in whom all happiness â—es whose very Presence makes Heaven should be made a curse that he who only hath Immortality should give himself unto death that the Incomprehensible should be comprehenâ—ed and Eternity have a beginning and the Ancient of days become a child who can â—ut admire that such things as these should be united and all to make a righteous and a holy God and a sinful creature to become one again So for the Distinctions to see God in Christ dividing between the guilt and stain of sin the guilt Christ will take upon himself by Imputation but he will not take the stain of sin to distinguish between the sin and the sinner that the sin shall be damned and the sinner saved God will take sin off the sinner that there should be a change of the person but not of the righteousness that the guilt of all sin should be taken away perfectly at once but the stain of it blotted out by degrees A mans Covenant is at once renewed and his image but in part so for God to distinguish between the Law as a rule and the Law as a Covenant and the Lord will utterly abolish it in the one respect but not in the other In all this is seen the Majesty and Wisdom of God therefore as our Divines use to say If there had been a Council called of Men and Angels after the Fall how a way might be found out to answer the different demands of the Attributes of God Mercy inclining to spare the Creature as miserable and Justice requiring vengeance upon the Creature as sinful how Mercy and Justice may be satisfied and God and Man be reconciled how God satisfied and the sinner saved how the sin may go to Hell and the sinner to Heaven how the Curse of the Law may be executed and yet the Grace of the Gospel exercised towards man all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth could not have found out a way so I may say in this particular the Creature must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own rule a rule it must have to walk by which must be the manifestation of Gods will or else what it does can never be accepted Tert. for Deo serviendum est non ex arbitrio sed ex imperio And this is the Eternal rule that God will have his Creatures to walk by as answering his holy nature and can be no other and therefore if we walk not after Gods rule Gods curse must follow us Now take away and abolish the Law as a Covenant and so the curse will be thereby removed and now for God to do this and yet to continue the Law as a rule to take that away that was against a man and yet to continue that which was for him it was that which all the wisdom of the Creatures could never have found out a way to accomplish that the Law as a Covenant might be abolished and yet as a rule continued for ever CHAP. VIII To all that are in Christ the first Covenant is made subservient to the second Gal. 3.17 18 19 And this I say that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disanull that it should make the promise of none effect for if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise Wherefore then serveth the Law it was added because of transgression till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator SECT I. The subservience of the first Covenant to the second in general § 1. HAving largely opened to you the Doctrine of the first Covenant we are come at last to conclude it in these three heads 1 A mans Translation out of this Covenant with the nature and necessity thereof 2 The abolition of this Covenant unto all that are in Christ that it is a writing cancelled 3 The subordination thereof unto the Gospel and Covenant of Grace Of the two first we have formerly treated and come now to speak of the last and so to conclude the Doctrine of the first Covenant There are in this Chapter two principal parts 1 Here is a Doctrine confirmed 2 Here are some Objections against it answered and cleared 1. Here is a Doctrine confirmed in which Satan had bewitched the Galatians and they had fallen off from it and that is Justification by the righteousness of Christ alone without the works of the Law and this the Apostle proves by several arguments 1 That which conveys the gifts and graces of the Spirit by that a man is justified in the sight of God but that is not by the works of the Law but by the Doctrine of the Gospel v. 2. 2 All men that are Abrahams seed must be justified the same way that Abraham was but Abraham was justified by faith for he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness Rom. 4.21 22. Therefore they that are justified by faith only are the children of Abraham 3 Justification and blessedness are upon the same persons and that either to them that are of faith or of the works of the Law but it is not by the works of the Law but by faith that they are blessed with faithful Abraham 4 They that are under the curse cannot receive Justification and Life from the Law but they that are under the Law are under the curse 5 God has said that the just shall live by faith but the Law is not of faith that is it does not require faith and propound that way of salvation and life but it requires