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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
is added to the Gospel as the Rule is to the work-mans hand and the yoke of Gospel-obedience is nothing else but the duties that the Law requires as being the servant unto the Gospel the way of the Gospel is still the way of thy Precepts O God Vse 3 It is also for Consolation it is the greatest ground of comfort and the greatest gift of God even next unto Christ and the second Covenant that he hath made the Law a servant thereunto It 's much that the Lord has given us all the Creatures and they are all our servants Angels and Principalities and Powers all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo and the curse of the Law also persecutions afflictions death are all sanctified but above all that he has made the Law a servant to the Gospel For the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law all is from the Law and all our fear is from the Law and to have the Law of God to charge sin upon a man is the great ground of a mans terror because it comes to the Conscience with the Authority and Majesty of the great King the highest Judge and Law-giver now to have this Law made a servant and in subordination unto all a mans spiritual and eternal welfare it is a very high ground of a mans consolation and so a man under the second Covenant loseth only that which is evil in the first Covenant but all the good of the first Covenant he attains under the second whatever good the first Covenant can do him he hath that also purchased by Christ for him through the overplus of the Grace the superabundant Grace of the second Covenant that we may say Grace abounded much more thus Out of the eater came meat and out of the strong came sweetness and that which was the ground of the greatest terror in the world a man can now claim as his portion talk with as his counseller and feed upon as the sweetest of all his delights that his soul is even ravished with it Thus the Lord has subjected the Law to the Gospel and do you rejoice in its Ministration Thus have we brought this large Tract to an end which is the Key of all the whole Treasury of God wherein you have heard 1 That God in the Creation did deal with man in a Covenant-way 2 The foederati the Covenanters were Adam and his Posterity 3 The terms of this Covenant were perfect personal and perpetual Obedience 4 The Condition on Gods part was Life Spiritual Temporal and Eternal 5 This Covenant Adam brake not only for himself but for all his posterity 6 That the Curse of the Covenant broken is death spiritual temporal and eternal 7 That the Covenant of Works is not abolished by the fall but all unregenerate men stand under it still 8 That this is to every unregenerate man a desirable Condition 9 That under this Covenant all unregenerate men are for Irritation Coaction and Condemnation 10 There is a Translation out of this Covenant and an abolishment of it to all that are regenerate 11 The Subordination of it to the Gospel The END of the First Book BOOK II. THE Covenant of Grace Its AUTHOR FOUNTAIN and the Persons with whom it is made CHAP. I. The Author and Fountain of this Covenant Gen. 17.2 And I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly SECT I. The Person who makes this Covenant Jehovah and why he will deal with all in a Covenant way THE Covenant of Works as made with man in his Creation as violated by the Fall and as cancelled in his Regeneration and as subordinate and made subservient to the Covenant of Grace we have seen in the former Discourse and we now come to consider the nature of the second and better Covenant which all the Saints in Heaven are saved by which man can never break and the righteousness whereof sin can never spend There are in Scripture four eminent publick persons with whom this Covenant was made which are set down in two instances in the Scripture 1 With Adam where it is very darkly represented 2 With Noah Gen. 3.15 Gen. 9.9 and with his Sons which is a branch of the Covenant of Grace and is so brought in Isa 54.9 This is the waters of Noah to me 3 With Abraham and to him was the clearest manifestation of it who it may be was therefore called as a special term of honour the Friend of God because the Lord imparted secrets to him in a more evident familiar manner than he had done with the Saints of old as a man does with his friend Luk. 1.73 it is his Oath that he sware to Abraham to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made Gal. 3.16 and if you be Christs you are Abrahams seed and Gal. 4.22 23 24. Abrahams Family is made a type and a shadow of the two Covenants and the durable generation of men under them Abraham had two Sons which things are an Allegory they are the two Covenants c. and therefore Mic. 7. ult it is mercy unto Abraham and truth unto Jacob because in Abraham after a sort the Promise and the Covenant did begin and therefore it is mercy in making it but it is truth in keeping of it 4 With David Psal 89.3 I have made a Covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant And Isa 55.3 I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David and Act. 13.34 you will find it again repeated and therefore is Christ called the Son of David and also David that shall be King over them Ezek. 37.24 Hos 3. ult Act. 15.16 The Tabernacle of David is said to be raised up in the Primitive times but there is a time coming that God will raise up the throne of David also when that promise shall be fulfilled I shall give him the Throne of his father David of his Kingdom there shall be no end and when that Dan. 7.14 shall be accomplished He shall be brought unto the Antient of days and shall receive a Kingdom after the four persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down which we see not accomplished when that Scripture Rev. 11.17 shall be fulfilled That the Kingdoms of the Earth shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord. His they are now as he is the King of Nations but they shall be so also as he is the King of Saints and they shall subscribe unto the Lord and his name shall be called upon them c. I have made choice of this Scripture as setting forth the Covenant made with Abraham or rather renewed which God had made fourteen years before Gen. 15.18 but herein gave a more full expression of his entring into Covenant with him Wherein you may observe three things 1 That there is a Covenant the Lord will deal with Abraham in a Covenant way the Lord will bring him into the bond
of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 2 The Author of this Covenant Jehovah the Lord God alsufficient and therefore he doth not here call it Abrahams Covenant but it is my Covenant 3 The fountain from which in God this Covenant does flow And I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly This Covenant is a free gift and an act meerly of free grace and so much doth Abraham acknowledge immediately for he falls upon his face to shew that he could never be thankful enough The property of a thankful soul is this the more mercy it receives from God and the more boldness it may have with God and with the greater confidence he may come to him with the greater reverence he does walk towards the Lord for there is nothing that a gracious heart fears more than goodness and he is lowest in himself when the Lord exalts him highest by his Grace And this doth the Lord repeat three times I will make a Covenant with thee and my Covenant shall be with thee and vers 7. I will establish my Covenant with thee I will cause my Covenant to arise that is I will raise up such a relation between me and thee I will take thee into Covenant with my self and I will enter into Covenant with thee and this he doth repeat so often as Mercer does observe partly to confirm the Faith of Abraham in the promised mercy partly to set forth the greatness of the mercy which no words were sufficient to express also the repetition does stir up and awaken Abraham yet further to consider of the greatness of the mercy of God to him in it and the greatness also of his engagement to God thereby And from hence the first observation that I shall give you is from looking upon Abrahams Covenant as being the same with that God made with all the faithful Gal. 3. ult Doct. After man was fallen and had broken the first Covenant the Lord out of his free Grace hath made with his people a second Covenant and a better Covenant In the handling hereof are four things to be cleared 1 The Person that makes the Covenant who it is Jehovah El-shaddai 2 That God will after the fall as well as before deal with his Elect in a Covenant-way 3 The Lord hath the first and the chief hand in it I will do it I even I and therefore he doth every where call it my Covenant 4 That the fountain of this Covenant is from Gods free Grace 1. The Person that makes it the Author of this Covenant and here there are two things 1 That all the persons in the Trinity do enter into Covenant and thereby bind themselves to make themselves over unto the Elect and that will appear to you by these Considerations 1 They have all of them the same nature and essence the same will and have all a hand in the same acts as Creation is the act of them all so they do all concur in making of the Covenant Father Son and Holy Ghost 2 This is a Covenant of peace and reconciliation and the Son and the Spirit are as truly offended with the sin of man and had a hand in the first Covenant and their authority was as truly despised in the first transgression as the authority of the Father and a dishonour was put upon them also and therefore there was as much need that they should be reconciled and enter into a Covenant with man for his Salvation Bern. Ser. 1. de adventu Domini as God the Father Yea some Divines conceive that the first transgression of Angels and men was chiefly against the Son and some of our own Divines as Reinolds in Psal 110. pag. 421. say That the first sin of man was principally committed against the Son it being an affectation of that which did properly belong to him to be like unto God in Wisdom and also in this was sown the seed of the unpardonable sin which was to be the fatal sin under the second Covenant and therefore as the mercy was the more glorious that they would undertake Offices in this Covenant for reconciliation so there was the greater necessity that they should also join and be taken into the Covenant 3 If we consider the person that does transact this business and strike up this Covenant with Abraham who though he did it as the Word of God in the name of all the persons yet it was the Son who did immediately speak in it as Glassius expounds Job 33.3 the word is there The breath of the Almighty and Psal 91.1 where the same word is used it is the shadow of the Almighty c. 4 If we consider that the Son speaks of himself in Covenant as well as his Father for it is by this Covenant that the Lord is the God of Abraham because therein he did promise so to be now Exod. 3.2 6. the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Moses and saith I am the God of thy fathers the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac c. Act. 7.30 and the Angel of the Lord is by Scripture plainly proved to be God the Son and it 's generally or for the most part consented unto by all Divines ancient and modern Mal. 3.1 and it may be that having the great hand in striking up the Covenant he is therefore called the Angel of the Covenant 2. Though all the persons enter into Covenant with the Saints yet the person that the Scripture says we do chiefly enter into Covenant with and that hath the main and first hand therein is God the Father 1. Because it is said in Scripture to be a Covenant of peace and reconciliation and therefore it doth suppose an enmity and a war Now though sin was committed against all the Persons yet the suite against sinners in Scripture does chiefly run in God the Father's name as in all Societies there is usually one in whose name all their suites are commenced therefore 2 Cor. 5.18 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself he speaks 〈◊〉 of God the Father who does reconcile us unto himself by Jesus Christ and therefore we are said to be reconciled to God and the work of the reconciliation of a sinner Christ calls his Fathers business and he is said to be an Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2.1 Sin is an offence to all the Persons they having all a hand in mans Creation and all of them joining in giving man a Law and entring into Covenant with him in his Creation but in Scripture the suite against sin is said to run every where in the Fathers name and our reconciliation is unto him and therefore it is the Father that has the great hand in the Covenant as the person reconciled 2. Because in the Scripture the other Persons have their peculiar Offices which they have voluntarily undertaken in this Covenant to reconcile men unto God and therefore both are said to be
consist of Promises they are many Promises of this life and of the life to come Promises absolute and conditional Promises of Grace and to Grace and they are therefore called better Promises and so because in respect of the Fathers their good things were even wholly contained in Promises as the Ceremonial Law was contained in Ordinances and they saw nothing in the one but in the Type and nothing in the other but in the Promises they did salute them afar off and imbracing them died in the faith of them but they never received the thing promised Heb. 11. Joh. 8.57 only as Abraham desired to see my days says Christ and he saw it and was glad And it is sometimes called the promise because they are all one in Christ being in him all yea and amen as lines in a Center are one follow any promise to its Original as rivers unto the head and rise of them and they will all lead you unto Christ and yet they are Promises in themselves many as the lines are in the Circumference though but one in the Center Ephes 2.12 the Apostle Paul useth a quite different expression Strangers unto the Covenants of promise he doth as it were make the promise but one for substance and the Covenants many the Covenants are many because of their manifold delivery being severally renewed and yet in all these in several ages the promises the same as if but one promise 2. How and in what order is Abraham to be considered in this Covenant and in receiving this promise In this Covenant Abraham stands as a publick person as a common root Rom. 11. or as a common Parent unto all the faithful unto the worlds end as one that did receive the Promise not only for himself but for all those that should after his example believe in Christ and become his Children and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful Rom. 4.16 and they that do believe are Abrahams seed and also heirs of the Promise For as Austin hath observed there are three sorts of Fathers and of Sons some are according to nature and others are secundum Doctrinam according to Doctrine so Paul was father to Timothy having begotten him by the Gospel others secundum imitationem according to imitation as filii Abrahami nos sumus cujus fidem imitamur we are Abrahams children if we imitate his faith And this the Lord doth for a double end 1 To put an honour upon his servant as a great reward of his faith and therefore he changed his name calling him the Father of many Nations as one that was the root and first in the Covenant and they all coming in at second hand under Abrahams Covenant and therefore Mic. 7.20 it is mercy to Abraham Mic. 7.20 and truth to Jacob because in Abraham after a sort the Covenant did begin not that to him the Covenant of Grace was first revealed for it was made known unto Adam and Abel was justified by faith Heb. 11.3 but because unto Abraham was the clearest discovery of the Covenant and the Lord did in the most solemn manner enter into Covenant with him therefore it is mercy to Abraham that being the foundation of making the Covenant