their much speaking and stand upon their justification I fast twice in the week and pay tythe of all that I possess says the Pharisee The Apostle Rom. 9.31 says They followed after the righteousness of the Law by their own performance of the works of the Law And to this end because they could not rise up to the spirituality of the Law they did therefore bring down the Law by their interpretation unto their own obedience and all was to make their own righteousness available for justification Therefore Paul saith Concerning the righteousness of the Law blameless Phil. 3. The young man says All these have I kept from my youth Therefore the Papists teach That men may perfectly fulfill the Law Bellar. de Justific l. 2. c. 2 3. and do also some works of Supererogation over and above the Law that the formal cause of Justification is inherent righteousness though Christs righteousness is the meritorious cause Christ having merited that our righteousness may justifie c. And though not works by nature yet by Grace even Faith it self as a work is that which God accepts being performed by us instead of all the righteousness required in the Moral Law These and many more are the ways by which men seek to establish their own righteousness in matter of Justification 2 As for Salvation also All men would be working and doing something for Heaven Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life What shall we do to work the works of God Joh. 6. They were all upon a way of doing they did expect a reward for all They had a high esteem of their own services and therefore they did boast themselves and glory in them it 's the law of saith only excludes boasting Rom. 3.27 The Creature being sinful is lifted up by works proud of a little God knows And therefore Jehu says Come see my zeal for the Lord of hosts and there is nothing in the world that the pride of man will appear more in than in righteousness for pride is an overweening apprehension of a mans own excellency and the higher the excellency the greater the pride Rom. 7.9 I was alive says Paul without the Law alive in performances and alive in presumptions he thought he had done much for God and therefore his zeal did rise to a madness in persecuting of the Church It 's a hard matter for a man to be a painful Preacher a zealous professor a faithful Statesman or a man that has laid out himself for the publick any way but his heart will swell with privy pride therein yea even though he do profess to despise and to disesteem the praise of men § 3. But now more particularly so far as any man does not submit unto the righteousness and the grace of the second Covenant so far he manifests his desire to be still under the first Covenant but all men by nature refuse to submit to the righteousness and the offers of the second Covenant and therefore they desire to continue under the first The Scripture speaks of mens actions and dispositions many times interpretatively not as they are in the intention of the sinner but as they are in truth and in the interpretation of God Prov. 8. ult Men are said to love death all those that hate wisdom and despise Christ and live without him love death Now men will all say that they do hate death but yet in Gods interpretation they hating the only way and means to life they do all of them love death So we read in Ezech. 8.5 They did these abominations that I might go far from my sanctuary It was not their intention in so doing actually and formaliter but interpretative it was because they had set up an image of jealousie in the Sanctuary which would provoke God to remove and yet if they had been asked they would all have said they would by no means have the glory of the Lord to remove So men do not actually desire to be under the first Covenant but yet so long as they reject the offers and the grace of the second so long in Gods interpretation they do desire to be under the Law still and their rejection of the better Covenant offered argues they like and love that under which they are and reject the righteousness of God which is the same which is called the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of faith as the Apostle says Phil. 3.9 Not having my own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is of God by faith And it 's called the righteousness of God partly because it is found out by God and by God only imputed and therefore is only an act of free grace whereby God will make a sinner righteous before him Rom. 1.17 and partly because Christ offered himself by the eternal spirit without spot to God which is his own Divine nature and so unto all the actions and the sufferings of his Humanity the Godhead gave an efficacy and an excellency even from his person they being all the actions and sufferings of him that was both God and Man And unto this righteousness men through the pride and unbelief of their spirits and contrariety to the Gospel will not submit They have not subjected themselves unto the righteousness of God 1. All a man's sins do stand out and will not submit to the righteousness of God for whoever imbraces the offer of the second Covenant and the grace thereof must take Christ for Sanctification 1 Cor. 1. as well as for Justification for he is made both and he came with water and blood to answer those ways of legal purification and so he must come into every soul but above all sins a mans darling his right hand and his right eye must be parted with and therefore Christ says Joh. 5.44 How can you believe that seek honour one of another The power of any lust in the soul will keep it from believing and accepting of the grace and mercy that 's offered in the second Covenant And so through the power and dominion of sin men cannot submit to the righteousness of God And how miserably is many a man held in captivity this way we all see they are by the snares of darkness led captive by Satan at his will 2. All the gifts and abilities that are in a man are against it for faith is the highest self-denial 2 Cor. 8.2 and gifts do puff up and therefore not many wise are called The wisdom of this world is enmity against God and all their parts and learning their wisdom whether it be natural or acquired doth make them but the stronger enemies and set them the farther off from Christ Hab. 2.4 now this stands in the most direct opposition to faith for that soul that is lifted up his heart is not upright in him In troublesome times to have a mans heart born up by a fleshly prop
the first Covenant Doth this Covenant afford the least reward to any services that have the least imperfection adherent to them And can sinners offer to God any such perfect services Will it not thence hence necessarily follow that such as stand under this first Covenant have all their services rejected all their sins imputed to them their persons hated their blessings cursed and all the curses of the Law bound fast on their consciences by the sentence of the righteous God What are all their seeming services but real sins and what are all Gods rewards to them but real curses albeit seeming blessings What can they expect for such unsanctified services but unsanctified rewards which are indeed real curses But to treat somewhat more distinctly of the misery which attends such as are under the first Covenant we may consider it under these two Heads that both the Law and Gospel The Law to such as are under the first Covenant the means of death which are means of Life and Salvation to such as are under the first Covenant prove as to them means of Death and Condemnation First as to the Law it proves the means of death and condemnation to such as are under the first Covenant two ways 1 In regard of its coactive Rigor 2 As it irritates Sin 1. The Law doth by its coactive Rigor work death and condemnation in such as are under the first Covenant Doth not the Law exact of such perfect obedience 1. By its compulsion but gives them no strength to perform it It 's true the Law requires obedience of those who are under the second Covenant also but the promise gives what the Law requires But of such as are under the first Covenant perfect obedience is required but no intern principle is engraffed duty is required but no love or delight therein conferred Yea do not such perform duty as godly men commit sin May they not say of sin as Paul doth of duty Rom. 7.15 What I would that I do not And what Paul saith of Sin may not such say the same of Duty What I hate that do I The Law discovers sin to those that are under the first Covenant but did it ever cast out any one sin discovered by it Sin is sometimes wounded by it but did it ever kill any one sin Are not the hearts of such like Ezechiels pot in which the scum did arise but then boyled in again The Law drags such to the Tribunal of God as a righteous Judge but can they ever come to God as a Father Is not this the priviledge of such only as are under the second Covenant Lastly the Law drives such as are under the first Covenant unto self-condemnation but can any thing but the Gospel work Justification and Peace of Conscience So deadly and mortiferous is the Law to such as are under its violent compulsion and coaction as it is a Covenant And whence is it that the Law hath such a compulsive power over such as are under it as a Covenant 1 Is it not from those Principles of self-love and legal fear implanted in the heart of man whereby he is constrained to duty and restrained from sin by the threats and terrors of the Law which move Conscience as extern weights move artificial Automata or machines O! what a great power has Conscience over such when acted and enflamed by the terrors of the Law Doth not Paul Rom. 7.1 assure us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that the Law doth Lord it over a man so long as he continues under it as a Covenant And how doth the Law as a Covenant Lord it over the man but by ruling in the Authority and Sovereign Dominion of God in and by which it will at last judge the man And oh with what rigor and compulsion doth it rule over his Conscience and thereby restrain him from sin and constrain him to duty Again 2 Doth not the Law receive much Authority and force from the Spirit of God setting it home on Conscience and thereby terrifying and wounding the sinner 3 Is there not also in all men under the first Covenant a sinful Weight or Bent of Lust which makes the yoke of divine Precepts extreme irksome and burdensome to them And doth not this adde much to the rigour and severity of the Law Doth not the Law of God lay the same rigorous restraint on the lusts of those who are under it as a Covenant which the Providence of God lays on the lusts of Diabolick spirits And oh what a miserable case are such in who lye under this tyrannick compulsion of the Law as a Covenant If their lusts rage within but dare not vent themselves because the Law holds a rod over Conscience how do they burn like fire in an Oven and now and then flame forth in rebellious thoughts against God and his Law wishing there were no Law Or else if lusts break forth into Act how soon doth the Law bind over Conscience unto wrath and condemnation and oh what stings and torments follow hereon And is it not also a miserable case for the sinner to be compelled and forced by the Law to do those good offices which he really hates Would it not be a great torment to a Saint to be constrained to bow down and worship the Devil and is it not as great misery to a person under the first Covenant to be compelled by the Law to worship God whom he hates as much as an holy man hates the Devil And is not this the genuine cause of all that hypocrisie which is lodged and deeply radicated in those under the first Covenant that all their omissions of sin and performances of Duties proceed meerly from the violent tyrannick compulsion of the Law as a Covenant And as the Law doth by its rigorous exaction more or less prevail on Conscience so their hypocrisie is more or less radicated and refined Oh! how partial and inconstant are such in their abstaining from sin and performing Duties How disagreeable are those good works they do to their Natures and Principles and thence how little pleasure and delight do they find in the doing of them Yea the rigour and tyranny of the Law over such most eminently appears in this that in constraining and forcing men to duties it is so far from giving strength that the more they perform duties the less strength they have to perform them the more they hear meditate or pray the less strength they have to perform those duties as they ought So also for the Laws restraining such from sin the more they are restrained the stronger their lusts grow and break forth with greater violence in the issue Whereas one under the second Covenant the more the Law restrains his lusts the weaker they grow and the more it constrains them to duty the stronger they grow in the performance of them because together with the restraints and constraints of the Law there is conveyed a force and strength by the
Promise to abstain from the sin forbidden and to perform the duty required So much for the compulsion of the Law 2. The Law works death by irritating sin 2. To such as are under the first Covenant the Law works Death and Condemnation by its Irritation of sin The Law was in its first Institution and still is to those that are under the second Covenant a sanctified Instrument for the restraining and keeping under of sin but to those that are under the first Covenant it proves accidentally by reason of the violence of Lust and Gods Curse an occasion of irritating and enraging sin It 's true the Law as a Crystal glass discovers the soveraign holy pleasure of God forbidding sin but doth not the lustful bent of mens hearts affect sin even because forbidden And the Law discovering unto such the pravity and vitiosity of sin how do their hearts boil up with hatred against the Law because it strikes at sin wherein they place their chiefest good Again when the Law comes to put a bridle and curb on their Lusts are they not hereby like an untamed Colt the more enraged and furious And is not this the genuine reason why such as live under the clearest and brightest promulgations of the Law oft have their lusts boiled up to the highest pitch Yea is it not hence that the unpardonable sin takes its first rise namely from the lusts of such who living under bright notices and discoveries of both Law and Gospel and receiving some tastes of good things to come at last continuing still under the first Covenant have their lusts more irritated by the Law Moreover the Law condemning such as are under the first Covenant for sin and thereby injecting sparks of Hell-fire into their Consciences the fire-brands of dreadful terrors and despair how are their lusts enflamed hereby what revenge against God what excess of riot are they hurried into hereby Doth not also the righteous God by an invisible secret Curse suffer such as desire to be under the Law as a Covenant to have their lusts irritated and exasperated thereby Lastly doth not the wise and holy God permit Satan so far to abuse the Law as thereby to draw men into sin And oh what a pleasure is it to Satan to make use of that which is most deââââo God thereby to draw men into sin And doth not this discover to us the miserable ãâã of such as are under the first Covenant that the Law of God which is so excellent in its own nature and of such excellent use unto the Saints should be so much abused for the irritation of Lust It 's true the Law may sometimes irritate sin even in such as are under the New Covenant yet it is not from any dominion it has over such neither doth this irritation so far prevail as to bring forth fruit unto death as it doth in those under the first Covenant who are under the complete dominion of the Law unto whom it hath no other use but to exasperate and improve their lusts And as the Law so also the Gospel and all the means of Grace To such as are under the first Covenant the Gospel and all other Blessings prove Curses yea all the Providences of God and comforts of this life prove snares and curses to such as are under the first Covenant 1 What greater Jewel is there to be found or desired among the Sons of men than the Gospel of Grace Is not the heart and bosom of God hereby laid open unto sinners O! what sweet attractives and cords of love are there in the Gospel to draw the soul out of its miserable and sinful state unto eternal Beatitude And yet lo how is this rich odor of life turned into a pestiferous odor of death to such as are under the first Covenant Is not that which is in it self the greatest blessing made by such the greatest curse The same food that nourisheth Believers unto eternal life of what use is it to those under the first Covenant but to nourish their incurable disease of self-sufficience Are not these mens lusts offended at the spirituality and simplicity of the Gospel What false Glosses and Comments do they put thereon How is the Grace of the Gospel by such turned into wantonness what controversies to their lusts make about it 2 So also for all Means of Grace Providences and temporal blessings which draw the hearts of Believers nearer to God are not the hearts of those under the first Covenant driven from God thereby Do not all their Duties though never so Evangelic center in Self Is not this the great Idol unto which their hearts are chained do not all the lines of their Devotion and Religion terminate in this center Oh! what an ample field of Contemplation is this to expatiate in were not our Meditations confined to the limits of a Summary The Second Part of the following Discourse regards The Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace explicated in in the Explication whereof our Author is more copious distinct and potent even to Admiration The Heads discoursed of by him and the method he makes use of in discoursing of them may with facility be apprehended by the Table of Contents that which I design in this Summary is some short Reflexions on such Heads as are not directly or professedly discussed by our Author And 1. 1. Its differences from the first Covenant We shall begin with the Differences between the first and second Covenant 1 In the first Covenant God dealt with man in a way of soveraign Empire and Dominion mixed with infinite Wisdom Justice Benignity and somewhat of Grace though without the least dram of Mercy there was indeed something of Grace in appointing the Reward but nothing of Grace in the infallible conduct thereto But now in the second Covenant the principal motive and Fountain that gave origine thereto was free Grace and Bowels of warm tender Mercies what was the foundation of this Covenant but the absolute and soveraignly gracious pleasure of God Were there any Objective Ideas of good any reasons grounds or motives foreseen by God which moved him to give grace to Jacob rather than to Esau Did not Esau and Jacob stand on equal ground as to Divine Election Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau Mal. 1.2 3. It 's true the free Grace of God hath deep Reasons in it self but yet no reasons or motives without it self to move or rule it in its egresses towards the creature Yea doth not the Grace of God find as much and as good reasons in Esau as in Jacob in Cain and Judas as in Peter and Paul in the worst as in the best of Men by Nature Yea what more agreeable to the Methods and Designs of Grace than this to shew mercy to the vilest of sinners How oft doth the free grace of God take hold of such as are most graceless and whence
through him Have we then any thing to do with or receive from God in a covenant way but by this Mediator and union with him Did not God from all Eternity give his Son as the foundation of this Covenant to the Elect as also give them to him as a seed And is not this the true import of their being elected in him Is it not also hence said Tit. 1.2 That eternal life was promised to the elect before the world began How could it be promised to them but by this Covenant of Redemption with Christ their Head Did not the Church Christs mystic body lie hid in him from Eternity as Eve lay hid in Adam her head Are not all Believers by the Covenant of Grace in Christ as by nature we are all in the first Covenant And is not Christ in every Believer as Adam in all his natural seed How is the first Adam in us but as the original cause of our nature and its moral vitiosity which causeth death And is not Christ the second Adam in all Believers as the original cause of their restauration and life What is there good in man but what is first in Christ as the original Head of the Covenant and public Receiver Wouldst thou see Gods love and grace streaming towards thy soul Must thou not then first see it lodged in Christ as the Fountain of all Dost thou desire to see all thy sins wiped off Must thou not then see them first wiped off from Christ thy Representative Wouldst thou by a prevision of faith see thy self in a glorified state O then by faith look on Christ the Head of the Covenant as glorified for thee Alas if thou look on thy self in thy self growing out of thine own natural root what art thou but as a branch cut off from the Olive-root But O! how comfortable and sweet is it to see thy self crucified acquitted and glorified in Christ the Head of the Covenant Yea doth he not only become a surety for us to God but also a surety for God to us And O! how much doth this engage sinners to exalt this glorious Head and Mediator of the New Covenant Was not this the grand design of God in making this Covenant that his Son the Prince of it might be in every thing exalted Why are all the promises of the Covenant dispensed first unto him and all the duties of the Covenant required first of him and of us in him but that he may have the preeminence in all things and a name above every name That the Son of God and Lord of Glory should by his own consent in the Covenant of Redemption between him and the Father come under an act of Gods will and undertake in the fulness of time to take upon him the form of a servant to pay debts who never owned any that he that was Lord of the Law should be made under the Law that all the Elect should have their names transcribed out of the Fathers book of Election into the Lambs book of life Rev. 13.8 yea have their names written in his heart from all Eternity and thereby to have such a blessed Being in him so long before they had the least Being in themselves what an essential obligation are they hereby brought under to exalt this glorious Head and Prince of their Covenant 4. But let us discourse a little of the Nature of this second Covenant 4. The Nature of the Covenant as relating to Believers as terminating more immediately on Believers And here the Reader will excuse me if I studiously avoid the controversies of these times and touch only on that which is more essential to Faith and Godliness The Covenant of Grace as made with Believers has a twofold ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã habitude or regard the one externe the other interne (1) As to its externe Dispensation which is The Covenant of Grace as to its externe Habitude and Dispensation admits some Variety Generality and Conditionality which is not applicable to the interne spirit and mind thereof [1] Various It admits of some Variety It has pleased the infinitely wise God out of his rich mercy and condescendence to the condition of his people in all Ages to suit the externe Dispensation of his second Covenant to their infirm capacity albeit as to the spirit and substance thereof it hath been ever the same Thus in the first promulgation of it to Adam after his Fall God expressed it by the seed of the woman and its bruising the serpents head c. Gen. 3.15 which was a form most agreeable to their present state introduced by the Serpents subtility and craft So in the second promulgation of this Covenant unto Noah after the Floud Gen. 9.17 God expressed it by the Ark and Rain-bow c. as it 's repeated Esa 54.9 which were symbolic Images very apposite and agreeable to their preservation newly obtained The like Variety God manifested in the repetition of this Covenant unto Abraham Gen. 17.2 to 16. where God promulgates his Covenant as to its externe Habitude under the symbolic forms of multiplying his natural seed the sign of Circumcision c. which were âll lively figures very much adapted to his present state he having no children So again when God renewed this Covenant with the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt what variety doth he use Is not the very Prologue to it touching their deliverance out of the house of bondage an illustrious Symbol to mind them of their miserable state by the first Covenant What were all the Sacrifices but federal Symbols representing to the life mans sin and misery under the first Covenant and reconcilement to God by the second So also for the moral Precepts with which this Mosaic Covenant was ushered in of what use and intendment were they but to make way for the promulgation and advance of free Grace as John Baptist made way for Christ It 's true some of late from this variety have started a Notion of a threefold Covenant one natural another legal or Mosaic and the third Evangelic but this Notion was the figment of the old Origenistic Monks to establish their Antichristian merits as Melancthon Chron. lib. 4. assures us The true Idea of the Mosaic Covenant seems this it was indeed as to its interne spirit mind form and essence Evangelic albeit as to its externe form and dispensation it was mixed and composed of moral Precepts and symbolic Types or shadows and O! how agreeable was this to the infantile state of the Israelitic Church Did not the wise God herein act like a curious Limner who first gives an adumbration and dark shadow with a rude Pencil and then adds lively colours to compleat his Picture What were all the Types but Evangelic shadows whereby the Grace of the second Covenant became visible and sensible [2] Indifferent and general The Covenant of Grace as to its externe ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and dispensation admits of some
Gen. 4.14 Every one that meets me will kill me Now when men are acted by this spirit from day to day they are full of guilt and fear and all this does not awaken them to seek out for a remedy and to cry out unto Christ from day to day for a spirit of adoption the spirit of a child in Gods account they are well pleased with it and they desire it As a man that walks in the ways of sin and is acted by the spirit of the world and groans not under it but is willingly led captive by Satan at his will he desires to be acted by that spirit so a man that walks under bondage from day to day and sees not his misery desires to be led by the spirit of bondage which is the spirit of the first Covenant 2. This spirit has suitable fruits As the spirit of Adoption is a spirit of love and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost so it 's with men also that are acted by a spirit of bondage that spirit has its fruits also and they are commonly such as these three 1 They that are under this Covenant do place their Religion in outward performances There was a righteousness that the Pharisees had under which they rested and that was making clean the outside of the cup and platter as a whited wall as a painted sepulchre and their Consciences are satisfied with it as it was in Paul before the commandment came and sin revived he was as concerning the righteousness of the Law blameless 2 They do all their services without a Mediator they do not bring their sacrifice to the Priest the Lord Christ and they do not bring their Incense to be mixed with his odours but they come in their own names and offer services unto God immediately without a Priest and though they may talk of Christ yet they come not to him for acceptance and to have the iniquity of their holy things taken away but if the duty be done they expect it shall be accepted 3 They do all with a legal spirit performing it as a task and are glad it is over It is by the second Covenant that the yoke of Christ is easie it is otherwise such a yoke that man cannot bear Rom. 7.6 Men serve not in the newness of the spirit but in the oldness of the letter To serve in the newness of the spirit is to serve spiritu novo spontaneo with a new free spirit and therefore in the oldness of the letter that is in a slavish and a servile manner when a man only looks at the duty commanded without as a task as an act of obedience but not as an act of faith Heb. 8. It is the second Covenant that writes the Law in the heart and makes the duties sweet and pleasant unto a man by putting into a man an inward principle of love answerable unto the things that are required putting into a man an inward disposition answerable to the Law that a man delights in the Law according to the inward man and men living in the strength of a legal spirit contenting and pleasing themselves therein this is a plain argument that they are acted by the spirit of the first Covenant and bring forth the fruits thereof and their contentedness under it shews that they desire and love so to be SECT II. The Causes why men desire to be under the Law § 1. BUt how can this be that men knowing themselves sinners and under the curse of the Law and that unto justification by the Law a perfect obedience is required which it is no more possible for them to yield than it is to stay the Sun in its course or remove the Earth out of its place and therefore the life promised therein is unto man fallen upon an impossible condition because all the imaginations of his heart are evil and only evil continually and in his life there dwells no good thing and therefore it is said to gender to bondage and all that are under it are bondmen The case standing thus How comes it to pass that there should be in the heart of man a continual desire to be under this Covenant still The grounds of it are taken from a threefold principle that is in the heart of man A principle 1 of Ignorance 2 Of Enmity 3 Of Pride 1. From a principle of Ignorance and that 1 of the Law and the nature of the first Covenant and mens condition under it 2 Of the Righteousness of Christ and the Glory of the second Covenant 1. Ignorance of the Law and mens state under that Covenant 1 Men are naturally ignorant of Gods intent in giving the Law and therefore look upon it as a Covenant by which they should attain righteousness and life Mat. 19.20 Christ answers the young man according to his own principles Good Master saith he what shall I do to inherit eternal life Christ replys Keep the Commandments For he looked upon it as a way of obedience in which he should attain Salvation And so all men would work for life and that is given as the reason why the Galatians were so greatly bewitched by false teachers and drawn away from the truth of the Gospel to join something of the Law with Christ in the matter of Justification because they did not know wherefore the Law was given Gal. 3.19 20. They seeing a Covenant made with Abraham and a promise of free grace and of righteousness and life without works an inheritance by promise and 430 years after a Law given requiring works and promising life upon perfect obedience thereof they did not know how to conceive but that either God did repent of and revoke his former Covenant or else they must be both joined together in the matter of Justification and life now to answer this the Apostle acquaints them with the end why God did give the Law it was not to set it up as a Covenant alone that any man should attain righteousness and life thereby for unto man a sinner it is impossible and inexorable it can neither be obeyed nor endured but he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it was not given as a Covenant by which men should attain life as it was to Adam in the state of innocency as if God did intend any man should be saved thereby neither was it published to make void the Covenant of Grace but it was added not by way of opposition but subordination that it might be as Hagar to Sarah a handmaid to further the ends of the Gospel and to advance the grace of it that it might be as the avenger of blood to the City of refuge and make men look for the Law in the Ark Christ Who is the end of the law for justification and that it might be the perfect rule of the obedience of the Gospel This men being ignorant of they look upon the Law as a Covenant of works and all that they do in obedience thereunto is to gain
