was lost and seeing the Preference of the Benefit by the second Adam is expressed in the Parallel if that Exaltation had been wholly new it would not have been omitted The Parallel also imports that the Promise of Immortality was not only to Adam but to his Posterity It could not consist with the Wisdom and Goodness of God that the first Covenant should have been impracticable and therefore it must have been a part of God's Promise that if Adam continued faithful for such time as God had appointed for his Trial that God would confirm him by more powerful and efficacious Grace as it is commonly believed that he hath confirmed the Elect Angels that they should never fall but be happy I see not how it could be called an happy State that were still under the fear of being lost There is no ground to think that by the first Covenant Adam's Posterity should have been in a better Condition than himself but that they also should have had a time of Trial as he had and such as should persevere should also be confirmed yet there was necessity that they should be endued with more Strength from the Womb thereby to be put in equal Capacity to stand as he was For seeing Adam was created in the Ripeness of Disscretion and in the clear Knowledg of God and yet so soon fell upon so small Temptation it had been impossible for any of his Posterity being to be born Infants without any Principle vigent in them but the Pleasure of Sense till they attained to Discretion and by long Exercise of these sensible Pleasures strong habitual Pleasures supervening that any one of them could have persevered unless God had promised that if Adam had stood out his Trial he would have given farther Perfection to his Posterity This first Covenant between God and Adam is commonly called the Covenant of Works to distinguish it from the Covenant of Grace and therefore there behoved to be something in it of Merit And that God's part of that Covenant was not only of Grace or free Favour but partly by Premiative Justice and Debt in Remuneration of the Holiness of the Creature as the Apostle saith To him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Yet it cannot be thence inferred that the Reward promised by God to Adam in his Perseverance was wholly and only a Reward of Debt by Justice but that it might be partly a Reward of Debt and partly a Reward of Grace freely given and not deserved Those who arrogate Salvation by the Merit of their Works fortify themselves in their Error by holding that Salvation by the Covenant of Works would have been wholly by Merit and therefore Christ having expiated the Sins of the Elect their good Works must merit Heaven which is clearly confuted seeing God's Dispensations are by Covenant importing Ingagements which did not arise from the Creatures Interest by Creation but only by God's Promise which was free by the Freedom of Indiffrency I am fully perswaded that a great part of God's Promises in the Govenant of Works was by his free Favour and could not have been claimed by Adam or his Posterity as due in Justice to their Perseverance For there was an exceeding great difference between the Value of Adam's part and God's part of that Covenant Adam's part was only Obedience to God There is nothing mentioned in Scripture or consequent from the Nature of that Covenant that God's Promises were for Adam's improving and increasing those Moral perfections God had given him by his Creation but on the contrary that which is expresly mentioned is only forbearance to eat of the forbidden Fruit which could not be the only Obedience but likewise the Obedience to all the Moral Law written in his Heart and also to the positive Law of Marriage instituted in Innocency yet Innocence in all was Man's part and Improvement tho it was no Work of Supererrogation even in him because he was obliged to love God with all his Might yet it did deserve and merit by God's Remunerative Justice but it cannot be pretended that it was a proportionable Remuneration to Adam's Innocency that he should not only become Immortal and be exalted to Celestial and Eternal Glory and that he should be confirmed and made free of the hazard of falling but that also all his Posterity should have additional Perfections created with their Souls enabling them against the Prepossessions of Youth to remain innocent and all as a just Proportion by Premiative Justice no certainly The Nature of a Covenant which is a mutual Contract implieth mutual Prestations to be performed by the Parties Contracters as the mutual Causes and Conditions of each to other and that the ingaging to these Performances be voluntary even tho the Matter engaged were necessary and have an anterior Obligation distinct from that Obligation which ariseth by the Contract For as it is well said by Lawyers the same thing may be due by several Obligations and may be exacted by any of them but the Property of a thing cannot be by more Rights for none can acquire that which is already his own Therefore before the Covenant of Works the Man was obliged to a full Observance of God's Commands without any Engagement of his own because God who gave him his Being might justly qualify his own Gift at his Pleasure so he had given Man his Being by Creation with sufficient Intimation of his Pleasure and Command by the Laws written in his Heart none of which did oblige him to enter into a Covenant with his Creator nor did God command him so to do but offered it to his free Choice inducing him thereto by the great Benefits he offered him by it which he had not Right to nor any ground of Confidence of it but through that Covenant The Covenant of Works had no Sanction by a Penalty added to it For the Dissolution of it upon Man's Failure in his part arose from the Nature of all Contracts whereby it the one Party fail the other may either urge Performance or declare himself free After Adam's Fall Performance became impossible and he was not punishable by that Covenant but by the antecedent Divine Law neither could Man's Consent or Engagement to be liable to the Punishment of Death have any Effect because his Life is not in his own Power Therefore he was only punishable by the antecedent Law of God which was before any Covenant and remained the same during the Covenant and after the Breach of it The Pain of Death expressed for eating the forbidden Fruit was no part of the Covenant and it doth appear to have been anterior to the Covenant intimated to Man immediately after his Creation before Eve was created otherwise Adam might have eaten of that Fruit which doubtless was most pleasant before the Prohibition but Eve's Creation is related after that Prohibition and there is no ground to doubt but the Covenant was made both with Adam and
called intrinsically evil God may excite these Acts where the Intention or Direction only is evil God's Intention being quite different so he may excite the giving of Alms intending thereby the relief of the Poor but the directing of the Alms to be seen of Men is a distinct separate Act. There is no ground inferring that God excites to that end much less that he excites to Acts intrinsically evil which no Intention can make good and where there are not different Parts or different Acts Therefore God doth not foreknow Acts intrinsically evil or the evil Intention of Acts that otherwise might be good or indifferent in his Decree to excite them but only in his permissive Decree not to hinder the free Creatures in acting them wherein I am convinced by many pregnant Reasons First God's foreseeing such Acts in his purpose to excite the Creature to them and his being an immediate and total Actor of them appears to me inconsistent with his immaculate Purity but thereby he behoved to be the Author of Sin I know many good Men perceive not this Consequence and are far from acknowledging it and are forced to harsh Concessions to shun it as that God is the immediate Cause of the Act but not of the Vitiosity of the Act which is only Privative and requires no Cause nor any Efficiency but Deficiency which importeth nothing as to evil Intention or Acts intrinsically Evil but only as to Acts that would be Good if right directed and is well illustrated by riding of a Lame Horse where the Rider is the cause of the Riding but the Lameness of the Horse is the cause of the Halting but this cannot be applicable to an indivisible Act whence