 they do seem to cross each other in the first place 't is said the Lord will destroy man because the imaginations of his heart were evil and in the other I will not again curse the ground for mans sake for the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth it seems to be given as a reason of two contraries he will and he will not every imagination of the heart of man is evil therefore I will no more curse the Earth for his sake it seems strange reasoning it is by the Jesuites and Arminians looked upon as an extenuation of Original sin There is now that infirmity come upon him which was in Adam indeed a sin but now it is become a disease an infirmity a condition of Nature and therefore humanae infirmitatis miserebor I will pity humane infirmity so A Lapide and others who make the being of sin in us to be no sin but there is quite another sence of the words the particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is taken either causativè or adversativè and so it is rendred sometimes quia because and sometimes quamvis although Glass Rhet. pag. 606. Our translators take the first for the imaginations of the heart or because the imaginations of the heart of man are only evil and so Brentius Pareus c. Si vellem semper genus humanum diluvio punire c. If I should always bring upon them a flood for their iniquity I should not leave a man upon the earth all man-kind would be destroy'd for the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth and therefore now having smelt a savour of rest from a sacrifice I will not for this cause destroy them any more by a flood But many of the learned render it adversativè and so it is although so Exod. 13.17 The Lord led them not thorough the land of the Philistins although that was near it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Exod. 34.19 Let my Lord I pray thee goe amongst us for it is a stiffe-necked people that is although it be a stiffe-necked people and so it is an expression of the wonderfull patience of God that though men provoke him daily and all the imaginations of their hearts are evil continually yet hoc non obstante I will shew my patience towards them and will no more curfe the ground for mans sake c. and it is spoken of all men not only wicked men but godly men for whose sake the Lord doth spare the creatures for it is for the Saints sake that the world stands and that the earth is not destroyed and yet the imaginations of their hearts are evil from their youth and by this the patience of God towards the vessels of mercy as well as towards the vessels of wrath is very highly exalted 6 That the Lord may hereby shew how great a grace that donum perseverantiae gift of perseverance is and what an almighty power doth concur thereunto Adam had no sin and yet he fell from his first state how then shall we stand that have in us nothing else but sin something of the venom of the old Serpent that is ready to open unto him upon every suggestion and ready to take fire by every temptation a sin that doth easily beset us or compass up about Heb. 12.21 And the great aim of Satan without and sin within is to extinguish grace that this seed may dye in the man but it is maintained and there is an almighty power that does it therefore 1 Pet. 1.15 We are kept by the mighty power of God through saith unto salvation or else we should perish every day and this exalts the grace of the second Covenant unto the souls of the Saints because there is not only a grace of conversion but of perseverance also the Spirit of Christ having once taken possession of the soul takes possession for ever never to leave it again if Christ hath cast out the strong man he will never himself be cast out till Satan be stronger than he which is never possible 7 That the souls of the Saints may be kept here in a continual longing and a groaning condition for glory there is nothing so great an evil as sin and therefore nothing should make the soul weary of this life so much as sin because it cannot end but with our life and this is one blessed fruit of it Rom. 8.13 We groan for the Adoption but why do we groan 2 Cor. 5.24 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there are many burdens that the people of God are under in this life but there is no burden like unto that of the body of death that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a weight indeed Heb. 12.1 and they groan therefore to put off this tabernacle because without it there is no putting off this body of sin but by being freed from this prison we are so apt to be in love with this present life that we had need of something that might be bitterness to us and imbitter it to us so that we take not up our rest here but that the soul may look for and hasten to the coming of the day of God and may rejoyce to put off this Tabernacle be willing that the flesh should be destroyed that thereby there may be the destruction of the body of sin in us also And thus we see the Soveraignty of God working for the Saints in this great state of the being of sin in the Saints in this life bringing much good unto them as well as much glory unto himself thereby § 3. 2. As the being of sin comes under the Soveraignty of God so doth the rising of it in the heart which doth never break forth into act it is true that the heart of man is an evil treasury and it is an evil fountain but though it be always issuing yet it doth not vent it self the same way but sometimes in this kind and sometimes in that Seneca in omnibus omnia vitia sunt licèt non se exerunt c. Mar. 7.21 22 23. For out