as his truth and faithfulness is of keeping the Covenant 2 The Lord does it thereby to make Abraham as it were a Type of Christ that it may be continued unto posterity that the way by which God intended to dispense the Grace of the Covenant was from one common head or root as the first Covenant to the first Aam and all his posterity so the second Covenant with the second Aam of whom first Abraham and afterwards David were the fullest Types and resemblances Thus that the Lord might honour Abraham his friend with the highest honour as the root of all the Faithful and that this manner of conveyance of the Grace of the Covenant from one common root might be made known and thereby mans heart led unto Christ the root and Prince of the Covenant therefore it was made with Abraham as a publick person and the father of us all 3. What is meant by Christ here the seed of Abraham not seeds as of many Here Interpreters are divided There is a twofold seed of Abraham to which they have an eye according unto these two promises In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Gen. 22.18 Christus in individuo Christus in aggregato and Gen. 17.7 I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee and answerably unto these they observe in Scripture a twofold Christ Christ Personal and Christ Mystical so 1 Cor. 12.12 the whole Church is called Christ and the sufferings of the Church are called the sufferings of Christ Ephes 1.23 and the fulness of the Church the fulness of Christ as Col. 1.18 Here some say is to be understood Christ personal for two reasons 1 The person to whom the promise is made is the same in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed but this is by Abraham in reference to this seed It 's true all the faithful as they are the seed of Abraham they are blessed with faithful Abraham but they are not that seed in whom all the Nations of the world shall be blessed Rutherf Triumph of Faith p. 51. Gen. 22.18 that is in Abraham as this seed should come out of his loins and it refers us only to the person of Christ which cannot be understood of Christ Mystical therefore Ambrose saith of this promise Impletum est in Christo ideoque non in multis sed in uno firmata est promissio 2 Because it is said verse the 17. the Covenant was made before of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erga Christum or ad Christum in or to Christ speaking of the same seed that he had spoken of in the verse before now this promise and Covenant was not confirmed in Christ Mystical but Christ Personal in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen And hence Pareus and divers others do conclude it to be understood Individuè de uno Christo ex quo omnis spiritualis benedictio in fidelem diffluit c. Individually of Christ from whom all spiritual benediction flows Others do conceive it is to be understood of Christ Mystical 1 From the order that is here mentioned the promise is made first unto Abraham and then unto his seed therefore the seed here spoken of must be such a seed as comes to have a right to the promise as second Bulkley of the Gospel-Covenant p. 37. in order unto Abraham but this cannot be Christ Personal for he has not a right unto the Promise from Abraham but Abraham from him and therefore it must be understood of Christ Mystical who are to look upon Abraham as the root and themselves as branches 2 They argue from the Apostles scope in this place which is to prove that
all the Faithful are justified by faith in the same way that Abraham was for the Covenant was not only made with Abraham but with his seed also and that seed is not many for then the Covenants must be many but whether they be Jews or Gentiles if they do believe they are all of them the seed of Abraham one seed and therefore come under the same Covenant and must expect justification and life the same way by vertue of the same Covenant The reason seems very plain on both sides and I do conceive that they have the truth between them and that it is to be understood both of Christ Personal primarily and principally and afterward Christ Mystical Gomar and Mr. Perkins and so many Divines do expound it and that the Covenant made with Abraham was confirmed unto Christ and that herein the strength and stability of the Covenant stands this is plain in the next verse and that it is in this seed that Abraham is blessed as well as all the Nations of the Earth for he is the root of all the Patriarchs Rev. 5.5 called therefore the root of David he did come out of Jesse but yet he is the root also upon which David did grow and we see that Abraham was justified by faith and that was in this promised seed Gal. 3.15 called the seed of the woman before he was called the seed of Abraham and therefore it was in him that the Covenant vouchsafed to Abraham was confirmed and established And for the order here no man will wonder if he look upon Christ as the Son of Abraham that he is set first with him and his seed it is no more derogatory from Christ than that the mercies of the second Covenant should be called Isa 55.3 Psal 89.4 Luk. 1.32 Hos 3.5 The sure mercies of David or that the Covenant should be made with David and that he should sit upon the Throne of David and succeed David in his Kingdom and that he should plead the Promises made unto the Fathers as if he did come under their Covenant in the actual ministration of it they being types of him though he himself was the root and foundation of the Covenant as the Psalmist speaks of Christ Psal 22.4 Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou deliveredst them As the Son of David he is said after a sort to enter upon Davids Kingdom as the Son of Abraham upon his Covenant and yet he is the root and foundation of the one as well as of the other From all this it is plain here are three sorts of Persons with whom the Covenant is made 1 Here is Christ Personally with whom Abrahams Covenant is confirmed the seed in which Abraham and all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed 2 Here is Abraham the Father of the Faithful 3 Here is another sort of seed the faithful and they are taken into the Covenant at second hand and from hence we do learn that the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ Personal the Mediator Gal. 3.3 and then there being none in this Covenant but they that are one with him they that are Christs are Abrahams seed therefore the Covenant is made with all the Faithful in the second place as they are one with him and with their seed § 2. Thus the first person with whom the Covenant of Grace is made is the Lord Jesus Christ as God and man and so the observation is this Doct. The Lord Jesus Christ as the second Adam is that person with whom primarily and principally the Covenant of Grace was made and to whom primarily and principally all the promises of that Covenant belong This Covenant made with Christ we see Isa 49.8 As the first Adam was the head of the first Covenant so whatever is done in the second Covenant it is by Christ Ephes 1.9 and therefore he is said to be our Covenant as he is our peace for he is Caput Confoederatorum the Head of the Confederates not only by purpose in himself Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 Rev. 13.8 but by promise there was Grace given us before the world began it could not be unto us in our own Persons before we were and therefore it must be unto another as one that undertook for us and therefore we read Rev. 13.8 there was the Lambs book from the foundation of the world the Lord gave the souls unto Christ that he should save and Christ did write them down in his book as the persons that God the Father had given him and he had engaged to save and this Covenant of Christ took place immediately after the Fall and by vertue thereof God pardoned all the sins of the ancient Saints Rom. 3.25 Christ did keep the thing that he did Covenant to pay the debt that we owed to God and all was viz. transacted by God the Father and Christ in a Covenant way so that as now Christ trusts God for the performance of his Promise so God did trust Christ for the payment of his Debt and therefore as the first Covenant was made with Adam Gods friend so the second Covenant was made with Adam Gods fellow and I know not what else can be the meaning of Prov. 8.22 To be set up or anointed as a King before the foundations of the Earth were laid The same word is in Psal 2.6 in reference to the Covenant and the transactions that were between the Father and the Son before the World was And this Covenant made between God and Christ hath two parts 1 There is a Covenant with Christ as Mediator ratione muneris in regard of his Office 2 There is a Covenant made with Christ as the Churches Head ratione Corporis as his body there is a Covenant made with him alone though it was made for us yet not with us and there is a Covenant made with him and with us in him but with him primarily as the Head and with us as the Members as we come under his Covenant 1. There is a Covenant made with Christ Personal Ratione muneris in respect of his Office as Mediator that he hath undertaken and this we shall see is plain Here is God the Father entring into Covenant with Christ he did lay upon him an Office and he made him a promise thereupon an Office he did ordain him 1 Pet. 1.18 Isa 42.1 Joh. 6.27 Joh. 10.18 he chose him and sealed him add sanctified him set him apart for this work and laid a commandment upon him to execute it Joh. 10.18 This Commandment I received of my Father and to this the Lord added a promise 1 Of assistance Isa 42.4 6. He shall not fail nor be discouraged I am by thee and I will hold thee by the hand and I will keep thee 2 A promise of acceptance I go to the Father says Christ Mat. 3.17 Jer. 34 2◠Gen. 8. Psal 53.8 Isa 50.8 3 Of deliverance Isa 53.8 Taken from prison and from
grace as well as the righteousness must be in another as a middle person between God and Man by whom all must be bestowed 1. 1 Joh. 5.11 Joh. 3.34 Jo. 1.16 It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell 2. The Spirit could be received in its fullness from no other the Spirit without measure was in him 3 It could be derived by no other the fullness that we do all receive must be dispensed by daily and continued supplies from him Phil. 1.19 for in us it shall not be perfect in this life and who can dispense it but he that hath the Knowledge and Wisdom of a God and an eye over all the earth according to the condition and necessity of his people and he can give them out of himself suitable and seasonable supplies and though he be in Heaven he can be touched with our infirmities 4thly The Covenant must be made with Christ and with us in him because this makes much unto the Honour of Christ the Prince of the Covenant Christ is said to be Head of the Church Col. 1.18 Isa 28.16 John 15.1 Rev. 5.5 Col. 1.18 and he is not only a head of Influence but of Eminence and that in all things and therefore in Scripture all names of precedency and priority are given him in a building he is the foundation in a Tree he is the root nay he is the root of David and therefore David was by him David did not bear the root but the root him There was a double honour that God bestowed upon the first Adam 1 He was caput forense a legal Head as a Covenant was made with him and 2 Naturale a natural head as an Image was laid up in him Now we deny unto Christ one part of his glory unless we acknowledge him to be first in the Covenant a common head of representation as well as in receiving an Image for us Therefore Rom. 11.16 it is the honour of Abraham that the Covenant after a sort in reference unto his family began in him Mic. 7.20 but in this Abraham was but a Type and it must be fulfilled in Christ who was to be the Father of many Nations and in him all Nations should be blessed Isa 9.6 and is therefore called wonderful counseller everlasting father c. They all come under his Covenant as all the Saints did under Abrahams and therefore even the Gentiles also are called Abrahams seed Heb. 2. and so all that come under Christs Covenant are called his seed he shall see his seed and he shall at last day present them to God with this expression Here am I and the children thou hast given me 5thly This doth exceedingly advance the grace of the Second Covenant for God to enter into Covenant with man after his fall and breach of his first Covenant was a great mercy and to be taken into the same Covenant with Abraham was a great mercy but it is one of the highest mercies Isa 49.9 that Christ is given as a Covenant to stand under the same Covenant with the Son of God 1 Under all blessings whatever we receive we receive not apart from Christ but as one with him we are justified by his righteousness sanctified by his spirit receive his Image here and in Heaven we enter into our Masters joy all not apart from him but as one with him 2 All the blessings of the Covenant we may claim in Christs right by vertue of the Covenant made with him for us and therefore Joh. 20.17 Joh. 1.12 to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe in his name And Dan. 9.17 For the Lords sake for the Covenant is the same between God and Christ that is between God and us 3 We perform all the duties of the Covenant as accepted in the person of Christ the Lord receives them all from the hand of Christ who is ingaged by Covenant to perform them Hos 14.8 In him is all our fruit found And therefore Joh. 15.2 it is bearing fruit in him and they are received as they come out of the Angels hand All our obedience is looked upon by God as the obedience of Christ and all our sufferings as the sufferings of Christ unto this day all our hope is in our head 6thly From the great inconveniences that must needs follow upon the Doctrine that the Covenant should be first made with us and Christ only come in but at second hand to make up our defects 1 Thereby Christ should in a great measure lose the glory of his headship for if it be an honour to Christ to be a Head by receiving an Image then it is an honour also first to receive a Covenant Col. 2.19 as it was of the first Adam It is as great a sin and therefore must needs be as dangerous a Doctrine to look unto our selves only for a Covenant as it is to look into our selves only for an Image 2 This will in a great measure take away the ground of our communion with Christ 1 Jo. 1.3 our fellowship is with him we have a communion with Christ in his righteousness priviledges and victories and the ground of this communion is only the Covenant We have communion with Adam in his sin and curse because the hand-writing of our Fathers is ours so the ground of our communion with Christ in his righteousness is as he is a representative head and as we come under his Covenant and therefore his obedience is ours his sufferings ours we suffered with him we died in him rise with him because we are under the same Covenant with him 3 In this does the stability of the Covenant of Grace lye it is an everlasting Covenant and unchangeable because it is made with an unchangeable head Adams Covenant and so that of the Angels was subject to change because the persons were changeable with whom the Covenant was made if the Covenant were primarily made with us then our unfaithfulness might break the Covenant as Adams did but our Image is not blotted out by our sins as Adams was because the fountain of it is not within us 1 Jo. 5.1 but in another and he hath said because I live you shall live so our unfaithfulness makes not the Covenant void because it is not made with us but with him and with us in him and because he keeps the Covenant it must needs remain sure to all the seed so that as our sins blot not out our Image so they break not the Covenant because Christ is the root and the head in the one as well as in the other and so it is every way more honourable for Christ and comfortable for us that the Covenant should be made with him and he be the person upon whom the principal ingagement should lye and upon us in the second place that so though we be unfaithful yet the Covenant may remain