obedience for it saith He that does them shall live in them 6 If a man do make a Covenant he does disinable himself by his subsequent acts to break it for by his own act he is bound how much more then is the wise God engaged to keep his Covenant who is not as man that he should repent therefore his acts are firm and unchangeable like himself So that the Covenant with Abraham being made 430 years before an after-act in giving the Law cannot make it void 2. Now the Objections follow It will be said that the way of Justification and Salvation by the Law and by the promise are directly contrary or contradictory one to the other the Law is not of saith if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise so that Justification and Salvation cannot be by them both they cannot stand together and therefore it should seem that God did repent of his promise to Abraham and disanulled it or else why would he for four hundred and thirty years after reveal the Law as a quite contrary way to Heaven one by doing and the other by believing It should seem therefore that the Law doth make the promise of God of none effect or at least that God would have both stand together For if a
of Creation and stipulation the one is natural and necessary and the other voluntary Thus God binds the Creature to himself by all imaginable engagements to prevent future Apostasie By the one we are bound to God and by the other God is bound to us God as a Creator has absolute Soveraignty but yet that man might not think much to yield obedience God is pleas'd to engage himself to a recompence The Covenant God made is double according to the twofold state of Man 1 In his state of Integrity And this was faedus amicitiae a Covenant of friendship between persons never at variance 2 In his state of Corruption When man by sin had broken the first and brought himself under the Curse thereof then God brought in the Covenant of reconciliation and that was faedus misericordiae that is a Covenant of mercy And these Covenants were made with two representative heads the first and the second Adam for in them the Lord looks upon all mankind and it is a mans being in either of these that brings him under either Covenant for God will deal with men both in a way of Sin and Righteousness by way of imputation and the ground of all imputation is union In the first Adam all sin and all die because by their union they stand under his Covenant so in the second Adam we are made the Righteousness of God in him We are in him therefore we are righteous in him we live in the Lord and die in the Lord and hence it is that to all those who are in the first Adam the first Covenant stands in force to this day for Adam was a publick person a head that represented all Mankind The Commandment belong'd to the Nature the Tree of Life was not a personal Sacrament but given to the Nature and the curse of the Covenant doth not seize upon Adam's person but the nature of man in him Gal. 3.10 And the duty of the Covenant must be as large as the curse of the Covenant and so large must the Covenant it self be Now the curse comes upon all Mankind therefore to them the duty did belong and they are federates in this Covenant all that are the Sons of the first Adam are all under Adam's Covenant And this will appear from the conveyance of Adam's sin in the guilt of it Rom. 5.12 for upon whom the curse is inflicted unto them the sin is imputed death came in by sin But how is it that they die who never sin'd Though they never sin'd in their own persons yet in their head they sinned Men are in Adam two ways Legally and Naturally now seeing his sin is imputed to us because we stood under the same Covenant then so long as a man stands guilty of Adam's sin which he does till he be ingrafted into Christ so long he is under Adam's Covenant 2. Every man that is under the curse is under that Covenant that inflicts the curse but all Mankind by nature are under the curse therefore the curse is the curse of the first Covenant Joh. 3. ult and the Gospel does not make men miserable but leaves them so He that believes not on the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him that is only by accident as the mercy of it is contemn'd so indeed it heightens the sin and aggravates the condemnation but the curse is properly the curse of the first Covenant the Gospel in it self speaks nothing but blessing As a Physician that is sent to cure a man if through the malignity of the Disease and the frowardness of the Patient he cast away the Potion the Balm that would cure him he dies of the Disease not of the Physick Christ came voluntarily under a Covenant of Works Gal. 4.4 and submitted to all the obedience of it and he was made a curse for us that is in our stead to redeem us that were under the Law It cannot be meant of the Ceremonial Law for that the Galatians were never under and it cannot be meant of the Law as a rule for direction and as a bridle for restraint therefore it must be meant with respect to the Law in some way as a Covenant not as a Covenant of Grace therefore as a Covenant