when God leaves him under that Covenant and deals with him according to the terms of that Covenant under which he desires to be In a word if God hate their persons and impute their sins reject their services despise their image curse their blessings give them neither grace restraining nor renewing if he leave them to wrestle under temptations by their own might and to resist sin in their own strength and be defiled and as they offer to God unsanctified services so God gives them unsanctified rewards and as their services are seemingly services but really sins so Gods blessings be seeming blessings but really curses When they shall come and plead with God at the last day they shall be made speechless in this for God shall let them see that in all his dealings with them he has proceeded with them in all things according to the terms of the Covenant under which they stand Vse 2 § 2. We may by this see what a miserable state a state of sin is and wherein the great danger and misery of it lies it makes a man perfectly miserable in all things but it makes him also insensible of this misery and makes it a desirable condition unto him which he is still willing and content to be in And here observe these three things 1. See here the compleat raign and dominion of sin which it has over men who are yet in their sins in a state of sin which consists in two things 1 In power and authority to command 2 In a ready and willing subjection thereunto Rom. 6.19 when men do yield themselves servants to sin as it is in respect of acts of sin men please themselves in them and they cannot forsake them they are the joy of their lives their sweet morsels which they hide under their tongues and they keep them and will not forsake them so also in respect of a state of sin which they are in under their Covenant as the servant that would not go free Exod. 21.5 Now when it is so that men are content with the bondage of the first Covenant and the second Adam is offered to them and they will not be delivered this shews that they are perfectly under the bondage of sin that not only they are with pleasure held under the acts of sin and cast fire-brands and say am I not in sport but they are held under a state of sin also and will not accept deliverance will not go free 2. See here also the folly of sin and the sinner even the highest rank of men civil men and formal professors temporary believers that have oyl in their lamps and go forth to meet the Bridegroom and yet the Holy Ghost says they are foolish Virgins because men do not judge of the danger of their estates by reason of their Covenant but go on as the Ox to the slaughter yea they cleave unto this Covenant and see not the misery that they are in under it and though the great work of the Spirit of God is to convince a man of his estate of sin in this that he is under the first Covenant and out of Christ Joh. 16.8 yet men go on and will not see it and yet walk with a great deal of confidence in hope of an everlasting reward 3. See here how Satan blinds the eyes of them that believe not and how the Lord gives them up to blindness in judgment that live under the Gospel they have the offers of the second Covenant made known to them they are under the Law and they do hear the Law that they are by nature bond-men and can from this mother expect no inheritance but as bond-men to be cast out of the house for ever and yet they cleave unto this and the more the glory of the second Covenant is offered unto them the more violently they do oppose it because it would spoil them of their own righteousness and subject them unto the righteousness of God Thus we see it in the whole people of the Jews but eminently in the Pharisees this Covenant they had chosen unto themselves and they did desire to be under the Law and they thought themselves very much enriched with the righteousness of the Law so that Christ preaching the second Covenant unto them and the grace thereof their desire to establish their own righteousness did raise up the malice and rage of their spirits unto such a height that they broke forth into the unpardonable sin even the great transgression and there is the same devilish principle in us all if the Lord restrain us not that in opposition to the grace of the Gospel we should oppose it even to the unpardonable sin Vse 3 § 3. It is an Exhortation to several Duties but specially three 1. Labour for a work of humiliation for this sin and to be rightly convinced of it for surely the nature of man is deeply leavened with it There is a double conviction of sin 1 Rational when a mans reason is overcome by the Word that a man cannot deny nor dispute against the truth of it and yet his heart is not affected with it Joh. 16.8 2 There is a spiritual Conviction when the Lord comes in with an irresistible light and discovers the sin and causeth the heart to own it and stoop to it and be affected with it with shame and sorrow and this is that conviction of the soul that does lead unto conversion whereas the other many times doth and may lead unto condemnation And this sin will be set upon the soul with these Considerations 1 It is a sin against the Gospel and the foundation of all the grace thereof now this is an aggravation If the word spoken by Angels were stedfast c. Heb. 2.2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation If it be so dangerous to break the first Covenant what is it to despise the grace and offers of a second 2 It doth reject the grace of God the Father who had the first hand in the second Covenant for he might have dealt with us as he dealt with the lost Angels he did not catch after them when falling Heb. 2.16 Now for the Lord to give you a second offer of grace when he let the Angels go and you to despise this grace and whereas God had multitude of thoughts concerning this Covenant and the grace thereof for you to make all these thoughts of God of none effect by desiring to establish the first and by rejecting the Grace of the second Covenant is a great transgression 3 Hereby a man is very injurious to the Lord Jesus Christ Joh. 4.10 who is the greatest gift of God and the main of the excellency of this gift lies in this that he is given as a second Adam as a Mediator of the Covenant the surety of the Covenant Heb. 7.22 Isa 42.6 Heb. 8.6 the Angel of the Covenant Mal. 3.6 by whose blood the Covenant is sealed and
then from the condemnation of the Law and the sentence of it there is no appeal or redemption CHAP. III. How and whence it is that sin is irritated by the Law Rom. 7.8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence SECT I. How sin takes occasion and is irritated by the Law § 1. WE have seen that to be under the first Covenant though broken is unto every man in a state of nature a desirable thing though formally indeed men desire it not for they will all disclaim it but interpretatively and by consequence they do desire it as Prov. 8. ult it was finis operis though not operantis it was the end of the work Ezek. 8.3 though not of the worker and so men going about to establish their own righteousness and not submitting unto the righteousness of God and being contented to be acted by a spirit of bondage which is the spirit of the first Covenant which doth produce in them fruits answerable to the Covenant under which they stand this is in Gods account and in the censure of the Scripture an argument of an inward desire and contentment to be under this Covenant still Now because men do look upon it as a desirable condition let us examine what this condition is of a man fallen to be under the first Covenant as broken Divines do commonly say that a man that is in Christ is freed from the Law he being dead to the Law and the Law being dead unto him in some respects as was mentioned at first 1 For Irritation the Law hath not this power in men to irritate and exasperate and enrage their lusts by the restraint and the prohibitions of them and so they apply that place Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law That is saith Beza He exhorts them to Sanctification Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies and he does promise them sin shall not raign under the Law only forbidding sinning and thereby provoking and increasing lust but you are under Grace strengthning against sin and healing it and hence it is concluded from several other Scriptures that a man in Christ and under Grace is freed from the Law and irritation of it 2 For Co-action to keep them from sin by force for fear simply of the curse of the Law and to compell them to duty as a task-master against their wills when the Law they hate and the duty that is required of them that they hate and wish there were no Law and look upon it as a yoak and a burden insupportable for as a godly man says of sin so a wicked man says of duty that which I hate that do I. And it requires of him perfect obedience as a task-master he must work brick but gives no straw requires the full tale of duty but gives no strength nor assistance The Apostle says Gal. 5.8 if you be led by the spirit you are not under the Law the spirit that is in you is the spirit of the second Covenant a spirit of Adoption a spirit of liberty a free and a Princely spirit which enables you to perform duties out of an inward principle of love to them and delight in them unto them the yoak is easie and the burden is light for it 's their happiness and honour and meat and drink to do the will of their Heavenly father And so that place I conceive is to be understood 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law was not made for a righteous man that is neither in the restraining act of it or keeping from sin only for fear of the curse because he has an inward principle that lusts against it and as a fountain casts out the mud an inward antipathy a spirit lusting and rising against it that though there were no curse yet he would hate it and endeavour to avoid it nor in the constraining power of it to force to duty only as that which his soul hates and he comes hardly off too in any measure to do that which is required but he has a spirit within the Law written in his heart an inward principle suitable to what the Law requires of him as it is said of Christ in respect of that great Commandment was laid on him Joh. 10.18 This Commandment have I received of my father for of that I think he speaks lo I come to do thy will thy law is in the middle of my bowels I have power to lay it down and to take it up again He had an inward principle that made him ready and willing and chearful in it and in this respect the Law was never made for them as the only principle upon which they should act 3 For condemnation so as to be able to lay upon a man the guilt of his own sin and condemn him for it for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law there is a destroying power in sin and this it has from the condemning power of the Law do but take away the condemning power of the Law and the sting of death that is that power that it has to destroy the soul is gone because the guilt is taken off the sinner Now Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us And so Gal. 5.23 Against such there is no Law It is not spoken against such works but against such persons there is no Law partly because the Law is against none but those that transgress it and partly because those being the fruits of the spirit do argue and clear to a man that his Covenant is changed because he is acted by the spirit of the second Covenant and therefore he may thereby receive an evidence to himself that the condemning power of the Law is not against him any more Rom. 4.6 4 For Justification For blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works That no man is justified by the Law is evident Gal. 2. ult If righteousness be by the law then Christ is dead in vain And from hence I argue that if they that are in Christ and under the second Covenant are freed from the Law in all these respects then all those that are out of Christ are under the Law still in all those respects and therefore every unregenerate man is under the Law as a Covenant of works and under this Covenant he desires to be now the Covenant being broken he is under it for Justification Irritation Coaction and Condemnation Daven de luâut actuali p. 397. which when we have lookt over it will appear that this is no such happy condition that a man should desire it In being freed thus from the Law the main part of a Christians liberty consists yet there is this difference the two last refer unto a person and state and in those his liberty is perfect and he is wholly freed from the Law
produce any such effect but rather the contrary for it doth forbid sin upon the highest penalties it has upon it an impress of the Holiness of God and is contrary to sin in all things being holy and just and good and in its proper causality does work holiness in the hearts of men and a conformity unto the will of God as the rule of Goodness as it appears in the Saints all the grace that they have is nothing else but the Law written in their hearts which is the grand promise of the new Covenant 2 There is causa per accidens an accidental cause when the effect flows not from the nature of the cause but from something else that does by accident cleave to it so the Apostle says knowledge puffs up all true knowledge is humbling and there is nothing that a man can know either of God or himself but it does afford him great ground of abasement and self-denial but yet through the lusts of men sin takes occasion by the knowledge that should humble him to lift him up so fountains are hottest in the Winter and the fire by reason of the cold of the circumstant air not that the Winter does add heat to either by its own nature but by accident and occasionally inclose the one and draw forth the other so the Gospel meeting with the lusts of men who either reject the Gospel or else do turn the grace of God into wantonness thence it becomes the savour of death unto death not of it self nor in its own nature for it is the word of life and salvation so does the Law draw forth sin not of its own nature for it forbids it and curseth it but yet sin takes occasion by the Law and through many things that do adhere and cleave to the man by the Law it does become the more exceeding sinful Let us therefore come unto the proper causes how it comes to pass that sin by the Law which is good should take such an occasion of evil The causes are many 1. One cause of it is lust There are in lust many things from whence it flows but especially these 1 Lust is carried towards its object with earnestness violence and vehemency there is a lifting up of the soul to vanity and the hearts going after covetousness and therefore some render that of Laban when Jacob departed and he saw that the hope of his gain was gone Gen. 31.20 Deut. 29.19 Amos 2.7 Eph. 4.19 Jude 11. that he stole away the heart of Laban And as a godly mans desires are for God and Grace so a wicked mans desires are after sin and he thirsts and pants after it and it is therefore exprest by greediness as we may see it in Shechem Amnon and Ahab after Naboth's Vineyard All these set forth the violence of lust how fully the soul of man is carried after sinful objects and the ground is because sin looks upon sinful objects as the husband of the soul as the chief good and therefore is carried after them modo infinito in an infinite manner as a God therefore they are said to serve mammon and their God is their belly and they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God Rom. 7. and therefore desire them infinitely the sinner is never satisfied but like the barren womb crys give give his desire is as Hell and the Grave it never has enough Now whatever comes in the way as a bar unto that which his soul does so infinitely desire it is no wonder if his heart rise against it with an answerable violence If Naboth come in the way of Ahab's Covetousness his life is little enough to make satisfaction and if any man stand in the way of Haman's honour his life and the life of a whole Nation is but a fit sacrifice to expiate so great an offence Now the Law of God putting a stop upon such vast desires therefore the hearts of men do rise up against the Law in opposition answerable to the desire that sin hath unto the object from which it is stopt by the prohibition of the Law 2 Lusts are proud and do swell the heart and cause it to be lifted up Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his countenance doth not seek after God Obed. 3 The pride of thy heart has deceived thee And this fills the heart with a great deal of obstinacy and stoutness of spirit against God and contempt and scorn of whatever comes in his way to resist it as we see in Pharaoh even against the Lord himself Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice And answerable unto a mans pride and exaltation of spirit such is the rising of his heart against any thing that makes against him and the more full of lust any man is the more the pride of his heart is drawn forth for he is thereby made the more conformable to the Devil who saith I am a God and so do all mens lusts say and therefore the heart is lifted up as a God answerable to the pride of a man such is his impatience 3 Lust is resolute this proceeds from the two former it will go on whatever come of it Ephes 2.3 Hos 9. in despight of all opposition There are wills of the flesh as great resolutions as if there were many wills in one as a wild ass alone by it self i. e. that has neither rider to command it nor bridle to restrain it will venture any-where Jer. 8.7 They go on in their own ways as the horse rushes into the battel Christ warns Judas The son of man goeth indeed as it is written but wo to him by whom the son of man is betrayed it had been good for that man that he had never been born And yet Judas went forth and from that time he sought an opportunity to betray him If the Lord make hedges about a soul yet he will labour to tread down all with the greatest resolution and with the highest contempt as we may see it in Pharaoh after all his plagues yet his heart was hardened that is his will remained obstinate and he resolved not to yield unto God come what will come yea though death to himself and destruction upon his Kingdom did ensue And therefore they say What thou speakest to us in the name of the Lord we will not do Jer. 44.16 but we will do whatever proceeds out of our own mouths And if any thing come in the way to cross them in this resolution men resolve to oppose it see it in Saul 1 Sam. 22.17 Go and kill the Priests of Jehovah which some have made to be the sin against the Holy Ghost and Job 15.26 They do prepare themselves thick-bossed bucklers they resolve to make resistance they harden their hearts and stiffen their necks though the law of God set the sin and the evil before them yet men despise it and fear not the danger let it be of temporal judgment they say
Saints that they are freed from the Coaction of the Law that they are not so under it as unregenerate men are For 1 they do no good by constraint The regenerate man is always ready to obey the will of God he is a man that acts from an inward principle and therein lives above the Law he that is born of God never sins but always obeys God 1 John every thing that the Law commands is pleasant to him and the Commandments of God are not grievous Cant. 3.10 as Christs Chariot in which he comes to us is paved with Love so is our way to Christ paved with Love and hence a man is never weary but the longer a man continues in the ways of God the more he is satisfied with them because where is a suitableness there is no weariness the Sun is not weary with shining nor the fire weary with burning nor are the Angels in Heaven ever weary of beholding God for ever because their happiness is perfected by it nor are the Saints in earth weary of doing the will of their Heavenly Father neither doing-work nor suffering-work to bear Christs Cross is not grievous to them to be reproached for his name's sake is counted all joy they despise the pleasures of sin for a season living in the sure hope of their enjoying rivers of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore CHAP. V. All those that are in Christ are translated from under the first Covenant Col. 1.13 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son or the Son of his Love SECT I. A Scriptural account of this Translation § 1. NOW we come to speak of the last Branch considerable in this Covenant and that is a mans translation out of it Wherein there are four things to be considered 1 That all that are in Christ are translated out of the first Covenant and under it no more 2 The nature and manner of this Translation 3 The abolishing of the first Covenant by a mans translation out of it and the introduction of a second by which the former is made old 4 The subserviency and subordination of this first Covenant in many respects unto the Covenant of Grace as Hagar even then when under the notion of a Covenant it is abolished to Believers The first of these we shall deduce out of these words when we have opened them unto you In the latter part of this Chapter there are mainly two things we are to consider 1 The honour of our Redeemer 2 The manner of our Redemption The honour of our Redeemer is set forth from vers 15 and the manner of our Redemption vers 13 14 and that in many particulars Here we may observe 1 The condition wherein the people of God are before their Conversion 1 They are under the power of darkness 2 They are out of the Kingdom of Gods dear Son 2 Their condition after Conversion They are freed there is deliverence c. and there is translation unto the Kingdom of his Son 1. By nature every man is under the power of darkness even the Elect of God as well as others The word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which does properly signifie right and authority over any thing Man did by the first temptation sell himself to the Devil and as it were made a vertual covenant and compact with Satan and as it 's said of Ahab Quod venditur transit in potestatem emptoris He sold himself to work iniquity so it is with all by nature And therefore God in judgment gave man over unto the power of Sin and therein to the dominion of Satan and then Satans godship came in and he became the god of this World and the Prince of the power of the air By darkness is meant in Scripture ignorance sin and misery and of all this darkness Satan is the Prince and has the power he is the ruler of the darkness of this world Ephes 6.12 Condemnandi dominandi This power of darkness is double there is a condemning power and there is a ruling power that makes a man do the works of the Devil and that brings forth fruit unto death Now how comes Satan to have a condemning power the power of death it is by sin and how came sin to have a condemning power it is by the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 that is Heb. 12.14 the Law as a Covenant So that all the power Satan has it is by sin and the power that sin has it is from the Law as a Covenant being broken So that every Elect child of God is by nature under the Law as a Covenant for condemnation and irritation and by this means is under the power of sin and under the dominion of Satan Now a mans deliverance from this is by conquest and by power for it is in the Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to deliver a man by force and set him free Rom. 7.24 When man had no strength to deliver himself but must have lain and perished under this power for ever yea had not so much as an ability of will to desire deliverance and when all the powers of darkness were put forth to keep a man under and Sin and the Law and Satan did their utmost the strong man armed kept the house then Christ a stronger than he breaks in destroys sin and death and him that had the power of death that is the Devil and by this means the Law has no power Sin has no strength Death has no sting and Satan has no dominion But man being under the power of darkness he is out of the Kingdom of Christ which is a Kingdom of Righteousness and free Justification Rom. 14.17 He is free from this for he is under the power of darkness or condemnation because under the power of the Law and under the dominion of him that has the power of death that is the Devil and Christs Kingdom is a Kingdom of light and holiness but they are under the power of darkness sin having by their Covenant dominion over them and they being by Satan led captive at his will and being acted by the spirit of the power of the air c. But all that are converted are under the Kingdom of Christ as it is a Kingdom of Righteousness for matter of Justification and as it is a Kingdom of Grace for the matter of Sanctification and Life and whoever comes under this Kingdom it is by Translation and they are thereby delivered from the power and the authority of the one as they are translated into the other and the word in the Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã does signifie to put a man out of one condition into another and to change a man from his former state in which he was as Luk. 16.4 My master puts me out of the stewardship c. And the Septuagint do use it commonly for transplanting a man out
Summer and Winter Day and Night shall not cease and this is an universal and an absolute Covenant called the Covenant of the day and of the night Gen. 8.22 9.9 10. and used to express the stability of the Covenant of Grace and the perpetuity thereof Says the Lord If you can break my Covenant of the day Jer. 33.20 c. then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant So that all man-kind is in Covenant with God and stands bound to him in a Covenant-way 2. The two main Covenants though the federates in them may be said to be all man-kind yet they were not made with all men immediately but in a publick person a representative head There being two sorts of creatures that God will deal with in a Covenant-way some that were created all at once and did not proceed from one another neither had dependance one upon another and with them God made a personal and a particular Covenant and that he did with every individual Angel and therefore every one stood for himself and fell for himself Thence some fell and others stood they that consented to the Transgression and abode not in the Truth they left their first habitation Ephes 3.10 But there was a second sort of reasonable creatures that were to come into the World successively and to flow from one as from a common root all must come out of his loyns therefore all Nations are said to be made of one blood for God loves variety that he may shew forth his manifold Wisdom and therefore he made a Covenant with this head this common root in whom they all were and in whom they must all stand or fall And he will make him also to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the type of him that was to come that he may suit all things one to another For as his Wisdom is wonderfully seen in the order of his creatures and the suiting of one thiâg to another so it is wonderfully seen in his works of Grace also in a special manner towards man and therefore by his absolute Sovereignty he calls things that are not as if they were and things are so because he counteth them so not because man counts them so He has appointed a twofold common head of all man-kind 1 Cor. 15. â ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The first Covenant was made with the first Adam and therefore by one man and by one offence of that one man Judgment came up on all unto condemnation âom 5. and so all mankind are under the Law and under the Curse Children of the bond-woman even unregenerate men that live in the Church that is of the Covenant of Works as broken which only binds men over unto wrath and wholly genders unto bondage And the second Covenant made with the second Adam the Covenant that was made with Abraham Gal. 3.17 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was confirmed by God in Christ Gal. 3.17 which refers to Vers 16 To Abraham and his seed was the Covenant made he says not seeds as many but one which is Christ About which there is some controversy some do understand it of Christ in individuo personally some of Christ in aggregato or a Christ mystically but in which sence soever it is primarily in Christ as the head and surety of the Covenant So that neither of the Covenants are made with man immediately as in himself but in another 3. It is a mans Vnion with either of these publick persons or representative heads that doth bring a man under either Covenant If a man be one with the first Adam then he is under his Covenant and if he be one with the second Adam then he is under his Covenant The ground of a mans Covenant is his Vnion with him that is the head of his Covenant This appears in both Men come not under the Angels Covenant because they are not one with them the Lord Jesus Christ proceeding from Adam not in a natural way but voluntarily taking to himself the seed of Abraham and being made flesh therefore he does voluntarily and freely Gal. 4.5 not necessarily come under Adam's Covenant he was made of a woman made under the Law and because he was not of necessity one with Adam therefore he was not of necessity but freely under his Covenant but all mankind coming from Adam by a necessity of nature because they are naturally and necessarily one with him they are therefore necessarily under his Covenant And therefore Divines do ask how a man becomes a sinner he cannot have sin in his soul because it is created by God immediately pure and holy and creando infunditur in the very act of creating it is infused and sin being only the act of a reasonable creature there cannot be sin in this body before the soul is infused Now if there be no sin in the Soul then it cannot defile the body and if there be no sin in the body how can that infect the soul Our Divines do answer That the soul is created by God pure and has no spot in it and the body cannot have sin in it actually but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã potentially and the body cannot work upon the soul being a Spirit Anima non dicitur priùs habere peccatum quà m corpori conjuncta est ratio est quia tunc primum facti sunt homines Adami peccatum non transfertur nisi in homines Zan. de peccato Origen p. 49. Chrys on Rom. 5.12 to corrupt it neither has the soul sin in it nor the body Zanchy saith That the soul cannot be said to have sin before united to the body c. And therefore he adds Propter conjunctionem cum corpore anima inficitur non tam actione corporis in animam quam Dei ordinatione qui dixerat Adamo die quo commederis morte morieris The soul is infected by reason of its conjunction with the body yet not so much by the action of the body on the soul as by Gods ordination who said to Adam in the day that thou sinnest c. So that when a man becomes a man he becomes one with the first Adam and by his Union comes under his Covenant and then the transgression of Adam and the curse of his Covenant takes place upon him And therefore the Apostle says Rom. 5 In him all sinned and by one judgment came upon all to condemnation By one offence this Covenant was so broken that it could never be made up again but all men must perish under it therefore they all stood under it as they were in him and as they were from him successively in their generations and did receive their nature from him so they were to be one with him and being one with him they come under his Covenant and his Curse Chrysostom saith That he falling all men did partake of his fall So for the second Adam it is only union with him that brings us
as truly an interest in himself and all that is his as he does desire to have an interest in Christ and all that is his Cant. 6.3 he can say as truly I am my beloveds as my beloved is mine It is with a soul as it is with a wife she gives her self to her husband he must be the covering of her eyes he must have all her love she must not lift up her eye amorously upon any other ãâã âll her hope of protection and provision must be from him alone or as it is said ãâã ââphâr He left all that he had in Josephs hand and he knew nothing that he had thaâ ãâã he took care and thought for nothing but left all unto Joseph or to use the expression of ââaraoh to Joseph of the great trust that he would put in him and the great honour he would put upon him Without thy self says he no man shall lift up a hand or foot in all the land of Egypt So can the soul put it self wholly over into Christs hand This is giving up a mans self to the Lord and trusting him and resigning up all to him there is nothing dear to him he loves not father or mother or friend c. he will part with all when God calls for it as a snare or as a sacrifice if the Lord please to have it he thinks nothing lost that is spent upon him but if it be a box of precious Ointment never so costly John 12. if he call for as his Wisdom it is his and for his Honour 2 Tim. 1.12 and his Estate it shall be imployed by him or forsaken for him for he will forsake all that he has that he may be Christs disciple I know says the Apostle whom I have trusted He had committed his soul into his hand and he could give up unto him all things else It was a great act of trust in the poor Widow 1 King 17.13 that had but a little meal yet she must bestow that upon the Prophet and trust God upon his word to create more out of nothing To give up all a mans happiness and to leave all in Gods hand this is the mighty work of Faith These are the ordinary steps and degrees of Union between Christ and the Soul look what you have found of this in you or which of you find from day to day any such workings of spirit towards him as these And all that we can do towards it is only 1 To bring our selves under the Ordinances and place our selves there where Christ is usually dispensed and there is his bed Cant. 1.16 where souls are begotten to the Lord. 2 In these Ordinances the soul is at first meerly passive as it is in regeneration so in union for without Christs abiding in us we can do nothing much less can we unite our selves the body can as well in the dust lift up it self and unite it self to the soul and bring the soul down into it as we can concur to unite our selves to Christ but yet when the Spirit of God does work in us and has begun a spiritual life we must concur for we are built upon Christ but yet we are not built as dead stones that are meerly passive in the building 1 Pet. 2. but as living stones that have an actual concurrence in it we must be still nourishing and following those motions of the Spirit cherishing not quenching them Vse 2 § 2. If you be one with Christ do all things by vertue of Union 1 Be sensible of your own impotency Joh. 15.45 Gal. 2.20 2 Cor. 3.3 Phil. 4.13 2 Cor. 5.10 11. 2 Cor. 8.9 1 Pet. 2.21 Gârbard 2 Cor. 2.2 Ephes 1.6 and look only unto Christ for power there is not only a deadness in nature but a weakness even in grace to act it self without an immediate concurrence of God God is the immediate Agent of all spiritual works it 's Christ that strengthens the soul to do all things and from him it draws the main arguments that carry it on in all duties and that fill the sails For we must all appear says the Apostle before the judgment-seat of Christ c. For ye know the grace of our Lord Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich For even hereunto were you called because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example c. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you c. That is novo singulari suo exemplo commendavit he commended it by his own new and singular example 2 Refer all to the glory of Christ alone he works all our works in us in him is our fruit found 3 Let your expectation be in Christ alone for acceptance Rev. 8.4 5. Ansâl and account all your own righteousness as filthy rags Rev. 8.4 5. all that is accepted must come out of the Angels hand Terret me vita mea My life is terrible to me saith Anselme Though he offer but a pair of Turtles a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple he finds acceptance for it is the altar that sanctifies the gift and the Lord doth regard not only gemmas the Jewels but sordes sanctorum the meanest services of the Saints and our least sufferings also are accepted of God by vertue of our Union and every scoff and reproach cast upon us is the suffering of Christ so every duty that we do by vertue of our Union with him is the obedience of Christ and shall find acceptance with God not as from the person that brings it but from the Pâââ that offers it and from the Altar that sanctifies the gift CHAP. VII How the Law as a Covenant comes to be abolished Col. 2.14 Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross § 1. OF a mans âranslation out of the first Covenant with the manner and the nature of it which is by Union with Christ we have spoken hitherto now let us come unto the thing remaining and that is the abolition of this Covenant which I conceive these words do hold forth to us There are two things in the words to be explained 1 The âhing it self which is to be abolished it is the hand-writing 2 The manner of the abolishing how it is to be done blotting it out taking it out of the way and nailing it to his Cross 1 The thing that is to be abolished is the hand-writing The use of these things in civil contracts between man and man are of no other end but for a man to acknowledg his debt under his own hand Vehementius obligat syngrapha ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Erasm and therefore the Greeks call it Chirographum and what this hand-writing is there is a great deal of difference amongst ânterpreters There are three Interpretations commonly given