Sin necessarily results and so the whole Act or the Act of Intention is totally Evil And thereby there cannot be one part attributed to God and another to the Creature if God be not the immediate and total Actor but that the Creature hath a different Act the forefight of that Act could not be by the Decree of God to act it and so all free Acts could not be foreseen that way The more Ingenuous are forced to recur to this Evasion that God is under no Law and so the same Act may be Sin in the Creature and no Sin in God but this overturns the Being of Acts morally Good or Evil in congruity to the Nature of God which are not so because God willeth them to be or not to be but he so willeth them because they are absolutely and immutably Good and not alone by the Will or Decree of God God is above his positive Law but he is neither above nor under his moral Law but is a Law to himself else God could make Vertue Vice and Vice Vertue for whatever depends upon Acts of the Will can be altered by another Act of the same Will So God hath altered many of his positive Laws and Precepts because they are only Good in that they are willed and commanded Secondly God hath expresly declared that he hath hindered many Acts of his Creatures which must necessarily import that they would have been acted if they had not been hindered for it is inconsistent to say that God decreed to be an Actor with the Creature and yet decreed to hinder that same Act Thus God declareth that he had hindered Abimelech to touch Sarah whom he had taken on design to make her his Concubine but God disabled him that he could neither meddle with her nor any other Thirdly There are many Sins of Omission wherein the Sinner doth not resolve to omit but by Carelesness and Inconsideration omits here there is no Act of the Creature And if God hinder the Creature to consider he must be sole Actor in these Sins and if not there is no positive Act or Excitation in them and so no Decree for such Acts and therefore they cannot be foreseen in that Decree and yet they are certainly foreseen Fourthly If it were sufficient to clear the Divine Purity that Sin is only a Privation requiring no Efficiency but Deficiency that could not but also vindicate the Creature albeit a total Actor of the same Act. Fifthly If God decree without foresight of what the Creature using its proper Power would act then he behoved to decree the torment of his Creatures without consideration of their future Sins voluntarily to be acted by them which is very inconsistent with his Justice and forces the Authors of this Opinion to acknowledg That God might eternally torment his innocent Creatures and that it is greater Goodness to give them a miserable Being than no Being at all which is neither consistent with his Justice nor his Goodness and gives a most unlovely Representation of him Sixthly There is nothing more inculcated in Scripture than the Efficacy of Prayer for it is said That the fervent Prayer of the Righteous availeth much But if God did determine all future things without Foresight and Consideration of the Prayers of his People Prayer were of no value but a meer Formality without any Efficacy For to what purpose should any pray to an unchangeable God who had already determined all things without consideration of Prayer I know no Evasion can be made but that God hath determined not only the Matter but the Manner of what was to come to pass and so determined many things to be after antecedent Prayer but then Prayer were a meer antecedent Formality and no efficacious Mean availing much But if God did determine many things upon the foresight and consideration of the earnest Prayer of his People they might with as much Confidence pray as if he were undetermined when they prayed I know there are many specious Reasons accustomed to be brought for God's being the immediate total Actor in all the Acts of his Creatures which I consider as Objections 1st It is objected If God decreed any thing upon Foresight and Consideration of any thing in his Creatures he were not altogether independent but behoved to depend upon such Considerations and be pedissequous to his Creatures This Reason can conclude nothing against God's Foresight and Consideration of what he foresaw in the Creature as given by himself above their natural Strength for thereby he depended on nothing but on his own Supernatural Grace It is true that if God's Election were upon the foresight of the Creatures Faith or good Works by that common Power all Men had by their Birth they might glory in themselves and the Election could not be said to be of Free Grace and God might be thought pedissequous to the Creatures and therefore that Opinion of Papists and Arminians is justly rejected But God cannot be said to be pedissequous to the Creatures he foresees would maliciously or obstinately and finally reject the offer of Grace because he decrees to let them follow their own Ways and in Justice to punish them whom he doth not follow but crosseth And though God doth not decree to damn the Reprobate
glorious Excellency of God in relation to a particular Creature and his Glory shining forth to the whole Creation and must produce a far greater measure of Love and Reverence which are much weakened by attributing any thing to him unworthy of him However none can justly blame me to clear my own Thoughts and raise them as high as I can and I do bless God for the increase of Love and Reverence he gives me thereby I am perswaded that the rise of most of God's Decrees and Dispensations are from the Congruity thereof to his natural Perfections as becoming and being worthy of such a Being I say it is a Congruity to his natural not to his moral Perfections for he is not just because he is true nor true because he is just nor gracious or merciful because he is just or true But when I consider what is congruous to worthy and becoming a Spirit omniscient omnipotent self-existent all-sufficient infinitely blessed free and independent and then put the Question to my self Must not such a Being be just exactly fulfilling all his Promises incouraging and rewarding the Good discouraging and punishing the Evil according to their Merit I am fully perswaded he must be such not by a fatal Necessity nor by meer Indifferency but by a voluntary and free Choice And when I further pose my self whether such a Being will only perform his Promises reward and punish according to Merit I am convinced it is congruous to him to be good bountiful gracious and merciful beyond what his Justice requires and that without any Bounds as in his Justice which precisely follows his Promise or what is congruous for him to do upon occasion of the good or evil Actions of his Creatures When I consider Whether such a Being will always express his Mind truly and never deceive I can have no doubt of it If again I consider Whether such a Being will ever choose fitted Means for all his Purposes and do nothing in vain I am assured that he is infinite in Wisdom and will do nothing in vain And lastly when I consider Whether such a Being will ever be constant in his Purpose and be unchangeable therein and in his Justice Bounty Truth and Wisdom I know he cannot change in these because they are all congruous to his unchangeable Nature By this Congruity I understand God's Holiness or Godlikeness that is that God acteth always like himself There is nothing more frequently inculcated in Scripture than Godliness and Holiness which are originally and principally attributed to God and in Analogy to his Rational Creatures it shall be the eternal Exclamation of all God's happy Creatures Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty I do not take Holiness to be as a Metaphysical Abstract from all God's Moral Perfections but that it is the precise and formal Reason why they are morally good Holiness in the Creature or Godlikeness which is the same consists chiefly in the Creatures being Godlike that is imitating the Divine Moral Perfections in being just being true prudent and constant but in other Duties of Holiness the Likeness to God is more analogical and less proper The Analogy consists in this that as God acteth always congruously to the Divine Nature so the Rational Creatures ought to act congruously to that Nature and those Principles that God hath freely imprinted in their Minds so they ought to adore God to obey him in