not how comes it to pass that it doth not excutere It is not so much from a Principle of Grace within for that is in its own nature defective but by vertue of the Covenant and the Prayer of Christ without and it is this Prayer that doth uphold all the Grace that is in us or else it would ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã deficere c. This Intercession doth not only present their Duties but it preserves their Graces also the one would be rejected and the other extinguished were it not for this The Saints have a double Advocate as the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies the Spirit of Prayer as an Advocate within us which as a witness doth many times fail us and we by our own sins lose the benefit and the comfort of it but then we are to have recourse unto the Advocate without us as the Soul is sometimes to make use of the witness of Blood when he cannot see the witness of Water 3 It brings a man unto the great duty of Confession to become publick examples of Repentance which hath been a great honour unto the Saints who have risen out of their falls and we cannot say that the records of their falls have been so dishonourable unto them as their publick Repentance and abasement before God has been honourable with this the Lord honour'd David and his Repentance stands upon Record Psal 51. and with this also he honour'd Solomon which is Recorded in the Book of Ecclesiastes which is therefore entituled Coheleth which Cocceius observes to note receptionem suam ad ecclesiam per poenitentiam his reception into the Church by Repentance and is as much as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a man gathered unto the Congregation of the Lord and so did Paul Act. 22.4 I persecuted this way and I was mad against them and so doth Luther he left it upon record tantus eram sanctus ut paratissimus fueram unumquemque occidere c. and this Tertull. de poeniten chap. 9. observes to be in use in his time .......... Presbyteris advolvi charis Dei adgeniculari as the example of Eccetalicus c. Thus as they were eminent examples in sinning so they were desirous to be of Repentance 4 Hereby they are no more confident of their own strength and so exalt not themselves above their Brethren so Christ ask'd Peter Now lovest thou me more than these Joh. 21.15 he was before for making comparisons with all other men though all men should forsake thee yet not I but now here is no Comparison and if there be any strength in that Christ ask'd by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and he answers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is a less degree of Love it was good advice to him But he said well Hîc quaerendae non sunt subtilitates the words are commonly in the Gospel promiscuously used and it is a signal instance of Gods power to bring good out of evil when a man by reflecting upon some great sin that he hath committed can say that his carnal confidence in himself and his own strength is healed thereby 5 This makes a Saint to walk in fear ever after and blessed is the man that fears always a fearless spirit doth bring sin 1 A godly man fears sin as the only Evil fears an Oath and he doth say with Chrysostome ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this only is matter of fear but specially when he has had experience of the breaking forth of it eminently a man fears a disease that he hath felt and so David will not trust his tongue without a bridle and his Eyes without a Prayer turn away my Eyes from beholding vanity and thereby the bank is made up against that sin all their dayes and it may be a sin that a man feared least shall get the greatest hand upon him if temptation get the wind and the hill of him 2 He fears lest the Lord may therefore leave a note of dishonour upon him Revel 7.6 7. when the Tribes were sealed Dan was left out Rev. 7.6 7. and so is Ephraim tanquam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã antesignani Mic. 1.13 this Tribe was the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Sion they of Dan did it for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee it was a scandalous sin the Lord may leave a note of sin upon a man and his posterity afterwards for it and he may not be honoured as the rest of his Brethren but may have a brand stick upon him for committing folly in Israel c. 6 That a man may be fitted for service by it Luk. 22.32 Christ says when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren a mans own comfort doth fit a man to comfort others 2 Pet. 2.2 and so do a mans own falls also 2 Cor. 1.4 who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble 1 By the Experience of the power of sin he may be the better able to admonish others 2 Pet. 2.2 they denyed the Lord that bought them and he can best speak of the danger of such a way himself that hath found it and had experience of it in himself Austin having been himself a Manichee when he disputed with Felix the great Manichee he could shew him the vanity of it by experience and so frustrata vanitate errore illius sectae ad nostram fidem conversus est c. Possidon in vita August 2 He will be able to comfort others against the guilt of that sin having himself sound favour he can shew others the way unto it and so could Peter having found mercy himself and David for this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee and so Luther did publish unto all the way of Mercy that God had vouchsafed him that all men might see that mercy is to be had for them Peter velocissimè veniam consecutus c. Bern. 7 That it may be unto a man matter of Humiliation all his days sins before Conversion be grievous as they were to Paul I was a Persecutor and a Blasphemer 1 Tim. 1.13 and such were some of you but now you are washed A man should not so look upon what he is but he should also look back what he was Behold thou art made whole remember that thou wast a sick man and the keeping it in view will be usefull unto a man all his dayes to make him exalt mercy and to cause him to abhor himself So Austin after he had made his Confession he saith Spes mihi valida est in illo qui sedet ad dextram tuam interpellat pro nobis alioquin desperarem magni enim multi sunt languores animae meae magni multi sed major est medicina tua amplior And so a man doth exalt Grace and by this means abase himself all his days Oh I was a Blasphemer I was an Adulterer a Persecutor and yet I have obtained