which we did owe to the Law as a rule of righteousness but also as it was a Covenant of Life 3. Christ was not under the Law naturally and necessarily as other men are neither do I conceive that it is safe to say that Christ as a man was subject to the Law for himself and that he did owe obedience unto the Law for though it be true that Christ as man was a creature and indeed every creature is subject unto the Law yet looking upon Christ as God-man and all the acts of Christ as actiones suppositi actions of the Divine person so they were above what the Law required which is the ground of all his merit above the satisfaction of the Law for the Law required perfect obedience of a man but the Law did not require that it must be the obedience of him that was God and man and therefore Luther has well observed that he is the Lord of the Law whence there is no Law against him wherefore as he did freely and voluntarily take our nature so he having taken it did freely put his name into our bond come under our Covenant that he might in every thing become a surety for us having a right to redeem us being God our brother and being bound to redeem us as our surety and being engaged with us in the same Covenant and for us and therefore as he is said to be made flesh and to be made sin because it was by his own voluntary submission so he is said to be made under the Law also and by his coming under the Law he has both paid our debt and cancelled our bond and so the Law remains unto the Saints as a Covenant no more and has no more dominion over a man as a Covenant 2. He has fulfilled and satisfied for ever all that this Covenant required of us he did it in our stead and there is that full satisfaction given in him that the Law can never ask more of us for ever for this cause we must as it is a Covenant be freed from it and this is the reason given in the Text He has taken it out of the way and nailed it to his Cross that is with the same nails that he was nailed with the bond that bound us that is the Law as a Covenant was nailed also Rom. 7.4 and this is to be dead to the Law by the body of Christ or in the body of Christ that is we died in him and he bore our sins in his body on the Tree and whatever Christ did to the satisfaction of the Law in his humane nature as our nature was assumed by him it was for us his righteousness being imputed to us c. Christ has indeed fully satisfied the Law but yet if the Law should require perfect obedience of us also then it must remain unto us as a Covenant of Works still but as Christ hath done it so he hath done it for us and it is done once for all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for active obedience though the Law require duty of us Heb. 10.10 yet it is not unto Justification and all our own obedience is in this to be lookt upon as a filthy rag and though we do here undergo many sufferings yet it is not for satisfaction for he hath by one offering of himself for ever perfected them that he sanctified he is said to remain a Priest Heb. 10.14 Heb. 3.7 Dan. 9. and so doth his sacrifice and oblation remain in the vertue and efficacy of it for ever and therefore he is said to bring in everlasting righteousness So that if the Law look for satisfaction to the precept it is perfected in him and if it look for satisfaction to the curse it is perfected in him it can remain as a Covenant to us no more because it can as a Covenant exact nothing of us more and therefore to all that are in Christ and stand under the Covenant of Grace the Law requires their duties of him and their sufferings of him so that the Law as a Covenant has nothing to do with them but with Christ who is still under the same Covenant remaining their Surety and Priest for ever and therefore in this victory of Christ over the Law as a Covenant Luther makes the main glory of our deliverance to lye and this was indeed the great end of Christs coming into the world As for the other ends Legem docere miracula facere Duplici jure Christus legem vicit prostravit trucidávit primo ut Dei filius legis Dominus secundo ut sponsor noster in nostra persona Quod tantundem est acsi nos ipsi vicissemus quod à victoria Christi nostra est Gal. 3.16 Tit. 1.22 Tim. 1.9 to teach the Law and do Miracles these were but beneficia particularia particular benefits for his Disciples did teach the same truths and many things more than Christ did in his own person and wrought as great Miracles as he but his great end was Legem vincere abolere to overcome the Law and as a Covenant to cancel it because he has fully satisfied it once for all and therefore by way of satisfaction either in obedience or curse it can never require any thing of us to eterâity 3. By introducing of a second Covenant and translating men there into a Covenant of Grace and mercy and reconciliation and this Covenant Christ hath brought in for it was a Covenant made with him before the world began for there was light promised us and Grace given us before the world began in these eternal Transactions between God and Christ ând the Lord hath said That this shall be an Everlasting Covenant and all men that ever are âaved shall be saved by this Covenant Justified freely by his Grace by Grace you are saved c. Now as the Apostle speaks of the revealing of the Gospel Heb. 8. ult In that he saith new Covenant he hath made the former old and that which waxeth old is ready to vanish away ãâã the Lord Christ intending to bring in a second Covenant and that upon different terms âd conditions he hath made the former old and ready to vanish away Vse 1 § 3. See here the infinite Goodness and Wisdom of God as in Christ there are many ârious Unions in that one so there are also many very curious distinctions as in the one tââng that a man would never have thought could have been united so in the other thing that a man would have thought could never have been divided As for the Unions that a child and a son should be given and God and man should become one Person and such a word as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a God-man in the world and Immanuel God with us that he that bears up all things shoud be born he that made all things should himself be made flesh made of a woman that the beauty of Holiness should be made sin and he
they grow above ground the more they spread under ground lop them continually that they grow not above and they will by degrees wither and die Grace doth grow by the actings of it and so does sin and if a man should have Grace in his heart and yet never bring forth fruit though it could not wholly die because it it an immortal seed upheld by the Spirit of Grace yet it would never thrive There is a double way that the Devil takes to increase sin in a wicked man 1 He doth infuse all the devillishness into them that he can the Devil entred into Judas and put it into his heart to betray Christ the wicked one toucheth them 2 All that wickedness that is in them he does act and draw forth to the utmost And there is a double way of the decay of Grace 1 By stirring up and strengthning the contrary principle of sin 2 By hindering Grace from acting in all things and so though it be immortal seed yet in the degrees of it it will decay So it is here the Spirit of God infusing a new principle and restraining and hindering the actings of the old by this means sin dies by degrees and the heart is weaned and taken off from it and this is done by the Law SECT IV. The Subservience of the Law to the Gospel as it is a Rule § 1. WE have thus far considered the Law as it is in its subservience to the Gospel as a glass discovering sin and as a bridle restraining it now we come to the third Consideration as it is a Rule to guide and direct a man in all the ways of obedience and it is a Rule within and a Rule without 1. It is a Rule within that is the Spirit of God given by the Gospel or the second Covenant doth make use of the Law of God as an Instrument of Conversion and so plants in a man a rule of holiness and obedience in his own heart a principle of conformity unto the will of God in all things The Law indeed cannot do this of it self looked upon as a Covenant alone for so it is a dead letter but as it is in the hand of the Spirit Rom. 7.9 The saving knowledge of the Law is brought in by a secret and yet sacred blast of the Spirit of God breaking in and blowing when he listeth Now that the Law is an instrument in the hand of the Spirit for the conversion of souls is plain 1 Every part of the Word of God has a converting power if the Spirit of God be pleased to concur with it for every part of the Word of God is seed to beget as well as milk and strong meat to nourish if any part of the Word of God be ingrafted in the heart it will change the stock of what nature soever 2 It is that which is attributed to the Law Psal 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Indeed there is some difference about the word converting some say it is reviving or returning the soul when going down to the pit thou sayest Return again but it is returning from sin as well as sorrow and therefore Act. 7.38 called verba viva vivificantia living and life-giving oracles which give life here and bring to life hereafter 3 That is the promise of the new Covenant I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their inward parts for no man has by nature the Law of God in his heart for the image of sin and the law of sin is upon the heart of man by nature Gen. 6.5 Rom. 12.2 1 The Law of the Lord is by sin blotted out of the hearts of men that image of God and conformity unto his will is taken away which they had at first and they have a new law the law of sin there 2 It is the Law put into the heart by the Spirit of God that is the rule of all a mans inward obedience and conformity unto God Adam had the Law written in his heart not only a Law without but inward dispositions conformable to it within and when man had blotted it out God wrote it in tables of stone but now he will put it into the hearts of men so that they shall have an inward principle answerable to the Law-rule without and whatever he does require in the Law something within shall answer to it but this Law is put in by the hand of God 3 In Conversion God does put in the whole Law into the heart of man what Law is it but the Moral Law that which is a Rule of a mans way without is the Rule of a mans heart within and God will put it so therein that it shall never be blotted out again by sin for he will write it there that it may remain Litera scripta manet c. but more particularly observe 1. That no man hath in him the Law of God by nature but all are enemies unto the Law in their minds they are not subject unto it neither can be and therefore the Apostle says Rom. 8.7 When the Commandment came c. it was a coming Commandment not of his own fetching it is therefore said to be a voice crying behind us This is the way walk in it for every man by nature hath another law the law of sin the law of his members which stands in opposition to the law of his mind the image he has upon him is the image of the Devil and he has contrary dispositions in his inward man unto God and to the will of God in all things not formed by the word Rom. 12.2 2. That which is written there is the Moral Law There are two great principal parts of a mans holiness Faith and Obedience and because the ground of Obedience is Faith therefore it is commonly called in Scripture the Obedience of Faith and answerable unto these are the two great principal parts of the Word there are the precepts of the Law and the promises of the Gospel and both these the Lord makes an ingrafted word the foundation of a mans faith is the Promise and thereby a man is made partaker of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and the foundation of a mans obedience is the Precept for in the regeneration we are renewed after the image of him that created it therefore writing the Law in the heart is a renewing of the image of God which in Adam we had lost and that was a knowledge of the whole will of God in whatever concerned Gods glory and his own duty and he had an inward ability and disposition of soul in all things to submit himself thereunto with cheerfulness So that in the fall the Law of God that was written in our hearts that was stamped upon us and concreated with us was utterly blotted out and now the renewing of this Law in our inward man is our regeneration a putting the same dispositions within us that were
gives up himself unto it as the perfect law of liberty that wherein his happiness lyes this is that which makes the yoke easie and the Commandment not grievous and the ground of it is because the Law is written in his heart and this is to serve Christ in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter not barely to have a duty in the letter injoined which is that which only prevails with other men to perform duty whilst all that is in their heart is against it they do it and yet hate the duty when done and the Law that injoins it but here is the Spirit of God renewing and working in a man such dispositions of heart which answer the duties of the Law in all things so that a man loves the duties and the Law that commands them as setting him about a service that he is pleased with so that it is the Law that is the yoke of Christ and it is writing it in his heart that makes it an easie yoke In putting the Law as a rule into a mans heart the Spirit of God doth let a man see 1 The Holiness of the nature of God Ephes 4.24 for man was in this created after God neither did the Creature behold the Holiness of God any other way than in the Law which doth forbid the least blemish and defilement all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Herein a man sees the glory that was stampt upon him in his creation for his heart was nothing else but a perfect copy of this Law created in it and in this conformity in his inward man to the Law of God did this image principally if not wholly consist 3 This is a perfect resemblance of the Holiness that was in the humane nature of Christ in whom the Law was fulfilled for there was no sin in him He knew no sin neither was guile found in his mouth he was a lamb without spot or blemish he was a living Law 4 This is a perfect copy of that conformity unto God that is in the Saints and souls of just men made perfect When he shall appear we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.2 The law of his mind shall be perfected and the law of the members wholly destroyed Now we are conformable to the will of God but in some degrees for that perfectio graduum perfection of degrees is to come but the Spirit of God will go over our hearts and write more and more of this Law in us till we be made in all things answerable thereunto And in our conformity to the Law glory being nothing else but Grace perfected shall our conformity unto God in Heaven be where we shall not be like God in part as here we are but shall be wholly conformable to him which is the perfection which we strive for and aspire unto and therefore the Scripture calls this our perfection Paul saith 2 Cor. 13.9 I long for your perfection that is a perfect writing of the Law in the heart and this fits a man for Gospel-Ordinances and the perfection hereof is the reward of the Gospel for the Law written in the heart is the foundation of all obedience unto the Law and the perfect writing the Law in the heart is the highest reward of all the Promises and all the obedience of the Gospel § 2. As the Law is a rule within being planted there by the Spirit given in the second Covenant which does change a mans nature and doth give a man inward dispositions suitable thereunto a law of the mind so is the law a rule to guide and direct a man in his way unto which all the Saints are to give heed from which they are to learn their duties and by which they are to judge of all the ways of God and the ways of the world the Law is added unto the Gospel Fides efficit quod lex imperat as the rule to the hand of the workman the rule is able to do nothing of it self it is a dead thing it is the hand only that does the work and if the hand can do nothing aright without the rule the Law can work nothing being dead without the Grace of the Gospel that only inabling a man to perform all acts of obedience and yet the Grace of the Gospel does inable a man to no other obedience but that of which the Law is the rule Christ himself tells us that his intention in coming was not to destroy the Law of God or put an end to it or make it void Mat. 5.17 Think not that I come to destroy the Law or the Prophets and interpreters of the Law Now there are in the Law but three things to be considered either it is for Justification for Condemnation or for Direction Now for Justification unto all that are in Christ it is by Christ abolished no man is justified by the works of the Law but by the Grace of Jesus Christ and for condemnation also for he hath delivered us from the curse of the Law and was made a curse for us There remains now no other proper use of the Law but for Direction as it is a rule and therefore either Christ has destroyed it wholly or else he will have it remain in this last sense and so the next vers 18. tells us Heaven and earth shall sooner pass away and the whole frame of this world fall to pieces before the Law shall pass away therefore it doth remain for Direction unto the Saints unto the end of the world So Rom. 3.31 the Gospel does not destroy but establish the Law the word in the Greek doth signifie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to strengthen and make a thing firm that was falling before so by the sin of man the Law became weak through the flesh neither to be fulfill'd in the precept of it or the curse but men must be for ever satisfying it now the Gospel comes and it makes the Law firm 1 In our Surety for in him is the precept fulfilled and the curse born he did fulfill all righteousness 2 In us because by the Grace of the Gospel we do attain strength in some measure to obey the Law which is encreased more and more till in our nature and actions we shall be made perfectly conformable unto the Law in Heaven and so the righteousness of the Law perfectly fulfilled in us the Lord perfecting his good work that he has begun in the day of the Lord so that the Law remains as a rule to Believers being not abolished but established by the Gospel 2. The Gospel sends us unto the Law as a rule of duty Luk. 16.30 31. They have Moses and the Prophets the Law and the Expositions of the Law and the Lord requires Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul as well under the Gospel as under the Law And Jam. 1.25 He that looks into the perfect Law of
it that is in himself from his own will only for all is done according to the good pleasure of his will Ephes 1.9 Rom. 9. and he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy so that the whole purpose and plot of it is in the bosom of God alone and according to this plot all things are done in this Covenant As in the Creation all things are done from an Idea in the mind of God and according unto that platform Heb. 11.3 Joh. 1.18 as the Temple was built according to the pattern so in the Covenant also and therefore Christ is said to come from the bosom of the Father being from this gracious intention and purpose of God himself from everlasting 2. He entred into Covenant with Christ the second Adam that he should be the Mediator of the Covenant and the person that should do all the great works that he had intended in this Covenant 2 Tim. 1.9 and therefore we read of a promise of eternal life made unto us before the world began God did not content himself with a purpose but he added thereto a Promise and Covenant to his Decree which could not be unto us because we were not therefore it must be unto one that did represent our persons and was lookt upon as in our stead for a purpose might be in himself but a promise cannot be but unto another and there was a glory and a posterity that God did promise unto him in this Covenant and that he would carry Christ through the work that he had to do Psal 16. as appears afterwards and therefore Christ says He is my God and the lot is fallen to me in a fair ground which is the speech of Christ and therefore Prov. 8.22 he says The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way The Covenant that he made with Christ was the first of his going forth unto the Creature Prov. 8.30 31. and upon this were grounded those true delights of Christ mentioned Prov. 8.30 31. And my delights were with the sons of men 3. By vertue of this Covenant are all those Legal acts past in God In the work of Redemption there are some acts spiritually natural and they are acts of God within us which do imply a real and physical change Phil. 1.6 when our natures and principles are changed and of unholy are made holy but there are also some Moral acts and they are acts of God upon us as if a man be a guilty person or accused as such and there be an act of pardoning and accepting this is a Moral act an act upon him and if he be a sick person and there be a Physician to cure him or blind and his eyes be opened this is a natural act in him and if a man be a captive and he be made a free man by a ransome paid this is a change of his state the one is in Justification and the other in Sanctification the one is mutatio moralis and the other naturalis Now the main acts of God in this Covenant and the main of the Covenant consists in acts done without us and upon us as by soveraign imputation he doth count our sins Christs Isa 53. and he makes to meet upon him the iniquities of us all he died as the second Adam and all the Elect died in him and so his death took place for all the Elect that ever were or shall be by vertue of the Covenant of God and the soveraign imputation of God immediately after the fall Rev. 13.8 therefore is he said To be a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that is in respect of efficacy grounded upon the imputation of God who can call things that are not as if they were Rom. 3.25 and so all the sins of the old world and the ancient Saints were pardoned the sins that were past through the forbearance of God Tanquam in capite 2 Cor. 5.21 and so Christ rose as a publick person as a second Adam and he being justified all the Elect were justified though there be an actual Justification when they do believe and so with him we ascend and sit together with him in Heavenly places c. And as he is made sin for us so we are made the righteousness of God in him as our sins are laid upon him so his righteousness is imputed unto us and truly accepted for us as our Surety For the debt paid by a Surety is in the esteem of the Law said to be paid by the debter and he for that cause is acquitted And so it is in Adoption Now we are the sons of God that is God accepts us as Children and Sons and because we are Sons he has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our heart we being by God counted members of Christ and so by our Union with him we do partake with him in his filiation and all these are acts of God upon us but without us and therefore the main benefits and acts of the Covenant are transacted by God without us and that is as truly and as perfectly done now as ever it shall be 4. There is not a soul that is brought into this Covenant but it is by God the Father he hath said Ezek. 20.37 Joh. 8.44 I will bring them into the bond of the Covenant No man can come to me except God the Father draw him What is the meaning and intent of the preaching of the Gospel without and all the tenders and offers of Christ to the soul by the Spirit within It is only to this end that they might be a people in Covenant with God and all things that Christ doth he doth as God the Fathers servant to draw men into Covenant with him that by Christ we should come unto God The expression of drawing does set forth unto us its efficacy and certainty and therefore drawing and coming are put together to shew that man by nature is not willing but an enemy unto this Covenant but ex âolentibus volentes facit he makes men of unwilling willing he does powerfully work as if he did draw and men do as certainly come as they that are drawn Grace works strongly and therefore God is said to draw and it works sweetly and therefore men are said to come it is an act of power in God and yet an act of will in man it is a noble thing to consider how man is drawn to God never any man did come into the bond of the Covenant but he that was before drawn by the Father and there is an Almighty power that goes to the work even the same power that raised up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead to glory Ephes 1.19 5. All things that are within us or performed by us he has undertaken to work in us to will and to do the beginning of it and the finishing of it belongs to him Phil. 1.6 and here lyes the happiness of
did all by Covenant and Christ dying did give Legacies that by the means of death they that are called may receive the promise of eternal Life it is a Testament confirmed by the death of the Testator Surely it shall be performed for it is a Covenant made unto Christ and if you did love him your hearts would rejoyce more in the performance of it as to Christ than unto your selves § 3. I come now unto the fourth particular in the opening of the point That is the Terms of the Covenant as they did pass between the Father and the Son and are set forth in the Scripture A Covenant is an agreement upon certain Conditions unto which two persons or parties by mutual consent do freely bind themselves So that in a Covenant properly and so in this there are four things 1 The parties that make the Covenant must be free 2 The Articles or Terms must be propounded 3 There must be a mutual free and full consent 4 By this consent they are bound each to other 1. In a Covenant the parties must be free and in their own power and therefore in Vows to God or Covenants with men if one under the power of another do Vow or Covenant it is in his power under whom he is to disannul and make it void Numb 30. 4.8 And therefore Divines do here commonly observe two things 1 The difference between a Law and a Covenant a Law being the act of a Superior that hath power over another doth bind whether the party bound thereby doth consent or no for it is an act of the Will of a superior upon one that is subject to his will but it is not so in a Covenant it doth require consent in both parties 2 They distinguish between the Covenant that passed between the first Adam and that which God made with the second Adam The Covenant made with the first Adam was such that though his consent was necessary to make it a Covenant else it had been only a command yet unto this Covenant by the right of creation he was bound to consent and consenting it was but his duty and there was a duty which lay upon him antecedenteâ to consent unto that Covenant and the terms that God should propound But it was not so in the Covenant that God made with the second Adam he was free to accept of the terms of the Covenant or no when God had propounded them so that there was no duty that lay upon him anteceeding his consent So that the Covenant between God and man is not properly such a Covenant as is between God and Christ and between man and man in which each party is free and not bound to any thing but by his own consent Now 1 consider God is free and a debtor unto none God the Father who hath the first and the great hand in the Covenant and in propounding the terms thereof is debtor to none For he that is the first cause and the last end of whom all things are and to whom they are he can be debtor unto none but so God the Father is of whom are all things And that is Aquinas's rule * Deus non est debitor quia ad alia non ordinatur sed omnia adseipsum Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 Rom. 11.36 2 Christ is free and in his own power 1 If we consider him as the Son the second person with whom properly the Covenant was made for God did agree with the Son that he should take the nature of man upon him and in that nature suffer and satisfie and his very taking of mans nature was an act of obedience and duty that was due from the Son by Covenant and he did it in reference to the will and command of the Father as he did all other things either doing or suffering in that nature John 1.2 The word is God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2.7 and therefore is free even as God himself and is not bound unto any duty but by his own consent 2. If we consider Christ as man in that he was not free for he was bound unto the Law and to all the duties of it as he was a creature It 's true he having taken the nature of man was by his Covenant bound to offer that nature as a sacrifice for Gods satisfaction and for mans sanctification in that nature he was to be made sin and to bear our Curse If we do consider Christ as meer man then he was bound indeed unto the Law by right of creation as well as we but if we consider him as God and Man so we cannot say that he is bound for actiones sunt suppositorum And our Divines generally say that there is a communication of properties between the two natures so that he does offer himself by the eternal Spirit Heb. 4.14 All his actions and passions in our nature are not only humane but Divine being from him who was both God and Man and that he was no otherways bound to obey God in that nature than he was to assume the nature no Law did require that his obedience should be the obedience of God and that God should be satisfied by the blood of God and that he should suffer that did never sin this was from the Covenant of God the Father and the superabundanâ grace of God the Son And therefore when Christ saith that he received a commandment to obey it refers only to his obligation by covenant and not by any antecedent duty that he did owe his Father 2. The terms of the Covenant or Articles of agreement that did pass between the Father and the Son are contained in two things 1 Something that the Father did require of the Son 2 Something that the Father did promise the Son 1. There is a service that the Father doth propound unto the Son and that is double 1 That he should take upon him the form of a Servant The children being partakers of flesh and blood that he should take part of the same Heb. 2.14 Bernard Rom 3.26 He took not only the form of a Servant that he might be subject but also of an evil Servant that he might be beaten he was willing to take the body that the Father had prepared for him that he might be bruised by him 2 That in that nature he should perform whatever was necessary for the satisfaction of God or the sanctification of man and in all things he must be Gods servant do his will and serve his ends deny himself humble and abase himself that his Father may be exalted Isa 42.1 1. He did whatever is required unto the perfect satisfaction of God The Justice of God is twofold 1 Remunerative justice in reference unto the precept of the Law as man was a creature 2 Vindicative justice in reference to the curse of the Law as man was a sinner and he that shall give a perfect satisfaction to Justice must perform
by his own free and voluntary condescension We were first sin and he was made sin for us we a curse first and he made a curse for us so we were first under the Covenant of Works and he did freely subject himself to be made under the Law he took our nature that he might communicate his to us so he takes our Covenant and subjects himself to it that he might impart unto us his Covenant and bring that into the World But as for the Covenant of Grace it was made first with him and we come under this Covenant only by Union with him Gal. 3. lasâ his voluntary union with us as our surety brought him under our Covenant and our voluntary union with him as our head brings us under his Covenant The curse came upon him by our Covenant which we were first in and the blessing comes upon us by vertue of his Covenant in which he was first SECT III. Christs Headship in the Covenant applied Vse 1 § 1. IT instructs us first to observe the rich and free Grace of God that hath given his Son as a Covenant to the Nations which mercy the Prophet Isaiah exalts Isa 42.6 To us a child is born to us a son is given and the giving of his person was the highest honour and the greatest gift but yet it will be more heightned in our thoughts if we consider the ends for which he is given and the glorious retinue of all grace that follows him For he is given as a head with a Covenant and an Image and we admire God that hath laid up all grace in Christ to dispense unto us that of his fulness we may receive grace for grace This is to give him but half of his glory as he is the Churches head and the second Adam for he doth bring a Covenant into the World as well as an Image and in this respect happily amongst others he is called the Angel of the Covenant 1st It is a free gift there are three things in a gift 1 It is not ex debito of debt God did not owe unto man a Covenant it was all free grace it was that made him enter into a Covenant at first barely to sweeten mans obedience and therefore that man might be willing to be bound to obey God himself is content to be bound to reward him But when man had broken the first Covenant and was perfidious before God now to enter into a second Covenant this makes the Grace of God the greater because otherwise he should have perished under the curse of the first 2 It is not ex pretio by price there is no price that did purchase the Covenant though all the benefits and blessings of the Covenant are purchased by Christ yet the Covenant it self is grounded only upon free grace and it is this Covenant that is the ground of all the acts of Christ and the acceptation of them all is grounded only upon free Grace in the Covenant and compact between him and his Father 3 Not ex merito of merit from any thing that we can do for there is not the least blessing in the second Covenant but it is of Grace and the reward is not reckoned of debt but of grace and if all the benefits of the Covenant be so much more the Covenant it self from whence comes all the grace we have to do any thing pleasing in the sight of God 2dly The greatness of the gift is seen in the love of the giver There was a love manifested in the first Covenant but yet it was not such by which he did intend that any of the Sons of men should be saved He has said That by the works of the law shall no man be justified and the inheritance is not by the law c. But the second Covenant did proceed from Gods electing love which is exactly suited thereunto for Ephes 1.3 4. he doth observe the same order in the benediction that he did in election And the more difficulties love breaks through the greater it is Cant. 8.7 Now our Covenant-breaking might provoke God to withdraw his love and yet the greatness of his love is seen in the duration of it The first Covenant was broken and thereby that love was turned into hatred and God became our enemy as common love will end in everlasting hatred but this is from his everlasting love and therefore it is an everlasting Covenant 3dly The greatness of it is seen in our necessity We were 1 under a Covenant broken and therefore under the curse of it 2 It was a Covenant without a Mediator for God could not enter into Covenant immediately with us being fallen as we have heard at large therefore there was in the first Covenant no commutation of the person we must answer for it in our own persons the soul that sins must dye 3 A Covenant that promises no spark of repentance 4 A Covenant that promises no mercy or acceptance upon repentance and therefore man had been left in a remediless condition even as the Devil at this day 2 Pet. 2.4 being bound in the chains of darkness 2 Pet. 2.4 which is nothing else but the curse of their Covenant Now in this condition it is the Gospel of Christ the Grace of God that brings salvation Tit. 2.11 Life and immortality is brought to light thereby 4thly Consider the excellency of this Covenant The first Covenant indeed is that under which the Angels stand by which they do injoy happiness and glory but this is the Covenant under which Christ stands of which he is the Glory the Prince the Messenger the Mediator of a better Covenant which the Angels admire and were it offered to them would change their Covenant and cast away their own righteousness that they might come under the Covenant of Grace by which Covenant the Saints enjoy all their happiness and glory in Heaven and have the promises of the life that now is and that which is to come 5thly That Christ is given as a Covenant doth heighten the promises thereof and make them of a far more glorious nature Rev. 21.7 than those under the first Covenant For I will be thy God and thou shalt have an interest in all that is in me for thy good as truly as it is mine for my own glory The promises are infinitely heightned because he that is the Prince of the Covenant was worthy and capable which no meer creature could be 6thly This makes the promises of it sure unto all the seed for with Christ God cannot break Covenant and there is nothing in this Covenant but is purchased as well as promised and the righteousness is everlasting sin can never spend it Heb. 7.22 Surety of a better testament A surety not only of the old Covenant to pay the debt but also of the new to perform the duty so that God expects all from him and accepts all as it doth proceed from his hand 2. This instructs