all his Commands to trust in him and to be temperate in every thing and to subordinate Self-love to the Love of God Holiness is also taken for the Destination of things to the Service of God and separated from common Use which therefore is called Consecration I know the immediate Rule of the Creatures is the Will of God obliging them to obey not only what is congruous to the Divine Nature or to their own Nature but whatsoever positive Law or Precept God doth command tho the Matter be indifferent and that they may sufficiently be assured that he will never command any thing incongruous to himself yet it is of great use to know the difference between Moral and Positive Commands for the Glory and Amiableness of God appeareth far more in the one than in the other albeit the Positive Commands of God do indispensibly require full Obedience which is from an inbred Principle in the Mind of all Rational Creatures I am not troubled that it may be said that the Scripture Phrase is most of the Perfection of God and of his Justice Goodness Mercy and Truth for all is still mentioned as his Holiness and Godlikeness and many Cases do and may occur that we cannot so clearly refer to these particular Terms as we can know whether it be congruous for God so to do or not neither doth the Scripture express and define wherein Holiness consists but by the Expression of Godliness or Likeness to God And altho Perfection be frequently attributed to God yet Godliness is a more distinct Term for we must not explicate Godliness by Perfection or Goodness lest we should fall in the Apprehension that hath misled many that God would have shown more Goodness to have prevented all Sin and that there must be more Worlds than this at least more Species of Creatures than upon the Earth but we must explain God's Goodness with Congruity to his Nature which comprehends his Freedom whereby it is not congruous to him to communicate all the Good he can which would never terminate nor be stable but that he acteth freely and that it were impossible for us to know what Good he hath done or will do if he had not revealed it Some of the Fathers and many since have fallen into that Error that God's Goodness doth not admit that he should punish any Creature eternally and tho the Scripture says the contrary expresly they produce other places to prove that Eternity is sometimes taken for a very long Time Becomingness or Decency is vulgarly attributed to the Modes or Forms of Behaviour and so it is said by the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order which doth neither declare nor constitute that Decency as a kind of a Christian Vertue but as a Recommendation of what is expedient The Scripture maketh an express Distinction between that which is unlawful and that which is inexpedient so that kind of Decency is a part of Civility No serious Man can imagine that every undecent Gesture or Expression is a Sin Hence it may seem that the precise Nature of Holiness cannot consist in Becomingness or Congruity to the Nature of God or of Creatures which could only amuse the Vulgar who lay too much weight upon Words and Terms as if the appropriating the Name of Decency or Comeliness to the least of Civil Vertues in which there is no Speciality did import that there were not an higher degree of Decency but if Words import those of the Learned must be of the most Importance The Greeks which were the learnedst of Nations
in this present Life he continues to overrule them by his Providence in all these Relations for in some Measure he is good to all in this Life The Providence of God useth to be handled apart by Divines as it doth not only comprehend his Dominion and Government of his rational Creatures but his Wisdom and Goodness in his Preservation Provision and Direction of every Creature towards the End which he designed I have chosen rather to consider the Wisdom and Dominion of God apart as being thereby the more able to apprehend them distinctly and clearly The Dominion of God reacheth unto all his rational Creatures even unto the damned Spirits not only as they are Executioners of his Justice against Men as he sends them out wherein tho their End be always wicked the Act it self is ever just and good so an evil Spirit from the Lord vexed King Saul when he had forsaken the Rules of his Government but these Spirits are only permitted while they tempt to Acts which no Intention can make good or indifferent but most of all God doth overrule these Spirits by restraining their Malice from tempting or troubling Men and even in the Permission of their Temptations he puts no Man under an inevitable Necessity of being overcome but those that voluntarily or habitually have rendered themselves weak whether by positive Choice or by Neglect and Inadvertence It is a needless Curiosity to enquire how God doth over-rule damned Spirits who are scarce capable of farther Punishments being already condemned and in a continual Torment of Mind nor can they expect Rewards It would be no Punishment to them to annihilate them yet they have some Diversion by compassing the Earth going to and fro therein and endeavouring to bring Men unto the like Condition with themselves and they are still capable of greater Torment and therefore they tremble Men are much more governable in this Life being far more passable than Spirits and being seldom in absolute Despair but ever capable of Rewards and Punishments and the greater they are the more are they capable Single Persons that have no near Relations are far less liable to Shame or Suffering than the Masters of Families or Rulers of States and the Noble than the Ignoble who are liable to Shame Affront and Disgrace which they regard more than their Lives There are three sorts of Men the Godly the Honest and the Prophane the Godly are governed by the Love of God which is the Principle of true Piety and Religion reaching not only to Divine Worship but even to the Acts of Honesty and their own Happiness In all which the chief Reason and Motive is the Love of God whereby they determine themselves in every thing towards his Glory and Pleasure These are governed by eternal Rewards and Punishments after this Life and by internal Rewards in the Peace of a good Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost and internal Punishments in the Doubts and Disquiets of their Souls beside the other ways of Rewards and Punishments common to the rest Those that are only Honest are governed by the Love to Mankind which for that very End God hath placed in the Nature of Man whereby till they be depraved they are inclinable in every Case to do that which if it were done by all Men they would live happily And therefore the Wicked are ashamed to profess that in things in their Power they would prefer the Interest of a single Person to the Interest of their Family or the Interest of a Family to the Interest of a Nation or any of these Interests to the common Interest of Mankind Those that are prophane and wicked God overrules even by their Self-love for tho they would subordinate all things to their Selfinterest if securely they could and when with probability they can yet supposing others to be of the same Inclination their own Interest obligeth them to profess if not Piety in Hypocrisy at least common Honesty wherein God's Wisdom and Goodness is eminently seen for otherwise most Men would be as malicious and openly wicked as the damned Spirits God hath Rewards and Punishments sufficient and suted to the Condition of all Men tho their Rewards be not by exact Justice Prosperity and Peace are the common Encouragements to Good Trouble and Affliction are the common outward Punishments and more particularly Disquiet and Anguish of Spirit when the special Cause thereof is not known These are dispensed to particular Persons but the Punishments of Societies use not to be inflicted but upon atrocious common and avowed Vices for which God sendeth common Calamities as Plague Famine Inundation Sterility Shipwrack and the Destruction by ravenous Beasts which was more frequent when the World was less planted The Scripture doth frequently mention God's four sore Judgments God exciteth War about which there is no doubt when it is for just Causes and overrules it when upon unjust but rather uses the other Plagues God exercises his Dominion partly by the Law of Nature written in Man's Heart