of Works 3. To be freed from the Law as a Covenant is a special fruit that the Saints have by Christ and by his Death Gal. 3.13 He delivers us from the curse of the Law now a man can never be freed from it as a curse that is not freed from it as a Covenant we are not under the Law condemning but under Grace pardoning justifying and accepting or else as Beza and others have it under the Law irritating as the dam makes the waters swell the higher but under Grace not only pardoning and justifying but healing and sanctifying And this follows upon the Law as a Covenant broken and if this be a special priviledge that men have by being in Christ then they that are out of Christ are under the Law as a Covenant still for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness The righteousness that the Law requires is to be found in Christ alone therefore Moses Law was to be laid up in the Ark Christ came not to abolish the Law but by his obedience to fulfil it and establish it 4. From the dealing of God with all men answerable to the Covenant under which they stand and his different dealing with them shews their different Covenants 1 He exacts perfect and personal obedience in their own persons There is indeed in the Gospel commutatio personae a commutation of the person but non Justitiae not of the righteousness but no unregenerate man can attain to this his Covenant admits no Mediator So that Christ's obedience goes not to perfect his Ephes 2.12 Without Christ c. 2 He rejects their best works for the least failing Isa 1.11 12. but under the Covenant of Grace if there be but a willing mind it 's accepted 2 Cor. 8.12 2 Chron. 30.18 19. 3 He hates the persons for the works sake Gen. 4.7 Gal. 3.10 but under the New Covenant he loves the service for the persons sake He had respect to Abel and his offering the weakness of the service did not cause the person to be rejected He never hates their persons when he is angry with their works but he deals with unregenerate men under another Covenant 4 All things are turn'd into a curse for this Covenant being broken speaks nothing but curse as we shall see when we come to speak to the Sanction or the appendix that which is added unto the Covenant to inforce obedience which is but accidental in case of disobedience and that is in the day thou eatest thereof dyâ—ng thou shalt die § 2. But before we speak to this particular let us note these things by the way 1. Why doth God add this threatning unto Adam surely it was that he might by it be
its order and made Man after his own Image but when Man had lost himself and blotted out that Image he brought himself under the curse now there is great wisdom in repairing for if man shall be saved then God must be satisfied now to take away sin and let the sinner live to send the sin to Hell and the sinner to Heaven to find out such a surety of infinite merit answerable unto sins demerit and to work many miracles at once by a personal union of the second person with a created nature that the Incomprehensibe should be comprehended Eternity brought within the bounds of time he that bears up all things should himself be born and the ancient of days become a child and that ever the tongue of man should say such a word as God manifested in the flesh it is such an act of wisdom as was never manifested before 2 Justice He had shewed justice in the first Covenant by threatning a curse upon the breach of it and he had executed justice upon the Angels that fell by casting them to Hell immediately without hope of mercy but when the Son shall take sin upon him but by imputation as his servant and by his own appointment now he will not spare a Son though he put up strong crys but being made sin he must be made a curse and that he that in all our afflictions is afflicted that God should delight to bruise him it is such a manifestation of justice as was never heard of under the first Covenant 3 Power In making a World he had declared power but this was but power over the Creature but now here is power over himself to answer the pleas and the just demands of his own Attributes Let the power of my Lord be great pardon them c. Numb 14.17 4 Love To give our first Parents a being and so glorious a Covenant and all the Creatures for their use to have dominion over them all was great love from God but here is a higher act of love to give sinners a Son so God loved the world that he did not spare his only begotten Son 5 Soveraignty To have authority and absolute power over the Creatures that God had manifested in the Creation c. but here is an authority over the Son of God who thought it no robbery to be equal with God Isa 42 1. yet he becomes the fathers servant and was commanded by him in all things In the second Covenant Justification is the highest act of Soveraignty to count things that are not as if they were to account Christ a sinner and make him sin and to count the sinner righteous by the righteousness of another c. And hence we may safely conclude that under the second Covenant we honour God more by a way of believing than