Saints their smell is as Lebanon and therefore is resembled to the Roses and Lillies Hos 14.7 which is the most fragrant smell else they are of no worth for they are done not for the worth of the thing but for the acceptance that they should find with the Lord and let him come and eat the fruit of his pleasant things It is the Lord before whom we must appear i. e. before the judgment seat of Christ and therefore to find acceptance with our Judge is our great concern Now how comes Christ to be accepted of God It is by the Covenant made with him and by vertue of the same Covenant we are accepted Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in his beloved our services in him are accepted and our persons also It 's your Covenant only that 's the ground of your acceptation as Luther says well it is not from the dignity and worth of the duties but from the nature of the Covenant by which they are offered and under which they stand 1 The Father loves you 2 The services are holy and from a holy heart But 3 it is from a Covenant in which the Lord hath promised to accept all his peoples services as fruits in Christ 8. And Lastly The glory of the Saints is the glory of Christ and it is the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven that makes Heaven the place of Glory it is to enter into your Masters joy and to be dissolved and be with Christ is a Saints hope were it only the reward of your own graces it were much but to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God is a great priviledg but O! what is it for a Soul to sit with Christ upon his Throne As he overcame and sat down with the Father upon his Throne so also shall we be exalted by him to sit upon his Throne in Heaven CHAP. III. The Covenant of Grace made with Believers opened and applied Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee SECT I. The Covenant as made with Believers explicated and demonstrated § 1. THat the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ primarily as the second Adam has been formerly cleared unto you but when we look farther into the Scripture we find also that God did establish that Covenant with the Faithful and with their seed and this the Text holds forth clearly to you when I have but premised this position That the Covenant that God made with Abraham is the same for substance with the Covenant under which the Saints under the New-Testament do and shall stand to the end of the world Luk. 1.72 which I conceive is to perform the mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the oath which he sware to our Father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of all our enemies might serve him without fear c. and Rom. 4.11 He received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the rigteousness of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised that he might be the Father of them that believe though they be not circumcised and the Father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only but do walk in the steps of the faith of our Father Abraham and therefore vers 16. he is said to be the Father of us all If you are Christs then are you Abrahams seed and heirs of the Promise and Galat. 4.28 now we brethren as Isaac was are children of the promise c. so that both Jews and Gentiles are Abrahams seed because they come under Abrahams Covenant therefore there is the same Covenant now for substance Act. 3.25 that was made with Abraham and hence Acts 3.25 't is said ye are the children of the Covenant which God made with your Fathers Therefore as Abrahams Covenant so the Covenant made with the Saints is made with them and with their seed Hence we do learn in the next place Doctrine Doctrine That the Covenant of grace that was principally made with Christ is also made with the faithful the members of Christ In the opening of this Doctrine there are three things to be spoken to 1 To prove that the Covenant is made with the Saints 2 To shew why it must be so 3 To shew the different manner how it 's made with Christ and with them 1. That the Covenant of grace is made with the Saints and they are all federates therein Rom. 5. 1 Cor. 15.47 will appear by these arguments 1. From the type of the first Adam for he is made the type of him that was to come Now the Covenant that God did make with Adam was not made with him only but with all his posterity as appears plainly because the curse of the Covenant being broken comes upon them all in Adam all dyed because in him all sinned now the Covenant must be as large as the Curse and the Curse coming upon them must argue the Covenant to be made with them and so it is in the second Covenant also God has not only taken Christ into Covenant but he being an everlasting Father has taken in all his seed for he is the Father of all the faithful and the Lord enters into Covenant with them also So that all his posterity were bound unto the same Covenant and to perform the same obedience or to endure the same Curse that he did if they did transgress And whereas it may be said then as all that was required of the first Adam lay upon his posterity so all that is required of the second lies upon his posterity also and as what Adam was to perform they were in their own persons to perform so what Christ did perform that also lies upon all his posterity to perform in this there is a great deal of difference between Adam and Christ the first Adam stood before God as a publick person as a representative head that is such a one as personates and acts the part of another by the allowance of the Law so that what he doth is by the Law accounted to be done by him whom he represents and what is done unto him is accounted by the Law to be done unto the other so in the Law an Attorney appears for another receives money or takes possession for another and that stands good in Law as if a man had done it in his own person and so Embassadors do represent the Princes or States from whence they come and from whom they are sent what they do the Prince that sends them is accounted by the Law of Nations to do if they act according to their commission and what is done unto them the Prince doth take as done unto himself c. And so indeed Adam was a Common or a Publick person standing in our
stead that what he did was accounted to be ours whether to righteousness and life or unto sin and death but yet so that had he stood the same obedience was in their own persons required of his posterity for themselves as was required of Adam though not with the same respect not as publick persons and representative heads so that if they had not performed it they had fallen for themselves though all mankind had not fallen if Adam had stood for the woman was first in the transgression 1 Tim. 2. Rom. 5.12 and yet though the woman fell first all mankind did not fall in her fall but by one man sin entred into the world and therefore it was not every sin of a particular person that would have destroyed all mankind but of their representative only But the second Covenant hath this in it that the first never had in Adam the second Covenant hath a surety and that is something more than a publick person that is one that represents another and stands in his place and is bound unto his debt so that if the person ingaged pay not the debt the surety must and so Adam was not the surety for all mankind that he would perform the debt or bear the curse for them all there was no Covenant that had a Surety but Christ and he was a surety of the first Covenant Gal. 4.4 made under the Law and of a better Covenant to perform all the duties of the Gospel So that all that is required is of Christ as the second Adam only in his publick capacity and representation the Law is required of us but if we perform it not we have a surety that has undertaken it Thus as the first Covenant was made with the first Adam and all his posterity so the second Covenant is made with the second Adam and all his posterity also 2. We read of a Covenant made with Persons and people and promised unto them as special mercies a Covenant made with Abraham and Isaac a Covenant made with David 2 Sam. 23.5 The Lord has made with me an everlasting Covenant in all things ordered and sure And there is a Covenant made with a people also Jer. 31.31 God made a Covenant with the house of Judah a Covenant that he would bring them under the bonds of the Covenant and Esa 55.3 Every one that thirsts come to the waters c. and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David and Ezec. 16. I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine and therefore Zac. 9.12 By the blood of thy Covenant I have delivered the prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water 3. Men are said to make the Covenant and to break it Hezekiah exhorts them 2 Chron. 30.7 8. to give the hand unto the Lord 2 Chron. 30.7 8. it 's an expression of entring into Covenant as striking the hand is in the Proverbs an expression of entring into suretiship for another there are four expressions of it in 1 Chron. 29.24 All the Princes and the mighty men and all the house of the Kingdom gave their hands unto Solomon it notes a military subjection by way of Covenant and agreement between them they did take an oath of Allegiance unto him And so that expression to joyn the hand Ezeck 17.18 He hath broken the Covenant after he had given his hand c. and Job 17.3 to strike hand is to enter into suretiship or to be engaged in a Covenant so the saints are said to enter into Covenant with the Lord by sacrifice Psal 50.5 Esay 56. and they are said to take hold of the Covenant again they are said to break the Covenant which could not be if the Covenant were not made with them and not to be faithful and constant therein Psal 25.10 Lev. 26.15 4. It will appear from the promises of the second Covenant though it 's true that they are all yea and amen in him yet are they properly and formally made unto us either the first promises of grace or else of reward unto grace Promises of grace are He will give his Spirit and will give repentance he will heal our backslidings c. and we have an unction from the holy one c. And reward of service done either in the inward dispositions Blessed are the pure in spirit blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness c. or in the outward action 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that you may obtain 1 Cor. 15. ult your labour is not in vain in the Lord. And though the Covenant be made only out of free grace yet the Saints do claim these promises not only out of mercy but from the faithfulness of God 1 Cor. 10.19 1 Jo. 1.9 2 Tim. 4.8 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able he is faithful and just to forgive us c. And what is the ground of this but the Covenant of God whereby his faithfulness is ingaged 5. The Covenant of grace is a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator and confirmed by the death of the Testator Heb. it 's not only a Covenant but it 's a Testament 1 Christ is the Mediator now no man is a mediator between God and himself a Mediator is not a Mediator of one it must be a third person a dayes-man that must lay hold upon both therefore there is a Covenant made with Christ and Christ is a Mediator for the establishment of the Covenant with us also And 2 Christ is the Testator he died and left his Legacies of all the promises to the saints now no man gives a Legacy to himself In the Covenant made between the Father and Christ Christ is a party and a publick person but in this Covenant between God and us he is a Mediator and the Testator by whom we receive all the Legacies and Inheritance that he has purchased for us and granted to us Rom. 4.11 6. The Sacraments are seals of the Covenant of grace Now if we look upon the Covenant made with Christ and consider that his faith was perfect in God and he knew the Lord would not fail him but saies He is near that justifies me who will contend with me he will not leave my soul in Hell c. But though Christ had a strong faith yet we have but a weak faith and therefore had need of Sacraments and outward signs to confirm it wherefore the Sacraments are not to confirm the Covenant made with Christ but the Covenant made with the Saints he to whom the Covenant is made unto him the seals are to be applied and it would seem unreasonable for the Covenant to be made unto one and the seals to be applied unto the other therefore there is a Covenant made with the saints and to this Covenant the Sacraments are added as seals 7. There is a double oath to confirm this
the greatest trials all true friends love most forsake not one another the fire burns hottest in Winter by an Antiperistasis God found Israel as Grapes in the Wilderness saw her in her blood and that was the time of love Cant. 1.13 my Love is as a bundle of Myrrh which is bitter yet he shall lye between my breasts all true love is like wild-fire the more you cast water upon it it will flame the more Cant. 8.6 Many waters cannot quench it true Lovers will bear any afflictions one for another in all their afflictions he is afflicted and when his Children are persecuted he sayes why persecutest thou me Let God saith Ambrose turn the adversaries of the Church against me and â—quench their thirst with my blood I had rather sayes Bernard men should murmur against â—me than against God The soul that loves God is willing to undergo any reproach for God and be dishonoured so God may be honoured And there is also the sweetest communion between friends opening their hearts one to another and each striving that they may exceed The Lords heart is contracted towards other men his heart is straitned he cannot discover himself to them but there is a secret of his Counsel and a secret of his providence the one is in the heart and the other upon the Tabernacle of those that are in Covenant and they pour out their whole hearts also to the Lord as Hannah did and â—ly Lord all my desires are before thee they keep nothing back and there is the fullest â—ommunication the Lord gives up all that he has unto such a soul Lev. The High-Priest was not to marry a Harlot nor a Widow and he shall inherit 〈◊〉 things I will be his God all that is in God is as truly thine for thy good as if thou hadst infinite wisdom and power and holiness in thy own hand and the soul gives up all unto God his love and his joy and fear c. for God will not marry a Harlot that hath any reserve from him but he will have all the strength of the soul the Apostle saies they gave themselves up to the Lord their bodies were the Lords Rom. 12.1 5. God and the soul know not how to live asunder tell my Beloved that I am sick of Love and as Augustin saith after the death of his friend Nebridius that he was in a streight desiring to dye because he knew not how to live by halves yet he was willing to live that his friend might not wholly dye but might yet live in part even in him And truly though relations amongst men be notions in a great measure and their affections do not answer them and fill them up yet with God they are not so but there is something still that fully answers every relation wherein he stands unto you and whereas your relations here are but for the time of this life it is but till God shall part us by death relations unto the Lord are eternal and it is entring into this Covenant that does invest thee with these relations It is also to this Covenant that all the promises are annexed they do all meet as lines in this center and therefore till a man be in Covenant he is not an heir of the Promise we that believe are Abrahams seed Gal. 4. and heirs of the promise if once by entring into Abrahams Covenant you become his seed then all the promises are yours but never till then for before all the curses of the first Covenant were thy due but not any one promise of the second Covenant belongs to thee which is the Covenant under which Abraham and David and all the Saints do stand and