partly by Diyine Institutions revealed to Men. By the Law of Nature is the Government of Parents over their Children by the natural Affection of the Parents to the Children whereby they take Pleasure to preserve direct and provide for them and by the natural Affection of the Children to reverence and obey their Parents which Affections arise in both from their belief of these Relations even where they are mistaken and by the Law of Nature the Contracts and Pactions of Parties to govern and to obey as between Masters and Servants between Rulers and Subjects for the Force of these Pactions is by the Law written in Man's Heart by which his Conscience convinces him that he is obliged to perform God exerciseth his Dominion not only by the Laws of Nature but by positive Laws and Institutions which are not known by the Light of Nature but by Revelation such is the Government of the Husband over the Wife by the Divine Institution of Marriage and the Government of Common Wealths by God's Institution of a publick Judgment to order and determine all Controversies concerning such as should unite themselves in Civil Societies The former was propagated by an universal Tradition to all Nations from Adam till the Flood and from Noab and his Posterity after the Flood But Civil Government was only instituted after the Flood when Mens Lives became short God allowed the Fathers of Families to unite themselves and their Families into Civil Societies and to transmit the Power and Burden of the Government of their Families in most things upon the Governours of those Societies So that tho there be mutual Pactions in Marriage and Government yet the Essentials of both are by Divine Institution which cannot lawfully be altered Persons may choose whether they will marry or not and with whom but the Degrees within which they may marry are instituted The Power of the Husband and the Indurance and Dissolution of the Marriage are instituted
Manner which God hath freely chosen whereby to communicate Grace and Glory to the Elect. I like it not to be called properly an Instrument which is an inferiour Cause having some Influence with the principal Agent whereas God and Christ are the only Cause of Grace and Glory Neither yet to be properly a Condition upon which God is to give Grace and Glory seeing a Condition must be uncertain to him who makes it a Condition The being an Eye or Hand are certainly Metaphorical without doubt Causa Conditio Modus are different There is least to be attributed to the saving Act of Faith as it is only the Manner how God is pleased to save which is not a necessary Manner for God might have exerted all his Dispensations with Creatures without giving them the Honour to enter into Covenant with him and therefore he freely chose the way of a Covenant and so the manner of it and to magnify his free Grace and to exclude all glorying of Man in himself he hath chosen the manner of the Covenant of Grace wherein there could not be less of Man in a Covenant If God had proceeded only by Mercy to save Men there could have been no place for a Covenant and Man had not been so much dealt with as a Rational Creature proceeding by Reason Deliberation and Choice as by a Covenant Hence way is made to the last Point proposed What may be thought the Reason why God chose an Act of Faith rather than any other Act of Man to be Man's part in the Covenant of Grace wherein there needs no other Reason but the free Arbitrary Choice of God yet tho the matter had been indifferent his Wisdom appeareth much in this Choice and his Goodness also that he would honour Man to contract with him and to take his Consent to that and yet to give him no Cause and even no Pretext to glory in himself If any Person did obtain great things from another freely which he knew he expected from him and were sutable to the one to give and the other to get Could he without the highest Ingratitude and Impudence attribute the Gift to his own Hope and not wholly to the Goodness and Faithfulness of the Giver The Faithfulness of God is the chief Perfection exerted in the Covenant of Grace The Object of Mercy is Misery the Object of Faithfulness is a rational Hope or Trust which is far larger than Mercy and is extended to innocent Creatures who were never miserable This way of the Explication of the Covenant of Grace gives an easy Outgate to that bitter Contest in the Protestant Church of France and elsewhere whether only the active or also the passive Obedience of Christ were imputed by the Covenant of Grace As the Controversy was stated the Arguments on either side were hardly solvable for it was stated thus Whether Christ in his Sufferings stood in the place of Man or if he did also stand in his place in his Acts of Holiness The former was granted by both the latter affirmed by the one and denied by the other The main Reason for the Affirmative was That suffering could do no more than satisfy the Guilt of Sin and so could only bring Man to be free of Misery and Torment in which case Adam was before the Fall but could not raise Man from that Animal State being so much common with Brutes to an Angelical State in Heaven and yet that is frequently attributed to Christ. Therefore it behoved to be the Merit of Christ not by his Sufferings but by his Holiness as Adam would have merited Heaven for himself and his Posterity by his good Works as of Debt not of Grace For to him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt so that Christ paid the Debt of the Elect and so advanceth them unto Glory And on the other part the chief Reason was that Christ by his Human Nature being a Creature was under an indispensable Obligation to the Creator to love him with all his Soul with all his Heart and with all his Strength beyond which there could be nothing by which he did deserve all that Glory that no other was capable of and therefore they could not conceive a Supererrogation in Christ's active Obedience meriting the Heavenly Glory which Merit was not only sufficient for the Elect but for the whole Race of Mankind altho it was free for the Son to become Man his becoming Man was a part of his Humiliation and Suffering and which is yet more pressing if in that way the active Obedience and Holiness of Christ were imputed to the Elect they were thereby intirely holy and their own Holiness were but Works of Supererrogation at least were not Works due by Justice but Works of Gratitude and the failing in them could never require Repentance which would agree to the Principles of none but of the Antinomians Nor did it magnify the free Grace of God if he gave nothing to the Elect in advancing them to Glory but that which in Recompence at least in Premiative Justice he was obliged to give There being small ground in a Creditor to glory that he had exacted all he could have required tho not from his Debtor but from an interposed Person I have already cleared my Thoughts that tho Christ's Satisfaction may by Resemblance be called the Payment of a Debt yet properly it is not Nor doth God crave Satisfaction as a Creditor or is Sin expiated by God's taking Pleasure in the Misery of his Creature to compense the Displeasure he had in their Sin seeing he declareth the contrary with so solemn an Asseveration As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner But the Satisfaction he requireth in Conformity to his Holiness is the Vindication of his Purity and of his infinite Aversion from Sin as by his Justice he proportions the Suffering requisite for the Vindication to the Sins deserving Therefore upon the foresight of Adam's Fall and thereby not only the loss of the Exaltation of himself and Posterity to Celestial Glory but falling into a sinful State which no Creature could expiate the Son did freely interpose to restore Mankind to what they had lost by Adam and to vindicate the Purity of God by Sufferings of as much Value as if all Mankind had been in eternal Misery and by Christ's performing what Adam was obliged to perform by a full Implement of the whole Will and Law of God and for that end assuming the Nature of Man I have also cleared my Mind that tho Adam had stood he could not have merited that Exaltation which he and his Posterity were to have had by the first Covenant for he might have continued innocent and sinless without great Advances in Holiness Can it then with any Reason be thought that his so continuing did in any way of Justice and Merit purchase Glory for himself and the Capacity of the like to all his Posterity
