Yet speaking in the Language of Eternity he calls them Vessels of Mercy Vessels unto Honour And indeed whatever is looked upon as only a Motion or Ordination of Time must needs arise from our selves For all Acts of Grace are Eternal in their Spring and Fountain Time therefore genders only to a Covenant of Works I know not therefore but why as the generality of Preachers enlarge most upon the one as to unconverted Elect There may not be some stirr'd up and enabled of God to triumph in the Savour of the Knowledg of Christ made known by them in the other while they Center upon the Eteral Election of God demonstrating it self in Calling Conversion Sanctification But they only can do this who have receiv'd it as a peculiar Talent But I doubt not the Spirit of it will within short time be pour'd out more abundantly and that it shall not turn to Licentiousness but overflow with Holyness and Purity as also Efficacy of Conversion The third Head I Transpose into the second Place as being more Congenial or of a kind with the first and will joyn the second with the fourth and those following to Head 8th Head 2. The laying the Sins of the Elect upon Christ is not their Discharge from their Sins This is oppos'd to what Dr. Crisp hath said All the Weight and all the Burden of Sin the very Sin it self is long ago laid upon Christ and that laying it on him is a full Discharge and Release to that c. The Conciliation To an Eternal Being there must needs be an Eternal Justification because there is no new thing to him The Apostle therefore makes the whole Chain of Salvation of an Eternal old Style whom he Foreknew he Called he Justified he Glorified Rom. 8. 30. All in the Time pass'd not in the Style of Time but of Eternity But when we speak in new Style Style of Time there is not an actual Discharge of Sin or a Justification of a Sinner by Election but according to the order of things fix'd by God in Time Even so if we consider Sins lay'd upon Christ even the Sins of all the Elect in the Fulness of Time as the Apostle styles it That Fulness of Time may be very well supposed to collect into it self all Time And as the Sins that were past were Recollected so the Sins to come were Forepriz'd into it And all this issues into the Fulness of Times that is of all Time in the Kingdom of Christ For as Christ dyed in the Fullness of Time so the Glory of his Redemption appears in the Fulness of Times Eph. 1. 10. of All Time when all Things in Heaven and Earth shall be Recapitulated in him which yet we know they are not The Offering of Christ therefore is an Offering once for all and it is one Offering that forever Perfects and Jesus Christ is Yesterday and to Day the same forever As then all Time is gather'd into that Fulness of Time So that Fulness of Time redounds upon all Time and Flows out upon it till it Flows into that Fulness of Times Now as the Lord of Time offered Himself in the Fulness of Time he expiated all Sins in that Fulness and what was expiated in the Fulness can never be charged in the Retail of Time for then it was not expiated Although therefore when we are spoken of and unto as not the Lords of Time but the Subjects of Time we are oblig'd to measure it out by Parts as being Inferiors to it and below the Hill to it we see the Approaches of its Events one after another only but the Lord Paramount of it being so high above it sees all at once we are Creatures but of the Parts of it so indeed we are not Discharged from Sin in the Discharge of Christ But from hence to conclude we are not in highest Sense Discharg'd but that if the Elect dye before Faith and Repentance they are lost for ever is to make supposition of Impossibilities it is to set Time the small outlet of Eternity to rise up and Encounter and lead Captive Eternity even the Eternity of Election and that the parts of Time may be set in Battel Array and subdue the Fulness of Time But this can by no serious Considerer be allow'd I find not then but as there is just Reason to represent to Men that till they find within themselves the Efficacies of the Death and Redemption of Christ by Faith and Repentance they stand in the sight of their own Consciences as Persons who have no Interest in that Death in that Redemption And that this is proper on one side representing God and Christ therein as the Rector and Governor of the World to move them to Repentance and it is that which Scripture does very largely and frequently insist upon So on the other side it is most true That the Foundation of God stands sure and cannot shake nor totter even under this very Seal single and alone That the Lord knows who are his and that his Election shall break out with all the mighty Effects he hath pitch'd upon as most suitable and Connatural to it So that it shall produce in all its own the Derivative Stamp Let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from all Iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. And that Christ is in all Senses the Certain and Infallible Sanctifier of his People by his Blood That he not only as a Judge and a Law-giver but as a Prince gives Repentance and Remission of Sins This may be as hopeful to move the Spirits of Men and be as gracious a Conveyance of the mighty Efficacy of the Divine Grace