of God is exalted in their hearts so much the more which might have suffered them for ever to have walked in the errour of the wicked and to have gone in the same way with them Psal 69.27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity that is as the Saints go from one degree of grace to another they go from glory to glory from strength to strength so let these go from one sin to another God lets them do it till they have filled up their measure and then le ts go judgment after it upon them by giving them over unto it that so they may fill up their measure for there is a measure of sin as well as of grace Joel 3.13 Put in thy sickle and reap for the harvest is ripe the press is full there is a measure of iniquity and then they do come up in remembrance before God the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full A dismal judgment it is that a man should live for no other end but to fill up iniquity 3 Hereby the Saints are daily admonished what they are in their own nature if the Lord leave the best men to themselves and kept it not under the restraint of grace 2 Tim. 2.19 they seeing others Apostasie fear themselves and Christ speaking of him that was to betray him all the Disciples began to fear lest it should be themselves this sin is in my nature say they and therefore it is meer mercy that I am not so wicked as Cain and Judas I am as like to commit it as they if the Lord should leave me to my self that gratia subsequens the Rock that followed them preserves his people from the sin that is in their natures and they reflect upon that when they see others fall into sin considering themselves lest they also be tempted Gal. 6.1 4 Hereby they are minded of the ends that sin brings men to that they may fear them As the ends of godly men are to be observed whose faith follow knowing the end of their conversation so we are called upon in Scripture to consider the ends of the wicked Prov. 23.21 Drunkenness will cloath a man with rags who hath redness of eyes and wounds without cause Prov. 6.26 By the means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread and a dart striking through his liver and he gets a wound and dishonour that shall never be wiped off Prov. 21.16 The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in coetu gigantum in the congregation of the Giants they being the first sort of sinners that ever went into Hell and so did give the first denomination unto the place of the damned 5 By this the Saints are put upon many duties towards them which will abound unto their account and 1 to pity their souls and to wait for them with patience Tit. 3.2 3. Shewing all meekness towards all men for we our selves were such Rom. 11.31 says the Apostle That through your mercy they also may obtain mercy 2 Despair not of them because the Lord shewed mercy to you therefore wait if at any time God will give them repentance 1 Tim. 1.16 He shewed in me a pattern to them that should hereafter believe in him c. we have in our selves an instance 3 We are to undervalue the persons of thesâ men how great soever Prov. 29.27 The wicked is an abomination to the just Psal 15.4 Dan. Dan. 4.17 4.17 they are the basest of men be they never so great 4 As the people of God fear the ends of the wicked so they hate their ways He walks not in the counsel of the ungodly Psal 1.1 he stands not in the way of sinners when sinners entice him he consents not Gen. 49.6 My soul come not thou into their secrets unto their assembly my honour be not thou united Psal 141.4 let me not eat of their dainties and also Psal 26.9 Gather not my soul with sinners nor my life with bloody men there is a bundle of the living there is a being gathered unto ones fathers and people wicked men are so and godly men are so they both have their people let me not be gathered with them that are ungodly O Lord. 2. Now more particularly the Saints are by Providence gainers by the plots of wicked men and their counsels by their attempts against them and by their executions and in all these the secret providence of God over them is manifested First by their plots and counsels a great part of the evil of wicked men lies in their plots devices and machinations Psal 35.20 They devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land they never know what they are doing or meditating on their thoughts are a continual forge of evil the Devils anvil always at work against the people of God Jer. 18.18 Jer. 18.18 Let us devise devices against Jeremiah it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies a cunning plot and a curious work c. and the Saints fear their plots commonly more than their power as they fear the Devil more as a Serpent than as a Lyon and yet by their plots they travail with mischief devise evil continually Prov. 6.14 and