the Manifestation of his Glory in his Aversion from Sin for As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner He hath no Pleasure in the Misery of his Creature It is another Mistake of Guilt and Punishment that it is a Debt whereby the Sinner is obliged to undergo the Punishment It may be called a Debt as it is called a Prison or a Bondage neither is the Satisfaction for Sin properly a Payment For if it were a Debt a Criminal should be obliged in Justice to offer himself to pay that Debt which yet not only he ought not but he may not do Neither doth a Judg proceed to Punishment as receiving a Debt from the Criminal but by his own Authority If Christ's Satisfaction for Sin were a Payment it would follow that no Man should mourn for Sin because Christ having satisfied there remained no more Debt or Guilt of Sin which hath driven many into that pernicious Error whence they are called Antinomians and it would highly derogate from the Goodness of God if he did only take that Payment from the Cautioner that was due by the principal Debtor But if the Satisfaction be by manifesting God's Abhorrence of Sin it gives great Light to Christ's Satisfaction interceding for Sinners and offering that the Father should manifest as much of his Abhorrence of Sin upon him as if all Mankind had been made eternally miserable that as the second Adam he might make them all capable of Salvation and the Elect secured in it The Judicial Justice of God is that which he exerciseth as Judg of all the World which stands not only in Rewards and Punishments but also in giving every rational Creature its Right or its own whether it be by retaining the Rights they have without Molestation or by attaining these which they possess not God would never suffer any rational Creature to want its Right to give it to any other Creature if it were not for Sin Judicial Justice calling the Party that he may be heard if he have any thing can be said and that the Fact must be proved is implied in the Nature of it and morally necessary which the great Judg of the World observes by himself or by his Deputies By himself he called Adam and Eve and asked first Adam Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee thou shouldst not eat and he heard his weak Plea and the Man said The Woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the Tree and I did eat Then he called the Woman and said to her What is this that thou hast done and he heard also her Plea who said The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat In these Accusations there was both the Law adduced and applied to the Fact violating it and the Proof by their own judicial Confession both their Pleas were rejected and just Judgment pronounced against them but immediately a Mediator was intimated and thereby hope of Mercy When Cain killed his Brother Abel before God pronounced Sentence against him he calls him saying What hast thou done The Voice of thy Brother's Blood crieth unto me from the Ground There is the Proof the Blood being yet fresh upon the Ground Cain makes no Defence therefore God pronounceth this Sentence Thou art accursed a Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be on the Earth yet even to Cain there was something of Favour admixed for God spared the Temporal Judgment by Death by his sole Prerogative and therefore he set a Mark upon Cain to prohibit all to execute the just Sentence of Death against him the Justice whereof Cain acknowledged saying that every one that findeth me shall slay me which could not import an unwarrantable Revenge as if all Men would be wicked to multiply Slaughter without Warrant God's Judicial Justice by his Deputies is chiefly by Man's own Conscience which both accuses them proves against them and condemns them for all their Faults until it be seduced or seared and then often God delays his Judgment till the Soul 's appearing before him after Death but sometimes he executes his Judgment by Men without Warrant sometimes by other Accidents and frequently by Judges deriving Authority from him who therefore ought to follow the Rule and Pattern he hath given them condemning no Man till they had called him to answer for himself and giving him time and freedom to offer all his Defences and adducing sufficient Proof of the Fact charged against him MEDITATION XV. Upon the Mercy of God MY Thoughts in my last Meditation upon the Punitive Justice of God and the Miseries thence arising lead me to consider the Mercy of God which presupposes Misery as the Object of it The Mercy of God is a part and kind of his Goodness but is a special kind of Goodness presupposing Misery therefore I could not distinctly consider it till I considered the Misery arising from God's Justice The Goodness of God which presupposes not Misery is more properly called his Bounty or Benignity in Benevolence or Beneficence If Adam had not fallen God's advancing him from an Animal to an Angelical Estate had been an Act of free Beneficence and Bounty but no Act of Mercy for then Adam had never been miserable Yet Mercy doth not always consider Misery as pre-existent or as seen present or past but as foreseen which would come to pass if it were not prevented by Mercy and this is properly called Preventing Mercy in contradiction to that which is called Healing or Curing Mercy As Physicians use preventing Medicines when they foresee the latent Causes of the Disease that would come if these Causes were not removed as well as healing Medicines to remove the Disease incumbent the preventing Medicines are more useful tho less sensible than the other So are God's preventing Mercies God foresaw Adam's Fall and the ensuing Misery to himself and his Posterity and on the Foresight and Consideration thereof decreed to send his Son into the World to assume the Nature of Man and in it to suffer Death and expiate his Justice and to satisfy his Abhorrency of Sin This Decree was preventing Mercy not designed to prevent the Existence of Sin but to prevent the Incurableness of it when it should exist and to prevent the Evil of Punishment which would befal the Sinner and to prevent the height and eternal Continuance of it whereby Infants and Idiots never commit Sin and those who are saved do never commit Sin after the State of Mortality God doth also cure Sin after its Existence not only absolutely in Glory but in part in Mortality removing the Rage and reigning Power of it Mercy is one of the natural innate Principles in Man common to all Men who so far arrive to Discretion as that they can discern the Misery of a Rational Creature which worketh like an Instinct upon the view of the Object without reasoning and with such Propension that tho oftentimes they would they cannot forbear Those who
and diligent heed to keep all his Goodness and all his Perfections ever in remembrance left they should be perverted by Satan Self-love and Sensual Pleasure The Terms of the Covenant of Grace are much more fully represented in the Scripture than was the Covenant of Works The Covenant of Grace was first published to Adam and Eve after their Fall in these Words The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent Where by the Serpent is understood Satan who under the appearance of a Serpent deluded them and by the Seed of the Woman is meant the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace who is to bruise that Serpent's Head and to deliver from the Power thereof such as should obtain the Benefit of the Covenant of Grace which for my more distinct understanding I do conceive as if it had been more fully exprest and as if God after the Fall had said to our first Parents thus I made a Covenant with you for your selves and your Posterity that if you continued innocent during the time of your Trial I would have given you supernatural Grace whereby you should never sin but should be eternally Happy I gave you sufficient natural Capacity to fulfil that Covenant but you have distrusted my Kindness and have believed an Apostate Spirit and therefore have lost to your selves and your Posterity the Benefit of that Covenant without being in any necessity to break it by my Decrees or Dispensations I might justly cut you off without having any Posterity or might leave you and them to follow your own ways