by which they hold their happiness at this day for it is the inheritance that is by promise now there is no way to be made blessed with faithful Abraham and to attain the sure mercies of David the blessing of the new Covenant but by this for they are all fruits of the Covenant and streams that flow from this Fountain 6. and Lastly The Covenant of Grace is the last Covenant that ever God does intend to make with mankind or tender to him 't is true he did make a former Covenant and you brake it and the Lord has made a second but he will never add a third Covenant Heb. 6.18 The Lord willing to shew the immutability of his Counsel c. God doth not change his Covenant because he has sworn the oath now binds him that he cannot change yet it was the unchangeableness of his purpose that he might manifest that to be the ground why he did it by an oath that we might be assured the mind of God will never change to eternity it is by this Covenant only that he intends to bring all his Sons to glory and he will never make another therefore as I may say of Christ This is the last way Salvation that ever God will take He that believes in him shall be saved but he that believes not in him shall be damned There is no hope of another the Lord has no more Sons in his Bosom to bestow And as these be the last Ordinances and therefore in the Lords-supper you shew forth the Lords death till he come so it 's here it 's the last Covenant that ever God will make and if you do not accept of this and like the terms of it you can never have the Lord to become your God in Covenant for ever Now it will be said What should we do and what is required on our part that we should enter into Covenant with the Lord All Covenants must be by mutual consent and out of choice and election and therefore some do derive the word in Hebrew signifying a Covenant from a verb which signifies to chuse because a Covenant must be an act of choice and therefore there must be something done on our part though God offer the Covenant we must accept it and that we may do the duty on our part it 's a work of almighty power Ezec. 20.37 and I will bring you into as the word signifies I will make you to come into the bond of the Covenant Now when the Lord in this Covenant is pleased to put forth the grace of it in the day of his power there are these three things that he does work the soul to wherein our entring into Covenant doth consist answerable to these three expressions 1 Jer. 11.2 Hearken to and hear the words of the Covenant a man doth learn and generally observe the terms of the Covenant upon what terms God offers a Covenant unto him 2 That in 2 Chron. 30.8 Give the hand to the Lord which is a token and an expression of a mans free and full consent to it when he does understand it there is a mighty power inlightning the understanding and bringing about and inclining the will to consent to it 3 Joshua 24.23 Incline your hearts unto the Lord or take
be like him for we shall see him as he is answerable to our vision of him such will be our conformity to him Mercies unto wicked men are suitable to their services they give to God unsanctified services and God does give them unsanctified rewards and their services are seemingly services but really sins so are the mercies that God gives them seeming blessings but really curses they are indeed blessings in the thing but as they draw out their corruptions so they are curses unto the men So Iratus dat amanti quod malè amat as Austin saies God gives it in wrath as he did to them Quails c. and though they were fed to the full yet he sends â—anness into their souls he gave them their hearts desire in wrath 5 By this Covenant you do ingage your selves that whatever God bestows in mercy you will return again in duty that you may injoy nothing apart from God but as the Lord saith of his people in Covenant they are his portion so you also say of God he is your God and as all that is in him is made over unto you so you will be his people and all that is in you shall be made over unto him and should be laid out or laid down for him and you shall resign to him whatever he shall call for and this is for a man to hate Father and Mother and his own life and acknowledge as David did of thine own have we given thee God gave it unto them and they do return it willingly unto God again that which is a Samuel asked of God shall be also lent unto the Lord and the soul never desires or expects good from any mercy from which God hath no glory for a man is a servant to God and it is all the Master 's that the servant hath of gains as the Law saith Cant. 8.11 Servi sunt res Domini quicquid acquirunt acquirunt domino c. Solomon had a Vineyard and he let it out to keepers and he expected the fruits thereof even a thousand pieces of Silver and of the Husbandmen to whom the Vineyard was committed the Lord expected fruits c. a soul is never so well pleased as when it brings forth fruit for God and lays out his strength to the uttermost that he may bring in a revenue of glory to the Lord his God 6 When all the duties of the Covenant are performed by us in the fittest time and in the highest and the best manner 1 In the fittest time as the Lord takes the fittest time to show us mercy so should we also take the fittest time to perform our duty to him and it 's a great matter to know the season there is an accepted time there is a day of salvation 2 And also we must perform it in the highest manner as David said It is for the Lord and therefore the house must be magnificent this have I done out of my poverty though he offered the wealth of a kingdom And the Lord says to Israel Wouldest thou offer this to thy prince I am a great king God expects we should perform all our duties with that reverence and exactness as we do when we offer any gift or present to a Ruler over us 2. We are to improve the Covenant in reference unto God for the obtaining all the mercies of the Covenant because therein the Lord hath in faithfulness ingaged himself Debita reddit nulli debens c. God pays debts and yet is debtor to none but to his own faithfulness So do they Isa 63.18 19. The Lord was departed and had sold them into the hand of strangers and they possessed their Land they pray Return for thy servants sake the tribes of thy inheritance the people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while we are thine thou never barest rule over them and thy name was never called upon them they were never a people whom thou tookest into Covenant as thou hast done unto us And so Isa 63.9 Be not wroth very sore nor remember our iniquity for ever behold I beseech thee we are all thy people Jer. 14.8 9. O thou the hope of Israel the saviour thereof in the time of trouble why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land why shouldest thou be as a man astonished as a mighty man that cannot save if thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name Thy name is called upon us we are thy people in Covenant The Lords portion the lot of his inheritance for God is always mindful of his Covenant and in pursuance thereof he doth whatever he doth in the world if he give Christ it is with respect to the Covenant he hath raised up an horn of salvation Luk. 1.72 that is a strong and powerful Saviour for he has laid help upon one that is mighty And all is that he might perform his Covenant unto our fathers and to remember his holy Covenant Christ and all the mercies by him which are given to us are a fruit of the Covenant that was made with Christ before the world was Lev. 26.41 42. if their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they accept the punishment of their iniquity then will I remember my Covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham and I will remember the land Now How should a man improve his Covenant in reference unto God 1. Consider rightly the latitude of Covenant mercies and the greatness of them for it is in this Covenant that all your salvation lies that your hearts may be carried out answerable to the vastness of the loving-kindness of God and that no mercy of the Covenant may be left unconsidered and untasted of but that you may have a taste that the Lord is gracious in every one of them and that a man may see that it is the weakness of his heart and the lowness of his spirit that he doth not press towards them all for the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.9 He labours whether present or absent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ambitious c. habet sapientia sui generis superbiam and therefore a godly man is not willing to leave out any thing either of the graces or the priviledges of the Covenant for they are Covenant mercies that are the precious mercies of your lives the flower of all the mercies of a mans life it is therefore said to be a Covenant stablished upon better promises the first Covenant did promise life for ever in Heaven as it did threaten death for ever in Hell but yet there are better promises as he said Est aliud in Christo formosius salvatore There is something in Christ more beautiful than a Saviour so there is something in the Covenant that is better than Heaven 1 The Lord hath made over himself to us in this Covenant He is not ashamed to be called our God to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee
our names to God in this Covenant given the hand to the Lord it is a duty often to renew it and to repeat unto a mans soul the same obligation and here I will show 1 That it is not enough that a man do enter into Covenant with the Lord but that he renew it often 2 I will give you the grounds why a man should renew his Covenant 3 Shew the times when in a special manner the Lord expects it and when it is a way to find mercy with the Lord. 4 Show you the manner how it is to be done 5 I 'le press it by setting before you the great benefits and fruits that do flow from a renewed Covenant with the Lord. 1. A man being once entred into Covenant with God is held and obliged by that Covenant for ever as we see the Devils entred into Covenant and this Covenant they have broken in respect of the precept yet they are all still under the curse of it and shall be for ever and that curse the chains of darkness in which they are held so man being once ingaged is for ever engaged therefore it 's his duty often to renew his Covenant and that will appear in these particulars 1. The Lord hath often renewed his Covenant with his people he made a Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15.18 and yet he renews his Covenant again Gen. 17.2 4 7. So the Lord did take Israel into Covenant with himself and his name was called upon them he doth take them into their Fathers Covenant he remembred his Covenant with Abraham and Isaac Exod. 6.4 5 7. and he saith I will take you unto me for a people and I will be to you a God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God c. and yet this Covenant he renews in a publick and solemn manner upon Mount Sinai when out of his mouth went a fiery law Deut. 5.2 3. Deut. 5.2 3. He made a Covenant with us in Horeb he made not this Covenant with our Fathers some refer it unto all the Patriachs from Adam and so the Covenant was the same for they entred into Abrahams Covenant but it is spoken in regard of the publick and glorious way of revealing it to them beyond what it was to their Fathers which was not revealed with that solemnity and speaking with and seeing God face to face or else by the Fathers some do understand those that died in Egypt and in the Wilderness who had forgotten the Covenant of their Fathers and the Lord did not renew it with them and yet afterwards Exod. 24.7 8 10. Moses takes the book of the Covenant and reads it in the audience of the people and they ingaged themselves to do all that the Lord had said and be obedient to his requirings and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the people and said This is the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you and v. 11. They did eat and drink before the Lord and see the glory of the God of Israel and upon the people he laid not his hand c. and yet this is not enough but the Lord renews his Covenant again Deut. 29.1 The words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab besides the Covenant that he made with them in Horeb and v. 10. 12. You stand before the Lord this day that you should enter into Covenant with the Lord and into the oath which the Lord made with thee to establish thee this day for a people to himself that he might be unto thee a God as he hath sworn unto thy Fathers c. thus you see the Lord has often renewed his Covenant with his people 2. The people of God have often renewed their Covenant also with him it was not enough that they had in Moses time been taken into Covenant so often but before he died he renewed the Covenant with them and they did solemnly ingage themselves The Lord will we serve Josh 24.25 and his voice will we obey and he set up a Stone under an Oak for a witness against them 2 Chron. 15.12 2 Chron. 29.10 2 Chron. 34.31 if they should hereafter deny the Lord their God And this Covenant was renewed in the days of King Asa and Hezekiah and Josiah and Ezra 10.3 and Nehemiah 9.38 therefore renewing of the Covenant is a duty that we owe unto the Lord and that ingagement must be reiterated c. 2. But seeing that a Covenant once made doth alwayes bind a man and the force of it continues distance of time doth not wear it out why should it be needful for men to renew their Covenant so often The grounds of it are these 1. Because of the unbelief of our spirits and from the infirmity of our faith for the confirmation of our faith in the mercy and grace of the Covenant Therefore David made it the matter and ground of all his delight and his thoughts were wholly upon it Why did God renew the Covenant so often with Abraham but to strengthen and confirm his faith therein that it was a sure Covenant and should never be forgotten The mercies of the Covenant are great and the heart of man would fail and his spirit sink in the expectation of them but then he calls to mind his Covenant and renews his Covenant-ingagements with them and for this cause we receive the seals of the Covenant often and every time we do so we renew the Covenant between God and us Gods seals are set to our seals that this may be like unto Joshua's stones a testimony that we have entred into Covenant with the Lord. 2. To manifest the sincerity of our hearts that though we fail in the duty of it yet our hearts still stand to it we delight in the Law according to our inward man though we fall every day yet saies a soul in Covenant with God I love to think of renewing the ingagement that is between God and me as a loving and tender Wife loves often to renew her ingagement to her Husband and to have it much in her mind that she may not forget the Covenant of her God so to shew that a man doth not repent but his ingagement â—s still pleasing to him he renews it often and if it were to do again and again a man would do the same thing if it were every hour to let the world see he is not turned back from the Covenant of his God Phil. 3.9 saies the Apostle I suffered the loss of all things and do count them dung c. I have not repented of it I am of the same mind still there is not in me a principle to draw back and to depart from the living God I am willing to renew this â—ngagement still When there is an error in the contract that a man makes with another then â—f it were to do again the soul would not do it so