and Spirit For as these are rich Truths of Scripture so they have an admirable mooving Stroke upon the Hearts and Minds of Men And he that Ministers them is a Minister far more immediately of the Spirit that giveth Life of that without which the Evangelick Law is a Letter that kills Head 3 to Head 8. I put these Heads together because there cannot be any difference in the main Notions but only in the different ways of Expressions and what each part may think will most lively illustrate and make the deepest imprint of the great Scripture-truths upon the Heart I say there can be no difference in the main Truths between Persons sober and Reverent of God and of Christ for who can think the filth of Sin transacted on Christ in such a sense as that Christ should be defiled by it But now there must needs be a Moral Impurity in every Sin as it is a Recess from the Holiness of God from the Righteousness of the Divine Law there is a Dishonour a Blot a Stain and Blemish a Deformity a loss of Beauty and Honour and Happy Conformity to Goodness and Righteousness This is intended by Reatus Culpae another thing from the Reatus Poenae or a meer Obligation to Punishment I demand then What becomes of this Obliquity the Guilt of the very
Heads at the end of his Book the Line of my Procedure and so have set them at the end of this I commit all to Divine Blessing and Christian Acceptation with this gladsom Prediction that if we can but for a little a very little time love the Truth and Peace Zech. 8. 19. The Light concerning these Points that hath been but as the Light of the Moon in the time of the 42 Moons of the Apostacy not yet expir'd and so still darkning the Sun's Light shall be not only as the Light of the Sun of Christ's Face ch 10. 1. in the Reformation But the Light of the Sun even since the Reformation shall be Seven-fold the Light of One Day as the Light of Seven All in One. Then we shall Rejoyce and no longer Dissent Let us Earnestly Pray Lord Let as it shall shortly do Thy Kingdom thus Come A SECOND Conciliatory Discourse CONCERNING Dr. Crisp's Sermons AND Mr. Williams's Dissatisfactions concerning them THat which I would lay in the Foundation and as the Center of this Discourse shall be a Scheme of the Doctrine of the Gospel in these Points 1. The Covenant of Grace in all the Graces and Duties of the Convenantees of it God in infinite Wisdom Holiness and Purity hath so setled that it is an Absolute Covenant in which Christ is not only the Great Sacrifice and his Blood the Price Ransom and Purchase But He Himself is the Surety the Mediator the Testator of it So that This Covenant shall never be Found Fault with Not only on the Account of its own Goodness but not on this Account that the Covenantees or those who are indeed intended by Christ to be the Covenantees have broken it and so it hath become ineffectual to them This is most evident from the Apostle's Argumentation Heb. 8 7 c. For if the First Covenant had been faultless there should have been no place sought for a second The first Covenant that God made was in it self good had they to whom it was given been suitable and agreeable to it The Apostle therefore changes that his word if the Covenant had beâ—n faultless into those words For finding fault with them he saith Behold the Days come saith the Lord I will make a new Covenant not according to the Covenant I made with their Fathers c. which my Covenant they brake or continued not in and I regarded them not But this is the Covenant I will make with them I will write my Laws in their Hearts c. Hence it follows The Covenantees according to the faultless Covenant must so continue in it that God may be for ever their God and they his People there need be no dispute what Covenant this was or in what regard it is here spoken of whether only as a Covenant of Moral Obedience or as a Ritual Ceremonial Covenant for it is undeniable the Apostle represents it herein as a Covenant found fault with that they who were under it continued not in it and therefore whatever Covenant whether Moral or Ceremonial had that Fault to be found with it God would change and bring in a Covenant that should not have that Fault to be found with it It must and shall be effectual to the grand purpose of keeping in the People of it so within it self as to be God's People and that he will be their God such efficacies of Grace shall all go along with it This is not to be eluded by any Art or Wit of Man 2. From hence it must necessarily follow There is a certain number chosen and elected according to the Grace of this Covenant and for them this Covenant is made For it is too evident in plain view and as matter of fact that the most Gracious and Spiritual Covenant of the Gospel does not thus embrace all that are under it in profession as that God should be for ever their God and they his People and that they should be for ever pardon'd Seeing yet 2dly it is God and Christ that look to it that this Covenant should be thus continued in And 3dly that Scripture speaking of those thus secur'd according to the Covenant of Grace stiles them The Election and continually speaks of the Election of Grace the Riches of Grace and the Glory and Praise of Grace not of Works but of Him that calleth All this put