but it 's said That from that time they came no more upon the Sabbath and surely this duty lies upon the Christian Magistrate also and it 's his sin if he do it not and so for private persons in reference to their families Thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man servant c. 4 The Jews did meet to worship God publickly upon the Sabbath day and there they had the Law and the Prophets read and preached to them every Sabbath day and from hence it 's a good argument to infer the publick meeting of Christians to worship God publickly upon their Sabbath Act. 13.27 15.21 and that part of this worship should be a constant reading and publishing the will of God in the Law and in the Prophets and in the Gospel It will be a hard matter to find rules for this under the New Testament but we must be regulated by the practice of the institutions under the former administrations I conceive it will be in this counted but a slender answer to say The institutions of the Old Testament must in nothing regulate those of the New and that argument drawn from them by way of Analogy or à pari ratione is but the presumption of man and can no way reach the mind of God The like instance I may give for the publick worship of God his commands or institutions given to the Jews and their practice will be good arguments to regulate us Christians 1 They did with a great deal of diligence and conscience frequent the place of publick worship three times a year at Jerusalem and in their Synagogue every Sabbath day They went from strength to strength every year appearing before God in Sion 2 Their coming at the beginning and staying during the whole time of the service as Ezech. 46.10 when the people shall go in he shall go in and when the people go forth he shall also go forth c. 3 We are to behave our selves with a great deal of reverence during all the time of the Ordinances Lev. 19.30 Ye shall reverence my Sanctuary 4 That you are not to depart without a blessing which is to be done by way of Office in the Name of Christ as an Ordinance Num. 6.27 Aaron and his sons did bless the people It will be hard for a man to find rules for these in the New Testament and yet it will be as hard to say that these institutions and commands of the Old Testament should not regulate us under the New We have another instance of Tithes which was a legal institution under the Old Testament I would not enter upon any unwelcome Disputes about it the Apostle lays down this as a rule That he that serves at the Altar should live of the Altar he should receive by the Law of God from his people as a reward of his labour and as a testification of the honour that is due unto him such a maintenance as may be a support and supply for necessaries to him and his that he should not go to warfare at his own charge I do not speak these things out of partiality and affection unto my own cause and calling but the Law says the same Thou shalt not muzle the mouth of the ox doth God take care for oxen It is spoken there for our sakes that the incouragement of the Ministers in their service might depend upon the Law of God and not on the will humours and allowances of covetous cruel men And our Divines reason commonly from the manner of Gods dealing with the Priests and Levites under the Law and from thence argue the care that God takes of his Ministers Lev. 27.30 Num. 35.2 and that it must be a free and a liberal maintenance for they had the tenth of all the increase of seed or fruit of all their great and small cattel they had forty eight Cities with their Suburbs they had all the first-fruits also besides the sin-offering the meat-offering all their vows and voluntary oblations and from a parity of reason they do infer that the like care ought to be taken and the like maintenance in the days of the Gospel And whereas the people though in a poor condition failing in this are said to rob God and therefore are cursed with a curse that they did sow much and bring in little they do from thence conclude and infer that where the like sin remains it will be looked upon by God with the same eye Mal. 3.7 and will surely be followed by him with the same curse and many such instances may be given of rules to be drawn from Old Testament-institutions to regulate men in many things of the New or else we shall in many things be left without direction 5. Let 's examine how far our Divines do argue from the seals of the O. T. unto those of the New and it will appear that every position hath enough in Scripture to warrant it 1 Our Baptism is the seal of the same Covenant that Circumcision was then the Covenant of Grace was the same for substance with that under the New Testament for it 's Abrahams Covenant that was sealed in Circumcision and so it is in Baptism also for Rom. 4. Abraham is the father of all that are circumcised and of all that are uncircumcised also to that Covenant the righteousness whereof is the righteousness of faith that of Circumcision was a seal and we are also baptized into Christ into his Death and Resurrection c. 2 The persons taken into Covenant of old were the children and their parents I will be thy God and the God of thy seed their children are the sons of the Covenant and of the promise that God made with their fathers c. This has been manifested not only under the Law but before the Law from the beginning and also under the Gospel the Lord as he did cast off the Jews and their children so he took in the Gentiles and their children into Covenant with himself and though they were by nature the wild Olive-tree Rom. 11. yet they were ingrafted into the good Olive-tree and do partake of the root and fatness thereof and when he will take in the Jews again they shall be taken in they and their seed as they and their seed were disinherited and cast out 3 That Baptism succeeds in the room and place of Circumcision as the seal of the same Covenant and as the Ordinance of Initiation which will appear 1 Because the end was the same in both viz. to be the Sacrament of admission of visible members 2 Because the grace of the thing signified is the same Circumcision is cutting off of the body of sins in the flesh and Baptism a being buried with Christ in his death by a work of mortification c. and so much the Apostle doth intimate Col. 2.9 10 11 12. he had said we need joyn nothing of the Law for we are compleat in Christ and therefore
A DISCOURSE OF THE Two Covenants WHEREIN The Nature Differences and Effects OF THE COVENANT OF WORKS AND OF GRACE Are distinctly rationally spiritually and practically discussed together with a considerable quantity of Practical Cases dependent thereon By WILLIAM STRONG LONDON Printed by J. M. for Francis Tyton at the Three Daggers in Fleet-street and for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1678. TO THE HONOURABLE THE LADY ELIZABETH RICH. MADAM ALbeit I am no friend to Epistles Dedicatory because they too frequently prove to use the Cynick's Phrase but mellifluous snares yet because common Justice obligeth me to return unto every man his own I find my self under an essential Obligation to prefix Your Ladyships Name to the ensuing Noble Discourse and that not merely by reason of the Trust you were pleased to commit unto me for the Publication thereof but rather because Divine Providence has made Your Ladyship the Midwife to conduct this Noble Birth into Light which otherwise must necessarily have layen buried in the womb of Darkness And Madam give me leave to speak it Your Honour is herein the greater in that you undertook this service so laborious and difficult which no other mortal as I am assured was in a capacity to perform You being the only Person who very opportunely were instructed in that Character wherein the Original Copy was writ Madam I am not of those who admire Titles of Honour further than they are shadows of Virtue but rather am of the opinion of the morose Philosopher that Honours without Virtues are but the Masques of Vices yet Your Ladyship will be assured that the Honour You have acquired by this generous Vndertakement is far more illustrious than that which Nature has conferred on You. Solomon gives us an excellent Character of an Honourable Lady Prov. 11.16 Prov. 11.16 A gracious woman retaineth honour and or a × vertitur ut Jun. as strong men retain riches With what force do persons strong in wisdom and power retain their acquired Riches And doth not the Gracious woman with an equal force retain her Honour And what greater Honour can be acquired and retained than that which is acquired by the service of Christ and his Churches What more Honourable than for a creature to be immediately employed in the service of his Creator Doth it not speak a Mind descended from on High and truely generous to be inspired with a divine Ambition of being engaged in service for the King of Kings Is man ever greater than when greatly serviceable to his Lord Was it not a great effate of the Moralist That he who will be truly Free and Noble must serve Philosophy What Liberty then and Nobility do they acquire who serve Theology What is b ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Definit Platon Nobility according to the Platonick Definition but a Virtue of generous Manners and Services And who are invested with this Virtue if not they who are employed for the improvement of Divine Knowledge the most sublime and generous Science Are not all Honours measured by approach unto the Fountain of Honour And who approach nigher unto the Fountain of all Honour than such as are most deeply engaged in the Service of the Supreme King The common Title of Honour given to Courtiers among the Persians as also the Jews was Men of Presence And who are the Men of Gods presence but such as are engaged in the service of his Church And do we not find Memoires in Scripture of many both Hebrew and Christian Women very Honourable for their service in and for the Church âxod 38.8 Is it not recorded Exod. 38.8 as the great Honour of those devout Women that they assembled by troops at the door of the Tabernacle and consecrated their Looking-glasses for the making the Laver of Brass What more valued by some than their Looking-glasse How much pretious time is spent thereon Yea do not some spend more moments in poring on their Looking-glasse than on their Souls Yet lo these Virtuous Women part with their Looking-glasses which had been of so great use to them and now resolve to spend their time to a better account at the door of the Tabernacle in Fasting and Prayer and other parts of Divine Service And O! what a lustre of Divine Honour remains on them to this very day Again there is an Honourable mention made of other virtuous Women who employed their time and labours in the service of the Church Exod. 35.25 26. And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands and brought that which they had spun both of Blue and Purple and Scarlet and fine Linen as an Offering to the work of the Tabernacle Whââ greater Honour could have been affixed to these wise-hearted Women And how far Your Ladyship may claim an interest in this Title of Honour the World at least the Church may judge Have you not indeed spun with your hand a fine thread both of Blue and Purple and Scarlet and fine Linen for the Tabernacle of the New Jerusalem So likewise in the New Testament what Honourable mention do we find of virtuous Women eminently useful in the Service of the Church Is it not an illustrious Title of Honour that Paul gives Phâbe Rom. 16.2 3. Rom. 16.2 That she was a succourer of many and of himself also The Grecanic c Non dixit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Adjutrix sed magnifico planè titulo eam exornans dixit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. Patronam Grot. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is a Magnific title and signifies not merely an Assistant but a Patron for so the Athenians termed the Defensors of Strangers and Plutarch renders the Latin Patron by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã What greater Honour may a poor Mortal expect than to be a Succourer and Patron of the Churches or Ambassadors of Christ The like Honour also he reflects on Priscilla the wife of Aquila v. 3. whom he styles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Helpers or Co-workers in Christ To be any way Assistant in promoving the Doctrine of the Gospel or in drawing men to the embracement thereof what an high piece of Honour is it These Instances Madam I have given Your Ladyship and the World the mention of to let You see what an Honour it is to be in any way or measure assistant in and for the Church of Christ and all that I shall subjoin is That as Your Ladyships hand has been so happy an Instrument in transcribing so Noble a Work so my Prayer for you is that the divine Hand would so far favour you as to transcribe those great Truths contained therein over and over in more visible Characters on your Soul 2 Cor. 3.3 that so you may be more perfectly the Epistle of Christ written with the Spirit of Christ Which will give You a greater Capacity of Service for your Lord and Me of being as I ought really
MADAM Your Ladyships to honour and serve you in the Lord Theophilus Gale Newington March 26. 1678. A Summary of the Two Covenants THIS following Discourse of the two Covenants preached by that great Divine Mr. William Strong needs no Prologue to usher it into the World The Authors Character The Author was indeed as it is said of Augustin a Wonder of Nature for natural Parts and a Miracle of Grace for deep insight into the more profound Mysteries of the Gospel He had a Spirit capacious and prompt sublime and penetrant profound and clear a singular Sagacity to pry into the more difficult Texts of Scripture an incomparable Dexterity to discover the Secrets of corrupt Nature a Divine Sapience to explicate the Mysteries of Grace and an exact Prudence to distribute Evangelic Doctrines according to the capacity of his Auditors Are not the Ministers of Christ termed Stars in his right hand Rev. 1.20 Rev. 1.20 And was not this our Author one of the first magnitude O! what a glorious Star was he in the right hand of the Lord to reveal the resplendent light of the Gospel unto his Auditors What lights and heats of Divine Grace did he communicate unto others It 's prophesied of our Lord Hab. 3.4 Hab. 3.4 His brightness was as the light he had horns or rather beams coming out of his hand and there was the hiding of his power This brightness of Christs light must be understood of his Evangelic light whereby he as the Sun of Righteousness irradiates Evangelic Churches and by the Horns or rather Beams for so ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã here must signifie coming out of his hand we must understand according to our Lords own interpretation Rev. 1.20 Evangelic discoveries by the Ministers of his Gospel those Stars in his right hand imployed by him for the irradiation and illumination of this inferior world and O! what an hidden power is conveyed together with this light And may we not conclude this our Author one of those Stars who diffused illustrious beams of Evangelic light from the right hand of Christ where was the hiding of his power And as he transcended the most of this Age in the Explication of Evangelic Verities so in his Intelligence and Explication of the two Covenants he seems much to excel himself this being the great study of his life and that whereon his mind was mostly intent And I can here truly apply that observation of the Queen of Sheba 1 King 10.7 touching the wisdom of Solomon to this our intelligent Author The Notices I received from his other Works gave me a great impression of his Divine Wisdom but what mine eyes have seen and my thoughts imbibed of his incomparable Intelligence from this his elaborate Discourse of the two Covenants assures me that not the half was told me by his Works formerly published He was indeed a Person intimely and familiarly acquainted with the deepest points in Theology but yet as to these that relate to the Covenant of Grace his Spirit seems to have been most deeply baptized and immersed into them which any judicious Reader may with facility perceive by a transient inspection into any part of the following Discourse Of what incomparable excellent Use this Discourse may be for the diffusing Evangelic Light and Truth no one can be ignorant The excellent use of this Discourse who is acquainted with the mind and intendment either of the Law or Gospel or sensible of those many dangerous errours which have of late sprung up from the ignorance of both How many have taken away the use of the Law thereby to advance as they conceit the Grace of the Gospel And have not too many on the other hand destroyed the Grace of the Gospel whiles they have endeavoured to exalt the letter of the Law as a Covenant Both these extremes our judicious Author has accurately obviated and avoided He has approved himself a good Advocate for the Law as it is a rule and instrument subservient to the Gospel but yet he gives the Gospel the principal place and preeminence as it is saiths magna Charta He has indeed exactly hit the difference between the two Covenants which argues his deep insight into both and surely they that rightly understand the Idea or Notion of the two Covenants attain thereby a clue of thread to lead them into the most intricate Mysteries of Evangelic Doctrines as on the contrary those who have not right sentiments of the two Covenants what hesitation and suspension if not errour and misapprehension do they fall under in the most momentous points of Religion Yea doth not the rectitude not only of our Faith but also of our Christian practice and conversation principally depend on the due notices of the two Covenants Are not these as the centre wherein all the lines of Divine Grace and humane Duty meet Are we not then greatly obliged to this our Author for his elaborate endeavours in this work He demonstrates 1 That God never did nor will deal with mankind meerly in a way of Dominion but also in a way of Covenant 2 That both Covenants are made with men not immediately but in and by some publick person 3 That it is Vnion with either of these publick persons that brings a man under their Covenant 4 That it is impossible for any man to be under both Covenants because the terms and conditions of the one destroy the terms of the other These with some other weighty Truths relating to the two Covenants in general he doth distinctly and fully explicate and demonstrate The Covenant of works and its curse Our Author begins his Discourse with the Covenant of Works and treats first of the Temporal Curse that attends the breach thereof and then of the Spiritual of which more fully in the Contents we shall only give some short and particular Reflections on and Notions of this first Covenant 1 The Covenant made with Adam was not particular with his person under a single capacity but with his nature as a common person or representative Head from whom all mankind were by natural generation to descend and herein the Covenant made with Adam differs from that made with the Angels which was particular and personal they being all created at once and existent when their Covenant was made Hence 2 In this first Covenant made with Adam all his posterity stand bound to God both naturally by virtue of their being created in him and voluntarily by virtue of his stipulation Whence 3 Every son of Adam falls under both the duties and curses of his Covenant for as the duties so the curses of Adams Covenant seized not meerly on Adams single person but on his nature and so on all mankind who are in him both legally and naturally Thence 4 No man can be freed from the curse of the Law that is not freed from it as a Covenant There is since Adams Fall an essential and inseparable connexion between
the Curse and Covenant the Curse naturally attends the Covenant every son of Adam necessarily falls under the former as well as the latter Mens natural desire to be under the first Covenant 5 All men naturally and ardently desire to be under Adams Covenant The natural blindness and pride of mens hearts strongly impels them to build a Spiders house of their own on which they may lean as Job 8.14 15. Are not all men by nature children of the bond-woman and so possest with a spirit of bondage Have they not a legal spirit answerable to the Covenant they are under And doth not this legal spirit bring forth suitable fruits Do not such as are informed and acted by it perform all services to God in the oldness of the letter in a formal servile legal manner without regard to Christ the Mediator Yea is not this legal spirit whereby those under Adams Covenant are acted full of enmity and opposition against Christ his Righteousness and all the terms of his new Covenant Doth not such mens rejecting the terms and grace of the second Covenant argue their strong propensions yea vehement impulses towards Adams Covenant Are not all their spiritual Gifts common Graces legal Righteousnesses as well as all their sins imployed to oppose the Grace and Righteousness of the second Covenant And if their consciences be at any time awakened and their sins set in order before them in all their bloody aggravations yet what a difficult thing is it to bring them off from the old Covenant What hard black scandalous thoughts of Christ are they filled with How do their hearts sink under unbelieving despondences and base jealousies of Christ And doth not all this argue mens vehement desires to be found under the first Covenant 6 The more the glory of the second Covenant is revealed to such as are under the first The rejection of the second Covenant the greater efforts and more vehement opposition they put forth against it The more mens natural reason is elevated by supernatural common illumination the more stout-hearted they are against the terms of the new Covenant all their moral righteousnesses serve only to set them farther off from the righteousness of faith their good deeds as well as their bad fortifie them against the embracement of the new Covenant because it would spoil them of their own righteousnesses which they have wrought so hard for all their days and subject them to the righteousness of God Do we not find all this greatly exemplified in the Pharisees and legal Jews who having espoused to themselves the old Covenant rejected Christ and his Righteousness 7 For men thus electively to put themselves under the first Covenant and reject the grace of the second is a sin of the first magnitude and deepest aggravations Hath not the great God exalted the second Covenant above the first Is it not then an high injury against him to bring down that Covenant God has exalted and to exalt that which he has made null above it Is not Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant the greatest gift that ever God vouchsafed mankind God justly leaves such to the Covenant they desire Oh! then how injurious is it to God to reject so great a gift and the grace offered by him 8 It is therefore just with the righteous God to leave men to stand or fall by that Covenant under which they so strongly desire to be Doth the holy and blessed God do the sons of Adam any wrong in leaving them under his Covevant unto which they have such a strong impulse and desire If he hereby gives them but the desire of their heart what cause have they to complain against him And will not his procedure at last day appear to be most just and rational in judging men according to the tenure of the first Covenant unto which they had so strong a desire May not God justly lay to their charge every the least sin and make them bear the burden of it seeing they have put themselves under a Covenant that admits not any Mediator Whom have they to represent their persons to bear their sins to pay their debts to endure their curse to perform their duties seeing they reject the Mediator of the second Covenant This leads to the second general Head The misery of such as are under the first Covenant The deplorable and miserable state of such as are under the first Covenant 1 Is it not a deplorable case for men voluntarily to elect their own ruine Was it ever known that men did contentedly yea chearfully sit down under a state of most miserable bondage when full liberty was offered to them by a benign gracious Prince Doth it not argue a spirit immersed in the basest servitude to take complacence in its chains and fetters And yet is not this the very case of all such as desire to be under the first Covenant 2 Is it not a miserable thing for a man to be on the very brink of ruine and yet not sensible of it yea under a fond presumption of a blessed state For a man to go as an Ox to the slaughter adorned with a garland made up of the fading flowers of his own righteousnesses what folly and madness is this And yet is not this the very case of all Pharisaic spirits who live and die under the first Covenant Is not a good conceit of a bad state most dangerous and miserable To be alive in carnal presumptions self-flattery and self-sufficiency and yet spiritually dead in Divine estimation is it not the worst of deaths Are not such next degree to falling into Hell who fondly flatter themselves that they can stand longer and surer than others by their own forces 1 Cor. 10.12 And are not such as put themselves under the first Covenant guilty of all these pieces of folly 3 Is it not a sad case for sinners to put themselves under a Covenant which neither gives or admits a Mediator To have none to represent their persons but to be left standing before the righteous holy God in their own names bearing their own sins expecting to be justified by their own works to pay their own debts or to endure their own punishment what greater misery can there be 4 To be under a Covenant that neither promises nor gives nor accepts of Repentance but leaves men to live and die in their sins without the least drop of the blood of Christ to wash them away what a sad case is this Must not such expect that as soon as they peep out of the grave and lift up their traiterous heads their own consciences as also Divine Justice condemn and pursue them unto all eternity 5 Is it not also a most wretched forlorn case for men to have their persons hated yea loathed by the God of all love and mercy and thence their best services rejected for the least failings in them And is not this the case of all such as stand under
do all the Issues of grace in this Covenant flow but from Gods tender bowels of mercy Was it not by meer grace that this Covenant of Grace fell from God Yea is not Christ himself as Mediator of this Covenant an admirable instance and effect of Gods free Election and Grace It 's true Christ as God falls not under an act of the divine Will because then he were not God but yet as Mediator he doth Was not his first Designation to office an act of soveraign grace Did he not also become Incarnate by an act of free Grace Is not the Hypostatic Union thence termed the Grace of Vnion Do we not also find mention of the Grace of Vnction whereby the Father qualified him for his Mediatory Office Is not the Oyl of Gladness wherewith he was anointed above his fellows an Oyl of Grace also or an infinite effusion of the Spirit of Grace on his humane Nâââre Were not likewise all the Merits of Christ the effect of free Grace Whence hâââââ his assistances for the doing and suffering his Fathers will but from his Father as Isâ 42.4 And when Christ had obeyed and suffered to the full was not God the Fathers Acceptance of all an act of free Grace It 's true Christ paid a valuable price for all the mercies he purchased for sinners but yet whence comes it that all this should be made over to us what made way for the commutation of persons that the Righteousness of Christ should become ours and our sins by Imputation become his was not this all from free Grace Has not Augustin in his incomparable Tractate Of the Predestination of Saints excellently well demonstrated this that Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant fell under the free Election of God Now if the Election of the Head and Prince of the Covenant who is God Man was an act of free Grace then will it not necessarily follow that all the Federates Conditions and Effects of this Covenant can flow from no other fountain than the sovereign Grace of God 2 Another Difference between the first and second Covenant may be taken from the generic Idea of both what was the first Covenant but a Covenant of Friendship between the Creator and the Creature where neither part was at variance but what is this second Covenant but a Covenant of Reconciliation between a sin-revenging God and rebellious sinners 3 Do not also these two Covenants greatly differ in their Terms and Conditions What is there to be found in the first Covenant but conditional Promises to Grace but are there not in this second Covenant absolute Promises of Grace Was not the Righteousness of the first Covenant to be in our selves without the least imputation from any other but is not the Righteousness of this second Covenant to be found in Christ only and so made ours by Imputation Did not the first Covenant require perfect Obedience as a Condition antecedent to the acceptation of the person But doth not this second Covenant accept an imperfect evangelic Sincerity as a consequent of the persons being accepted In the Covenant made with Adam was not the Acceptation of his person grounded on the Acceptation of his works but in this second Covenant is not the person first accepted and then the works for the persons sake Is not this fully exemplified in the different acceptation of Cain and Abel Gen. 4.4 c. the former standing on the first Covenant and the latter on the second 4 To pass by other Differences as to the object foundation and duration are not these two Covenants greatly different as to their effects The first Covenant discovers what we are to do but the second enables us to do it the first is a glass to discover our sin and misery but the second is a glass that discovers the remedy as also applyes the same Of what use is the first but to declare men guilty and cursed but doth not the second pronounce pardon and blessing Was not the first given and continued to discover sin but is not the second given to cover it Doth not the first wound and terrifie but doth not the second heal exhilarate and chear Is not the first the Ministration of death and a killing letter but is not the second the Ministration of the Spirit and that which makes alive 2 Cor. 3.6 7 Why was the first given but to check restrain and humble the old man but is it not the principal Intendment of the second to conserve and quicken the New man Doth not the first accuse and condemn but doth not the second excuse and absolve In the first Man is bound to God but in the second God is bound to man the first generates bondage but the second Liberty And is there not a spirit of bondage suitable to that state in all such as are under the first Covenant but O! what a spirit of Liberty belongs to all such as are under the second Covenant and what different effects attend these different spirits Doth not the first Covenant make a legal spirit upon any great discovery of God to flie from him as an enemy but how doth the second Covenant cause an evangelic spirit under all the great discoveries of God to flie unto him Yea doth not the legal servile spirit who longs to be under the first Covenant secretly wish there were no law to rebuke him no hand of Justice to punish him but doth not the Evangelic spirit who hath by means of the second Covenant the Law writ in his heart delight therein as a Rule though he hates to be under it as a Covenant How sour and disgustful are all divine services to a legal spirit but how sweet and pleasant are they to an evangelic spirit Legal spirits give God much service for Quantity but how little for Quality and Spirituality But the Evangelic spirit gives peradventure not so much for Quantity but yet much more for Quality and Perfection Lastly the legal spirit makes all his good Offices matter of vain-glory and fuel for his pride but the Evangelic spirit sees cause to be humbled and self-abased for his best services Such are the different spirits effects and fruits that grow out of those two opposite roots the Old and the New Covenant which greatly demonstrate the boundless differences between the two Covenants 2. 2. The excellence of the second covenant Hence we may take just measures both comparative and absolute of the incomparable excellences of the second Covenant The first Covenant informs us what we are by Nature but the second what we are or may be by Grace The Law was given that men might more studiously seek after Grace Lex data est ut Gratia quaereretur Gratia data est ut Lex impleretur August but Grace is given that men might be enabled to fulfill the Law And what is the supreme ingredient of the Covenant of Grace but the free Grace of God Is not this Covenant then the Believers Great