his wisdom and industry could not find out And what is that secret of the Covenant The Covenant is the secret and it is with them that he may make it known unto them therefore there is a mysterie in the dutys of the Covenant that is not revealed unto all but it is unto them that fear him and the Lord will do it suitably unto our frame as our grace comes in by constant supplies of the Spirit of God so doth our knowledge also and all by a daily increase of light from the Spirit and this is by a frequent repetition of the same act of faith and therefore the people of God love to repeat it and thereby they see farther into these mysteries from day to day and they do the more exceedingly prize the mercy of the Covenant as the greatest mercy they can injoy 3. How is this work to be done and what is it for a man to renew his Covenant 1. He that will renew his Covenant with God must be deeply sensible of the breach of Covenant and of the unfaithfulness of his heart therein It should deeply humble us to consider that no bonds should hold us If there were no other tye upon us but that of our creation that we had our being from him and that out of nothing but when unto this natural and necessary bond we have added a voluntary and have consented unto the Lord yet now for us to forget the Covenant of our God and prove perfidious to him and draw back is this your return unto God for his Grace in taking you into Covenant and who doth always remember Covenant mercies for you even then when you forget duty to him Is this your requital of the Lord who in the performance of the Covenant did not spare his Son when he cryed that he might be saved God was so resolved upon his Covenant with you that the death of his Son was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and he was delighted in it in performance of the grace of the Covenant made with you And also the Lord Christ met with variety of discouragements not only the weight of sin in the guilt of it which he complained of as his own though he knew no sin Psal 40.12 but the wrath of the Father the rage of his enemies the hour and the power of darkness the falshood of his Disciples and yet when he was tempted to come down from the Cross he doth hold it out that he might thereby shew that he loved you to the uttermost and would save you to the utmost And now for you Prov. 20.25 after vows to make inquiry whenas no man doth receed or go back from the Covenant in which he hath ingaged himself without infamy and it 's as odious as for a man to prove false to his friend and betray him and as unfair dealing it is as for a Servant to run away from his Master or a Soldier from his Commander and as David says by way of reproach he hath broken his Covenant and laid his hand upon him that was at peace with him yea for the Wife of a mans bosom to betray a man and to forget the Covenant of her God for a man to forget his Oath that he took at his Baptism and as the Jews did labour to make their circumcision uncircumcision and to do this unto a God that was never a Wilderness to you nor ever gives you cause to repent of your ingagement surely hereby you see not only your perfidiousness and unthankfulness but also fully to make forfeiture of all Covenant mercies to bring upon your selves all the curses of the Covenant Gen. 2.28 Num. 14.34 and to put God upon breach of Covenant with you who have behaved your selves so unfaithfully towards him and thereby you acknowledge though you have subscribed your names in the register of Zion yet you deserve unto your perpetual ignominy to have them expunged thence and to be written in the earth and given up to an everlasting forgetfulness So it was with Josiah when he made his Covenant his heart was tender and he did humble himself before the Lord for their Covenant-breaking 2 Chron. 34.27 31. Neh. 10. And Ezra 10. it doth follow upon a great humiliation a man that is not sensible of and his heart not affected with the breach of Covenant that man is not fit to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 2. It must be with a resolution of heart to break all other Covenants men are said Isa 28.15 To make a Covenant with death and hell that is they were as secure Isa 28.15 and as fearless of it as a man that hath a person in Covenant with him whom he looks upon as his friend and fears him not and thus they make a Covenant with sin and ingage themselves to serve other gods and so when the people renewed the Covenant in Joshuah's time you see the Command you have chosen the Lord to serve him Josh 24.22 put away therefore your strange gods and so the command was to put away their strange wives Ezra There are cords of vanity and there are bonds of iniquity by which men do bind themselves Now all these Covenants must be broken if a man come to renew his Covenant with the Lord for the answer you must give to the Covenant must be the answer of a good conscience and that Conscience that reserves to it self any league with sin unbroken 1 Pet 3.21 is not a good conscience before God a Covenant that is sinful is in it self void and a nullity because in every such ingagement there is dolus deceit and error which are destroying to the nature of a Covenant which should be free and deliberate and therefore it is in all such Covenants as with Herods Oath they bind to nothing but repentance for Juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis and therefore a man must resolve to break Covenant with all sinful ingagements if he do intend to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 3. A man must know the terms and read over the Articles of the Covenant anew for no wise man will set his hand to an obligation of which he is not well acquainted with the condition and if there were no other cause nor ingagement upon man to know the will of God and their own duty this were enough they have bound themselves to serve him and therefore by the same Covenant they are bound to know the rules by which he will be served for Deo serviendum non est ex arbitrio sed ex imperio so doth Josiah 2 Chron. 34.30 he caused to be read in the ears of the people all the words of the book of the Covenant and then he stood up and made a Covenant before the Lord to perform all the words of the Covenant written in the Book 4. It must be with a free and full consent of heart for the Covenant in the renewing of it must
a Covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us The end of his making the Covenant was to divert the Judgement And so we read also in the Book of Nehemiah and thus gracious is the Lord Nehem. 9.38 that when he doth send judgement for sin he doth not continue the judgement but till he doth see an humiliation and reformation in act let there be but the serious purpose of reformation and let the Covenant be renewed to ingage the soul thereunto and the Lord doth remove the judgement and when the will is in his people he doth accept it for the deed as David Psal 32.5 I said I will confess my sin unto the Lord and the Lord forgave me my sin and the prodigal Son doth but say I will go to my father and while he was yet a great way off the father met him 3. In a time of publick reformation when the foundations have been destroyed and all things out of course and a great deal of difficulty appears and even impossibility in carrying on the work yet the people of God looking upon it as a duty have set upon it with full resolution and purpose of heart and have covenanted to go through with the work notwithstanding all opposition Jehoiada made a Covenant between the Lord and the King and the people that they should be the Lords people here Religion was corrupted and Dominion was usurped and the Lord put it into the heart of Jehoiada the Priest to endeavour the reformation of both and therefore he brought forth the Kings Son to whom the government did rightly belong and did set him up in the Throne and deposed Athalia the usurping Queen and he doth make a double Covenant 1 A Covenant between God and the King and the People and in this Covenant the King and the people do make up but one party and they ingage themselves to be Gods people and the King to rule for God as under him 2 There is also a Covenant between the King and the People that he ruling for God and under God they will for Conscience sake obey Now my Covenant with any Magistrate must be understood as being a second and subordinate Covenant I am so to keep Covenant with them that I must also keep my Covenant with the Lord. Wherefore after they had thus strengthened themselves by a Covenant in the next verse they set upon the work of reformation effectually for all the people of the land went into the house of Baal and brake it down And so did Josiah he made a Covenant with the Lord To walk after the Lord and keep his Commandments with all his heart 2 King 23.3 4. and then he commanded them to bring out of the Temple of the Lord all the Vessels that were made for Baal c. and wrought the most glorious reformation that ever ' was by any of the Kings of Judah having his heart and hands strengthened by a Covenant with the Lord. 4. As a testimony of a mans Thankfulness for any great mercy or special deliverance or as an argument of faith that a man is to use unto God when he doth pray for and expect from God any special mercy 1 As an argument that a man should use unto God to obtain mercy it is that artificial way of praying that the Lord himself teaches his people Hosea 14.2 Take away our iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips Assur shall not save us we will not ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands Ye are our Gods for in thee the fatherless find mercy c. And so Jacob also Gen. 28.20 22. he begged a blessing in his journey and he doth follow the prayers he had put up with a vow if the Lord will be with me he shall be my God and if he bring me to my Fathers house this Stone shall be Gods House and if the Lord bless me with an estate I will surely return him of his own I will give the tenth unto thee so punctual is this holy man to restipulate or return something unto God answerable unto the mercy that he doth beg of God If Hezekiah may be delivered from death Esay 38.20 and David from guilt Psal 51.14 they promise to sing aloud of so great a mercy and to teach transgressors the way of God also the Fathers to the Children shall declare his truth When a man in desiring the mercy doth it with a spiritual eye and doth not ask amiss he is truly careful to perform the duty that such a mercy calls for that he may return as well as receive for quantum à praeceptis tantum ab auribus Dei sumus Tertullian When there is no obedience to God there must be expected no audience by God And therefore one special argument that the people of God do use in their prayers to obtain mercy is a renewing their Covenant 2 It is to be done in testimony of thankfulness for mercy received and then doth a man indeed make a right use of a mercy when he is bound the closer unto God by such cords of Love and the more the Lord doth ingage him the more he is willing to ingage himself to God A great army of Ethiopians came against the King of Judah with an host of a thousand thousand men and the Lord delivered them into his hand now at their return they came to Jerusalem to give God the glory of the victory and they offered unto him of the spoil which they had taken and now they enter into Covenant with the Lord to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their hearts and with all their souls and so the renewing of the Covenant is their return made unto God for the mercy And so the Jews at their return out of Babylon Jer. 50.4 5. They come with weeping and seek the way to Sion with their faces thitherward and they say Let us bind our selves unto the Lord by a perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten so that in receiving and attaining the mercy God calls for a Covenant as also in returning the mercy 5. When a man finds his heart bent to backsliding and he is unsteady and unstable in any good way Moses finding the people of Israel a very unsteady people and whose hearts were not stedfast with the Lord after that solemn Covenant with them upon Mount Sinai he renews it again a little before his death when they were come to the borders of the promised Land and inforceth it both with the wonders that God wrought upon Pharaoh and also the great miracles that he had wrought for them when he led them through the wilderness forty years And the same thing was the ground of Joshua's renewing his Covenant Josh 24. Josh 24. And Nehemiah finding that many of the Jews loved their strange Wives and the children that they had by them
of all his that die in their infancy because the Covenant is the same with both and the persons taken into Covenant are the same Thou and thy seed after thee This truth therefore we had need to be carefully instructed in and which has stirred up those that are faithful unto God and his Truth to contend earnestly for this Doctrine as delivered unto and this priviledge as conferred on the Saints against those that would put their children into the same condition with those who are farthest off from God Jude 3. so that though they be the children of their flesh yet they are not of their Covenant There has of late years been much written about it and therefore I shall not enter into the disputation as that which you may read every where and inform your selves at leisure about but barely lay down the truth in a positive way in which I shall but nakedly represent unto you what I find delivered by those that hold and love the truth herein I shall first begin with the proof of the Doctrine That children are taken into their parents Covenant together with themselves which I shall endeavour to make good to you by these clear and evident Arguments 1. This ever hath been since the Fall and ever since the Father has gathered unto the Lord Jesus his Son a Church upon Earth the way of the Lords administration of the second Covenant that whensoever he has taken parents into Covenant with him into his Kingdom and Family he has taken in their children together with them Acts 3.25 and has counted them as part of his Family and Kingdom therefore they are called the Sons of God Gen. 6.1 and the children of the Lord your God Deut. 14.1 and amongst the Gentiles Gal. 3.26 he saith That you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and therefore called the children of the Kingdom Mat. 8.12 Rom. 9.2 3. not that they are all born of God and are inwardly as to the state of their persons the children of God but Rom. 9.2 3. Theirs is the Adoption it is not meant of an inward and spiritual Adoption but it 's meant of an external and visible Adoption to be separated from all other people and to be owned by God as his children Israel is my son my first-born Exod. 19.5 6. yet there were many in Israel that were inwardly and for the state of their persons enemies to God and the children of the Devil and so much the Apostle does evidently assert Rom. 11.21 Rom. 11.21 Here 's a twofold Olive-tree there is the true Olive-tree and that is Abraham Isaac and Jacob by virtue of their Covenant Non quibus à natura inesset sanctitas sed quia ex iis erant nati quos Dominus foedere gratuito à reliquis gentibus sibi segregat Beza and they that were born of them are called the natural branches and what is the wild Olive that is all those that were out of the Church of the Jews that were not visibly taken into Abrahams family and Covenant so that now there is a threefold Israel of God 1 There is natural Israel and they are taken into Covenant for their fathers sake as they are natural branches growing upon the good Olive-tree 2 There is surrogated Israel those that are grafted in when they were broken off therefore as the other did grow upon the root of Abrahams Covenant so do these also for they were gathered in Rom. 11.17 that is as Beza renders it for those * Pro ipsis in locum ramorum defractorum that were broken off therefore as the others grow upon his root they and their children so do these also 3 The Lord shall return again in mercy to his people Israel they shall be taken in again for their parents Covenant for they are beloved for their fathers sake and they shall be again ingrafted into their own Olive-tree so that it has been the constant way of Gods administration of the Covenant of grace he has taken the parents into Covenant and they being ingrafted into a visible Church of