together shews a certain Number elected In respect to whom this Covenant shall not be faulted for their breaking it 3. The Election is in Jesus Christ the Head of the Adoption the First born among many Brethren even all the Sons God will bring Glory through Him So Jesus Christ must be the Supreme and Chief in the whole Doctrine of Salvation His Blood and Death his Righteousness and Obedience His Appearance with that Blood in Heaven in his Melchisedecian Priesthood and there by the Power of an Endless Life Negotiating and Transacting all for and in his Servants as by a perpetual Rotation of that Power as in a Sphere of highest Activity by his Spirit These are the very Powers of Salvation 4. This the Scripture represents to be Eternal or from before the Foundation of the World which is the constant Expression it uses to convey to us the Notion of Eternity by now Eternal surrounds and encompasses Time and gives all the efficacy to the Motions in and upon it for as it encircles it so it penetrates it every where with infinity of Lines cutting it every way so that though to us as Creatures of Times these two Time and Eternity seem most distinct and are so spoken of yet indeed Time is supported and in all Parts and Lines of it interwoven by Eternity 5. The Supreme Representation of God in the whole State of our Salvation is as of a Father in Christ this is most demonstrative seeing it is to the Adoption of Children we are chosen which necessarily carries the notion of a Father seeing also it is the making conformable to the Image of his Son and seeing it is for the bringing many Sons to glory And so Jesus Christ is represented in the nearest and most intimate Relations as the First-born among many Brethren yea sometimes as a Father as a Husband as a Root to the Branches as a Head to the Members This is the most inward and intimate Representation of Scripture concerning our Salvation 6. But the Outward and more extern Administration is by God the Judge of all or the Rector and Governor of all and by Jesus Christ as Lord of all and he as having all Judgment committed to him is made known to us But though the Elect Children of God and Members of Christ are comprehended in several ways of Scripture-speaking under this Outward Administration yet This Outward Administâ—ation is chiefly with regard to the Non-Elect to clear and justify God in all his Dealings with them and therefore as to the exterior part of his Administration there are the same Overtures made to the one that
or Scheme of a Conditionate Election and a Conditionate Covenant of Grace then an Inconditionate Election and a Conditional Covenant of Grace except we make the Series and Frame of the consequent Disposes of Election Conditions God puts upon himself for the making good his first Choice that is he chooses upon Condition he himself will in time give Faith Repentance Holiness which we know were both unreasonably derogatory from the Divine Glory and from that order in which Scripture gives us these Supreme Acts of Grace For Foreknowledge Predestination Election in Christ are the Fountain of Calling Justification Sanctification Glorification Rom. 8. 29. Whereas if Sanctification were the condition of Justification Glorification coming last must be the condition of all the rest As if the Sense were on condition God will Glorifie he will Sanctifie So Justification must be the condition of Calling and Calling of Election But how much more Beautiful and Orderly is the Scripture Chain Making all after Wise disposes flowing from the Independent First And so every where Scripture Discourses he hath chosen us that we should be Holy and without Blame before him in Love Ephes 1. As of God viz. by the Eternal Fountain of Grace and in his Electing Love are we in Christ who is of God 1. Cor. 1. 31. without any condition on our part made Wisdom in Calling Righteousness in Justification Holyness in Sanctification All these are brought into Glory in Redemption that none might Glory in his Presence but he that Glorieth might Glory only in the Lord. For if there were but one Thing suspended upon us as a Condition on our Part even that single thing would turn the Covenant of Grace into a Covenant of Works For it would be Work done by our selves and we might Glory we have done we have will'd we have run we have atchiev'd and attain'd what ever indeed that might be Duly demanded of us and is not required is Grace or whatever is given is Grace But what is required on our own Strength is Work and though it be said God assists by his Grace by his Spirit yet if there be 99 Parts given or assisted and but the 100th Part our Act that 100th Part is Work and all Grace is suspended on that For on the doing or not doing that All hangs And seeing thousands do not that 100th Part if we do it we have reason of Boasting that we were wiser we were better than they For how small how little soever that nice and curious Point be on which all the vast Globes of not only Eternity but Supreme Grace turns and wherein Divine Wisdom and Holyness placed all That is ours and we have done it And though in all else we are beholden to God to Christ to the Divine Spirit yet in that which is the last Hinge we are beholden to our selves Nay if all were first given