and I will no more make a Covenant with you for them but I will raise up a second Adam who shall take upon him your Nature and be like you in all things Sin only excepted who will be for ever Innocent and Holy and so not only perform that which by the former Covenant you might have performed but will submit himself to Sufferings for you and your Posterity of greater value than if you had all suffered eternally the just Reward of your Sins And for his Sake I do offer you and will offer to all your Posterity who shall be capable to know an offer of Mercy and Grace that I will make you new Creatures enduing you with supernatural Powers and Inclinations making you Holy and Happy and will not suffer you to continue in Sin if you be not so addicted to your Sins as to reject my Offer to make you Holy and therefore I will continue with you and your Posterity the Light and Law of Nature written in your Hearts whereby you may know Sin the Transgression of it and that you may know that there is Mercy for the Penitent and none for the malicious while obstinate Sinner whereby you may also know that if you repent and betrust your selves to my Mercy and Conduct that I will make you Holy and Happy And albeit neither you have nor will they have Ability to repent and trust yet with the Offer I will give Strength to perform these Acts if the Offer be not rejected and will bring them to the Means of Grace to follow out the same This Offer becomes a Covenant by acceptance thereof the Accepters betrusting themselves to God's Grace and Direction by his Word and Spirit trusting to obtain Pardon of all Sin and of Excitation to Repentance for obtaining of it and for obtaining eternal Happiness by infusing the Habits of Grace here and perfecting them in Glory hereafter in the beatifick Visions of God's Perfections and the shining of his Face for ever without fear of Sin or falling from that happy State I do conceive that in this Representation all the Requisites of a Covenant are comprehended For the Difference between a Covenant and any other Favour done or promised whether absolute or conditional is no Covenant albeit there may be therein mutual Prestations required but this is special in an Offer that it hath no Obligation till it be accepted whereby the Accepters become obliged to perform the mutual Prestations on their Part. God making the general Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation to Sinners if they repent and betrust themselves to him for all things necessary for their Happiness for even the natural Conscience of all Men of Discretion is capable to know and represent to them that God is Just and will punish obstinate Sinners and yet is merciful to penitent Sinners throwing themselves upon him tho without Revelation they cannot know how a just God can pardon Sin without Satisfaction to his Justice but the same is manifested by the Gospel as by the first Adam all his Posterity were capable of Happiness if they sinned not so now by the second Adam all are again capable of Happiness upon far easier Terms of Repentance and Faith and even these performed by supernatural Grace If Adam or his Posterity had the making of the Covenants of Grace they could not without Impudence make them larger for there could be no more added but that even all the obstinately Wicked and Impenitent should enjoy the Pleasure of their Lusts on Earth and thereafter the Joys of Heaven so that I do and all considering Persons might cry out with the Apostle O the Height the Breadth the Length the Depth of the Love of God! And yet his electing Love is even larger than this Offer for albeit it be inconsistent with his immaculate Holiness to make any happy whom he doth not first make holy yet some Rejecters he maketh holy and happy pulling them as Firebrands out of the Fire which maketh none of the obstinate and rejecting Sinners excusable who continue to refuse to be made holy and tho they may deceive themselves thinking they would be willing to be holy yet while they are addicted to their Sins in reality their Will is not to quit them In my most serious Thoughts I can perceive nothing in this Conception of God's Covenants with Men that is impossible inconsistent with or incongruous to any of the Divine Perfections but highly illustrating them all and becoming the Majesty and Glory of God as the King and Ruler of his rational Creatures as to their eternal State Thereby he shews himself to be the most excellent King not only in a just Distribution of Rewards and Punishments but in great Goodness providing all things requisite that might have made them all happy without making any one miserable but by their own particular Fault Thereby also his great Wisdom is manifested designing or doing nothing in vain but ever choosing fit Means for the best Ends whereby his Mercy doth eminently appear that even against Merit he gives Grace and Glory to those Creatures of whom he had no need and who had willingly and ungratefully offended and injured him that he hath left nothing undone that could consist with his Domion his Wisdom his Purity and Holiness to extend his Goodness to his rational Creatures He doth not only govern the Elect towards their Happiness after their Conversion
Covenanters by their Choice and Consent both as to the Matter and Manner There be Covenants where the Performances are of equivalent Value deserving each other but it were Arrogance enough for Adam to have thought the Covenant of Works were such and it were Insolence to imagine the Covenant of Grace to be such As in the Covenant of Works there were two Branches a Covenant between God and Adam for himself and his Posterity and if he had stood there behoved to have been a Covenant between God and each of his Elect Posterity particularly for himself The Word makes it appear to be so in the Covenant of Grace the Father did covenant with the Son foreknowing Adam's Fall to become the second Adam to restore and exceed that which was known the first would lose by assuming the Nature of the first Adam and with it not only performing that in which Adam failed by not continuing in Integrity performing the whole Will of God and thereby putting all Mankind in a nearer Capacity to Blessedness than Adam had done tho he had stood for there is no ground to think his Posterity would have been confirmed without their own Trial more than he but the second Adam put not only all Mankind out of the Necessity of Misery but it became effectual unto all so far as it was congruous to the Divine Perfections which could not admit of Reconciliation with Sinners cleaving to their Sin or of those who partaking of Divine Illumination and of the Tastes of the Powers of the World to come should despightfully hate the Spirit the Worker of these All the rest of Mankind as the Father foreknew them and predestinated them to be conformed to the Son so the Son undertook effectually to redeem them and glorify them and the Holy Ghost to call them sanctify and preserve them The second Adam did undertake yet much more than the First to satisfy the Justice and manifest the Purity of God more than if all Mankind had perished This Branch of the Covenant of Grace is compleat as to the Elect that could not through Incapacity covenant for themselves but those that could were to have the Offer of the Covenant of Grace made to them by their Vocation tho not to all in equal Fulness and Clearness It was not sutable to the Wisdom of God that those who rejected the first Operations of the Spirit intimating to them that they were Sinners deserving Exclusion from God's Favour and yet that God was merciful to Penitents and would make them Holy and Happy if they did not obstinately cleave to their Sins and reject that Motion but in the rest and even in some of these Rejecters God carrieth on the Work of Sanctification and Salvation in his own Way bringing such to the Light of the Gospel or the Light of the Gospel to them and opening their Eyes to see the Wonders of his Law and to discern spiritual Things and giving them the Inclination to accept of the Offer of the Covenant of Grace and to enter in it for themselves by that saving Act of Faith which is all their Part in the Covenant of Grace Of this we have two eminent Examples in Scripture the one Personal the other National by Miracles manifested to the two great Apostles Peter and Paul That of Peter was