ever we could have done under the first Covenant by a way of doing because the glory that we give him therein is a reflection of a higher manifestative glory than ever was shewed forth under the first Covenant And yet there is a principle of enmity in man against all these Divine Attributes of God which makes men desire to be under the Law § 3. There is also in man a principle of pride Man will not submit to the righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 which is the highest exaltation of the Creature There is so much pride in the heart of man that it will not stoop to it looks upon it as a submission below him We read how full men are of self-justification Luk. 10.29 16.15 they have a spiders house Job 8.15 and upon that they lean made up of outward duties and common graces So they in Matthew plead at the last day Lord we have prophesied in thy name c. but whosoever builds his hopes of Heaven upon any thing in himself any thing besides Christ builds upon the sand And this they do because it is their own and the best thing they have the highest excellency in the man It is not so hard to deny a mans self in riches and honours and learning and any inward abilities that commend a man but to men no man thinks that for his learning he shall be the more accepted of God but we think righteousness commends us unto God and therefore men have a higher esteem thereof and greater hope grounded upon it than upon any excellency that is in them besides And therefore surely for a man to come to Christ and deny himself in that and give up all to him and to be willing to suffer the loss of all things that be may win Christ Phil. 3.8 To sell all to buy the pearl and to do it with joy as Nazianzen did set no higher a price upon his Athenian Learning than this That he had something of worth to part with for Christ and esteemed it nothing in comparison of Christ herein is the highest act of self-denial and that 's the reason that of all men civil men and those that have but a form of godliness are with the greatest difficulty converted and Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before them because they have something of worth to lay down which their hearts are hardly brought unto And to see how corrupt nature through the policy of the Devil holds up the pride of it in this particular that if it were possible it might make the blood of Christ of none effect and therefore they will not trust perfectly in the Grace revealed by Jesus Christ whence we see the several opinions of their own righteousness in this particular and how they have minced it but yet still so as they hold something of self and the great exception that men have to keep them off from Christ is the same that the Roman Senate had when Tyberius did propound Christ to be head of the Capitol amongst their Gods and that with an offer of his own suffrage they all were against it upon this ground because he will be God alone See it in all those Popish Tenents which as Mr. Perkins has well observed is a Religion directly founded upon corrupt nature And 1 they say that some sins are not mortal nor deserve damnation in the strictness of Divine Justice 2 That the inclination of the heart to sin and all motions to sin without consent are no sins 3 If they do sin they can of themselves satisfie God Original sin is done away in Baptism lesser sins by prayers and so many Pater-nosters Greater sins by Alms and Pilgrimages Indulgences c. 4 That men can do something to prepare themselves to conversion because they are not wholly dead but have a free-will in nature to that which is good 5 Being prepared they do merit grace at Gods hand 6 Before conversion they do that which pleases God 7 Our inherent righteousness is the matter of Justificacation c. SECT III. The APPLICATION Vse 1 § 1. BUt if all men cleave to the first Covenant and be
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
have fancied but it is Gods dispensing himself in wrath Heb 12. ult for our God is a consuming fire It 's disputed amongst the School-men Whether the Devils who were unto men incensores in culpa abettors in the sin shall be also tortores in poena c. tormentors in the punishment And it 's denied by some of them solidly upon these grounds 1 The Devils ministery shall last no longer than the time of the ministery of good Angels and that shall be but for the time of this life for Satan shall be the God of this world no more after this life and the good Angels shall be Principalities and Powers no more for all rule and all authority shall be put down whether good or evil and therefore what power soever Satan has over wicked men while they are here for he works effectually in them he shall have no power over them hereafter 2 The Devil himself being the greatest in sin shall be the deepest in torment for Hell is prepared chiefly for the Devil and his Angels Now who shall torment the Devils who can have power over them this must be by God immediately it must be done by his own hand Therefore man being appointed to partake with the Devil in the same torment