and but our Perseverance only were the Condition on which all depended the same might be said of Perseverance that it turn'd the Covenant of Grace in that Part into a Covenant of Works And whereas many do not Persevere we have reason to Glory we Persevere and there is some thing we have not received And so the Vertical Point would be our selves and we might Glory in his Presence For that and not Christ would be the Corner Stone and to it we might cry Grace Grace And however there is so much to be ascrib'd to Grace and what would in common Speaking among Men be call'd the making of us and doing all for us Yet it is to be consider'd whether the Glory God will not give to another be not parted with and surrendred by him if the last Decisive Point Rest upon us which makes me Assured it cannot be so And so though I acknowledge with those who most acknowledge it the necessity of Faith Repentance Holyness and of our own Action therein yet in speaking of the Covenant as the Covenant of Grace and being an Ectype or Exemplification of Everlasting Grace I say These nor any Action of the Elect ought to be styled Conditions but Wise and Holy Dispositions of God the Author and Founder and of Christ the Mediator Surety and Testator And which he will most certainly see to that they shall most Infallibly take place in their just Series Succession and Order both of Nature and of Time And why should we be so afraid to speak of the Covenant of Grace as Inconditionate For what is there that we would single out as a condition that is not to be ascrib'd to Gods Immediate Gift Is it Faith Is it the Gift of God Ephes 2. 8. To you Is it given to believe Is it Repentance He hath made Christ a Prince to give it Acts 5. 31. If God peradventure will give Repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. Is it Holyness Christ is made so Sanctification to us that we cannot Boast Is it the Laws of God in our Hearts A new Heart a new Spirit a soft Heart his Fear within us that we may never depart from him One Heart and one Way to fear him forever to know him by his Spirit All these are assurd to be given even as Pardon in Sin and by as free a Gift All by a plain absolute Inconditionate Grant How many and great Scriptures run in this absolute Style and yet how expresly is all this call'd a Covenant Jer. 31. Heb. 8. Jer. 32. Ezek. 11. Chap. 36. But if it be said how then comes it to pass that the whole Strain and Stream of Scripture to which Preaching ought to be conform'd speaks of these Graces and all the Actions agreeable to them as Conditions of the Covenant of Grace There are three grand Accounts to be given of it I. It becomes the Wise and Holy Rector and Governor of the World and of his Rational Human Creation to treat and deal with and give them all Scope Room and Business and Advantage in and for Intellectual Action Men as Rational Creatures know not how to deal with one another or to move themselves but by the Activities of Understanding Conscience Will Affections So that they must lye still and not act at all or be moov'd only as Bruits or Machines or thus There is therefore the continual Rational Breathing and Motion of Doctrine Instruction Promise Threat Reproof Correction and all kind of Motion and Action suitable and agreeable to it All Scripture is therefore prepared and Profitable hereunto Besides the Commands and Precepts of Holyness being so abundant they shew the necessity of a continual Recourse to Christ for Strength Grace and Assistance for Righteousness from him and Pardon through him wherein we fall short Nothing mooves more to run to the Righteousness of Christ than the sight of Imperfect Grace and Action to which we are called if by our selves though under Divine Assistance from Christ II. Now under this Oeconomy and Dispensation of Things the Grace of God according to Election and according to the Mediation
sense before either Justification or Pardon but that mighty Rays and Beams of each must be broken out to the Soul before it enters into the Beginnings of Eternal Life by Faith and Repentance is very hard to understand except Faith and Repentance are ascrib'd to Man as the Products of his own Power and Will If they are from God his Justifying Righteousness and Pardon are come near when-ever where-ever he gives Faith and Repentance And as it may be most necessary in some regards to Preach Faith and Repentance as in order to Pardon and Justification so is it no less necessary to be as Free and Large that without graciousest Approaches of the Righteousness of God and Christ brought near Faith and Repentance lye for ever dead that every unconverted Person may gasp up to God and Christ for that Grace that is abundant in Him The intention is not that Pardon or Justification can be without Faith or Repentance but whether Justification doth not draw and excite its own Faith and Pardon it s own Repentance So that they are rather before Faith and Repentance than Faith and Repentance before them And which Preaching is most to be preferr'd in the Nature of Things without respect to the Present Necessity and for the Time Being That which is most abundant in ascribing to the Principal or in pressing the Less Principal and Subordinate I make no doubt the Singing the new Song