it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies fodit he hath a Mine within Prov. 6.14 and is always digging out mischief as a godly man hath a fountain that is always issuing good there is a good treasure and an evil treasure and the Holy Ghost speaks much of the plottings of wicked men against the Saints which never come unto any thing they weave a spiders web which never becomes a garment and by these plots the Saints are gainers 1 They see the Lord restraining their very plots that they do not always rise none of them shall desire thy land they shall not see their own advantages and they shall grope at noon day Job 5.14 it is spoken of their counsels he disappoints the counsels of the crafty and that is by snarling their thoughts confounding their plots that they do not see their own way they want no will to effect their mischievous devices but yet they cannot tell what way to take against the people of God therein the Lord is seen 2 He clogs them their hands cannot perform their enterprise they cannot bring their wicked devices to pass always when they should come to execution when the children are come unto the birth there is no strength to bring them forth for the Lord doth blow upon them and they wither as the grass upon the house top and they bear no fruit 3 They end in their own destruction Esa 59.5 They hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders web c. a serpent a viper eats out the bowels of the mother they themselves are stung with them unto death they are taken in their own craft the wicked is insnared in the work of his own
but when once they began to turn the head of their policy against the Saints they did very speedily find their ruine therein the Lord did go beyond them and they were taken in their own craftiness For when Satan has ingaged their spirits against the Saints Satan never leaves but he makes them restless raiseth up in them both great plots and great hopes and so they never cease till they meet with the Church as a burdensom stone at which they will always be lifting till they be broken therewith for in their very policy they do perish and in their own plots as in the net which they had privily laid is their foot taken Zac. 12.1 2. Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and Jerusalem 2. How doth the Lord turn these plottings of wicked men be they never so deep unto the good of his people 1. God doth set Divine wisdom on work for them for they have an interest in all the Attributes of God and they shall be put forth for them as their necessities do require Psal 119.120 It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy law The Saints may desire God to put out an Attribute then and they do flye unto their strong hold unto their chambers as Esa 26. as when the power of man is exalted against them now it is time for them to say We have no might against this multitude but our eyes are upon thee it is all one to thee to save with few or with many so when carnal wisdom is exalted now is the time for God to put forth his wisdom for them that are his people for they say We have no wisdom against this wise and subtle generation but our eyes are upon thee and in thee is our wisdom laid up Herod had a plot against Christ and he will come and worship him that is he would come and destroy him and the Wise-men also that came to seek him now is the wisdom of God put forth for Christs preservation one is sent into Egypt and the other are admonished by God and they return into their own country another way And the people of God have more benefit by seeing the wisdom of God acting for them than they can have disadvantage or discouragement by seeing all the wise men of the world against them O great is the sweetness that the people of God have by seeing any Attribute act for them and for their good that by this means they may come to understand their inheritance in Attributes which is far beyond that of creatures or promises as a father his bowels are moved for a child when he sees him in danger and then his affections do discover themselves so do the Saints expect that the Lord shall fulfil his relation in that respect when dangers are pressing upon them c. 2. In the middle of all their plots they comfort themselves in this that they shall take no effect against them till they have done the service which the Lord hath appointed them unto Luke 13.32 they told Christ that Herod had a plot upon him to kill him he saith Go tell that Fox Luk. 13.32 behold I cast out devils and I do cures to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfected Franc. in his History Animalium gives us three properties of a Fox he is animal dolosum crudele gulosum subtle and deceitful all for death cruel and all for the prey and there is a double property of him as deceitful 1 Noctu prorepit he only goes forth in the night doth all things secretly and so do Plotters they must not be seen and a great part of their wisdom is to be undiscovered 2 Nunquam rectis incedit itineribus sed ambagibus He doth never go right on but always he hath his windings and turnings so Politicians they love to walk unseen and they never love to go in plain paths but in secret ways to ensnare men But Christ when they told him of the design of this Fox Herod he comforts himself with this there is a set time for my work and then when that is done my service is perfect then shall I dye and I know all his policy shall be able to avail nothing against me till I have finished the work that the Father has given me to do And so may all the Saints comfort themselves against all the plots of wicked men against them they shall finish