and by the same fire look what it is that torments the Devil that also must be the torment of those that in a way of sinning have given themselves unto him 3 No creature can make a man perfectly miserable there is no creature that can deprive the soul of God and shut out all hope of mercy make it utter darkness if the soul did not apprehend it to come from Gods hand his hope in God would still be continued but as God hides his face in mercy sometimes here from his own people so he shall shew the wicked his face in wrath for ever and therefore as in Heaven he is immediately the happiness and the glory of the Saints so in Hell he is immediately the torment of the wicked and the Lord Christ as he is man shall pronounce the sentence against them but it is as God that he shall inflict the punishment As the sufferings of Christ here upon earth the greatness of them lay in this that God hid his face and it pleased the Father to bruise him so the same way will God t◠with all unregenerate men and therefore cursed art thou O man if thy portion be 〈◊〉 in the Essence of God for good and for blessedness it shall lie in the Essence of God for misery and torment for ever Vse 2 § 3. Therefore let your hearts and thoughts rise unto this height to seek God for himself and be satisfied with nothing else for all the creatures and the good things of this life are but given by the Lord to try men whether they will prove baits to them and to see whether they will rest satisfied in them without God and herein lies the power of godliness when a man is carried towards God for himself and when there is nothing that comes from God will satisfie without God for a regenerate mans happiness lies in the Essence of God and in the vision thereof and in this lies the happiness of Christ as Mediator Psal 16. that the Lord is the portion of his inheritance and of his cup. It 's true that Christ hath a great deal of satisfaction in seeing the travel of his soul and is satisfied in the Saints they are his friends and his Spouse and his brethren c. but yet the happiness of Christ as Mediator doth not consist therein but only in the enjoyment of God himself the vision of his Essence and in this is the sincerity of a mans heart made manifest when his heart is right with God and he can say Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee And truly in God a soul shall have all things he that gives himself will deny thee nothing Oh the height of the happiness of the Saints that that which is the happiness of Christ and the blessedness of God himself that shall be thy blessedness also and therefore we may cry out O the blessedness of that man whose God is Jehovah Now the ways of attaining of this blessedness are these 1 Pet. 2.21 1. By way of Vnion with Christ for God is first Christs God and then our God Christs end is to bring us unto God and it must be by entring into Covenant and there is no way of coming into Covenant but by Union be one with Christ and then God is thine in Covenant Joh. 3.3 2. By a work of Regeneration Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Grace is above nature and grace is a principle that doth qualifie a man for the enjoying of God there is no beatifical vision without a fiducial vision no seeing God without holiness no man shall see the Lord for it is by this that a man is made a meet inheritor with the Saints in light Rom. 12.1 3. There must be Self-resignation to God Give your selves unto the Lord for he that will have Christ to be his must be Christs he that will have the Lord for his portion must also himself be the Lords portion and therefore the Scripture speaks it reciprocally The Lord is the portion of his people Vse 3 3. See the riches of the Love of God under the second Covenant called the riches of his grace Eph. 1.7 Indeed it was great Love that the Lord was pleased to shew to man in his Creation when he did make over all his creatures to him for his use even all the works of his hands and great was his bounty therein but all this is nothing in comparison to the second Covenant for so bountiful is his love that he gives himself that he will not only act for you but he will be yours truly wholly entirely yours so as your happiness shall consist in him and not in your self he will be your chief good and your utmost end and the bottom of free grace lies in this the ground of his giving his Son and of all the great things in the new Covenant is this they were the men of his good will that should be happy in himself and he will bestow himself upon them And that he may do so he gives them his Son to bring them to God all tends but to this end Vse 4 4. It 's the highest ground of comfort and assurance unto faith in the world if God give his Son if he give himself therefore he will give them all spiritual and temporal blessings There is unto the Saints all things in God therefore when the Lord desires to give unto his people full assurance Heb. 6.17 as if he were in dispute about it it 's said When he could swear by no greater he swore by himself as if the Lord had been solicitous