from Cornelius who neither was a Jew nor a Proselyte but was come the Length of natural Religion to worship only the one God to whom an Angel was sent from God to show him how he should worship the true God aright The other was by a Vision to the Apostle Paul of a Man of Macedonia beseeching him to go to that People to help them who for ought doth appear were then Heathens It doth not suffice to a distinct Knowledg of the Covenant of Grace to know that by Faith we are saved but those who have Capacity ought to enquire what that Faith is whether it be the Habit of Faith or an Act of Faith whether it be a special Act of Faith and what that is whether it be one single Act only or if to be renewed and whether it be saving by any thing in itself and if we may perceive any Consideration why God made that Act of Faith Man's Part of the Covenant rather than any other As to the first Point to have Faith and to believe are used as equivalent Terms both in common Use and in the Scripture but in a great Latitude for to believe doth oftentimes signify a Judgment of the Truth of any Proposition Men do believe that is they think likely or probable whatever the Ground of their Opinion be but more strictly Belief is taken for a Judgment which hath for its Motive the Perfections of some Person expressing it endued with such Perfections as may warrant an Assent without any other Reason That Person must be a vertuous Person from whose Actings it appears that he doth own the Principles of Morality and hath no Tentation to fail in the Application of them in that Point so not only a Liar but a vitious Person or one in Necessity or biassed by Favour or Hatred in Prudence is not a credible Person or if the Matter be that which is not the particular Object of that Sense which he hath in Vigour it is but a Matter of Opinion Faith upon account of credibility is to be attributed to God alone absolutely who can neither be ignorant err be biassed mistaken or deceived and is Infinite in moral Perfection Creatures may also be trusted in defferent Degrees according to the Moment of the Matter But no Man ought to trust any Creature as to the Necessaries of his Salvation but God alone immediately or by Mediation of those that have his evident Credentials This kind of Faith is a Prerequisite to the Covenant of Grace but no Part of it For the Devils do thus believe and tremble they know God to be certainly true and that all he expresseth is true whatever improbability might arise against it There is yet a stricter Sense of Believing or Faith whereby one expects good from another when it is sutable to him to give or do it and to the other to receive it In this Sense we do not say one believeth another but he believeth in him he trusteth to him he leans relies and rests upon him The Object of this Faith is Faithfulness It doth not arise alone upon the Veracity or Truth of the Person trusted but requires many other Perfections that he be Benign and Gracious that he be Powerful and Plentiful as to that wherein he is trusted It does not require his Promise which would make the thing expected an Act of Justice but the Excellency of his Nature so Creatures may and do trust to Creatures according to their Perfections A Secret may be trusted to a faithful Person tho neither Powerful nor Rich and if Experience hath shown him to be trusty it will be a Confidence without all doubt he is
only sufficient but inefficacious and that its Efficacy must be by the Creature I do conceive that the entring into the Covenant of Grace may be in the way of Adoration thus My God I do believe that thou delightest not in the Death of Sinners but rather that they should repent and live in thy Favour eternally who feel Sin to be a Burden and do not cleave to any known Sin but betake themselves to thee to be delivered from it and to become thy Servants trusting in thee for all things necessary for Holiness and Happiness I am sensible of the Bondage of my Sin and that I am not able to free my self from that Bondage yet I believe thou hast offered to enable me and do humbly accept thy Offer purchased through Christ the Mediator and do resign my self to be directed by thy holy Spirit in the way of Holiness to Happiness Here are all the Essentials of a Covenant God's Offer manifested to the Conscience believed and accepted wherewith the Believer as by the Offer he was called so the Call is made effectual by Justification Reconciliation Pardon Conversion Regeneration Adoption and by giving the Habits of Holiness never to be eradicated This Act of Faith is by the Apostle Paul to the Romans called the embracing the Atonement and to the Hebrews the embracing the Promises by the Apostle John the coming to Christ to be saved All the Terms of God's Offer and his enabling the Sinner to accept are at once and together and tho there be many Expressions thereof in Scripture they are not all different nor is there necessity of an express Thought of them in entering the Covenant of Grace neither is this exclusive of what other way God may take to glorify those who cannot expresly thus believe for it is not necessary for us to know it seeing the Scripture is all directed to Hearers and Believers and doth not specially reveal God's other ways of Salvation tho what was said of Children in Scripture is all to their Advantage yet nothing is specially express'd of the manner or measure of it I know not any Conception possible which could so much exalt the Justice the Mercy and the Faithfulness of God leaving nothing to the Creature to attribute any part of its Happiness to it self which could be consistent with a Covenant between God and the saved Soul which is confirmed by the whole stream of Scripture In this Act all the former Expressions in Scripture of Conversion and Regeneration are implied Yet this Objection ariseth that this Conception makes the saving Act of Faith to consist without the Habit of Faith and makes the Habit of Faith to be on God's part of the Covenant of Grace This will easily be cleared by considering that God works in and by Creatures by giving and preserving in them Inclinations which are the Principles of their Actings No considerate Man dare say that God cannot give an operative Inclination for one single Act as well as for one Species of Acts without which it were impossible to explicate his Dominion and therefore he may well give the effectual Inclination to imbrace the Offer of Conversion without giving the Habit for exerting all the Acts of Faith which is no less a Christian Vertue or Grace than Love or any other and there is nothing can more clearly difference the saving Act of Faith from being an Act of Holiness or a Work of the Law yea if any require the Accuracy of the Schools they will find there is a Disposition differenced from an Habit. This Objection doth also occur that Acceptance of an Offer is no Act of believing for which there is no ground For the Acceptance must imply the sense of a Motion to repent or return or to admit of Conversion which is an Act of the Understanding and is such an Act of Faith as is the believing the Scripture to be the Word of God but the Acceptance implies also a Trust or relying upon God that he will make good his Offer to the Person trusting This Difficulty did also offer it self to me that this way of Salvation and of the Covenant of Grace makes too much to depend upon the Creature If all that do not reject the Offer of Conversion and Holiness be elected Election is not so free as the Scripture holdeth it forth and one Creature makes it self to differ from another whereas the Scripture saith Who hath made thee to differ There is a necessity either to refuse or to choose and if there can be a middle Condition between refusing and choosing there is no Warrant to make such Difference between refusing and not refusing I thank God that hath fully cleared me in all these for as to God's Freedom in Election it is not incroached upon by his acting like himself he was under no Obligation or Necessity to have elected or recovered any of the Race of fallen Adam but to manifest the exceeding abundance of the Riches of his Grace he did freely elect all that with Congruity to his Nature were eligible rejecting none but those that would refuse his Offer and not all those but prevailing by the superabundance of his Grace against the Resistance of some of those