their work notwithstanding 3. This shall sometimes make way for their service in a wonderful manner the Jews had a plot against Paul and they had taken an oath That they would neither eat nor drink âill they had killed him this occasioned his being sent unto Caesarea first and afterwards to Rome where the Lord told him he must bear witness of him also and glorious was the service that he did there and the souls that he converted were many and in a special manner even in Caesars family there were souls brought home unto the Lord Phil. 4.22 All the Saints salute you chiefly those that are of Caesars houshold it was Nero that opprobrium humani generis and yet the Lord had some to pluck out there and the Lord made the plot which they had against him the occasion of all this great work what loser was Paul by it nay how much honour did it bring unto tââ Lord and how great thanksgiving was given unto God by these pâor converted souls who came unto the knowledge of the Gospel and the way to life by this means 4. What they do plot to hinder shall by their very plots be advanced Esa 44.25 he turns wise men backward that is they shall see a quite contrary effect unto that which by their wisdom they intended to bring to pass against the Jews and the raising persecution against the Christians since was to hinder the Gospel and to suppress it but this did further the Gospel for it did occasion their going forth unto the Gentiles and by this means the sound went forth into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world and ãâã the casting off of the Jews became the inriching of the Gentiles by this means which else had never been so gloriously and fully done and I do not doubt but the very opposition that is against the Ordinances of the Gospel shall establish them in the Lords time and the opposition against any truth hath ever established that truth for they are but as winds that root the trees by shaking of them they fasten Jer. 20.10 Report say they and we will report it the wicked plot to take away the good names of the Saints by casting out slanders against them as if they were the vilest wretches upon earth but there is not such a way to bring an honour upon them and to cause the Lord to make their light to break forth out of darkness unto after generations as to reproach them 5. Hereby they have experience of those glorious promises that God has made to his people of frustrating the plots of their enemies Esa 8.10 Consult but it shall come to nought speak the word but it shall not stand for God is with us Prov. 6.14 Frowardness is in his heart he devisâth mischief continually he sowed discord therefore shall his calamity come suddenly suddenly shall he be broken without remedy and Psal 19.21 Many devices are in the heart of a man but the counsel of God that shall stand Psal 64.6 7. They search out iniquity they accomplìsh a diligent search the inward thoughts of every one of them and the heart is deep but God shall shoot at them with an arrow and suddenly shall they be wounded Hereby the Saints flye unto those promises and they have experience of their interest and the prayers of the ancient Saints against all the enemies that ever plotted mischief against the Church as the instance of Judas they are answered in after-generations and there is a Communion of Saints that the people of God have with Saints departed upon this ground also they have a benefit by the prayers which they did put up upon earth which are accomplished upon the enemies of the Church and people of God in after-ages Lastly They have experience of strange secret and glorious deliverances by this means and truly experience of God in any kind is no small advantage to the Saints they make much of their own experiences and live upon them afterwards Possidon tells us in the Life of Austin that as he was travelling there were certain of the Donatists whom he calls Circumcelliones that did lay wait for him armed to kill him obvenit Dei providentia sed ductoris errore but he missed the way per hunc errorem manus impias evasit and so escaped This drew forth in him and in many others of the people of God many praises unto God for so great and unknown deliverance and I did the rather insist upon this because the enemies of the people of God are very busie in plotting against the Saints and we have cause to fear the fraud of the enemy as well as their force though if hand joyn with hand yet the wicked shall not be unpunished and the God that has delivered will again deliver These things may one day be worth thinking of when we are cast upon such providences that we know not what to do then the Lord will arise for the help of those that wait on him FINIS
fruitfulness And that it 's not spoken of the invisible Church the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven is plain for these two reasons 1 Because the Jews are said to be the natural branches of the good Olive-tree and the Gentiles are said to be branches of the Olive-tree that is wild by nature and were grafted in contrary to nature Now to Jews and Gentiles grace and regeneration are alike contrary by nature so that there are no natural branches neither is there any grace derived from parents unto children Saving grace flows not from any company of men no not from the invisible Church they are only Christs and he only can communicate them but Church-ordinances and priviledges are properly the Churches and by the Church are derived unto all the members thereof whether they be Elect or Reprobate Mic. 3. ult We are born again not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man