before spoken of Rev. 14. will in a short time determine And yet I defer all that ought to be deferr'd to those whose Spirits are both enlarg'd and enabled to offer to the Souls of Men the things wherein God appears as the Rector of the World offering Faith and Repentance in order to Justification and Pardon while the Secret Springs of his Justifying and Pardoning Grace give the very Faith and Repentance required But surely great respect may be had to what is to be without violating what is even as Sacrifices are debas'd Esa 1. in foresight of their final removal by Christ Head 13. Sinners have much to do to be saved Conciliation Even the Righteous arc scarcely saved For with Men it 's impossible but with God all things are possible I can do all things through Christ strengthening me My Yoke saith Christ is easie my Burden is light I will run the way of thy Commandments when Thou shall enlarge my Heart The Joy of the Lord is Strength His Delight is in the Law of the Lord Faithful is he that hath Promised and will Perform it to the Day of Jesus Christ Great and Precious Promises are given whereby we are made Partakers of the Divine Nature We can do nothing againstst the Truth but for the Truth All these with innumerable more of the like shew the Certainty and the Easiness of the Salvation of God's Elect. And yet as we look to Man and his Motion and Action these Things are impossible For there is no doubt Holiness and New Obedience are the Paths wherein though with many Imperfections Falls and weaknesses in the present state God carries his Elect to Life and Salvation And the Way is narrow and the Gate strait and require striving to Enter But God is their strength who keeps their Foot from being taken that they walk in their way safely and their Steps are not straitned He makes their Feet as Hinds Feet and sets them on High Places They that wait on the Lord run and are not weary They walk and faint not He girdeth them with strength By him they leap over a Wall Head 14 15. I joyn these Two together The Gospel hath Threats and Promises Holiness and Good Works are necessary to Salvation Conciliation As upon the gracious Councels of God before All Worlds Began so upon this very Point among all the Disposes of God in time the Hinge of these Points turns For if the Gospel be a Law full of all Holy and Righteous Precepts to which Faith and Repentance introduce us arm'd with its Promises and Threats and so setled as a Covenant that who of himself accepts the Terms of it by Faith and Repentance under the Assurance of the Assistances of the Divine Spirit are accepted and shall have All the Benefits of it and whoever will not shall be Damn'd and his Judgment shall be more intollerable because he refuses such gracious Terms offerr'd This doth I confess perfectly overthrow Dr. Crisp's Scheme For then Christ comes in as a Law-giver and having all Judgment committed to him and there is a Mediatorian Law and Covenant in the Hand of the Mediator of more gracious condescention than that of the Covenant of Works but the last result of all is into the free Will of Man and his Action in compliance with this Covenant Thus of the Law and the Covonant of Works as the First Law there is a Perfect Abrogation as a Law but as the Holiness and Righteousness of it are transplanted into this New Law so here is as to that Law a perfect Antinomianism and all Mankind are only under this Law and Justification Salvation or Death and Condemnation are according to Obedience or Disobedience to this Law or Gospel-Covenant of which the Conditions are Faith and Repentance But if the Gospel in the Supreme Intention of it and in the Propriety of its Nature be a Covenant of Grace wherein God is pleas'd to be from his own free purpose of Grace the Soveraign Covenantee and his Elect bear the Analogy or part of Covenantees as at the other Extreme and Jesus Christ the Mediator Surety and Testator pass between both that all may be perform'd Mediating with God for his efficacious Grace in giving the Divine Dispositions promised in this Covenant as if perform'd by the Covenantees So bringing every thing in effect from God to us and from us to God and by his Death having right as a Testator to bestow the very things upon All given to him by God to give Eternal Life to them John 17. 2. Then shall the Gospel or New Testament be supremely a Ministration of the Spirit of Righteousness of Life according to 2 Cor. 3. And in its Subordinate Nature it shall be a Publication of the Divine Grace and Love to Mankind in general upon the Terms of Faith and Repentance The Law all this time stands in its own place as the Eternal Sanction of Holiness and Righteousness and can never be abrogated because it is Eternal Righteousness but it is as a Covenant so far mitigated as to accept the Satisfaction it requires from a Mediator and so it is in the Hand of a Mediator Gal. 3. 19. Towards whom it commands Faith and Repentance or return to God by him even as it is a Law of Eternal Righteousness Requiring Faith and Obedience to all Manifestations from God sufficiently testified to be from him and as these Manifestations of Grace are the only possibility left to a fallen Nature to return into a State of Agreement with God Hereupon the Law