Charter by which he has a Law-right to all the Priviledges and Blessings of the Gospel Doth not this Covenant give us assurance not only of Gods gracious and merciful Nature but also of his good will towards sinners It 's true Gods Nature gives us full assurance that what he has promised shall be performed but what gives us assurance of the Promise but the Covenant of Grace Yea what are all the Promises but so many lines of the Covenant concentring in Christ the Prince and Mediator thereof Do not all the Promises spring from that mother-root the Covenant of Grace in Christ Yea what is the New-creature but a conformity to this New Covenant Is there any condition that a Believer can fall into but he may find some Promise in this Covenant to relieve him therein Yea is there any excellence in God or his creature which is not made over for your use in and by this Covenant Are not all Gods good things yours and all your afflictive things Gods by this Covenant May you not then lay the stress of all your cares and burdens on this Covenant Are you Bondslaves of the Law will not this Covenant make you Freeholders if you come unto it and embrace it Is there any thing commanded in the Law which this Covenant doth not enable to perform The Law may fret and grind your spirits to powder but what can melt them but this Covenant The Law weighs Obedience by the Ballance and if there be the least grain wanting doth it not reject all But doth not this Covenant examine all by the Touch-stone and accept what is sincere albeit imperfect Art thou very unlike to God and is this thy great burden consider then has not this Covenant a transformative spirit to make thee like him What is the scope of this Covenant but to make God thine and thee Gods And dost thou not hereby acquire an interest in all the blessings of God Doth not this give thee the best assurance thou canst desire for any desired or enjoyed Mercy Doth the first Covenant stop thy mouth before God and doth not this second Covenant stop the mouth of the first Are not the riches of free Grace laid up in Christ and are not the riches of Christ laid up in the Covenant of Grace Doth not the believing Soul by cleaving to this Covenant grow out of it to the stature of a perfect man Whence come all the hopes comforts and happiness of the Saints but from this Covenant as 2 Sam. 23.5 O! what glorious Relations between God and Man arise from this Covenant what an interest doth man acquire in God as well as God in man by this Covenant yea are not the smallest mercies by this Covenant made exceeding great and sweet O the infinite boundless Dimensions the invisible Miracles and wonders of free Grace lodged in the Covenant of Grace Are there any banks or bottoms to this Ocean of free Grace Can the sins of the vilest men sink them beyond the depths thereof could they by faith swim thereon What wonders are here for Faith's Contemplation Admiration and Adoration Are not these ways and methods of free Grace comprehended in the Covenant of Grace ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã imperscrutable such as all the wit and sagacity of Men and Angels cannot prie into Rom. 11.33 as also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã impervestigable such as leave no Vestigia or foot steps for carnal Reason to trace out as Rom. 11.33 Ought we not then with Paul that great Miracle of Grace to stand on the banks of this Ocean of free Grace expressed in this New Covenant and crie out ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã O the Depths of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! So great and excellent are the Benefits of this Covenant 3. Let us a little inquire into the Mediator and Prince of this Covenant 3. The Covenant of Grace made primarily with Christ which also will give us a further Demonstration of its excellence The Apostle instructs us Gal. 3.16 that Christ is the Seed to whom the Promises or Covenant was primarily made by seed some understand Christ Personal others Christ Mystical but we may with our Author Gal. 3.16 very safely take in both senses understanding it primarily and principally of Christ Personal who is the prime Federate and thence of Christ Mystic Abraham and his believing seed considered as members of Christ with whom the Covenant was primarily made Now this Covenant as made with Christ terminates on him under a two-fold respect 1 In relation to his own Mediatory Office 2 In relation to his Body the Church as he is Head thereof 1 As it regards Christs Mediatory Office and his more compleat discharge thereof so God the Father by donation and stipulation constituted him Mediator and Surety of this Covenant gave him a promise of Assistence Deliverance Acceptance Justification Exaltation and success in the management of his Mediatory Kingdom This part of the Covenant belongs solely to Christ wherein his members have no share albeit much benefit thereby 2 There is another part of this Covenant made with Christ primarily which regards him as Head of his body mystic For look as the first Adam as a public person and representative head received both a Covenant and Image to communicate to his posterity who were both legally and naturally in him so also this our second Adam received both a Covenant and Image for his seed to be imparted to them Are not all the promises made primarily to him and in him to his members And if there be any promise to be fulfilled must not thy soul look up to Christ and his worthiness alone for its fulfilling Is not the righteousness of the Covenant laid up in him and by virtue of union with him made ours Is there any dram of the holy oil of Grace imparted to us but what was first poured out on the sacred head of this our High Priest Do not also all the priviledges of the Covenant primarily belong to him and to us only as in him Hast thou any duty to perform and must thou not look up to Christ for strength to perform it Doth it not belong to him only to âive supplies Or hast thou any service to be accepted and can it be accepted any other way than as perfumed with the Incense of his Merits Are not all the sons of the first Adam by sin cut off from all communion with God the Fountain of all good Can they then receive any good thing from him but by the hand of this Mediator Doth God give the least good to any sinner immediately Have sinners any thing to do with God in a way of mercy immediately in themselves If we speak a good word of prayer to God or he speak a good word of comfort to us must it not be in and by the Angel of his presence Are not all debts paid in him all duties performed by him all blessings conveyed
Generality and Vniversality it being expressed in general and sometimes universal terms as a mode or form most convenient and agreeable to humane Nature For the wise God resolved in the distribution of Divine Grace to suit the externe exhibition thereof to the indigent condition of humane nature Grace doth not destroy but perfect nature and therefore it is expressed and dispensed in a form or mode most adapted to humane nature namely in propositions and invitations indifferent general and sometimes universal thereby the more potently to allure elect Souls and also to cut off all pretext of excuse from Unbelievers as Joh. 3.16 Esa 55.1 These general invitations are termed Hos 11.4 The cords of a man i. e. most agreeable to humane nature Hence [3] Conditional this Covenant of Grace is as to its externe mode expressed frequently in terms hypothetic or conditional which is also most congruous to humane nature as Rev. 22.17 and doth not speak the Covenant to be in it self conditional as in what follows 2 We descend now to the Covenant of Grace 2. The Nature of the Covenant as to its interne form or essence as considered according to its interne ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Habitude and Dispensation wherein its essential form mode or essence consists This interne form and dispensation of the Covenant we find described Jer. 31.33 34. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days saith the Lord I will put my law into their inward parts c. In which verses we find all the essential parts and benefits of this new Covenant as to its interne respect namely Union with God in Christ Justification Sanctification Adoption c. And so we aver [1] It is but one That the Covenant of Grace is but one and the same for notwithstanding all that variety before-mentioned in the extern exhibition both as to Adam Noah Abraham Israel and we may add David yet the Covenant as to its intern spirit mind and essence admits not the least variety it flowing from the same fountain of free Grace by the same Mediator unto the same elect objects and on the same terms This Identity of the Covenant both as to Jews and Gentiles our Author demonstrates from Rom. 11.16 17. where by the Olive-tree he understands the Church of God and by the Root Abraham as taken into Covenant with whom the Covenant in some sence began and upon which both Jews and Gentiles grow Hence [2] It is particular This Covenant is also as to its intern mind and form Particular For all the Indefinition Generality and Vniversality of this Covenant regards onely its extern offer and dispensation not the immanent Will of God as if he had an universal love to or desire of all mens Salvation It 's true God really intends and decrees the offer shall be universal or general to all where the Gospel comes yet he doth not intend or decree that all shall accept of this offer or have real benefit by it Whence [3] Absolute This Covenant is as to its intern form or essence Absolute not Conditional This is evident 1 From the very Notion given it Matt. 26.28 and more particularly Act. 3.25 Acts 3.25 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã where we have ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with its radix ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which notes that it primarily imports a Testament whereby men absolutely dispose of their goods The same we find Heb. 8.10 10.16 which the old Latin Version interprets to dispose by Testament and so with the LXX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã frequently occurs as Gen. 21.27 32. 26.28 31.44 as elsewhere and answers to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to cut or strike a Covenant And thus among the ancient Grecians ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is frequently used to signifie a disposition of somewhat by Testament unto heirs as Isocrates and others and what more absolute than a Testament Thence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whereby the Covenant of Grace is expressed in the Old Testament as Gen. 9.9 and elsewhere is alwayes rendred by the LXX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as in the New Testament and never ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which properly signifies a conditional Covenant depending on the mutual stipulation of both parties 2 If the Covenant of Grace be conditional either these Conditions are included in the Covenant or not if included then it is as to its intern dispensation and mind absolute if not included then is this Covenant equally as hard yea impossible to Sinners as the Covenant of Works 3 A condition in a Covenant strictly taken denotes a moral Efficience and has a causal influence upon what is conditionally promised which destroys the freedom of Grace 4 The principal difference between the Covenant of Works and of Grace lies in this that the former was conditional given to Grace received but this is absolute giving Grace The first Covenant supposed grace but gave none this second gives all grace but supposeth none as precedent to its gift 5 Yet we deny not but that there are Conditions and conditional Promises appendent to this second Covenant but they are such as belong principally to the extern form of it as before or if they belong to the substance of the Covenant they are onely consequent improper Conditions absolutely undertaken for by the Head of the Covenant and effectually wrought by the Grace of the Covenant not antecedent proper Conditions such as bespeak the Covenant conditional [4] Certain and immutable Hence it follows that the second Covenant is most sure and immutable as to all the Heirs of salvation He that is once in Covenant is ever so There is no way of securing Promises and Covenants among men but the God of all Grace hath assumed the same to assure us that his Covenant is most certain and inviolable Doth a Promise confirmed by Sacrifices and Oaths make sure a Covenant and has not God confirmed his Covenant by all these Psal 50.5 Lev. 2.13 Heb. 6.18 Is a Surety a Surety to make good Covenants And has not God made this Covenant primarily with Christ our Surety that so in him it might be firm to all his members So much for the Nature of this Covenant An account of the Revise of this Discourse Having given this Summary of the two Covenants we shall conclude this Proeme with some account of the endeavours we have put forth to render the following Discourse more perfect and useful which was penned as delivered in a popular way of Sermons but I gave my self the liberty of casting it into this method of Books Chapters Sections and half-Sections as that which to me seems most natural proper and adequate to its matter For I have long thought it one of the most principal concerns in Method to follow the conduct of Nature in suiting our Form to our Matter and not our Matter to our Form as the Schools are wont The Additions I
From the Soveraignty of God in the Law ibid. 2. From natural conscience ibid. 3. From the Spirit of God in conscience ibid. 4. From a principle of self-love in men desiring good and fearing evil ibid. 5. From the unrenewedness of the heart which is fully set to do evil Pag. 56 Quest Is a godly man wholly freed from this coaction Pag. 56 57 The Doctrine applied Pag. 57 58 59 60 61 CHAP. V. Col. 1.13 A scriptural account of this translation Pag. 61 Doct. All in Christ are translated out of their former Covenant Pag. 62 1. Such a translation proved from Scripture Pag. 62 63 2. The necessity of such a translation 1. From the nature of the Covenant as it is broken 1 It promiseth no life but upon perfect obedience 2 It is without a Mediator 3 There is in it no promise of pardon 4 No promise of any grace 5 Every sin breaks it 6 It cannot quiet the conscience Pag. 63 64 2. Without this translation no man can receive benefit by the second Covenant Pag. 64 3. God still deals with man in a way of covenant and stipulation 1 Because the first Covenant stands in force upon all out of Christ unto eternity 2 Because all under this covenant must perish 3 All mercies and deliverances that God hath given his people have been by covenant ever since the fall Pag. 65 66 4. No man for the state of his person can stand under both Covenants because one makes void the other 1 The righteousness of the first is in our selves but that of the second in another 2 In the first works are first accepted and then the person in the second the person first and works for the persons sake 3 The first is without a Priest but the second hath one 4 In the first there is matter of glorying in a mans self but in the second all is of grace Pag. 66 Quest May not a man so far as he is flesh be under the covenant of works and so far as regenerate under the covenant of grace Pag. 67 Answ 1 A double image may stand together but two covenants necessarily destroy each other ibid. 2 The change of a mans covenant is a legal act and so is perfect and may be at once but the change of a mans image is perfected by degrees Pag. 68 The Doctrine applied Pag. 68 69 70 71 72 How a man may know whether his covenant be changed Pag. 68 The sinfulness of an unregenerate state Pag. 68 69 The misery of not being translated into the second covenant Pag. 69 70 71 The happiness of those in Christ Pag. 71 72 CHAP. VI. A Mans Translation out of the first Covenant is by Union Gal. 3.29 How our translation is by union with the nature of this union Pag. 73 1. God deals with all men in a way of stipulation ibid. 2. The two Covenants were neither of them made with all men immediately but with a representative head ib. 3. A mans union with either of these heads brings him under either covenant Pag. 74 Doct. A mans Translation out of the first Covenant consists in his Union with the second Adam ibid. The nature of this union explained 1 It is a natural union Hencâ 2 Real not meerly voluntary but an union with his person Pag. 75 Quest Whether a man be in Christ before he believe Pag. 76 The reasons why God hath appointed our translation to be in a way of union 1 Because God will have Christ to be the second Adam 2 Because our happiness lies in it 3 Because God cannot enter into covenant immediately with sinners without forfeiting the truth of his threatning Pag. 76 77 78 A mans condition is much changed by this translation 1 God looks upon him no more as the son of Adam 2 He is no more under the rigor of the Law 3 Nor under the curse of the Law 4 He is become heir of the promise 5 God is reconciled 6 His sufferings and services are accepted 7 All things work together for good 8 Sin hath no condemning power 9 He hath communion with God 10 And is of the same body with the Saints Pag. 78 79 The way of obtaining this union is 1 By a work of conviction 2 Of humiliation 3 By a glorious work of revelation Pag. 79 80 Hence the soul resolves to take ãâã other way of salvation Pag. 81. There is an instinct put into the soul after union with Christ ibid. The soul accepts Christ upon his own terms ibid. CHAP. VII How the Law as a Covenant comes to be abolished Gal. 2.14 Blotting out the Hand-writing c. The words explained Pag. 83 The manner how the Law as a covenant comes to be abolished 1 Christ himself was made under the Law as a covenant of works 2 He hath fully satisfied all this covenant required of us 3 He hath brought in a covenant of grace and reconciliation Pag. 84 85 Hereby the infinite goodness and wisdom of God is discovered Pag. 85 86 CHAP. VIII Gal. 3.17 To all in Christ the first covenant made subservient to the second Pag. 86 The Law taken in Scripture two ways 1 Largely for all the doctrine delivered upon Mount Sinai with the promises and precepts thereof And so it is a covenant of grace 2 Strictly as setting down an exact rule of righteousness and promising life upon perfect obedience And so it is a covenant of works Pag. 88 Mount Sinai's covenant the same for substance with that made with Adam but in many circumstances different Pag. 88 89 A threefold use of the Law as subservient to the Gospel 1 It is a glass to discover sin original actual Pag. 90 91 92. 2 It 's a Judge to condemn it and therein it advances the ends of the Gospel Pag. 93 94 95 96 3 As a bridle to restrain sin Pag. 96 97 98 How the Spirit makes use of the Law for the restraining of sin Pag. 98 99 How herein it is an hand-maid to the Gospel Pag. 99 100 101 102 How the Law is subservient to the Gospel as it is a Rule 1 Within as an Instrument of Conversion in the hand of the Spirit 102 103 104 105. 2 Without to guide and direct men in their way of duty Pag. 105 106 Objections against this Answered Pag. 106 107 108 The great End of God in publishing the Law was for the Saints and their good only Pag. 108 109 Those that cry down the preaching of the Law guilty of folly Pag. 109 Ministers must preach the Law as revealed and delivered in the hand of a Mediator ib. That God hath made the Law a servant to the Gospel is the greatest ground of Comfort and the greatest gift of God next unto Christ and the second Covenant Pag. 110 111. BOOK II. Of the Covenant of Grace CHAP. I. The Author and Fountain of this Covenant Gen. 17.2 THis Covenant was made with four eminent publick persons in Scripture 1 Adam darkly 2 Noah 3 Abraham 4
ground of a mans judgment in reference to persons Pag. 200 The parents covenant takes in all their seed Pag. â04 The covenant of grace hath two parts viz. spiritual priviledges and saving graces Pag. 206 All mankind for the state of their persons are either under the covenant of works or of grace Pag. 207 It is a special priviledge for parents and children that they are taken into their parents covenant Pag. 208 What the federal holiness of children is shewed negatively and positively Pag. 214 Parents only can give their children a federal right Pag. 219 Objections against it answered Pag. 225 None can have a right to the seals of the covenant but those that are members of the Church Pag. 226 Right of membership conveyed unto children from immediate parents is a truth the whole Scriptures hold forth ibid. The right of membership consists not barely in being baptized Pag. 227 Whether it be converting grace or external profession that gives children this federal right Pag. 230 The reasons why God will have the covenant run by way of entail as to its outward priviledges and not inward graces Pag. 234 How far arguments drawn from circumcision can by way of rule determine any of the essentials of baptism Pag. 236 How far the Jews by being Abrahams seed might pretend right to Evangelic Ordinances Pag. 238 1. The covenant the same for substance both to Jews and Gentiles ibid. 2. The covenant under different administrations as to its external ordinances Pag. 239 3. The Jews and Gentiles on equal terms as to the new administration ibid. How can children who cannot restipulate be taken into covenant with God ibid. 1. Whether consent be essential to a covenant ibid. 2. That infants may enter into covenant with God demonstrated ibid. 3. The consent of the parents is in Gods account accepted for the childrens being in a covenant Pag. 240 Whether it were not better to leave children out of this federal consideration ibid. 1. Gods command not to be disputed ibid. 2 3. To be taken into the parents covenant a great priviledge and dignitie to children ibid. 4 5. The influences of baptism many and great ibid. 6. It lays a great obligation on parents and children ib. 7. Why Christ deferred his baptism so long ibid. SECT III. The Covenant-right of Children applied Pag. 241 Use 1. For information 1. To shew the evils of Anti-pedobaptism 1 Hereby is framed such a covenant as God never made ibid. 2 By this means great injury is done to children ib. 2. The cruelty of unbelieving parents ibid. The Church of Rome no true Church ibid. Use 2. For exhortation 1. Vnto parents to take hold of the covenant for their children Pag. 241 2. Vnto children that they would walk worthy of this covenant-relation ibid. 3. Vnto the Churches of Christ to take care of their members children that they be brought up in the fear of the Lord. ibid. Use 3. For consolation to the people of God ibid. BOOK III. The Covenant of Grace its Nature and Benefits CHAP. I. THE difference between a Law Testament and Covenant Pag. 241 Gods part of the covenant consists in promises 1 Because in Scripture covenant and promises signifie the same thing 2 Because a people taken into covenant are thereby entitled to the promises 3 Because when God performs a promise he is then said to keep his covenant 4 The end of the covenant is but to inherit the promises Pag. 242 A promise is a declaration of Gods eternal purpose concerning good things to come which he ingages his faithfulness freely through Christ to bestow upon his people ibid. The reasons why Gods part of the covenant mainly consists in promises 1 Because Saints life here is a life of faith 2 Promises are great grounds of their hope 3 Great means of their souls purification 4 They are the rule of their prayers Pag. 244 Of Gods promises some are absolute some conditional ib. Absolute promises not formally made unto us but unto Christ Pag. 245 In them the creature is meerly passive ibid. The state of faith is double of affiance of assurance ibid. The ways of assurance are 1 By immediate testimony 2 By mans own graces ibid. The promises of the first covenant were all conditional and supposed grace In the second there are promises of giving grace where there is none ibid. Absolute promises have their degrees of accomplishment as well as conditional Pag. 246 Saââs should look on the promises as precious and store their souls with them stay their sinking souls upon them and wait for their accomplishment ibid. The way to attain promises is 1 To be sensible of the want of them 2 To get a strong faith 3 To be much in prayer 4 Patiently to wait for them Pag. 247 Grounds to assure the soul of attaining the promise at last 1 Gods faithfulness 2 The covenant made with Christ confirmed by an oath 3 The Intercession of Christ 4 The experience of the Saints Pag. 249 Signs of the near accomplishment of the promise 1 When extremity increases 2 An earnest expectation in the soul which makes him more earnest for it 3 When notwithstanding the heart is brought to a holy indifferency to be content with God alone Pag. 250 The great promises of the covenant on Gods part are personal promises ibid. That there are such promises in which the three Persons in the Godhead are made over to the soul Pag. 251 These promises import a gracious propriety in the persons which God by covenant makes over to the creature ibid. The reasons why the second covenant must have personal promises 1 Because man in his Fall lost all his relation to God 2 Without this he caâ never be happy 3 These Promises are the grounds of our Vnion with all the Persons in the Trinity Which 4 is the Foundation of all communion Pag. 251 Adam had not such a personal interest in God as the Saints now have Pag. 253 To deny any of the Persons in the Trinity is a devilish Doctrine Pag. 255 c. Saints should exercise faith upon all the Persons grounded upon these Promises 1 As all have a special hand in the sinners Salvation 2 Gods main intendment in the Gospel is to glorifie the three Persons in the Trinity in believers hearts Pag. 257 Saints should exercise Love towards all the three Persons Pag. 258 CHAP. II. The Covenant of Grace makes God to be our God Two things to be considered in God His Essence his Subsistence Pag. 259 To be a God is a Term of Sufficiency and Sovereignty Pag. 260 It notes the manner of fulfilling Promises even as becomes a God ibid. All mankind that are out of covenant have no interest in God ibid. When men are in Covenant with God they change their God Pag. 261 Three things in the New Covenant give a man Propriety in God 1 Gods gracious and free making over of himself 2 Vnion with Christ 3 A free and voluntary giving up the Soul
to him and consent to perform all acts towards him as God ibid. Those who are out of Covenant are very miserable Pag. 261 262 The baseness and unworthiness of a mans spirit is seen in nothing so much as in taking any thing for a God ib. It is more to lose God than all other blessings ibid. He that hath not the Lord for his God shall surely have him for his enemy Pag. 263 Those who have God to be their God are a happy people for he is a perfect proper and eternal Good ib. Interest in God is the ground of all the great things God hath done and will do for his people ib. A man may know he hath Jehovah for his God 1 If he hath chosen him for his God 2 If he hath no other God 3 If he exercise all those acts of Soul towards him as becomes a God Pag. 265 God hath made over all his Attributes unto the ââints Pag. 266 That God should thus do is peculiar to the second covenant Pag. 268 Vnder this covenant there is a fuller and more glorious discovery of all Gods attributes than under the first ib. The manner how God makes over all his attributes unto his people Pag. 269 The end for which God hath in covenant made over all his Attributes unto his people Pag. 271 The Attributes of God made over to his people is a glorious Inheritance 274 When God takes away the Creature from his people they should retire to him as their portion Pag. 278 Those that have an interest in the attributes of God should not give place to carnal fear ibid. The wicked shall never prevail against the Saints because all the attributes of God are engaged for them Pag. 280 Saints should exercise Faith in every Attribute Pag. 281 Such a Priviledge should raise an holy greatness of mind in the Saints above all their fear and dangers Pag. 282 Saints should get a resemblance of every attribute stampt upon their hearts ib. CHAP. III. The Beatifick Vision of Gods Essence explicated and applyed All the happiness Saints shall have in glory is nothing else but that which is here made over to them in the Promises Pag. 283 Saints have a threefold title to Heaven 1 In its Purchase 2 In the Promises 3 In its first-fruits Pag. 284 The Portion of the Saints lyes in the very Essence of God ibid. God becomes the Happiness of his people by way of Vision Pag. 286 The Nature and Properties of this Vision We see God 1 In all his positive excellencies 2 Immediately and intuitively 3 As our own 4 We see our selves in God 5 All things that concern our selves in God 6 This Vision shall be everlasting ibid. Eternal Happiness consists in Vision of God 1 Because this is the Only way agreeable to the rational Nature 2 Because the essential part of Glory consists in Contemplation 3 Because the Vnderstanding is the leading faculty Pag. 288 The Essence of God in Glory cannot be seen with bodily eyes proved by Scripture and Reason Pag. 290 There is an Intellectual Vision of God ibid. Though Saints shall see God in his Essence yet they shall not see the Essence of God unto perfection Pag. 291 The Vision of Gods Essence makes the Creature happy 1 In that thereby there is a full and perfect accomplishment of all the Promises And 2 of the whole purchase of Christ 3 Then God shall be all in all 4 Our Sanctification shall then be perfect 5 Our Communion shall be perfect and 6 There shall be fulness of Fruition Pag. 291 The folly and misery of all who place their happiness in any thing else but God Pag. 293 Our hearts and thoughts should rise unto this height to seek God for himself and to be satisfied with nothing else Pag. 299 CHAP. IV. In the Covenant of Grace God makes over all the Persons in the Trinity When God promises to be the God of his People he makes over to them in Covenant all the Persons in the Divine Nature as appears 1 From their having all given themselves 2 From the Vnion a Saint hath with them all 3 From the distinct communion of the Saints with them all 4 From the distinct Acts and Offices which they have undertaken for the good of the Saints 5 When the Saints come to Glory their communion with all shall be perfected Pag. 301 The Reasons why all the Persons are so made over 1 That our Happiness might appear to consist in the vision and fruition of them all 2 That the Soul may honour them distinctly 3 That in this life distinct Acts of faith may be exercised upon them all 4 That we may honour them in our Prayers distinctly 5 That we may have a distinct fellowship and communion with them all 6 That we may draw Arguments unto Duty and against Sin from them all Pag. 304 God the Father makes over himself in covenant unto the Saints as he is the Father with which Relation they are greatly affected Pag. 306 The Actions that the Father hath undertaken in this Covenant are some before time and some after Pag. 309 Those before time are 1 A purpose to glorifie himself in the Son 2 To glorifie the Son in the Saints that he might make him the Head both of Angels and men 3 To glorifie the Elect which he chose to himself out of both 4 The Father made motion to Christ 5 He proposed it to him by way of a covevenant In which 6 He appointed what glory Christ should have and what the Saints 7 He appointed the souls he should save 8 And what degrees of grace and glory they should have here and hereafter ibid. Those acts that take place in time are 1. Such as concern Christ as 1 That in the fulness of time he should be sent into the world 2 He commands him to undertake the actual administration of all things 3 He prepared the nature Christ was to assume 4 He filled it with all habitual grace 5 Then he sent him into the world and owned him to be his Son 6 He appointed how long he should live in the world 7 He becomes his Executioner 8 Being satisfied by his Sacrifice he raises him from the dead 9 He exalts him above Principalities and Powers 10 Gives him the fulness of the Spirit 11 Puts him into actual administration of his government as he is man Pag. 311 2. They are such acts as more immediately respect the Saints As 1 Vocation 2 Reconciliation 3 Justification 4 Adoption 5 Acceptation with God 6 Communion with him Pag. 315 The Father having made over himself in covenant to his people they have an interest in all the relations of the Father to Christ 1 He is their Father 2 He loves them as children 3 He acquaints them with his secrets 4 He delights in them 5 Holds communion with them 6 Hears their prayers 7 Gives them an inheritance 8 When they die they go to the Father Pag. 317 As the Father
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 dyâng 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
deterr'd from sin and kept in obedience to the Covenant All the threatnings in the Word since the Fall are but conditional which argues that it is to no other end but that they might be avoided and prevented He tells us the danger before that we may escape God under the first Covenant will'd that Adam should have continued in his obedience and avoided the curse of it and the Lord to manifest he neglected no means to this end created in him a holy nature gave him a righteous and an easie Law made a glorious promise to his obedience added a fearful threatning upon his disobedience therefore God did not will the death of a sinner And we may say with the Scripture He doth not afflict willingly the children of men Lam. 3.33 but as Tertullian says of the earnest prayers of Gods people so I may say of importunity in sinning Coelum tundimus We assault Heaven he says Misericordiam I put it vindictam extorquemus We extort vengeance 2 But God had decreed the fall of Adam and that this curse should come and it could not have been against his will how can it be said then that God will'd his obedience and continuance therein There is good ground for a double will of God which the Scripture speaks of a will of complacence and a will of efficacy approbationis effectionis a will of approbation and of effection the one is a general and a conditional will manifested to the Creature whereby the Lord approves and rewards obedience and perseverance therein in all persons whomsoever And this is his revealed will without determining any thing of particular persons in whom he will work this obedience But the other is a secret will toward that particular person in whom he will work this obedience and to whom he will give grace to continue in it God did in his revealed will manifest to Adam what he did require of him what he delighted in and what he would reward him for but he did not tell him that he would give him grace and a supernatural assistance to cause him to continue in obedience but he left him to the mutability of his own will and in the hand of his own Counsel God wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth 1 Tim. 2 4. God wills that all men should believe but he will not work faith in all men He wills that all men should be saved but he will not bring all men to Salvation he wills the one voluntate approbante by a will of approbation but the other decernente by a decreeing will So Davenant his answer to Gods love to Mankind pag. 220. 3 Threatnings and Promises are of great necessity and use even to a creature in the state of Innocency with whomsoever God will deal in a Covenant-way even the purest Creatures may and ought to make use of them and to fear to offend God because of his wrath for even our God is a consuming fire Now of what use could this have been to Adam in innocency having no sense or fear of sin or suffering but more of this afterwards 4 Even the Creature in the state of innocency has nothing in it to satisfie the Holiness of God he gives a command and adds a promise but as if the Lord were jealous of him he adds a threatning to keep him in obedience and so he did with the Angels he put no trust in them he charges even them with folly Job 4.18 though not with actual yet with possible folly The best Creatures as Creatures are changeable therefore the Holiness of God can never take full contentment and satisfaction in any thing but in Christ who is by the personal union impeccable 5 How comes it to pass that this Tree proved so hurtful to man That totum genus humanum per infinitam successionem perdiderit It destroyed all mankind throughout such an infinite succession Luther proposes the question and says the cause was not in the fruit for fructus protulit nobilissimos it produced most excellent fruit but the ground was in the Word of God and his prohibition Arbor vitae vivificat virtute verbi promittentis arbor scientiae occidit virtute verbi prohibentis the tree of life vivifies by virtue of the word promising and the tree of knowledge kills by virtue of the word prohibiting It 's the Word of God that is the cause of life and death to the Creature God exalts his Word above the best of the Creatures and it is dearer to him than Adam was in Innocency or the Angels he has exalted it above all his Name Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather than a tittle of it and therefore he will not now spare us for the breach of it But why did God give Adam this Commandment having given him so freely all the other Trees of the Garden Preceptum exploratorium Paraeus Arhor diviri cultus fuit why should he forbid him this one it was a precept for trial a tree of divine worship They were not one tree says Luther though here so called collectively but Nemus quasi sacellum quoddam a wood as it were a Chappel God loves to try the obedience of the best of his Creatures to give them matter and occasion to exercise the Graces that he has given them As every word of God is a tried word and has been in the furnace often and Gods people have found it true so every grace wrought by that word is a tried grace and the trial of it is to the Saints now and so it should have been to Adam precious as the Apostle Peter says The trial of your faith is more precious than gold 6 But what need had Adam of such a Tree being he had a Law written in his heart of obedience to all Gods requirings as the Sun has a law of motion He was freely and fully carried after it by a command within he was a living Scripture a walking Bible but yet the best of the Creatures had need as of daily assistance and direction so also of daily admonition and a publick Monitor The Angels themselves as they have new service daily to do for God so they have a new supply from the spirit of Christ to quicken them daily We read in Ezek. 1.13 there is a spirit of fire that goes up and down amongst the living creatures which denotes the active daily and vigorous supply of the Spirit of Christ and the constant working of it Surely men may see yea those that are learned in the School of Christ what need there is of a Ministery Some say what need is there to have the same things taught that we know as well as they do and may be better Yet though you do know them there is need we should stir you up by way of remembrance 7 But why should it be so great an offence to eat of this Tree seeing God made it pleasant to the eye and