Joh. 1.13 for amongst Jews and Gentiles there is no difference All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. but this is spoken of a birth-right priviledge which doth descend and come upon a man as he grows upon such a root therefore this is meant only of a visible Church-state 2 It 's spoken of an Olive-tree which hath two sorts of branches some remain in their own Olive-tree and are never broken off but some there are that are broken off for as Christ spreading himself as a Vine into a visible Church hath both fruitful and unfruitful branches some are in him that bear no fruit Joh. 15.2 so hath the Church of God as an Olive-tree some branches that abide and some that are broken off Now in the invisible Church there are no branches to be broken off for ex solis constat electis it 's the Church of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven therefore this Olive-tree is a visible Church and the branches growing in it are visible members they that are grafted in are taken into visible membership and they that are broken off are cast out from a visible membership the root of this Olive-tree is Abraham the father of the Faithful with whom as it were the Church-covenant did begin for there was not a covenant made with him only for himself That the Lord would be his God but also the God of his seed and therefore it 's mercy to Abraham but it 's truth to Jacob and the benefit of their grafting in is this they partake of the root and of the fatness of the Olive-tree the root is Abraham and that in reference unto the Church-covenant made with him and his seed wherefore they are the children of Abraham and of the Israel of God and they partake of the fatness of Church-blessings priviledges and ordinances for that must be meant for it 's such a fatness that the Jews did partake of that were broken off and such a fatness from which they also might be cut off vers 22. if they continued not in his goodness therefore it must be meant of Church-ordinances and priviledges only and not of the saving graces of the Spirit which flow immediately from Christ and not from the Olive-tree the Church 2. It is made a special mercy to the Jews when they shall be grafted in again into their own Olive-tree that is become a Church of God and be taken into Abrahams Church-covenant and be made partakers of Church-priviledges and ordinances and this shall be the new Jerusalem that is to come down from God out of Heaven Rev. 1.2 and this Church shall injoy communion by outward priviledges and ordinances as the Churches of the Gentiles do for there shall be a gathering of men to the Lord by them Esa 66.19 there shall fishers in abundance stand upon the waters and the fish which is the persons that shall be taken and converted by them shall be as the fish of the great sea exceeding many Ezech. 47.10 for the great harvest of the Church is reserved for the latter days and the Ministry must continue so long as there are any of the body to be gathered in or to be perfected till we come to the unity of the faith Eph. 4.13 and to be perfect men and there shall be Church-censures administred in their glory and in the highest majesty and authority there shall no unclean thing enter there Rev. 22.11 without shall be dogs and every one that loves and makes a lye and it 's that this Church shall bewail as the great want in those rising Gentiles we have a little sister and she hath no breasts Cant. 8.8 by breasts she means the ordinances and the ministry of the word wherein milk for babes is laid up therefore this Church that she complains had no breasts was the Gentiles as afterwards the Gentile Churches do with joy and triumph relate of themselves vers 10. That their breasts were like towers c. and as formerly the children of the Jews were taken into the Church-covenant with their parents and made members of the visible Church which no man can deny so it shall be with them again as they were broken off with their parents so with their parents they shall be grafted in and those promises made good unto them their children were Church-members and so shall they again be Esa 65.23 they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord and their off-spring with them the promise is Ezech. 16.20 21. Jer. 30.20 Cant. 7.2 Their children shall be as afore-time and their congregation shall be established before me which latter words do refer unto their Church-state they shall be sons of the Church as they were in former times and the Lord says that the ordinance of Baptism shall be very fruitful even unto those infants of the Church and very efficacious though now it 's dark and we find little benefit by it being an ordinance of God appointed by him to convey secretly gracious influences tending unto infants spiritual welfare so some expound that place Cant. 7.2 Thy navel is like a round goblet c. The Church is here compared unto a mother conceiving and bringing forth now here is the way of nourishment for children in the womb not yet brought forth which is ministred by the navel as to children brought forth it is taken in by the mouth Now there being no ordinance of which children in the womb of the Church while infants are capable but Baptism therefore it 's conceived by some to be meant here by the navel of the Church and thus we see it shall be a special mercy to the Jews when they shall be ingrafted in again into the external form of a visible Church 2. To be cast out from being a visible member is the greatest judgment that can befal a person or a people in this life God doth then cut them up by the roots 1 Vpon a person 1 Cor. 5.5 such