God they are grafted in as the root and all their children are as branches growing thereupon 2. When the parents are disinherited and cast out of the Covenant so are the children also therefore when the parents are taken in the children are taken in Rom. 11. we read of a breaking off and a grafting in Now the breaking off and grafting in must answer to and expound one the other now how were they natural branches They were so called by reason of their birth growing naturally upon Abraham the root How were they broken off They were rejected from being a visible Church the Lord called them Loammi and would owne them for his people no more deprived them of the adoption which did before belong unto them they were formerly counted the people of God above all Nations under Heaven 1 Thess 2.16 but now rejected and this the Apostle calls wrath come upon them to the uttermost men that are members of the invisible Church cannot be broken off their sins though they may vastare conscientiam yet they cannot excutere fidem c. So then as the Lord took in the believing Gentiles and their children into a visible Church unto himself and translated the adoption unto them so he did cast off the Jews and their children he broke off the natural branches that they should be unto him no longer as a peculiar people so that together with their fathers the children were broken off therefore together with their parents the children of the Gentiles are grafted in and therefore all is put upon the parents Covenant for their opposition to the Gospel the Lord laid this great wrath upon them and their posterity 3. Children are members of the visible Church where their parents are in Covenant with God grafting in is admission into visible membership as breaking off is a casting out of visible membership so Mar. 10.14 Of such not only of these very little ones but of such as these is the Kingdom of Heaven Now by the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the visible Church and it 's commonly so put in the Gospel so that of such is the visible Church of God constituted and made up therefore little children born in the Church are by Christ counted as those of whom the Church and Kingdom of Christ in part consists Now all men by nature are children of wrath and enemies to God strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel Eph. 2.12 there is no difference but only by virtue of the Covenant of grace which cannot come upon their own but only in their parents right no man is born a member of the Church naturally but 't is a birth-priviledge that comes upon them by grace through their parents Covenant 4. Hence it comes to pass that there is a holiness comes upon those children of believing parents Rom. 11.16 Rom. 11.16 If the
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 â—â—s 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
Church with them when the Lord shall make the Church of the Jews the Mother-Church and should give them unto the Jews fâ—â— 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
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-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-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
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
of his native soil as they do that plant Colonies from one Country to another and such a Translation is here meant that whereas before a man was under the Kingdom of Satan and the condemnation and dominion of death now his state is changed that is by the change of his Covenant and he is translated or transported into the Kingdom of Righteousness and Holiness This is the Translation that is here meant a change of a mans state through the change of his Covenant upon which follows the change of his image and the change of his nature also A man is translated into it 1 As a Kingdom of Righteousness by the change of his Covenant 2 As a Kingdom of Holiness by the change of his Image Doct. All those that are in Christ have a change of their state they are translated out of their former Covenant Here are two things to be spoken to 1 That the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant 2 The necessity of such a change and the reasons and grounds thereof Rom. 11.24 § 2. First the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant Says the Apostle Rom. 11.24 For if thou wert cut out of the Olive-tree which is wild by nature and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good Olive-tree how much more shall these which be the natural branches c. Abraham is called the root because after a sort the Covenant began in him and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful and all that grew by nature upon this root they were the children of God and the natural branches unto whom the sap and sweetness and fatness of the true Church all the Promises and Priviledges of the Covenant of Grace did belong and those that were truly under this Covenant they were not broken off but some of them that were under it by profession only they were for their sins in judgment broken off and the Gentiles that were wild Olives strangers to Abraham's Faith and Covenant they were grafted in that is taken into the Covenant of Abraham which is the root upon which they were ingrafted and are made partakers of all the Promises and the Priviledges of the Covenant of Abraham as if they were the natural branches Therefore here are men that are wild Olives that are ingrafted here are branches broken off that are ingrafted in again So that in Conversion there is an Ingrafting a Translation of a man from one stock to another from one root unto another and that is by changing of a mans Covenant for it is by his Covenant only that Abraham is his root c. Some indeed are ingrafted only by an outward profession some by inward implantation into the inward and spiritual part some into the outward priviledges of the Covenant only but some partake of the sweetness and fatness of the true Olive-tree Joh. 5.24 c. Christ says He that believes in him that sent me shall never come into judgment but is parted from death to life The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a passage from one place to another And Joh. 3.14 He is passed from death to life There is a twofold state of death and life and there is answerable a double passage a relative mutation as to a mans Covenant and a physical mutation as to his Image Rom. 7.1 2 3 The law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth the woman is bound to her husband as long as he liveth but if her husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband c. It is a dying or a being divorced from the former husband that gives her liberty All the Ancients do generally make the Law the husband from which a man being dead unto the Law is divorced and some Modern Divines as Beza and others make sin the husband as being irritated by the law but the thing is much the same and a man being ingrafted into Christ is freed from the law of the husband It is also a being redeemed and the main of our redemption lyes in it Gal. 4.5 as Christ was made under the law so we were under it now he was under it as a Covenant to fulfill the precept and to satisfie the curse and he did this that he might redeem us that were under the law in both these respects so that looking upon the law as a Covenant Christ is said to redeem us from being under it changing a mans father and his mother Mich. 7.20 Luc. 1. Gal. 4. and growing on another root and belonging to another stock as it is said Rom. 4.15 Abraham the father of us all that were before strangers unto Abraham therefore it is said to be his mercy unto Abraham and his oath unto our forefathers and Sarah the mother whereas before we were the children of Hagar All men by nature are under the law children of the bond-woman for the two Mothers are the two Covenants and so long as a man remains under the first Covenant he is the son of the bond-woman but we that believe are as Isaac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of the free-woman being discharged of the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and contrary to us which Christ took out of the way nailing it to his Cross c. This â—lotting out of Ordinances Chrysostome and Oecumenius understand not only of the Ceremonial Law given by Moses but also of the Moral Law and the Law of the forbidden fruit given to Adam c. and so Zanchy and others c. Though some other late Divines will understand it of the Ceremonial Law only which I conceive it cannot be because it is spoken for the consolation of the Gentiles that they were delivered from this hand-writing of Ordinances under which they never were So that this change of Covenant is in Scripture set forth by being cut off from the former root and ingrafted into another a change or passage from a mans former state a being dead to a former husband a redemption from a former bondage an alliance to another father and having a bond cancelled that was against a man by its exacting and condemning power SECT II. The necessity of a Translation from the first Covenant 1. THE necessity of this Translation is manifested several ways 1. From the nature of the Covenant as it is broken and mans misery under it for the Covenant in self is unchangeable and eternal as well as the Covenant of Grace and it says for ever This do and thou shalt live it still says Gal. 4.4 5. Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them the soul that sins shall die And to establish it Christ was made under the Law that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and what the Law saith it saith unto them that are under the Law still So that while men continue under it their
promise higher things the Lord to be your God and Christ to be your head your Husband his Spirit to be the guide of your way and also the earnest of your inheritance a higher Righteousness a higher Sonship a nearer Union a fuller Communion as the Spouse of Christ and as his Members and a more exceeding eternal weight of glory being rewarded not according unto the Covenant of man but according to the Covenant of Christ 3 Better promises because of their assurance and stability the promises of the first Covenant might come to an end and be swallowed up in the Curse as they were but the promises of the second are the sure mercies of David for the righteousness of it is an everlasting righteousness and therefore the promises are eternal promises 4 But there is one thing as great as any of these and that is they are all of them the promises made unto Christ and by vertue of the Covenant belong unto him 2 Cor. 1.20 In him are all the promises yea and Amen That is they are made unto him and they belong unto us and unto us are fulfilled only by vertue of our Union with him as we live in him and dye in him so we receive promises in him and this is the sweetness of all Gospel promises they do every one of them carry a man to the fountain of his interest and that brings into the Soul infinitely the more sweetness As if a Wife take a favour from her Husband and look no further there is not so much in it but yet in every favour she is carried back unto the Marriage Covenant which assures her not only of this but also of all others whatever is his she has a right to because of the Covenant past between them this is sweet to her And so here it brings into the Soul the sweetness of all the promises together with the present mercy As to a wicked man in Hell that hath the terrors of God upon him every evil doth carry him unto the fountain of it and that is to the anger and hatred of God and the curse of the Covenant that he hath broken and this imbitters his misery a Thousand times more for now the Soul saith this is but a pledge of infinitely more wrath So it is here every promise carries him to the fountain and that assuring him not only of this supply but whatever else he can stand in need of for in a mans interest in Christ is infinite more sweetness than in any blessing or benefit we receive by him Now when a man shall look upon this promise not only as sweet but as his inheritance as he is a Son of Abraham and an Heir of Promise it brings with it infinitely more sweetness than the promises of mercy it self abstractly and in it self injoyed 5. For all the duties and obedience to the Covenant And this is commonly the great affliction of the people of God the Gospel requires obedience as well as the Law and there is a Law of Christ to be kept and there is a yoak of Christ to be born and Christ that hath abolished the Law as a Covenant and a Curse has established the Law as a rule of Gospel obedience and hath therein made it a hand-maid to the Gospel and therefore the Law upon Mount Sinai was given in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3.19 And how shall we be able to perform this duty by the power of inherent grace It is impossible 1 from the remainders of sin Rom. 7. There is a law in the members rebelling against the law of the mind and the fulfilling of the Law requires a holy nature as well as a holy life 2 From the imperfections of Grace Says the Apostle Paul Not that I have already attained not that I am already perfect c. And how then shall a man appear before God Now comes in the Covenant of Christ and of this Covenant he is a surety Heb. 7.22 not only to pay the debt that we did owe under the old Covenant but also to perform the duty that is required of me under the new and therefore the Lord did lay help on one that is mighty we should have failed Psal 89. for we could neither pay the debt of the one nor do the duty of the other therefore the Lord hath laid all upon Christ and will expect all of him and he must present us unto his Father as a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and what imperfection soever there be in our duties he must offer them pure before God with his odours and all this is from the Covenant made with him In him is our fruit found Rev. 8.3 6. The stability of the Covenant can never fail it is an everlasting Covenant and sure mercy 1 Upon the faithfulness of God it 's confirmed with an Oath 2 From the obedience of Christ who hath performed all that is required in this Covenant 3 From the promise made unto him for the Oath is made first to Christ Heb. 7. Psal 110. and if the Lord could fail with you he could not fail with him There are Three things that amongst men are in a special manner noted as the acts of the highest injustice and wickedness 1 To keep back the hirelings wages 2 Not to fulfill the will of the dead 3 The cry of innocent blood going unrevenged and all these the Lord abhors in men and they shall not be found in him Now Christ is Gods hired servant and his reward is Heb. 9.15 16. to see the travail of his soul it is his last Will and Testament when he died that by means of his death they that are called might receive the promise and it 's a blood that speaks better things than the blood of Abel Adams Covenant did change because it was established with a mutable head And hence as the Lord doth make suppositions Isa 54.10 The Mountains may depart and the Hills remove if you can change the Covenant of the day and of the night then may the Covenant of my peace be broken And in assurance thereof the Saints do make supplications The Lord is our God we will not fear though the earth be removed and the mountains cast into the sea Psal 46.1 2. And the root of all the stability of the Covenant lyes in Christ the foundation of the Covenant 7. The acceptation that you find with God is grounded hereupon 2 Cor 5.9 We labour whether present or absent to be accepted of him and there is a double acceptation one of persons and the other of services 1 Of persons as we find Gen. 4.4 If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted says God offer it to thy Prince will he accept thy person 2 Of services Mal. 1. Heb. 12.28 They are acceptable services As God delights in the plagues of wicked men Psal 120. Coals of Juniper which burn sweetly and fiercely so in the services of the
thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generation for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and thy Seed after thee SECT I. That Children are taken into their Parents Covenant § 1. THE subject we have in hand is the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace the new and better Covenant and therein having shewed the Person that made the Covenant with man and spoken of the free Grace of God which was the Fountain from whence this Covenant of Grace did flow we came in the next place to consider the Persons with whom this Covenant was made and they are set down in a threefold subordination 1 First and immediately with Christ the second Adam 2 In him with all the Faithfull 3 In them with their Seed And this last is the head we are now to enter upon having laid these two grounds 1 That the Covenant that God made with Abraham is the same Covenant that all the Faithfull whether Jews or Gentiles stand under to the worlds end Rom. 4.16 therefore is Abraham called the Father of us all though of the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is cognatio specialis quae coram Deo locum habet Deo nos gratos reddit Beza All Believers have a special Cognation to God by virtue of Abrahams Covenant and this is not barely by imitation of his Faith which the Apostle Paul asserts vers 12. of those that walk in the steps of the Faith of Abraham but there is â— blessed resultance from this that a man is thereby translated into the Covenant of Abraâ—am and there is no distinction of persons for there is neither Jew nor Greek Gal. 3.29 neither bond â—or free neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Ad jus adoptionis acquirendum vel minuendum nullum discrimen sancta est in Christo aequalitas quae unitas Par. Par. As to the right of Adoption there is no inequality all are in Christ equal All therefore that are Christs are Abrahams seed and heirs according to the Promise Gal. 4.28.31 we as Isaac are the children of Promise we are not the children of the bond-woman but of the free 2 Though in the manner of the Administration of this Covenant there be a great deal of difference from what it was in ancient times yet as to the substance of the Covenant the persons that are foederati in it are the same and taken in upon the same grounds and shall be so to the end of the world and therefore as the seed were taken into Covenant with their father the same way will the Lord dispense the Covenant to the end of the world that if he take the Parent into Covenant he will take the seed with him and therefore their children are called the Sons of the Covenant Act. 3.25 because it 's as a Birth-Priviledge and belongs unto them as they are taken into their Fathers Covenant And this the Lord says shall be the way in which he will dispense his Covenant for ever Act. 2.39 that no man may say this was a peculiar priviledge unto Abraham and his seed onely for Abraham is made the Father of many Nations Rom. 4.12 the Father of the Circumcision and of the Uncircumcision and the Promise is to you and your seed and unto them that are afar off as Gentiles unconverted are said to be that are yet strangers unto the Church of God Ephes 2.17 and the Priviledges thereof even to as many as in all ages the Lord shall call And these two grounds being laid this Covenant made with Abraham will give us ground to observe this point Doctrine That the Children of believing Parents in the Covenant of Grace are taken into the same Covenant with their Parents the Covenant is to them and to their seed and therefore their Posterity may well be stiled the Children or Sons of the Covenant A point it is of great concernment and therefore to be contended earnestly for 1. As that which doth exceedingly advance the Grace of God unto Parents and makes much for their Consolation that are Believers that not only the Lord doth extend mercy to them but to their seed as he did here extend it to Abrahams seed by which God exceedingly exalts his free Grace and so it 's made an argument of special Love unto Parents Deut. 4.37 Because he loved thy Parents therefore he chose their seed after them Mercy unto their Posterity is from the Love of God unto Parents Now as it is a special Grace of the second Covenant that wherever Believers come unto all people where they live they shall be a blessing Gen. 12.2 the word in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esto benedictio so Montanus we render it according to the Septuagint Thou shalt be a blessing but as Aynsworth has well observed this manner of speaking in the Hebrew is very vehement and emphatical noting Gods commanding the blessing according to the Expression Psal 133.3 For there the Lord commanded the Blessing even life for evermore c. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as dew from the Lord c. They shall be as dew the cause of a Nations flourishing and to a decaying Nation they shall be the root and support the holy seed shall be the substance thereof Isa 16.13 how much more shall the Grace of the Covenant be exalted in reference to their Posterity for their consolation in that they are nearer and dearer to them than any other can be and therefore they shall be a blessing to them and this will be much heightned unto them by this that while they were under the Covenant of Works while unstranslated they did convey unto them the Curse of the first Covenant and the Lord doth threaten that he will visit the iniquity of the Parents upon the Children Now it were a great terrour to a man that while he is under the first Covenant his iniquity shall be visited upon his Children if when he is translated into the second Covenant the grace of the Covenant should no way extend unto them and â—â—range it were that all the creatures coming under the Covenant of the Saints are by tâ—â—s means preserved in their being and attain many benefits that by reason of the curse of the first Covenant they should never have attained if amongst all the rest their children should have no benefit by their fathers Covenant and they which are nearest to them should only be excluded 2. This is one of the great Arguments that the Scripture useth to draw men in to Believe because not only they shall have benefit by it but their Posterity there is a double use that I find the Apostle makes of that argument 1 To the Children as a means to bring them in repent ye therefore and be converted for you are the children of the Covenant which God made with your fathers there is mercy in
case Nobis minimè dubium est quin soboles ex sanctis piis atavis progenita quamvis apostatae fuerint avi parentes ad Ecclesiae tamen corpus pertineant Calv. Epist pag. 442. Calv. epist pag. 174 175. There was one of the Church had married her daughter to a Papist and the Grandmother desired that their child might be baptized which Mr. Farell refused Ego respondi non admittendum quòd in foedere non sit cùm neuter parens sit fidelis and this caused some difference between him and his Collegue or Fellow-labourer in the work of the Ministry And to decide this controversie he writes to Mr. Calvin and in answer to it he laid down two positions 1 That it 's unlawful for us to baptize the children of Papists Absurdum est ut eos baptizemus qui corporis nostri membra censeri nequeunt cùm in hoc ordine sint Papistarum liberi quomodo baptismum illis administrare liceat non videmus c. 2 The Grandmother desires it and there 's the difficulty upon that he answers Cùm Dominus gratiam suam in multas aetates extendat eam astringere non est nostrum c. Calv. Epist pag. 174 175. And it 's the ordinary answer of our Divines That the infant is not to be debarred from the priviledges of the Covenant for the sins of the immediate parents for those that descended from Abraham and David had a right to Circumcision and were within the Covenant though the immediate parents for some foregoing generations were wicked as Psal 106.35 they were mixed among the Heathen and had learned their works and served their Idols yet he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry and remembred for them his Covenant vers 44. even the Covenant that he made with Abraham c. The promise is to you and your children and yet it 's clear Acts 2.39 that their immediate parents were a wicked generation that had killed the Prophets as they themselves had a hand in crucifying the Lord of glory concerning the Gospel it 's said of the Jews That they are enemies for your sakes Rom. 11.28 but as touching the election they are beloved for their fathers sake their immediate fathers were wicked and enemies to the Gospel and yet is there a holiness that comes from Abraham the root unto the Jews when they shall be converted for God shews mercy unto them that love him to a thousand generations and Joshua had little reason to have circumcised the people at Gilgal for the holiness of their immediate parents whose carkasses fell in the Wilderness and yet he did circumcise them there as being within the Covenant and did thereby roll away from them the reproach of Egypt and hence they do say Mortons Appeal l. 4. c. 6. §. 1. Rutherford the due right of Presbyt pag. 2. c. 4. §. 6. p. 259. that the children of Papists and excommunicated Protestants born within the visible Church are to be baptized if any of their forefathers have been found in the faith And I could gladly have rested in this so received a judgment of godly and learned men but that some considerations have put me upon a further inquiry for I find in the administration of the seals of the Covenant as well as in the application of the promises of the Covenant that they are to be administred with judgment in the parties that do administer them and that there is a great trust and a special charge committed to them therein Mat. 7. Give not that which is holy unto dogs It 's a dangerous evil for a man either wittingly or negligently to dispense the Ordinances of God and the priviledges of the Covenant to those unto whom God did never intend them as it is to deny them unto those whose right they are As to apply the promises unto wicked men and make glad the souls of the unrighteous and to sew a pillow under every arm-hole and provide a kerchief for every head is as bad as it is to deny the promises unto men whose right they are so to make glad the souls of the wicked by applying the seals to their seed is as bad as to make sad the souls of the righteous by denying them It was that Chrysostom stood much upon in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper he would rather suffer his own blood to be poured out than to give the blood of Christ to be profaned by an unworthy receiver and surely if so much care and diligence be to be used in Church-Officers in dispensing of one Sacrament the other is not to be so carelesly and promiscuously administred as it is and therefore it was the great offence that Mr. Farell took at the Collegue joyned with him in the Ministry Quòd omnia profanare improbissimos velle admittere non-vereretur That he feared not to profane all things and admit the most wicked These thoughts have put me upon farther inquiry concerning the persons unto whom the Sacrament of Baptism is to be administred and to whom the priviledges of the Covenant do belong and the apprehensions that I have of it out of the word I shall desire with all submission to propose to you 1 I 'le lay down in several propositions what I conceive to be the truth 2 I shall answer the objections that are commonly made against them and so I hope the truth may be cleared or at least hereby an occasion given to them that are better able to judge of further inquiry Reasons why federal right comes to children from their immediate parents only 1. I conceive that federal right comes to the children only from the immediate parents and the Reasons that induce me to conceive so are these 1. In Scripture I find that when God took parents into Covenant he also took in their children with them and whensoever God cast parents out the immediate parents he did cast out their children also When he took the Jews into Covenant he made this Covenant also with their seed and because the root was holy from thence came also an holiness upon the branches and when he did cast off the immediate parents and called them Lo-ammi he did also cast off their seed and it would have been in vain to the Jews to have said We have Abraham for our father and therefore have still a federal right when God had given unto their immediate parents a bill of divorce and looked upon them as a people in Covenant with him no more as therefore though none of their predecessors were holy and in Covenant yet the faith of the immediate parents and their interest in the Covenant does make the children holy and brings them under the priviledges of the Covenant so though many of their predecessors were holy yet if the immediate parents reject and cast off the Covenant and be rejected of God the children also are cast out with them there is the same reason of
because we chuse him and the soul of man is in nothing more free than in his choice specially in the choice of his God and therefore 't is said Hos 9.10 They joyned themselves unto Baal-Peor and separated themselves unto that shame So in conversion a man doth change his God the great work of grace is upon the will The Lord shall perswade Japhet vocatione alta secreta by a deep and secret vocation and all that power is put forth by making them a willing people Psal 110.3 2. He that has Jehovah for his God must have no other God Psal 81.9 There shall be no strange God in thee thou shalt have none other gods but me And therefore Dagon falls before the Ark. And it was the great objection of the Senate against worshipping of Christ as a God in their Capitol when offered by Tiberias because he would be God alone it 's the great objection that Nature has against exalting of God in the heart when God is exalted all lusts must give place Satan then falls from Heaven as Lightning Luk. 10. Hos 14.8 and all the Idols of the soul give place to God What have I to do any more with Idols There are Parelii in Nature by way of reflection two Suns but there cannot be so in the Soul in reference to Gods and if there be so and any thing allowed in the soul for God but the true God that mans interest in God is but a fancy 3. If the Lord be thy God thou wilt exercise all these acts of soul towards him that becomes a God for that is to have Jehovah for thy God for Mic. 4.5 All nations do walk in the name of their gods and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever There is a twofold worship of God 1 Cultus naturalis natural Worship which is inward and there is something in nature that dictates it without a word of institution 2 Institutus instituted Worship an outward worship that depends upon an additional manifestation of his will and these outward acts of worship may be interrupted but the inward acts can never be but you may be abundant in them namely to fear him as a God to trust him as a God and to love him and believe in him as a God and these acts let thy soul be most in offer all thou hast to him and expect all good from him he it is that is called the hope of Israel because all their hopes are in him as all our springs are in him look for your happiness from no other depend upon none but him take up this noble resolution before all the world and say it shall never be said that the King of Sodom made Abraham rich by the things of this life I will have all from my God and then they are all blessings indeed because God comes home to the soul with every mercy and the more immediately any mercy comes from God the sweeter it is and this should make a man walk worthy of God and of such an interest in him It was said of Felix by Tacitus Jus regium servili ingenio exercuit He exercised the kingly power with a servile mind a greatness of mind a Princely spirit answerable to the greatness of your interest is becoming you it is the honour and glory of the Saints to be always shewing themselves worthy of their high calling before the world SECT II. God in the Covenant has made over all his Attributes § 1. LET us now come unto the first thing to be considered in God and that is his Divine Essence there is a twofold discovery a double manifestation of God that the Scripture speaks of the face and the back parts of God Gods face is his Essence Exod. 33.20 21. 