ãâã ãâã ãâã here signifies 1 ye that covet earnestly or vehemently desire so the word is used Mat. 12.38 16.24 Mar. 10.35 12.38 2 Ye that demand or make it your petition so Mat. 15.28 20.21 3 Ye that study contrive labour with all your might so Mat. 16 25. Mar. 8.10 43 44. Luk. 23.20 4 Ye that consent to this as best determine as Mat. 13.28 Joh. 9.54 Mat. 17.4 5 Ye that delight or take pleasure Mat. 9.13 12.7 Heb. 10.5 8. It follows to be under the Law The Apostle Paul speaks of being under the Law in divers senses 1 There is a being under the Law for justification and life Gal. 4.4 5. that is under the Law as a Covenant Christ was made under the Law to redeem us that were under the Law 2 There is a being under the Law for condemnation Gal. 3.10 Rom. 6.14 As many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse 3 There is a being under the Law for irritation that is stirring up a mans corruption Sin taking occasion by the Commandment became exceeding sinful Gal. 5.8 4 There is a being under the Law by compulsion If you are led by the spirit you are not under the Law that is the Law as only inforcing and compelling as an unregenerate man is as a slave and having the spirit of a servant not of a son who does all he does from an inward principle and disposition suitable to the Law in whatever it does command But it will appear that being under the Law in all these senses are grounded on being under it as a Covenant as we shall see hereafter and that he that is freed from it as a Covenant is not under the Law in any of these respects but by vertue of the second Covenant is delivered from it Only here I think Pareus and others say that to be under the law and desire so to be is the same with Gal. 3.10 They that are of the works of the Law that is that seek righteousness and life by the works of the Law and this is properly to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works which was the natural sin of the Jews and with which error and heresie they endeavoured to overspread all the Gentile Churches going about to establish their own righteousness and therefore typified by Hagar which the Apostle makes Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem above the Christian Church is Sarah that did receive the Doctrine of the Gospel without any mixture of their own righteousness but did trust perfectly in the Grace that was revealed to them by Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 10.3 So here to be under the Law is to seek to be justified by the works of the Moral or Ceremonial Law as being works of righteousness that we have done For though the whole Ceremonial Law were Gospel under a veil yet they not being able to look to the end of it as the Apostle says they did perform it as works of righteousness 2 Cor. 3. in which they did expect justification and life for their obedience to them and performance of them without looking into the things shadowed in those types Now the Apostle says not only that men were thus under the Law but so they did desire to be Therefore looking upon these as being a patern of all mankind and in whom the dispositions of all men may be read I do hence observe Doct. That to be under the Law as a Covenant of works is unto every natural man a very desirable condition He is not only born under the first Covenant but under that Covenant he does desire to continue In the handling of it I shall first prove it and give the grounds of it and answer some Objections that may arise in the hearts of men against it and then make the application of it There is in the fall of man a double misery come upon him 1 His being under Adams Covenant 2 His bearing Adams image And in this state all men by nature desire to live and die And that men do still desire to bear the image of the Earthly Adam is plain because they resist the image of God in Christ that blessed image that by the holy Spirit is offered to them in the Gospel And we find how much they do hug the image of old Adam in themselves Now though their desire to be under his Covenant be the foundation of all their misery yet men apprehend it not so much The offer of the second Covenant they hate and reject the Covenant of Christ as much as they despise his Image yet they perceive it not Therefore to prove it we must take the most convincing course we can First this was the evil that God saw Adam's nature to be prone to and therefore he not only cast him out of Paradise as a just reward of his apostacy but also in a particular manner forbad him the use of the tree of life Gen. 3.22 Gen. 3.22 God having made for our first Parents coats of skins now he saith Behold the man is become like one of us it is an Ironical exclamation wherein God derides the falshood of Satan and the folly of man This is the Godship that Satan promis'd en Divinitatem promissam Behold the promised Divinity And the knowledge of good and evil was nothing but a miserable and shameful nakedness which before man knew not And now here follows exilii decretum ratio decreti the decree is Gods will to cast man out of Paradice and the ground of it is lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of Life But why must not man after the fall taste of the tree of Life seeing before the fall it was not forbidden It is answered Non in esse sed in intentione futurum erat peccatum not in the action but in the intention it was to be reputed sin And Interpreters give this as a reason that thereby God might take away occasion of sinning from him and God doth not only aim at keeping us from sin by his Word but by his Rod also And they observe that there was by the fall a double corrupt disposition in Adam's heart which the eating of this tree would have drawn forth 1 Looking upon it as a Creature which he might conceive to have a vertue in it to preserve life he might put forth his hand which notes a voluntary act and so he might conceive though God hath threatned death yet here is a tree that can preserve life and of this I will eat and live And so he might have sin'd wilfully and out of contempt of the threatning of God by deifying a Creature and setting it in his place and giving it Gods power and so the life that was denied him by God he might think to make up in the Creature as men commonly do 2 Looking upon it Sacramentally as it was a Creature and
But here it may be men will wonder that time should be spent amongst us in beating men out of this being under the first Covenant and getting life upon impossible terms to undertake perfectly to keep the Law and to seek justification by works seeing we are neither Jews nor Papists We know we cannot fulfill the Law but that there is iniquity in our holy things and we are so far from resting in our duties that we acknowledge our righteousness is as filthy rags that if God should look upon them as they are he must needs abhor them and us for them and therefore surely there are none amongst us that do so all this labour might be spared for we are so far from desiring it that we disclaim it and abhor it But I answer to this Answer that a man ought to read in other mens practices his own inclination this was a desire in Adam 1 Cor. 15.49 and in his Posterity who do all bear the image of the earthly for as face answers to face in the water so sin is alike in all men and that man perfectly likes an example of sinning in others that does not reflect upon himself and see that there are seeds of it in him that doth not read his own nature in another mans life 2. If there be the seeds of it in thy own heart then though it never should break forth into act yet there is just cause that God should loath thee for it as we do Toads though they hurt us not And indeed the main part of our enmity against God and Gods against us lies in the contrariety of our nature to him Col. 1.21 we are naturally enemies to God in our minds and this is the top of all a godly mans humiliation this is but a part of all that evil treasure that is within Psal 51.7 and there is more in the Ware-house than in the Shop And that Christian is never kindly humbled for any sin if his humiliation ends in the sin it self and ascend not to the fountain that is within him that raging sea that always is casting out mire c. We know that in the Saints there is no lust perfectly mortified in this life Rom. 6.6 for sin dies a crucified death and therefore though in a Saint it be still upon the Cross and dying daily yet it shall never be perfectly destroyed till this corruptible shall put on incorruption The Saints have the seeds of this sin of trusting in themselves in them also and this lust will not lye idle in them the flesh will lust against the spirit Gal. 5.17 and it shews how prone the nature of man is to it and the actings of it because it has shewed it self so in all ages And therefore one being asked why Pelagianism did spring up in all ages answered Because there were Pelagianae fibrae in the hearts of all men So if this be asked you Why this lust of carnal confidence always breaks forth into sinful acts c. you may also answer There are fibrae of it in the heart of all men Therefore if God have kept this lust from acting in thee so much as it has done in others O be thankful for so great a mercy but be careful that thou say not that it is not in thee because God has restrained the lust from acting for then it may be just with God to give a man over to the power of it and he shall see by experience that it 's a mercy to have it restrained seeing he cannot be wholly freed from it in this life It 's a great evil when God preserves men from sin for them to think there is no such danger in it Take heed lest God let out such a lust upon thee that will make thee a mourner all thy days and remember how presumptuous Peter was against his denial of Christ yet how soon he was guilty of it And how apt are Christians for not prizing a preservation from gross sins to walk fearlesly and then God often leaves them to the power of lust and shews them the mercy of his former restraint Indeed all lusts in the heart of man do not act alike some lusts do work directly and press men to sin as that of Whoredom and Drunkenness a man has distinct thoughts about them but there are some that do work indirectly and in a secret way to guide men in their practise and yet never come into distinct thoughts but work as principles that lye low and a man acts in the power of them and yet observe them not as in a Watch every one may observe the wheels that move but every one does not observe the spring from whence their motion proceeds as a Scholar that speaks and writes Latin he does not think of the rules of Grammar every sentence he speaks and yet those rules have an influence into every word and his whole discourse is framed after those rules so there are some sins as Atheism c. a man it may be never says in actual thoughts that there is no God and yet this principle sways with a man and is at the bottom of every sin And so it is with this sin it may not come into actual thoughts that there is Eternal life to be had by our works and we will exclude the righteousness of Christ and yet it may have a very great influence upon the man in his whole course as being a fundamental and mother-sin 1 So far as any man does desire to establish his own righteousness so far he desires to be under a Covenant of Works for justification and life but this is the disposition of every man by nature therefore every man by nature desires to be under the first Covenant still this was the great fruit of it amongst the Jews Rom. 10.3 and the words are very significant Going about to establish their own righteousness i. e. seeking or studying for it as students use to do It signifies to labour for a thing with a mans utmost endeavour even with all his might as Mat. 6.32 After these things do the Gentiles seek and it answers to the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Rom. 9.31 Rom. 9.31 They followed after the law of righteousness but they attained it not The law of righteousness is the righteousness of the Law that is justification by it for the righteousness of the Law to be fulfilled in them by their own personal obedience not by faith but by works this they followed after with all their might And the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Imbecillitatem propriae justitiae denotat denotes the imbecillity of their own righteousness that it could not stand alone but they must set it up and support it and make it stand by their own opinion and presumptions Now you see this all along how men expect acceptation with God for their services Isa 58.1 Wherefore have we fasted and thou regardest not Men do think to be heard for
righteousness and life 2 Men are naturally ignorant of the spiritual meaning of the Law Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the law once Here the Apostle speaks of a double state in which he was 1 In times past in the state of unregeneracy without the Law not in the letter for he was bred up at the feet of Gamaliel and one that knew the Scripture from a child but without the Law in the spiritual sence of it in its glory power latitude spirituality and holiness which are the wonders of the Law that men by nature have not eyes to see which David prays for Psal 119.18 and which unto men by nature are accounted strange things 2 But there is another state and that is when the Lord was merciful to Paul in his Conversion The commandment came i. e. in a lively vigorous and spiritual manner having a spirit of life accompanying it whereas before it was but a dead letter and it brought in such a light as did discover the secret thoughts and intents of his heart and laid the whole inward man open even the inward parts of the soul And whereas before he was alive in performances able as he conceived to perform all the righteousness of the Law without blemish and therefore full of self-justification and conceits of his own righteousness and high expectations of Salvation Now sin revived that is in the guilt of it in his Conscience and he begins to see his own misery and sinfulness and lost condition which before he thought was very good Now he saw all his own righteousness which before he so highly esteemed and so much set by to be nothing but dross and dung And natural Conscience looks upon obedience to the Law as consisting only in the outward act and if that be performed Conscience is satisfied if men pray and hear they are not solicitous for the acceptance of their persons before their services can be accepted nor for the light manner of performance and the curing of their inward man towards God therein which doth plainly shew that though they understand the Law in the letter and stick to it therein yet they are not acquainted with the spirituality of the Law 3. Men are ignorant of their miserable condition under the Law Gal. 3.10 as many as are under the Law are under the curse Gal. 4.21 You that desire to be under the law do you not hear the law that is hear it you do but you understand it not Si Deo obtulisset putamen nucis in fide opus bonum etiamsi adeó parvum adeò vile ut culmum tollere si verò desit fiducia opus bonum non est etiamsi omnes mortuos suscitet homo sese comburendum permittat Luth. neither consider that being sons of the bond-woman you are bond-men for your Covenant being broken genders unto bondage and there is a spirit of bondage that will follow upon this state of bondage and as bond-men you shall not abide in the house for you have no part or share in the inheritance because the inheritance is not by the law but of promise Men under this Covenant stand before God in their own names they bear their own sins and must be justified by their own righteousness for this Covenant admits no Mediator there is none to represent their persons or bear their sins or pay their debt or endure their curse but all must needs be done in their own persons if they do any duty they expect it should be accepted of God for the goodness of it and it is rejected of God for the failings of it because whatever is born of the flesh is flesh and in their Covenant God requires perfect obedience and will accept none other and yet there is not the meanest service of the Saints under the second Covenant performed in faith but it is accepted if they offer but a cup of cold water Now men perform duties because they are commanded and they think that they have done good service and look that they shall be accepted and rewarded but never consider that if their persons be not accepted their services cannot be but that their best services are sins in Gods account and rejected and that all the promises of pardon and grace repentance and acceptance upon repentance all these belong not unto them for their Covenant admits no such thing Some may see the defilement of their nature and their misery because of the image which they bear but very few are apprehensive of their misery by reason of the Covenant of bondage under which they stand 4 Men know not how to distinguish between the doing of duties and the right manner and method of doing them for all men are ready to look upon them as duties required by God and if so he will accept them because he has required them And therefore when Luther did bid men not only take heed of their sins but of their duties for these might destroy them as well as the other and called them base and beggarly elements and dung and dross presently they said he spoke against good works Now here men distinguish not of the doing and of the method in doing for the duties of the Law must be performed by the graces of the Gospel and in the way of the Gospel and therefore we say that believing must go before any other of the great works of God e're a soul can be accepted Luther de bonis operibus primi precepti and therefore Luther gives this rule Whatsoever a mans conscience and faith toward God is such are his works which flow from the same principle but where there is nothing of faith the edge is wanting to good works and the whole life erroneous and all goodness as nothing I say that good works are accepted if faith which gives a man an interest in Christ and a change of a mans Covenant goes before We should bring naked Christ and a naked soul stript of all things else together we would have you take Christ for your husband and duties for the servants of Christ While faith is to deal with Christ in the business of Justification and acceptative works should be shut out and there sponsus cum sponsa faith and Christ alone but if faith walk abroad in the world works must stand at the door and follow as the handmaid and the necessary consequents of faith Now men hearing that duties are commanded by God they are apt to conceive that they must be done and being done shall be accepted though it be not according to the method of the Gospel and that when we speak against resting in them as duties of the first Covenant we speak against good works whereas we would have them performed but by a man whose person is accepted his Covenant changed and that by the principles of the Gospel the faith of Christ in his heart and also unto the ends of the Gospel 2. They are ignorant of the righteousness of Christ as
content to be under it and seek righteousness and life thereby if they do follow the Law for righteousness and submit not to the righteousness of God and this be interpretatively and in Gods account a desire to continue under the first Covenant still though it be not formally and directly so then this clears the justice of God in two things by way of Vse and Application 1. That the Lord doth unregenerate men no wrong if he leave them still under the first Covenant for he does but give them the desire of their own hearts All the Heathens therefore that sit still in darkness and in the shadow of death that never heard of another righteousness in which they might appear before God but their own to whom the righteousness of God under the Gospel even the righteousness of the new Covenant the righteousness of God by faith was never made known The giving of the knowledge of this righteousness and this new Covenant unto some and hiding it from others was grounded on no precedent differences and dispositions in the man either to whom it was revealed or to whom it was denied it was only the Mystery hid in God in his own Will and in his own Counsel And the same good-will that was the cause of the revealing it to the one was the cause also of the hiding it from the other Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ephes 3.9 Mat. 11.25 and revealed them unto babes For the Lord leaves them under that Covenant under which they did desire to be and under that righteousness by which they did desire to establish themselves and to be justified and did not reveal unto them the second Covenant which they had an inward disposition to despise and the righteousness thereof unto which by nature they could not submit Therefore it is riches of compassion that he has revealed it unto any but it is exceeding just that he has hid it from any And for those that live under the Gospel and have the tenure of the second Covenant made known to them and the glory of the righteousness thereof discovered and yet accept it not submit not thereunto it will be enough to clear the justice of God at the last day that they are left under the first Covenant under which they did desire to be and therefore as it is justice with God to leave a man under Adam's image and under the power and dominion of their own lusts to give them unto the power of their own hearts lusts and suffer them to walk in their own counsels and to say Ephraim is joined to Idols let him alone and he that is filthy let him be filthy still so it is just with God also to leave men under Adam's Covenant and to seek righteousness and life thereby and so not attaining to the law of righteousness they perish under the curse thereof for ever 2. He shall do no man wrong if in the general Judgment he do proceed against men according to the rules of the Covenant of Works for he will surely deal with men according to the tenure of the Covenant under which they stand and every man is under that Covenant which he desires to be 1 If they have all their sins laid upon their own score and give account for every vain thought in the heart and every vain word in the mouth every sinful purpose of the heart for he will bring every work to judgment with every secret thing and not a drop of the blood of Christ shall go to wash away the least of their sins and transgressions therein they must bear their own sins and their own shame and it is just with God for their Covenant admits of no Mediator 2 When God shall reject thy best services for the failings that are in them and look upon thy righteousness as a filthy rag abhor thy prayers for the noisome savours that be in them and they be turned into sin because thy person is not accepted thy Covenant is not changed the Lord will tell thee thy Covenant requires perfect obedience and if thou dost well thou shalt be accepted if thou dost evil sin lies at thy door and all thy services are but as if a man did bless an Idol and offer swines flesh and as if a man did cut off a dogs neck for thou art not in a state of acceptation thou art not found in his beloved Son in whom alone he is well pleased 3 When thou shalt have none to intercede for thee Joh. 17.9 and to plead thy cause before the Lord he prays for no such I pray not for the world as soon as thou shalt peep out of the Earth in the day of the Resurrection and lift up thy trayterous head out of the grave thy Conscience shall condemn thee thy heart shall fail thee and he also that is greater than thy Conscience Then shall the King say I was hungry and you gave me no meat c. and then thou shalt look for Christ to plead thy cause but thy Covenant admits no Advocate thou must plead for thy self which because a man cannot do having nothing to say he shall be speechless for ever 4 Then thou wilt repent and say I have perverted righteousness and it has not profited me for there shall be sorrow enough perfect sorrow in Hell even weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth but God can accept no repentance thy Covenant as it gives no repentance Revel 2.21 so it promises no repentance no acceptance and the time of repentance is past there is but a time of it 5 Thou wilt expect Christ as a skreen to stand between thee and the fathers wrath Gal. 3.13 for under the second Covenant he was made a curse for us but thy Covenant admits no surety the soul that sins shall die there is no ransome paid for thee for being under this Covenant either the Law must be obeyed but that it is not for thou art a sinner or else it must be abrogated but that it is not for not an Iota of the Law shall pass or it must be mitigated but that it is not for it is inflexible the Law is holy and just and good and remains the same that is was to Adam in the state of Innocency the curse must be executed the penalty inflicted even indignation and wrath upon every soul that does evil c. 6 When you shall look to have your services rewarded as mens Religious duties are the great actions of their lives and therefore men have the greatest hopes grounded upon them Phil. 3.7 it was in Paul's account gain to him and he did expect a reward answerable now when the Lord shall reject them and say that the inheritance is not by the Law since the Law became weak through the flesh but the inheritance is by promise and all comes by the second Covenant this can be no wrong to any unregenerate man
a principle of life within or else a principle from without either weights or springs as it is in Clocks or Watches which makes the motion so many men may move to duty and abstain from sin not from an inward principle of life in the one or the other but from a weight without 5. There is in every unregenerate man a sinful and unrenewed heart deceitful above all things Jer. 17.10 and desperately evil a heart fully set in him to do evil and because this is natural therefore his heart is fully bent to go this way so that let him be constrained to do duty yet he will hate the duty that he does and count it a weariness and look upon it as a burden Mallet non facere si posset impune and say When will the Sabbath be gone And let him be kept from sin yet he will love it still if you chain up a Beast from the prey yet his inclination will be after it and keep the stone from the Center and force it up into the air as often as you will it will still return and when it comes down to the earth and can descend no further yet it will have a tendency thereunto So Conscience thââ is meerly natural counts it its misery and affliction to be kept from sin for restrain it from sin never so much it will at last break these bounds and will be carried on with the greater fury greediness and violence because of the former restraint that was put upon it and the Devil will enter with seven worse spirits the dog will return to his vomit and the latter end will be worse than the beginning it had been better that man had never known the way of righteousness for he will be more wicked than if he had never known it Thus let the man have a heart set upon lust and let the power of the Law come into his Conscience acted by the Spirit it 's no wonder if it so far over-awe the man as to restrain him from sin and constrain him to duty § 2. But is a godly man that is under the Covenant of Grace wholly freed from the Coaction of the Law Answ This distinction was laid down in the beginning that though the main part of our Christian Liberty consists in being freed from the Law yet this liberty is in this life either inchoata or perfecta in respect of justification and condemnation A godly man is perfectly freed from the Law as a Covenant but in respect of Irritation and Coaction he is freed from these effects of it only in part We have seen how far the Irritation of the Law remains even in the regenerate and it is like lime which does quench those fires sometimes kindles ãâã Sin while it does remain and is acted by Satan may take occasion by the Commandment and produce woful effects even in the Saints so for the Coaction of the Law they are not wholly freed from it so far as they are unregenerate and the law of the flesh remains in their members the Law is of use to them and a handmaid to the Gospel and they do and ought to make use of legal motives to constrain to duty and to restrain from sin and the Law is to be preached to the regenerate to this purpose Heb. 11.25 1. To constrain to duty many times The Saints are to make use of the Law and the good things thereof so did Moses he had respect to the recompence of reward and the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5.9 We labour whether present or absent that we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Again Heb. 12. ult Let us have grace to serve him acceptably for our God is a consuming fire These be the helps that the Lord has given us and it were our sin not to make use of them there is no man but he finds so much deadness and backwardness in his flesh that he shall be forced to call in this help many times Mark 9.44 2. And to restrain a man from sin also Christs exhortation is Cut off your right hand and pull out your right eye for it 's better to go to heaven maimed than having two eyes to be cast into hell where the worm dies not c. And if Adam in the state of Innocency had need of the threatning of the Law to deter him from sin much more a godly man that is holy but in part Yet there is a great deal of difference 1 in a godly man this is not the only principle that acts him as it is in the unregenerate for an unregenerate man would never do duty while he lives were it not from this Coaction of the Law out of a principle of self-love and natural conscience for he does duties as a godly man commits sins and he must say that which I hate do I but in a godly man there is another principle also there is a law of his mind an inward disposition the law written in his heart a new and divine nature and his obedience to God is natural to him as it is for a tree to bring forth fruit in its kind and a fountain to cast out mud and to work out any thing that is contrary to it 2 As this is not the only so it is not the main principle that works in them but there is the Spirit of Christ that dwells in them and leads them and there is a law of love that does mainly act them in all they do 1 Joh. 5.3 they abstain from Sin as from Hell and that which they see all evil in and as that which is dishonourable to God and defiles their own beauty for Sin is the souls deformity as Grace is the ornament of the soul and he does duty from an ingenuous and free spirit And therefore Christ says Take my yoke upon you for it is easie Whence so far as a man is regenerate he is a law unto himself and he would be kept from sin and carried on to duty if neither of these were but only from a principle within 3. The more a regenerate man is acted by legal principles and the less love he has to spiritual duties the less spiritual he is and therefore his desire is always to be led by the Spirit of God and he always prays to God for his free Princely Spirit SECT III. The APPLICATION § 1. WE may hence learn what a miserable estate a man is in being under the first Covenant every thing is a burden to him because it is a constraint upon his spirit the thing he does he hates he has a contrary principle within him which he would indulge and gratifie Now there being in a man the same nature and the command of God lying upon a man this may and this does commonly put a force upon him to perform duties of the law but that