especially upon his Kindness to their Fathers How often doth he shew Mercy to rebellious Israel remembring Abraham Isaac and Jacob his Servants tho by many Generations distant from them How much more the nearer Seed of his eminently faithful Servants and yet freely for these Fathers could not merit Happiness for themselves much less for their Children and the saying Who hath made thee to differ cannot be opposed to a Difference in a greater degree of Evil For certainly he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost makes himself so to differ from another obstinate Sinner so that it can only be meant of doing any good and holy Deed in order to Salvation That there is a middle State between accepting and rejecting any Offer is without question First Negatively by not noticing or considering it which requires no positive Act. 2. By a positive Act resolving to take it into Consideration presently or at a convenient time when there shall be most opportunity without Diversion to ponder it 3. By inventing collecting and comparing the Reasons and Motives on both parts which in the most weighty Cases may require long Time and much Deliberation 4. By Irresolution vacillating and doubting what is to be preferred And lastly by suspending the Resolution or Choice when yet there appears Reasons of Preference and therefore God saith to the Church of Thiatira of Jezebel That he gave her space to repent of her Fornications and she repented not There is nothing more clear and frequently inculcated in Scripture than the attributing of the Misery and perishing of the Wicked to their refusing the Offer of Grace or equivalent Expressions And 1. There can nothing signify more Aversion to a motioned Offer than not so much as to hear it for those who see
Eve Death was the due Punishment of the Breach of that Prohibition tho it had not been expressed for the Obedience of a Rational Creature to the Creator is indispensible not only by the Immutability of the Divine Decree not to dispense but simply by the nature of the Thing It could not consist with God's infinite Love to himself to make a Rational Creature that owed him no Obedience and if he could renounce Obedience in one thing he might in all But tho the Prohibition had been after the Covenant yet it was no part of it nor did God by it restrain his own Freedom to command what he pleased for which he had given an Ability to perform For it was a chief Law written in Man's Heart to obey all God's Commands The Institution of Marriage was also before the Fall and even before the Covenant of Works and the Breach of it or any of God's Moral Laws would have annull'd that Covenant God did both in Wisdom and Goodness express the Sanction of Death to the eating of that Fruit as that which Man might be most readily deceived in the Matter being in it self indifferent and of small moment abstract from the Command and therefore the Devil tempted to break it rather than any other God made the Covenant of Works with Adam and when Adam had broke that Covenant and made it ineffectual God did publish to him the new Covenant of Grace There is but little of either expresly related by Moses yet doubless both were largely revealed and made known to Adam and now when the Canon of Scripture is full the Analogy of Faith may thence sufficiently be collected both as to the Tenor of the Covenant of Works and of the Covenant of Grace It were a vast Task to gather in order all that might be deduced from Scripture concerning these Covenants But that which I find necessary for my Satisfaction and for clearing to me the beautiful Representation of the Divine Decrees and Dispensations towards Mankind by Grace and Glory to the Elect and just Judgment against the malicious and obstinately wicked I will digest my Thoughts of both these Covenants between God and Adam that the Parallel may the more clearly appear by expressing the Terms of both in the Form of a free Offer made by God and accepted by Adam for himself and all his in the way Covenants used to be entred in as if God had said to the Protoplasts I have made you after my own Image Innocent and Holy and have endued you with Understanding whereby you can judg and reason and have written my Laws in your Hearts in the Principles of Knowledg to which you cannot but give assent and the Knowledg of necessary Consequences which you may thence certainly deduce I have also endued you with Capacities of Pleasure and Grief whereby upon the Preception of these Objects which may most concern your Well-being Pleasure or Grief will result and from Pleasure Appetite and from Grief Aversion and have made the purest and powerfulest Joy to arise from the Perception of my glorious Perfections and next from these things which conduce to the Well-being of your Kind and then the Pleasure that is peculiar to every one All which are good when kept within their Limits and in due Order I have given you that capacity of Freedom that you need not be under the Power of the Pleasure or Grief arising from perception of any Creature but that you may avoid or abate them by the Application of other Objects to your Senses or Mind by the Pleasure or Grief thence resulting especially by perceiving and considering my own Perfections whereby you may govern your selves and your Choices Appetites or Aversions as may be allowed and accepted by me and as may conduce for my Glory shewing my Divine Perfections in creating preserving and ruling such Creatures whereby as I have been the first Author so indispensibly I must be the last End of your Being to which you must subordinate and direct all your considerate Actions even the desire and endeavour of your own Happiness that thereby you may be in the fuller capacity to please and glorify me wherein if you transgress you must be punished by perpetual Exclusion from my Favour which neither you nor any Creature can ever be able to expiate and restore you my Aversion from Sin being infinite as my self If you improve the Capacities I have given you I will also reward you with greater Perfections as you shall deserve Your Obedience and Devotion to me must not be in trivial things but in such things as require Attention and Diligence yet such as by these shall still be in your Power while you remain innocent By careful Inspection of your own Minds you may find my Laws written therein most of them are evident to you without reasoning and I have endued you with this Principle to know all things that are congruous to and becoming my glorious Nature and yours as you bear my Image and as is congruous to and becoming that part of your Nature peculiar to your selves I am now pleased to enter with you into a Covenant by your willing Engagement in the Terms that I offer you wherein your part is no more than persevering in your Innocence during that time of Trial which I appoint you to which you are obliged by your natural Duty to which I propose the Accession of your voluntary Engagement and my part shall be to put you thenceforth out of hazard ever to offend or to lose that Happiness that I give you and to put all your Posterity in the like Condition that now you are in that each of them that shall continue innocent during his Trial shall be likewise confirmed and because they are to be born Infants carried only by sensible Pleasures before Discretion which will become habitual and strong and much more ready to exceed than you who were created in ripeness of Judgment I will enable them to be in like Capacity to stand as you are and I will exalt you and them from an animal Life on Earth to an Angelical Life in Heaven so that you shall be Immortal without any Separation of your Souls and Bodies I will put you in no Necessity to fall by my Decree or any Circumstances in which you shall be placed I will now add nothing to your Obedience by the Laws of your Nature but the For bearance to eat of the Fruit of one Tree in the midst of the Paradise that it may be an Evidence of your Obedience for my Command alone in a Thing in it self indifferent wherein you must take heed that you yield not to the Pleasure which will arise from that Fruit. Are you now content to enter into this Covenant for your selves and your Posterity wherein if you fail on your Part you lose all the Benefit of it To which Adam and Eve with Joy Acclamation and Blessing did engage and assent and God exhorted them to take good