1 Joh. 1.2 1 Cor. 13.12 for that is to see him as he is we shall see him face to face which is the vision that the Saints and Angels have of God in Heaven for their Angels behold the face of your Father in Heaven Mat. 18.10 And this is that in which the happiness of rational creatures doth consist it is this which destroys sin and perfects grace and makes the creature impeccable our conformity unto God in holiness and happiness is grounded upon our vision of him 1 Joh. 3.2 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and it 's true that this is also promised by God unto his people in this promise to be their God in fruition as will afterwards appear for this promise is never fully accomplished till we come to Heaven Job 11.7 and yet even then we shall not find out the Almighty to perfection for an infinite Being can never be comprehended by a finite understanding It 's the happiness of God to know himself to perfection We shall know him sufficiently for our perfection but we shall never be able to know him according unto his perfection but the knowledge of God in his Essence doth not agree unto a mans present state the imperfection whereof is set forth by a threefold similitude 1 Cor. 13.12 1 of a glass 2 of a riddle 3 it is answerable to the knowledge of a child of the things of a man Therefore the knowledge that we have of God in this life is not of his essence or his face but of his back parts non sicut est sed sicut vult non as he is but as he wills Bern. And the back parts of God are those Attributes that he is pleased to express of himself in the Scripture by which he is made known either viâ negationis in a way of negation as he is infinite immortal incomprehensible invisible unchangeable or else viâ causalitatis in a way of causality as he is holy and merciful and just and wise c. These being excellencies in the creature are attributed unto God as being wrought by him and therefore must needs be in him in a more glorious and transcendent manner than they can be in any creature This is a knowledge of God suitable unto this life and it is an interest in God that is attainable in this life God has made over himself to his people in all his Attributes Doctrine Observe hence That the Lord in the Covenant of grace has made over unto his people all the Attributes of his Divine Nature Here for the opening of it we must shew 1 That it is so that Gods Attributes are made over 2 That this is peculiar to the second Covenant and is the Saints priviledge or portion 3 The manner of making them over how they are in God and how a man may conclude that they belong to us 4 To what end they are made over unto the Saints 5 What a glorious revenue such have who have an interest in the Attributes of God and how infinitely more it is than a mans interest in all the promises of God and
of persons they may as Eli did misreprove a Hannah in the Church of God and as David believe a Zibi against the son of his friend for commonly the best deserving Christians are clouded by the glaring light of the lamps of Hypocrites who make it their business to raise false reports against such as outshine them in true grace and holiness but at last God will discover them and cast them out of the Churches prayers and affection they shall not always abide with them 1 Joh. 2.18 that they may be made manifest not to be of them and they that are approved shall be made manifest and so shall they that are corrupted also they shall be found lyars and they shall be cast out the Lord will cut them off that they may deceive the expectations of the Saints no more the Lord doth delight to do it and we should wait his leisure in it who will certainly shew himself a God that judges in the earth 3 That thereby the Saints may be awakened and admonished when Hymeneus fell then 2 Tim. 2.7 is that exhortation most seasonable Let him that names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity and let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall when a man observes horrendas tempestates flenda naufragia horrid tempests it is a hint to the Saints look to your standing see that you be built upon a Rock that storms and tempests may not overthrow you 5. In their judgments for they are terrible judgments that the Lord doth execute upon unregenerate men in the Church there are no mercies like those out of Sion and there are no judgments like them no men are so eminently under the curse as they are Out of the Throne came thundering and lightning and voices Rev. 4.5 for the Churches sake and by their prayers And this is 1 that the Saints may be thankful how great a mercy is it that I had not fallen away as well as he Joh. 14.22 2 That they may take heed of the same sins lest they be overtaken by the same plagues Remember Lots wife the natural branches are broken off thou standest by faith be not high-minded but fear they entred not through unbelief let us fear lest we also come short c. Heb. 4.1 § 3. There belongs also unto the spiritual Kingdom reductivè all the works and the dispensations of God amongst the creatures for though only men that live in the Church be the proper subjects of the spiritual Kingdom and in respect of the spiritual part of it only the Saints yet as the Mediator undertook the government of all other things for the Churches sake so in the government of all things he has a special respect unto their good Eph. 1. ult Joh. 17.2 so that all the creatures and the government of them all comes under the spiritual Kingdom two ways 1 As they tend to perfect the graces of the Saints 2 As they belong unto the priviledges of the Saints so reductivè they belong to the spiritual Kingdom 1. Christ in the spiritual Kingdom doth so order and dispose of all the creatures that they do all tend to perfect and increase the graces of the Saints Rom. 8.28 Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God the Apostle speaks it in reference unto affliction but yet because there was a general doctrine in it he would not restrain it and therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is all creatures and all events 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 1 they shall not work so of themselves but by a blessed and gracious concurrence of God with them all as it is said That Ministers are workers togethers with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6.1 Alas it is not any thing we can do or by any power that is in us but only there is a concurrence of the principal with the instrumental cause for instrumentum agit dispositivè in virtute principalis agentis 2 Some refer it unto the creatures themselves that they do not do this apart as if any one action or any one dispensation meerly did it but they do it as it were in a conspiracy or concatenation they all joyn together in the work that if we take any one particular we may seem to go backward and it may tend to the disadvantage of the spiritual Kingdom but we must take them all together as we are not to judge of the works of God ante quintum actum so neither are we to judge of the fruits of his works but by laying of them all together and see how they work in a due order and subordination one to another c. and unto what is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is ad aeternam piorum salutem for sine summo bono nil bonum As there is nothing good without the chiefest good so there is nothing good that doth not lead a man unto the chief good and therefore when it 's said That all things work together for good the meaning is they shall all make for the increase of their grace here and their glory hereafter all of them shall work for the eternal good of their souls whereas unto all wicked men all the creatures and all the dispensations of God in the ordering of the creatures cedunt in perniciem tend to their perdition they are unto the one in praemium for a reward unto the other in supplicium for punishment as Prosper has it Or as Cyprian saith of the Sacrament it was Petro in remedium Judae in venenum a remedy to Peter but poyson to Judas so it is here all the creatures that the wicked do enjoy they are indeed seemingly blessings but really curses outwardly bread but in verity a stone a fish in shew but in truth a scorpion for they do all of them tend to the ripening of their sins and the hastning of their ruine but to the Saints 1 Cor. 3.21 22. All things are yours he was speaking of glorying in men they should not boast of their Teachers though it is true indeed that the Primitive Church had their Crown of twelve Stars yet they were all the servants of the Churches debent tam corpori quà m capiti servire they ought to serve the body as well as the head and therefore some will have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Apostle doth speak here as in the fore-quoted places as I conceive where though speaking of one particular yet there being a general truth in it he doth propound it generally for it is not to be restrained to persons as the after-enumeration shews for he speaks of life and death things present and things to come now how doth he mean that all is ours that is aedificationi saluti destinata as ordained for our edification and salvation there is a special design of grace in ordering and disposing of them all so as
prayers for as by their prayers they do not only attain mercy for themselves so they do not only by their faith attain mercy for themselves it is said of the men that came to Christ Jesus That when he saw their faith he said to the sick of the palsie Son thy sins are forgiven thee c. Mark 2.5 There is a question put by Interpreters whether any man be saved by another mans faith or what benefit a man may have by the faith of another to which they commonly give this answer That the faith of others may be very useful unto men though they be sinful in reference unto temporal mercies and deliverance as the Saints are said by faith to subdue kingdoms attain promises stop the mouths of lyons out of weakness were made strong Heb. 11.33 waxed valiant in fight and turned to flight the armies of the aliens c. in which works there were many others had the benefit of them besides themselves and yet all is attributed to their faith And therefore if by the faith of one many even ungodly men may fare the better how much more may all the Saints who are one body and live not only for their own good but also for the good one of another by their faith attain very many temporal blessings one from another and by the faith one of another Yea they go further though it 's true that no man can be saved but by his own faith and it was by this mans faith also laying hold upon pardon that his sins were forgiven him yet ubi est mutuus fidei consensus ab aliis juvari aliorum salutem Calv. The Lord even in granting spiritual blessings to his people hath as well respect unto the faith of others as unto the prayers of others as when we pray and others pray for us the mercy is granted as a return unto both prayers so when we believe and others also do believe the mercy is given with respect to the faith of both parties and this is the blessed condition of Saints that they do not only attain temporal mercies one for another and are the better in temporal things but even in spiritual and eternal things they do attain mercy as by their prayers so by the faith one of another as they may pray one for another so they may also believe one for another and the mercies be granted to them so there be a concurrence also of the faith of the person that receives the mercy It was a great mercy that the people of Israel should enter into â—anaan by the faith of Abraham and Jacob and Joseph they only believing and embracing those promises which they never lived to see fulfilled and accomplished But if it be so great a mercy to enter into the earthly Canaan and yet some entred not because of their unbelief for a mans own proper unbelief may deprive him of those temporal blessings which a man might else attain how much more a mercy is it to enter into the spiritual Canaan that of the Gospel even the promised Land the spiritual Priviledges of the Gospel and those that are eternal and that with the assistance of another mans faith It is ordinary with us to desire the prayers one of another and by the same reason that we have an interest in the prayers of the faithful we have an interest in the faith of the faithful also and we may as well desire them to improve and exercise their faith for us as their prayers and so did Monica for her son and parents should do it for their children as well as for their own souls and so for our friends also Austin speaking of the former experiences that his mother had in the answer and return of her prayers saies of her Semper orans tanquam chirographa tua ingerebat tibi c. And truly the returns of the faith of the faithful would be as great though they be not so commonly known as the return of their prayers and yet their prayers will avail nothing if they be not the prayers of faith § 4. Thus we have spoken something of the providential Kingdom in over-ruling all things for the good of the Saints in reference unto Good men now follows that we speak something also in reference unto Evil men for there is a Government and Soveraignty that the Lord doth also exercise towards them and all for the good of his own people Now the Lord Jesus hath a rule and dominion not only over his own house but also over the world and he doth rule them with a rod of iron Psal 2.9 and it is in this only that the people of God when they look upon wicked men in the world can comfort themselves that the Lord reigns and the power and the government of themselves is not in their own hand even the vessels of dishonour in his great house whether we understand it of the Church or of the world are for the masters use and at the masters command even wicked men as well as Devils are not at their own dispose there is a government that he doth exercise over them for he hath undertaken the government of all things for the good of his people and for their sake and if he do administer all for their good he must rule their enemies in all things as well as the Saints that the people of God may say That neither Angels nor principalities nor powers nor any creature shall be able to separate them from the love of God in Christ Rom. 8.38 he orders all the motions of enemies as well as the motions of his people as the Captain of the Lords Host and he orders all things so as it shall be for the destruction of the enemy at the last for all things are put under his feet the last enemy that is destroyed is death therefore all is put under his government and he doth rule them so as that in their own actings they do find their own destruction his government over them is that they might be destroyed and in their own way find their destruction but yet so as they shall be wholly ruled and ordered for the good of his people and that will appear in these particulars 1. That they have a being and standing in the world is for the good of the Saints caeteri mortales qui ex isto numero non sunt ad utilitatem nascuntur istorum August They had never been born if God had not had some use to make of them for the good of the Saints non enim quenquam istorum Deus temerè aut fortuito creat God creates none of them in vain as if he knew not what use to make of them it is for the Saints sake that they have their standing in the world for it is for them that the world stands it is but that the number of the Elect may be gathered and perfected and when that is done the stage of this world shall be taken down