of his native soil as they do that plant Colonies from one Country to another and such a Translation is here meant that whereas before a man was under the Kingdom of Satan and the condemnation and dominion of death now his state is changed that is by the change of his Covenant and he is translated or transported into the Kingdom of Righteousness and Holiness This is the Translation that is here meant a change of a mans state through the change of his Covenant upon which follows the change of his image and the change of his nature also A man is translated into it 1 As a Kingdom of Righteousness by the change of his Covenant 2 As a Kingdom of Holiness by the change of his Image Doct. All those that are in Christ have a change of their state they are translated out of their former Covenant Here are two things to be spoken to 1 That the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant 2 The necessity of such a change and the reasons and grounds thereof Rom. 11.24 § 2. First the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant Says the Apostle Rom. 11.24 For if thou wert cut out of the Olive-tree which is wild by nature and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good Olive-tree how much more shall these which be the natural branches c. Abraham is called the root because after a sort the Covenant began in him and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful and all that grew by nature upon this root they were the children of God and the natural branches unto whom the sap and sweetness and fatness of the true Church all the Promises and Priviledges of the Covenant of Grace did belong and those that were truly under this Covenant they were not broken off but some of them that were under it by profession only they were for their sins in judgment broken off and the Gentiles that were wild Olives strangers to Abraham's Faith and Covenant they were grafted in that is taken into the Covenant of Abraham which is the root upon which they were ingrafted and are made partakers of all the Promises and the Priviledges of the Covenant of Abraham as if they were the natural branches Therefore here are men that are wild Olives that are ingrafted here are branches broken off that are ingrafted in again So that in Conversion there is an Ingrafting a Translation of a man from one stock to another from one root unto another and that is by changing of a mans Covenant for it is by his Covenant only that Abraham is his root c. Some indeed are ingrafted only by an outward profession some by inward implantation into the inward and spiritual part some into the outward priviledges of the Covenant only but some partake of the sweetness and fatness of the true Olive-tree Joh. 5.24 c. Christ says He that believes in him that sent me shall never come into judgment but is parted from death to life The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies a passage from one place to another And Joh. 3.14 He is passed from death to life There is a twofold state of death and life and there is answerable a double passage a relative mutation as to a mans Covenant and a physical mutation as to his Image Rom. 7.1 2 3 The law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth the woman is bound to her husband as long as he liveth but if her husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband c. It is a dying or a being divorced from the former husband that gives her liberty All the Ancients do generally make the Law the husband from which a man being dead unto the Law is divorced and some Modern Divines as Beza and others make sin the husband as being irritated by the law but the thing is much the same and a man being ingrafted into Christ is freed from the law of the husband It is also a being redeemed and the main of our redemption lyes in it Gal. 4.5 as Christ was made under the law so we were under it now he was under it as a Covenant to fulfill the precept and to satisfie the curse and he did this that he might redeem us that were under the law in both these respects so that looking upon the law as a Covenant Christ is said to redeem us from being under it changing a mans father and his mother Mich. 7.20 Luc. 1. Gal. 4. and growing on another root and belonging to another stock as it is said Rom. 4.15 Abraham the father of us all that were before strangers unto Abraham therefore it is said to be his mercy unto Abraham and his oath unto our forefathers and Sarah the mother whereas before we were the children of Hagar All men by nature are under the law children of the bond-woman for the two Mothers are the two Covenants and so long as a man remains under the first Covenant he is the son of the bond-woman but we that believe are as Isaac ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã children of the free-woman being discharged of the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and contrary to us which Christ took out of the way nailing it to his Cross c. This âlotting out of Ordinances Chrysostome and Oecumenius understand not only of the Ceremonial Law given by Moses but also of the Moral Law and the Law of the forbidden fruit given to Adam c. and so Zanchy and others c. Though some other late Divines will understand it of the Ceremonial Law only which I conceive it cannot be because it is spoken for the consolation of the Gentiles that they were delivered from this hand-writing of Ordinances under which they never were So that this change of Covenant is in Scripture set forth by being cut off from the former root and ingrafted into another a change or passage from a mans former state a being dead to a former husband a redemption from a former bondage an alliance to another father and having a bond cancelled that was against a man by its exacting and condemning power SECT II. The necessity of a Translation from the first Covenant 1. THE necessity of this Translation is manifested several ways 1. From the nature of the Covenant as it is broken and mans misery under it for the Covenant in self is unchangeable and eternal as well as the Covenant of Grace and it says for ever This do and thou shalt live it still says Gal. 4.4 5. Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them the soul that sins shall die And to establish it Christ was made under the Law that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and what the Law saith it saith unto them that are under the Law still So that while men continue under it their
the Covenant as broken while they do so continue have no more benefit by a Priest than the Devils have only to man there is a possibility and not unto them but the second Covenant is a Covenant with a Priest and there is a threefold office of a Priest 1 He does present their persons for he stands in their steads he bears their names two ways upon his heart and upon his shoulders 2 He offers a sacrifice for their sins and does carry the blood into the most holy place and doth sprinkle it before the Mercy-seat 3 He presents their requests and desires unto the Father together with his own upon the same Altar of the Godhead which is the Golden Altar Heb. 7.22 for he ever lives to make intercession for us 4. In the Covenant of Works there is matter of glorying and boasting in a mans self if a man abide in the Covenant and the reward is of debt Rom 4.1 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Indeed Adam might have come into the presence of God and have said Lord I have fulfilled thy Commandment I have done thy whole will c. And as the Lord Jesus Christ did I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do now glorifie me with thy self now justifie me bestow upon me the grace and life that thou hast promised c. But under the second Covenant there is no place for either there is no debt for all is of grace to give the will and the deed and to pardon the failings and defects of any thing we do that we are accepted it is meerly of Grace And there is no boasting for all is done by the strength of another and through the acceptance of another For Christ is made to us Wisdom and Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that he that glories may glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1.30 And so boasting is excluded by what law not by the law of works but by the law of faith Rom. 3.27 For the soul says Ephes 2.9 I was in the same condemnation with them that perish and the Lord had mercy upon me because mercy pleases him not for mine own righteousness but according to his own mercy he saveth us Tit. 3.4 5. Now it is impossible therefore for a man to be under both Covenants because the terms and âhe conditions of the one are contrary and destroy the other § 5. It may be asked Quest Whether a godly man while he lives here having a double principle the one from the first Adam and the other from the second Adam he may not also have a double Covenant state and a double Image partly the Image of the first and partly the Image of the second Adam partly of the earthly and partly of the heavenly Why may not a man also say that so far as he is flesh he is under the Covenant of Works but so far as he is regenerate he is under a Covenant of Grace For so some of our Divines have spoken of late Consider a regenerate man in his natural being and so he is ever under the Law and as often as he sinneth is under the sentence of death but as he is in Christ so he is free from the Law by Grace c. A godly man has a double principle and this doth argue a double image Answ and the corrupt principle that is within him is a remainder of the image of the old Adam and the gracious principle is the image of the second Adam begun in him But yet this cannot infer a double Covenant because the Image respects his nature but the Covenant does respect his Person Now it is with a man as it is with Christ there are two natures in him and they have two properties the one eternal and the other in time the one is infinite and the other finite the one mortal and the other immortal but if we look upon his Sonship that is but one because it respects his Person filiatio est suppositi filiati filiation is of a person so though a man have two very different natures in him of flesh and spirit the one from Christ and the other from Satan and in the one a man does resemble God and in the other the Devil yet they argue not two Covenants quia faedus pertinet ad suppositum the Covenant belongs to the person 2. A double Image may stand together and though indeed they seek to destroy each other the flesh lusting against the spirit because they are contrary yet it shall not prevail But the two Covenants do actually necessarily and immediately destroy each other because the terms are contrary and therefore unless a man may stand righteous before God in his own righteousness and in the righteousness of Christ at once unless he may be an heir of the Curse and of the Promise unless he may be justified and condemned unless his sins may be pardoned and his righteousness imputed unless he may appear before God in himself and in another he cannot be said to be under both Covenants for the terms of the Covenant are such that they do necessarily destroy each other 3. The change of a mans Covenant is a legal act an act of God upon a mans being once in Christ God does account a man as one under the Law no more as God did count Abraham righteous and counted him the father of the faithful so that it is an act of God without a man and upon him and this is perfect and may be at once and a man is truly translated out of the Covenant of Works the first day of his conversion and shall never be looked upon as one under that Covenant more Phil. 1.6 but there is a good work in a man which is the change of a mans Image and that is perfected by degrees and therefore the remainders of the old image do remain and as God does make the Covenant of Works from which a man is delivered a servant to the Covenant of Grace so he does the remainders of the old image in a man also SECT III. The APPLICATION Vse 1 § 1. THe Use is of Examination whether a mans Covenant be changed or no and whether he be translated out of the first Covenant There is no change of a mans Covenant but by union with Christ for the Covenants were made with a double head the first and the second Adam and it is our union with them that brings us under their Covenant A man comes not under the Covenant of the Angels he has not the righteousness of the good nor the sins of the bad Angels imputed because he is not one with them he that is in the first Adam is still under his Covenant and he that is in the second Adam is translated from the first Adam Rom. 8. 1 Joh. 3.24 Rom. 8.9 Now how should a man know whether he be one with Christ or no for he that is in Christ is no more under the Law as a Covenant
shewed many ways ââw we will speak a little to the sin of it and that in these Particulars 1 Hereby thou endeavourest to make void the Covenant of Grace and all those gloriâus thoughts that God had towards sinners from everlasting as the highest way to glorifie himself He did therefore purpose it in himself and from himself Prov. 8.30 Psal 40.5 that he will gloriefie himself this way by a second Covenant and God delighted in it and spent infinite thoughts about it it 's the pleasure of the Lord and all this thou dost make void to thy self by continuing under thy former Covenant and if thou accept not the Grace offered in the second Now the Apostle speaks of it as a fearful evil to make void the Law but how great is their âvil that do their utmost to make the Gospel void 2 Thou hereby at once frustrates the whole end of Christs coming into the world for âhe came into the world as a second Adam with a Covenant and an Image and no man can partake of his Image unless he have an interest in his Covenant for all the Promises of renewing the Image of God in man are not the promises of the first but of the second Covenant Mal. 3.1 Heb. 12.24 Heb. 7.22 and it 's he that is in Christ that is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.14 For he is given as a Covenant to the Nations The Lord shall come speedily into his Temple even the messenger of the Conant in whom ye delight So that the great end of Christs coming into the world is that he might bring in a second Covenant by which God and man may be reconciled sins pardoned and the sinner saved and whosoever is not translated into this Covenant Christ is come and dead in vain as to him 3 Thou dost hereby reject and despise the greatest grace that ever was shewed to the sons of men for God to enter into a Covenant with man in his Creation was an act of meer Grace God might have required obedience and have promised no recompence for all was by right of creation due from man to God but God did not owe any thing to man again and yet this was but faedus amicitiae a Covenant of Friendship but when man had sinned and become faedifragus a Covenant-breaker now for God to try man again by a second Covenant that it should be a Covenant with man as a sinner is a far greater act of favour to be engaged to him Isa 26.18 19. and that upon higher terms and better promises it 's the admiration of all the Angels in Heaven that God should so far honour a sinful creature as to take him into Covenant with himself Jer. 13.11 Zac. 11.10 4 This is much heightned by this that the Angels that fell were as capable of mercy as we and Christ and his Righteousness as proportionable a good for the Salvation of the Angels as he is for man though they did sin ex destinata malitia maliciously and without temptation Bernard and so perire necesse est poenitere potentes yet had the Lord set his thoughts of mercy upon them and sent his Son with a Covenant to them The same Omnipotency that overcomes the heart of a man could have also overcome the heart of a Devil but he did catch at Mankind when he let the Angels go and never made them the offer of a second Covenant and this mans sin is beyond that of the Devils in that he refuseth to come under this Covenant of Grace 5 Hereby thou takest the name of God in vain and receivest no benefit by all his Ordinances and Promises and motions of the Spirit that thou enjoyest 1 All his Ordinances for to what end is the Ministry of the Gospel set up and appointed by God but only in the first place to bring men into Covenant with God God is in Christ reconciling the world and how is that done why by making a covenant of peace as this second covenant is called Ezek. 37.26 And by perswading men and treating with them to bring them under the bonds of this covenant 2 Cor 5.18 19. for as the Apostle says He has made us the ministers of reconciliation and all the offers that we make unto you of Christ it is but to perswade you to accept of him as God has given him as a covenant to the Nations and until you do accept of Christ in his covenant and consent to that you can have no other benefit by him that will be effectual to the saving of your soul And as for all other benefits of the Ministry without this they will never answer the great end for which the Lord appointed it It were but a low end in a Minister to propound no higher thing to himself than this that he might inform the judgments of men and draw them to some outward conformity or civilize men and to do some duties to satisfie their consciences but our end should be that which God did send us for and to count that we have laboured in vain Act. 26.18 if we miss thereof and that is to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God to translate men out of the kingdom of darkness into the glorious kingdom of his dear Son the greatest mercies of your lives be offers of Christ and his benefits which are all grounded upon the covenant of Grace 2 All the Promises do belong unto the second covenant and he has given us exceeding great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 whereby we are made partakers of the Divine nature There are promises of pardon and of grace and holiness and happiness promises of the life that now is and that which is to come There are conditional Promises and there are absolute Promises I will be thy God I will give thee my Son and my Spirit I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh But the bottom of all these is the Covenant and thereunto all the Promises of the Gospel are referred and therefore he that has no interest in the Covenant he in applying a promise takes the name of God in vain for if you be Christs you are Abrahams seed Gal. 3. ult and heirs also of the promise If you are Christs and are in him your Covenant is changed you then come under Abrahams Covenant for it is in respect of this Covenant only Rom. 4.16 Gal. 4.28 that he is said to be the father of us all and if your Covenant be changed you are heirs of the Promise We as Isaac are children of the promise c. And till a mans Covenant be changed there is not a promise in the Book of God that belongs unto him and whensoever he does apply them unto himself he doth wrest the Scripture and he takes the name of God in vain c. 3 As for the Sacraments whosoever has not his Covenant changed they can
happiness of all those that are in Christ even in this that their Covenant is changed and it was unto David the ground of all his comfort that God had made with him this Everlasting Covenant and well it might be for it was the foundation of all his happiness and his salvation But you 'l say Wherein lies the glory of this condition of a souls being translated from their former root 1. Being translated into this Covenant God is reconciled to thee for the Covenant of Grace is a Covenant of Peace and Reconciliation so that the enmity between thee and God is taken up and he looks upon thee as an enemy no more 2. Being taken into Covenant with God again there do many sweet relations grow out of the Covenant for the Lord saith I will be their God and they shall be my people and the Lord is not ashamed to be called their God he is our father and husband and our friend we have as truly by Covenant an interest in all that is in God for our best good as the Lord himself hath for his own glory his power is made over to us as truly as if we had infinite power and his mercy as if we had infinite mercy and grace and wisdom c. 3. Being once in Covenant he becomes the son of God a mans Covenant is a Covenant of Sonship I will be their God and they shall be my sons and daughters c. 1 Joh. 3.1 Behold what manner of love the father hath shewed unto us that we should be called the sons of God Gal. 4.18 and if sons then heirs in all the inheritance of Christ Being sons of the free-woman it is thereby that we become heirs of the Promise the inheritance is not by the Law but by the Gospel if they that are of the Law be heirs then Christ were dead in vain 4. Hereby a man has a ground for his faith upon all occasions and a bottom for his prayers it is the Covenant that is unto faith the Magna Charta where all the priviledges and liberties of a Believer are found and this Covenant is sure God is a faithful God a God that will not lye that cannot deny himself Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Lord do not abhor us for thou art the Lord our God Jer. 14.21 And the Psalmist hath respect unto this Covenant For all the earth are full of the habitation of crueltieâ Isa 64.9 Remember not our iniquities for ever behold we beseech thee we are all thy people And take them in the worst terms and when a man has even suffered shipwrack yet the Covenant is tabula post naufragium a plank after shipwrack by which the soul is kept from sinking see it in our Lord Christ himself in that hour of the power of darkness My God my God c. how did Christ call the Lord his God for as Christ is God so he has the same essence with the Father and he thought it no robbery to be equal with Him but as Mediator he is God the Fathers Servant and so the Lord is his God by Covenant Psal 89.36 Christ says Thou art my Father and my God And Joh. 20.17 And he is no other way Christs God and Father but by Covenant for Christ took a new Covenant-right unto God as Mediator And as we come under the Covenant so doth the Lord in him become our God also and we have a right unto him and by looking unto God in Covenant the spirit of a Christian is upheld in the greatest sense of wrath when the Lord did bruise and grind him to powder making his soul an offering for sin A man out of this Covenant has no ground for his faith nor bottom for any of his prayers 5. It is a Covenant that can never be broken an Everlasting Covenant a Covenant of salt Heb. 7. a Covenant that has a surety Christ says If he fail in any thing put it upon my account And Isa 56.7 I know I shall not be ashamed One sin did break the first Covenant and it being broken could never be made up by one offence condemnation came upon all but by the free gift righteousness comes upon all for many offences to justification because the righteousness of the Covenant is a perfect and an everlasting righteousness and upon this is a godly mans comfort mainly grounded David by his sin foresaw that he had undone his Family the Lord threatned him by the Prophet That the sword should never depart from his house yet he comforts himself in this that his Covenant remained sure A godly mans comfort mainly comes in by his state much more than by his actions and he comforts himself in the one when he abhors himself for the other and though God will judge for both yet he will judge of mens actions according to their states Therefore whatever you do give diligence to make your calling and election sure which can never be without a Translation into the Covenant of Grace CHAP. VI. A Mans Translation out of the first Covenant is by Vnion Gal. 3.29 And if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise SECT I. How our Translation is by Vnion with the nature of this Vnion § 1. HAving thus far opened the necessity of a Translation the change of a mans Covenant as well as of his Image we come now unto the Second Head propounded and that is Wherein this Translation doth consist For which I have chosen this Text Gal. 3.29 And if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise In the opening hereof there are Three things that I must lay down as grounds 1. That God will deal with all men not only in a way of Dominion but in a way of Stipulation So that men in Covenant with God are of two sorts either regenerate or unregenerate Sons or Servants Children of the bond-woman or of the free and they that are unregenerate âemain under the Covenant of Works they that are regenerate are under a Covenant of Grace There is a twofold universal Covenant made with all mankind which Divines do call faedus universale one made with Adam before his fall and with all man-kind For the Curse of his Covenant transgressed coming upon all does plainly prove that the blessing of âhe Covenant should have belonged unto all if it had been observed and the blessing and âurse of the Covenant does come primarily upon none but those with whom the Covenant âas made There is another universal Covenant made after the fall made not only with âan but with all flesh even with every living creature that is upon the earth oâ Foul and âattel and every Beast of the earth and it contains in it two Branches 1. That all âsh shall be no more cut off by the waters or a flood 2. That while the earth remains Sâed-time and Harvest
under his Covenant 1 John 5.11 God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son he that has the son has life So that all the benefits of the Covenant are grounded upon our Union with him who is the Prince of the Covenant if you be Abrahams seed How shall that be Gal. 3. last By being Christs and then a man comes under Abrahams Covenant and thereby is a Son of Abraham and that is only by being in Christ They that are born after the spirit are Children of the freewoman Gal. 4.31 2 Cor. 1.20 that is they that believe and it is in him that all the promises are made unto us in him all the promises of God are Yea and Amen they have their truth and their certainty and stability in him and we are made the righteousness of God in him and we bear fruits in him for every promise does carry back the Soul unto his Union with Christ in the right whereof we do claim the promises which are made unto Christ in our behalf and unto us only so far as we are members of Christ as we are in him And from hence the point that I shall gather wherein this translation lies is this Doct. In a mans Vnion with the second Adam his translation out of the first Covenant does consist it is by a mans Vnion that his Covenant is changed § 2. In the opening of it there are three things to be cleared 1 To explain the nature of this Vnion 2 How it comes to pass that this Vnion should be a mans Translation 3 To shew how a man being united unto Christ the prince of the Covenant differs from what he was before his being translated and in what particulars this difference lies § 1. For the nature of this Union it is an Union with him as he is set forth by God publick person as a representative head as a second Adam Now as we were one with the first Adam and therefore said to be in him and to sin in him so we must be one with the second Adam and so are said to be in him also Now in the first Adam we are naturally as we partake of his Spirit every man by nature receiving the spirit of Adam as well as the Image of Adam and voluntarily every man by nature consenting to his Covenant and desiring still to be under it Gal. 4. And as Jesus Christ is become one with us so must we also become one with him Now he is become one with us naturally taking our flesh and voluntarily as entring into our Covenant so we must become one with Christ naturally by receiving his spirit and voluntarily by consenting unto his Covenant And these two are the branches of our Union without which it cannot be compleat and therefore our Union in Scripture is set forth by similitudes that express both parts naturally between the head and the body we are the members of Christ and he the head between the branch and the root he the root and we the branches between the meat and the body that is nourished by it when turned into juice and blood c. And also voluntarily between the Husband and the Wife they two making up one flesh Ephes 5.3 by mutual consent 1. There is a natural Vnion between Christ and the Soul As Christ taking our flesh becomes one with us so also we partaking of his Spirit become one with him As there are some that God has given unto Christ from eternity in his purpose and decree so he has appointed a time when they shall be actually united who though in the Purpose of God and Transaction between the Father and his Son are given unto Christ yet do for the present live without Christ in the World but though Christ in the Purpose of God was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world yet in the fullness of time only he took our flesh so though we were in the counsel of God given unto Christ before the world was yet there is a fullness of time appointed by the Father when he shall bestow upon us his spirit so that the first part of our Union is that we receive the Spirit of Christ for this Union begins on Christs part as he did unite himself unto us by taking our flesh so he does unite us unto himself by imparting of his spirit Phil. 3.12 That I may apprehend as I am apprehended Chrys ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. He took hold of our nature flying from him So Oecumen We were no more able to lay hold upon Christ than to lay hold on the Sun in the Firmament This âending of his spirit makes us become one body with him as the head and the feet make up âne body because they are acted by the same soul Because you are Sons Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.9 1 Cor. 6.17 he has sent forth âe spirit of his son into your hearts If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his âe spiritual body so Pareus or mystical or in respect of the Copula as Beza as he that ãâã joyned to a Harlot is one flesh with her his bond is carnal so he that is joyned to the âord is one spirit and so a man becomes the Temple of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of Christ dwells in a man and takes up his habitation there for ever never to forsake that man âfterward There is the inhabitation and the operation of the spirit Jo. 15.26 2 Tim. 1.14 the Holy Ghost dwells âhere and works there for ever and so Christ and he having one spirit they are become one body Hence we see 1 this Union is real and not imaginary though Christ be in Heaven and we upon thâ Earth yet the bond is real the same spirit in both as many members of one body acted by the same Soul and so though many members be scattered all the World over yet they make up one body for it is a spiritual body and a mysterious Union for âhe same spirit unites the members to the head and one to another for they all partake of âhe same spirit 2. It is a natural and not meerly a voluntary Union and therefore there are many simiâitudes some express it by a voluntary and some by a natural Union as the members âhough they be naturally one and acted by the same spirit yet they are of different forms âo it is here Christ and the Soul are not only one by consent but they are naturally one c. 3. The Union is not with the Gifts and Graces and Benefits of Christ though indeed the Communion we have is with these but the Union is with his person for Isa 9.6 To us a son is given John 1.14 The word was made flesh and dwelt among us And Psal 45.10 11 Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for
he is thy Lord and worship thou him And of Christ as man Ephes 5.30 For we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones And 1 Cor. 6.15 Know you not that your bodies are members of Christ There is also a voluntary Union between Christ and the Soul and so Cyprian does express it Nec miscet personas nec unit substantias sed affectus consociat confaederat voluntates and that is Ephes 3.17 That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith 2 Cor. 3.18 Christ then having thus propounded himself unto a man in the Gospel and a man beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord seeing the excellency of his Person and the all-sufficiency of his Goodness with a secret hint that all this may become ours if we accept it the spirit being in the heart of a man as the spirit of Faith does by an Almighty power overcome the Soul to consent and accept of Christ according to the terms and offers of the Gospel so that Christ dwells in a man by his spirit and this spirit being a spirit of faith does work a free consent that Christ should be to him as his Head and Husband for ever and this consent of the Soul unto Christ does compleat this Union So that if the Question be Is a man in Christ before he does believe The answer is His Union with Christ is before he doth believe and the Soul is as meerly passive in union as in conversion Christ must unite himself unto us before we can unite our selves unto him but the consummation of this Union is when we consent unto Christ to take him for our own as the Wife does her Husband in marriage c. This receiving Act we have set forth John 1.12 and Isa 1.19 2 Cor. 11.2 1. It is the Person of Christ that is the primary object of Faith and not his Benefits The first promise to our first Parents was of his Person Gen. 3.15 and not of his Benefits Gal. 3.16 To Abraham and his seed were the promises made c. All the Gifts of Christ are given as a dowry to the Soul that is married to Christ 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath the son hath life and he that hath not the son hath not life 2. There can be no Grace that can be the bond of Union with Christ but Faith God offers his Son and that Grace that accepts of the offer that makes the Union is Faith And no grace doth accept of the offer but that which caries with it the consent of the whole Soul ex nolentibus volentes facit it makes men that are unwilling willing If a Woman love a Man never so dearly Rev. 22. yet if she care not to make him her Husband they become not one flesh Love is indeed affectus unionis an affection of union and there is a moral union or a union of friendship but a mystical union there is not yea cannot be by Love 3. All other graces are acted by Faith they are the handmaids thereof Faith works by love Gal. 6.5 2 Cor. 3.18 and therefore this is the grace that has to do with Christ immediately Faith is the eyes of the Soul that looks upon Christ in his Glory and 't is the mouth of the Soul that feeds upon Christ there the nourishment is prepared for the body and there is a distributive Power in Faith that gives every grace its portion For this grace of Faith is the steward of the new man and according to a mans faith so it is with every grace and herein lyes the excellency of Faith above all graces Gal. 2.20 Joh. 6.7 not as it is a quality but as an instrument as appointed by Christ to be that grace of Union between Christ and us And hence it is that being the instrument of Union it is that by which the grace of the Covenant is conveighed to us as the action or motion of the mouth in speaking and eating is not one better than another of it self but as the one is the means of conveying nourishment unto the whole body so the motion of the hand in working is as excellent as that of receiving but it is not so in respect of the instrumental nature of it but only as it receives what is for the good and support of the man So here other graces in themselves are as excellent as Faith but as God hath honoured Faith to have the immediate intercourse with Christ so as it is an instrument it is more excellent than all other graces as that which goes immediately to Christ draws virtue from him and supplies all other graces in the new man SECT II. Why God hath appointed Vnion to be the way of our Translation Q. 2. WHY hath God appointed our Translation or change of Covenant to be in a way of Vnion The grounds are these Reas 1 § 1. Because God will have Christ to be the second Adam a publick person as the first Adam was for God intending that the generations of men should exist successively and yet proceed all from one root and not be created all at once as the Angels were he made a Covenant with this first man that was to be the common root out of which all the rest should grow for all his posterity that were to proceed from him 1 How else could the corruption and depravation of the nature that he should convey to them become their sin It 's true the Socinians and some of the Arminians deny the first sins being by Adam upon all his posterity naturally and unavoidably propagated saying that it is not to be esteemed their sin at all but only to Adam a punishment of sin and unto them the condition of their present nature and so they say peccatum Adami sine reatu in prolem transiit propter conditionem naturae ejusdem quam ex Adamo peccatores trahunt that the sin of Adam doth without any guilt pass unto his posterity by reason of the condition of the same nature which sinners derive from Adam But that it is the condition of nature the punishment of sin and also a sin in it self all our Divines do affirm and approve For 1 where there is a Transgression of the Law there is sin but even in the corruption of nature there is an opposition to God and his Law in all things therefore there is sin for the Law requires a holy nature as well as a holy Life that we should Love the Lord our God with all our heart not only with all the strength we have but with all the strength that God did give man in his creation 2 That which conforms a man to the Devil in contrariety to God Joh. 3.8 that is sin he that committeth sin is of the Devil Now this can become our sin no otherwise than as Adam was a publick person and stood by a Covenant for himself and his posterity and was by that Covenant
in whom all happiness âes 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 comprehenâed and Eternity have a beginning and the Ancient of days become a child who can âut 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
is added to the Gospel as the Rule is to the work-mans hand and the yoke of Gospel-obedience is nothing else but the duties that the Law requires as being the servant unto the Gospel the way of the Gospel is still the way of thy Precepts O God Vse 3 It is also for Consolation it is the greatest ground of comfort and the greatest gift of God even next unto Christ and the second Covenant that he hath made the Law a servant thereunto It 's much that the Lord has given us all the Creatures and they are all our servants Angels and Principalities and Powers all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo and the curse of the Law also persecutions afflictions death are all sanctified but above all that he has made the Law a servant to the Gospel For the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law all is from the Law and all our fear is from the Law and to have the Law of God to charge sin upon a man is the great ground of a mans terror because it comes to the Conscience with the Authority and Majesty of the great King the highest Judge and Law-giver now to have this Law made a servant and in subordination unto all a mans spiritual and eternal welfare it is a very high ground of a mans consolation and so a man under the second Covenant loseth only that which is evil in the first Covenant but all the good of the first Covenant he attains under the second whatever good the first Covenant can do him he hath that also purchased by Christ for him through the overplus of the Grace the superabundant Grace of the second Covenant that we may say Grace abounded much more thus Out of the eater came meat and out of the strong came sweetness and that which was the ground of the greatest terror in the world a man can now claim as his portion talk with as his counseller and feed upon as the sweetest of all his delights that his soul is even ravished with it Thus the Lord has subjected the Law to the Gospel and do you rejoice in its Ministration Thus have we brought this large Tract to an end which is the Key of all the whole Treasury of God wherein you have heard 1 That God in the Creation did deal with man in a Covenant-way 2 The foederati the Covenanters were Adam and his Posterity 3 The terms of this Covenant were perfect personal and perpetual Obedience 4 The Condition on Gods part was Life Spiritual Temporal and Eternal 5 This Covenant Adam brake not only for himself but for all his posterity 6 That the Curse of the Covenant broken is death spiritual temporal and eternal 7 That the Covenant of Works is not abolished by the fall but all unregenerate men stand under it still 8 That this is to every unregenerate man a desirable Condition 9 That under this Covenant all unregenerate men are for Irritation Coaction and Condemnation 10 There is a Translation out of this Covenant and an abolishment of it to all that are regenerate 11 The Subordination of it to the Gospel The END of the First Book BOOK II. THE Covenant of Grace Its AUTHOR FOUNTAIN and the Persons with whom it is made CHAP. I. The Author and Fountain of this Covenant Gen. 17.2 And I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly SECT I. The Person who makes this Covenant Jehovah and why he will deal with all in a Covenant way THE Covenant of Works as made with man in his Creation as violated by the Fall and as cancelled in his Regeneration and as subordinate and made subservient to the Covenant of Grace we have seen in the former Discourse and we now come to consider the nature of the second and better Covenant which all the Saints in Heaven are saved by which man can never break and the righteousness whereof sin can never spend There are in Scripture four eminent publick persons with whom this Covenant was made which are set down in two instances in the Scripture 1 With Adam where it is very darkly represented 2 With Noah Gen. 3.15 Gen. 9.9 and with his Sons which is a branch of the Covenant of Grace and is so brought in Isa 54.9 This is the waters of Noah to me 3 With Abraham and to him was the clearest manifestation of it who it may be was therefore called as a special term of honour the Friend of God because the Lord imparted secrets to him in a more evident familiar manner than he had done with the Saints of old as a man does with his friend Luk. 1.73 it is his Oath that he sware to Abraham to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made Gal. 3.16 and if you be Christs you are Abrahams seed and Gal. 4.22 23 24. Abrahams Family is made a type and a shadow of the two Covenants and the durable generation of men under them Abraham had two Sons which things are an Allegory they are the two Covenants c. and therefore Mic. 7. ult it is mercy unto Abraham and truth unto Jacob because in Abraham after a sort the Promise and the Covenant did begin and therefore it is mercy in making it but it is truth in keeping of it 4 With David Psal 89.3 I have made a Covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant And Isa 55.3 I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David and Act. 13.34 you will find it again repeated and therefore is Christ called the Son of David and also David that shall be King over them Ezek. 37.24 Hos 3. ult Act. 15.16 The Tabernacle of David is said to be raised up in the Primitive times but there is a time coming that God will raise up the throne of David also when that promise shall be fulfilled I shall give him the Throne of his father David of his Kingdom there shall be no end and when that Dan. 7.14 shall be accomplished He shall be brought unto the Antient of days and shall receive a Kingdom after the four persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down which we see not accomplished when that Scripture Rev. 11.17 shall be fulfilled That the Kingdoms of the Earth shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord. His they are now as he is the King of Nations but they shall be so also as he is the King of Saints and they shall subscribe unto the Lord and his name shall be called upon them c. I have made choice of this Scripture as setting forth the Covenant made with Abraham or rather renewed which God had made fourteen years before Gen. 15.18 but herein gave a more full expression of his entring into Covenant with him Wherein you may observe three things 1 That there is a Covenant the Lord will deal with Abraham in a Covenant way the Lord will bring him into the bond
of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 2 The Author of this Covenant Jehovah the Lord God alsufficient and therefore he doth not here call it Abrahams Covenant but it is my Covenant 3 The fountain from which in God this Covenant does flow And I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly This Covenant is a free gift and an act meerly of free grace and so much doth Abraham acknowledge immediately for he falls upon his face to shew that he could never be thankful enough The property of a thankful soul is this the more mercy it receives from God and the more boldness it may have with God and with the greater confidence he may come to him with the greater reverence he does walk towards the Lord for there is nothing that a gracious heart fears more than goodness and he is lowest in himself when the Lord exalts him highest by his Grace And this doth the Lord repeat three times I will make a Covenant with thee and my Covenant shall be with thee and vers 7. I will establish my Covenant with thee I will cause my Covenant to arise that is I will raise up such a relation between me and thee I will take thee into Covenant with my self and I will enter into Covenant with thee and this he doth repeat so often as Mercer does observe partly to confirm the Faith of Abraham in the promised mercy partly to set forth the greatness of the mercy which no words were sufficient to express also the repetition does stir up and awaken Abraham yet further to consider of the greatness of the mercy of God to him in it and the greatness also of his engagement to God thereby And from hence the first observation that I shall give you is from looking upon Abrahams Covenant as being the same with that God made with all the faithful Gal. 3. ult Doct. After man was fallen and had broken the first Covenant the Lord out of his free Grace hath made with his people a second Covenant and a better Covenant In the handling hereof are four things to be cleared 1 The Person that makes the Covenant who it is Jehovah El-shaddai 2 That God will after the fall as well as before deal with his Elect in a Covenant-way 3 The Lord hath the first and the chief hand in it I will do it I even I and therefore he doth every where call it my Covenant 4 That the fountain of this Covenant is from Gods free Grace 1. The Person that makes it the Author of this Covenant and here there are two things 1 That all the persons in the Trinity do enter into Covenant and thereby bind themselves to make themselves over unto the Elect and that will appear to you by these Considerations 1 They have all of them the same nature and essence the same will and have all a hand in the same acts as Creation is the act of them all so they do all concur in making of the Covenant Father Son and Holy Ghost 2 This is a Covenant of peace and reconciliation and the Son and the Spirit are as truly offended with the sin of man and had a hand in the first Covenant and their authority was as truly despised in the first transgression as the authority of the Father and a dishonour was put upon them also and therefore there was as much need that they should be reconciled and enter into a Covenant with man for his Salvation Bern. Ser. 1. de adventu Domini as God the Father Yea some Divines conceive that the first transgression of Angels and men was chiefly against the Son and some of our own Divines as Reinolds in Psal 110. pag. 421. say That the first sin of man was principally committed against the Son it being an affectation of that which did properly belong to him to be like unto God in Wisdom and also in this was sown the seed of the unpardonable sin which was to be the fatal sin under the second Covenant and therefore as the mercy was the more glorious that they would undertake Offices in this Covenant for reconciliation so there was the greater necessity that they should also join and be taken into the Covenant 3 If we consider the person that does transact this business and strike up this Covenant with Abraham who though he did it as the Word of God in the name of all the persons yet it was the Son who did immediately speak in it as Glassius expounds Job 33.3 the word is there The breath of the Almighty and Psal 91.1 where the same word is used it is the shadow of the Almighty c. 4 If we consider that the Son speaks of himself in Covenant as well as his Father for it is by this Covenant that the Lord is the God of Abraham because therein he did promise so to be now Exod. 3.2 6. the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Moses and saith I am the God of thy fathers the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac c. Act. 7.30 and the Angel of the Lord is by Scripture plainly proved to be God the Son and it 's generally or for the most part consented unto by all Divines ancient and modern Mal. 3.1 and it may be that having the great hand in striking up the Covenant he is therefore called the Angel of the Covenant 2. Though all the persons enter into Covenant with the Saints yet the person that the Scripture says we do chiefly enter into Covenant with and that hath the main and first hand therein is God the Father 1. Because it is said in Scripture to be a Covenant of peace and reconciliation and therefore it doth suppose an enmity and a war Now though sin was committed against all the Persons yet the suite against sinners in Scripture does chiefly run in God the Father's name as in all Societies there is usually one in whose name all their suites are commenced therefore 2 Cor. 5.18 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself he speaks ãâã of God the Father who does reconcile us unto himself by Jesus Christ and therefore we are said to be reconciled to God and the work of the reconciliation of a sinner Christ calls his Fathers business and he is said to be an Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2.1 Sin is an offence to all the Persons they having all a hand in mans Creation and all of them joining in giving man a Law and entring into Covenant with him in his Creation but in Scripture the suite against sin is said to run every where in the Fathers name and our reconciliation is unto him and therefore it is the Father that has the great hand in the Covenant as the person reconciled 2. Because in the Scripture the other Persons have their peculiar Offices which they have voluntarily undertaken in this Covenant to reconcile men unto God and therefore both are said to be
Because the Lord will honour his Son as the second Adam and the glory of the first Adam was a Covenant and an Image and so shall the second Adam be And he must have a seed also to whom these shall be conveyed Isa 53.8 The word signifies generation In whom he shall see his seed and prolong his days as Psal 72. and Christ is his Son in both generation and succession naturally as they bear his Image and legally as they stand under his Covenant and the Lord will honour the second Adam as he did the first in both these the Lord having made Adam the type of him that was to come 3. That hereby the Lord might honour the Creature the Covenant is the staff of beauty because it is the great beauty and glory of any people that God hath taken them into Covenant Zach. 11.10 specially if we consider the second Covenant to be Matrimonial and the Lord doth thereby betroth him unto himself in loving kindness and mercy and faithfulness as Hos 2.18 the great honour of the people of Israel Deut. 26.18 was that they were a people peculiar unto God thence he is called the God of Israel and this is the great honour of the Saints which makes them more excellent than their neighbours because they have God so nigh them to be their God in Covenant 4. That it may be the greater obligation unto men to obedience Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant with thee thou shalt therefore keep my Covenant And it is the great answer unto all Temptations I am in Covenant with the Lord as a woman that is married it is a sufficient answer unto all other suiters I am already married unto another Jeâ 13.11 As a girdle to the loins of a man so have I caused the whole house of Israel to cleave unto me that they might be unto me for a name and for a praise The Lord bound them to him by Covenant and it is a great aggravation of sin that the Lord loves us and we forget the Covenant of our God therefore Adultery is aggravated above all other sins Hos 3.2 A woman beloved of her husband yet an adulteress how abominable is it 5. To sweeten obedience and make it the more free and voluntary when a man takes it upon himself and gives the hand to the Lord 2 Chron. 30.7 8. which was the custom amongst men when they entred into Covenant Ezek. 17.18 and that men might see that their good always goes along with their duty and that God that did command to obey did promise to reward and therefore did it not ex indigentia sed potentia out of indigence but from power Christs goodness extends not unto God as munificentia by way of munificence Austin puts the difference between man and God in this as the Earth drinks up the water so doth the Sun-beams also one out of its own necessity but the other out of its power so God requires duty out of bounty for your good always that he may reward it Grace does not destroy but raise and rectifie self-love Christ in his obedience had a glory set before him and so had Moses a respect to the recompence of reward There is a love of reward which is lawful when it is not this that is the only thing that lancheth a man forth in a duty but only fills his sails but when it is mercenary love and has respect to nothing in the duty but the loaves this is sinful and it is this Covenant that makes the yoke of Christ easie and profitable having an eye to the exceeding great and precious promises which engages a man to have respect to all the Commandments for the Lord doth delight to allure men into ways of holiness and duty Hos 2.14 Lastly the Lord will have it so 1 That by the promises of this Covenant he may sanctifie a man change his image and make him partaker of the Divine nature and that every one of them may carry the soul continually to Christ as streams to the fountain 2 Pet. 1.4 in whom they are Yea and Amen 2 That this may be the ground of a working faith and a lively hope and a fervent prayer all which are grounded only upon the promises of this Covenant for had there not been a Covenant between God and us there had been no place for faith no ground for hope and no room for the prayer of faith which only is bottomed upon a promise 3 Whatever is done in this Covenant it is God that has the first and chief hand therein and we do not enter into Covenant with him but he enters into Covenant with us first though the Covenant be mutual yet it is called the Lords Covenant as Christ faith unto his Disciples Joh. 15.16 You have not chosen me but I have chosen you they did chuse Christ as every believing soul doth but the love first began on Christs part and so it does also in this Covenant 1 Joh. 4.10 Not that we loved him but he loved us and me love him because he loved us first so we do not begin the Covenant with God but the Lord doth begin with us and the motion came from him alone God the Father is not passive in it but active he was content that Christ should reconcile us to him As it was to David an acceptable service of Joab in reconciling his Son Absalom to him because his heart did run out to him so God the Father is active in this work he is in Christ reconciling the world and all that Christ does is by the Fathers appointment and he is his servant in it and it is the pleasure of the Lord and he doth love to have it so and had not he imployed Christ in this work there had never been a reconciliation between God and man As it is true by our Union with Christ we are joined to or as the word signifies glewed to the Lord yet the Union doth begin on Christs part first and Christ unites himself to us by the Spirit before we can by our faith be united to him so it is in the Covenant also it does begin on Gods part and as it was the Womans great dishonour to be first in the transgression so it is the Lords great glory to be first in the reconciliation And therefore when Adam after his fall stood trembling and could expect nothing but a sentence of condemnation the Lord was pleased to reveal a new Covenant to him for the Text saith he was afraid and he hid himself so unto Abraham the motion of a Covenant was from the Lord and not from Abraham There is a Grace preceding which works Grace and there is also a Grace co-operating that acts Grace but it is preventing Grace that is the first § 3. The main part of this Covenant is transacted by God without us which will appear if we consider the particulars of it 1. The Purpose and intention of
paid in no coyn but Love again 3 The love and free-grace of God can do man no good unless it doth work in you love to him again and as he loves you freely so do you love him thankfully as no benefit that comes from him is saving to you unless it proceed from love so there is no duty that comes from you is pleasing unto him unless it proceed from love and the proper fruit of this love is to work in you love to him again 4 If you despise his Love you shall surely feel his wrath and there is nothing in the world that doth inflame the wrath of God and make his fire burn so fiercely as Grace despised and Love turned into wantonness For if Love will not win you what will Vse 3 3. How should this comfort us when we do turn to God and specially how should it encourage a back-sliding sinner to return No man hath such misgiving thoughts as he hath Erubescit conscientia erubescit oratio c. Tert. Hos 14.4 but yet remember he will receive you graciously Return you back-sliding children he will heal your back-sliding and love you freely There is no sin so great that free-grace cannot pardon there is no mercy so good that free-grace cannot bestow and therefore above all things beg of the Lord that the apprehensions of this Love may be shed abroad in your hearts it is this only that can make the promise sure because it is of Grace this will assist us in all duties arm us against all temptations sustain us in all conditions answer all objections that can be made against the peace and comfort of the soul and truly when all works in a man cease and the guilt of sin doth wear out the testimony of blood and the filth of sin the testimony of water and the soul hath nothing to fly to he is then fain to cast anchor here rest upon the Grace of God in the Covenant who promises mercy freely loves for his own sake and because he will to shew the absoluteness of his will and the unchangeableness of his Counsel towards poor sinners for ever Cogitatio suffulta est as de Deiu upon the place Isa 26.3 and here the soul is staid in the greatest desertions and darkness that can be and there is a sweet peace that follows in his soul and there is nothing can stay sinking thoughts and spirits like this when apprehensions of free-grace are put under a soul to support it That there is nothing can separate from the love of God that being the first cause there can nothing arise de novo that can make it void and of no effect CHAP. II. The Covenant of Grace as made primarily with Christ the second Adam Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ SECT I. The Covenant made with Christ Personal in regard of his Office § 1. WE have formerly spoken of the Person that made this Covenant whose Covenant it is and who had a chief hand therein it is the Lords Covenant We do now come unto the second thing and that is the Persons that are taken into this Covenant with whom this Covenant was made The first Covenant was made with the first Adam and with all the posterity that came from him by natural generation and is therefore fitly called Foedus Naturae the Covenant of Nature The second Covenant is made with the second Adam and with all those that are in him and because it belongs not unto all therefore is stiled Foedus Gratiae the Covenant of Grace and this Scripture holds forth a threefold subordination of the persons received into this Covenant 1 Christ 2 those that are in Christ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Oecum in loc Rom. 2.4 3 their seed also The Apostle had proved in the former part of the Chapter that men are justified by faith only and not by the works of the Law and that the same way of Justification that there was unto Abraham God did intend to justifie all the Elect by for Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness and he was herein the common father of all that should believe For they that are of faith the same are the children of Abraham the father of the Circumcision and of the Uncircumcision also and therefore he received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised Now Abraham being herein a common root and father unto both Jews and Gentiles there was but one way of Justification for both and that for ever And whereas it is objected that Abraham was justified by faith before the Law was given but the Law being published and that in the form of a Covenant this do and live this seems to disannul and to make void the promise and the ancient way of Justification of Abraham and to set up another Now the Apostle comes to prove the stability and unchangeableness of this Covenant from the manner and custom amongst men and their transactions one with another ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The word in the Greek signifies both a Covenant and a Testament and therefore we render it for both one in the Text and the other in the Margent pactionem so Beza Testamentum so the Vulgar Now if a man make a bargain and confirm ingross and seal it and deliver it to the benefit of another it becomes unchangeable and irrevocable to the person that did it and he is bound to it and cannot revoke it or if a man make a Testament and then die it is amongst men counted sacred and no man can diminish or add thereunto If men whose Wills are mutable who may err and repent do by their own acts disenable themselves to revoke their Covenants much more the great God who is in his Wisdom infinite able to foresee all inconveniencies that nothing can arise de novo that he knew not of before and who is in his purposes unchangeable and cannot repent surely if he make a Covenant it is sure and stable that no after-acts of his shall make it void and of none effect but to Abraham and his seed was the Covenant thus made long before the Law was given therefore the Law given afterward cannot make it void and if the Covenant be the same then the way of Justification and Blessedness must be still the same Here are three things to be expounded 1 What is meant by the Promises 2 How Abraham is here to be considered in receiving of the Promises 3 What is meant by Christ here this one seed to whom the Promises were made 1. By Promises the whole Covenant of Grace is meant He doth call it the Covenant in the former verse and the Promise in the singular number in the verse following and the reason is because the main of the Covenant doth
in the Law is to present another and act for him as in his stead as an Attourney or an Ambassador 5 Christ is their Intercessor he offers their sacrifices and attains all mercies for them He offers them sacrifices mixed with his own odours Isa 53. last vers Rev. 8.3 5. for his blood is a speaking blood and it is always sprinkled before the mercy seat 6 He must come again and fetch them and present them unto his Father as a glorious Church before Men and Angels saying Here I am and the Children that thou hast given me and this Chrysostom doth conceive to be the Kingdom that is the Church which Christ shall give up unto his Father 1 Cor. 15.24 2. Now follows the promise if Christ doth perform this in obedience to his Father not seeking his own glory but the glory of him that sent him God doth assure him 1 of assistance in his work he shall have all the power of God ingaged to carry him through it as Isa 42.4 6. I will hold thy hand and thou shalt not be discouraged Isa 45.1 2 Of acceptance a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and therefore compared unto odours the presentation of it should be sweet unto God Rev. 8.4 3 Of deliverance that he should not lye under the guilt of sin but be justified Isa 50.8 For the debt was paid and the bond was cancelled justified in the spirit nor under the power of death it was impossible he should be held by death Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell c. 4 He should have a seed Psal 72.22 His name shall be continued amongst his posterity Isa 5.3 He shall see his seed and who shall declare his generation 5 He shall have rule and dominion a Kingdom John 5.22 not only in the Church but over all things to the Church a providential as well as a spiritual Kingdom Eph. 1. last Isa 42.4 He shall set judgment in the earth Mic. 4.3 He shall judge among the Nations and he shall govern as King of Saints Rev. 11.17 6 He shall have a worship and a glory Isa 5.5 Nations shall run to thee because I have glorified thee A name above every name a worship from Men and Angels Heb. 1.6 and a publick honour as the Author of all their salvation at that last and great day when he shall the judge the World in righteousness and shall come to be admired in his Saints who shall be with him in Heaven for ever For they shall enter into their masters joy and this is the reward the Lord promises Christ for his services with which he comforts himself Isa 45.4 3. Unto these Articles both parties agree and 4. they are bound by their own consent 1 Christ doth accept of this office upon the Fathers terms and doth freely submit unto the Fathers will he takes the nature of man and in that nature subjects himself Isa 50.5 He gave his face to the smiters and he did the work that the Father sent him to do and he failed not in a tittle thereof and he doth it freely and cheerfully 't is as his meat and drink Lo I come to do thy will O God And he is now in Heaven by vertue of office Psal 40.8 as he is God the Fathers servant as our ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. 2 Upon these promises he doth exercise faith and his soul rests upon them Isa 5.7 9. The Lord will help me my God shall be my strength Heb. 2.13 Psal 16.10 he is near that justifies me he will not leave my soul in hell and upon the Cross he cries out My God c. It is his God by Covenant Christ is the highest pattern of believing and as a publick person trusts God for all the benefits of the Covenant for himself and us 3 The promises of this Covenant he doth follow by a continued Prayer for he doth obtain it by Prayer as we do Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee c. John 17.4 Now glorifie me now let the glory of the Godhead shine forth in the humane nature the time of my suffering being ended 4 All the glory that Christ has now in Heaven and Earth is nothing else but in performance of this Covenant that the Father made with him God hath exalted him and he hath received the promise of the holy Ghost Act. 2.33 Christ must first suffer and afterwards enter into his glory and he hath fulfilled it and the Lord hath given him as a light to the Gentiles Isa 49.8 and for salvation to the ends of the earth 5 He is in constant expectation of the full accomplishment hereof when the glory of Christ in his mystical body shall be full and his joy full and his sufferings full and his enemies perfectly subdued and his people perfectly glorified Heb. 10.13 and all this by vertue of the Covenant that past between God and him grounded upon the love and faithfulness of God in Covenant being a God that keeps covenant for ever § 4. Now the Uses and Corollaries that follows from this part of the Covenant which was made with Christ in reference unto the trust that he hath undertaken are many and of very great use both for matter of instruction and of practice Use 1. This gives us a great light into the election of Christ The Scripture doth commonly assert that he is the elect of God chosen both to duty and glory a work that he was to do Isa 42.1 and a reward that he was to receive and we are said to be chosen in him Ephes 1.4 which notes properly the order in which God elects his Saints First Christ God and Man as the head as primus foederatus the prime sederate after whom and in whom in the order of nature all the body are elected so that the grace of election begins first in Christ our head and descends unto us in him it notes the order in which we are elected and not the cause of our election not that we were first elected and then Christ chosen by occasion of our fall but he is the first born in the womb of Gods election The first born amongst many brethren Now the election of man is an act of sovereignty and meerly comes under the will of God Rom. 3. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy And as the Potter has power over the clay c. But Christ as God could not come under an act of his will as election is but by his own consent Ephes 1.5 It is according to the good pleasure of his will he is appointed Heir of all things as he was the Son he was haeres natus a born heir that being an act of his nature but as the head of the Church so he was hares constitutus a constituted heir and comes under an act of Gods will Christ was elected to be Gods great servant in reference unto man and that under a double
populi nomine fidem obedientiam So that the righteousness of the Covenant being only to be found in him and to be made ours by imputation and a gracious acceptation as we are one with him thence it doth plainly appear that the Covenant is made with him in the first place and we come to have an interest in the everlasting righteousness of it at second hand as we are one with him and so we are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. last Quest But is not the righteousness of the Covenant required of us also Answ It is true that perfect obedience in nature and life is required of us as well as of Adam in the state of innocency and so far as we come short of it we sin but yet in the Covenant of Grace it is not required as the righteousness of the Covenant and as that righteousness by which I am to stand righteous before God as afflictions in the Covenant of Grace are not laid upon the Saints for satisfaction to God but for correction c. but it is required and that perfectly 2 Cor. 7.10 That we should cleanse our selves from all filthiness and perfect holiness in the fear of God to manifest the truth of our union with Christ The branch cannot bear fruit of it self Joh. 15.5 without me saith Christ you can do nothing and you do hereby manifest that you are one with me As James 2.24 Abraham was justified by works according to James a man is justified not by Faith only and yet Paul saith that a man is justified by Faith alone without the works of the Law Rom. 4. A mans faith doth justifie his person before God and a mans works do justifie his faith before men and it is that we may shew forth the vertues of him that hath called us 1 Pet. 2.9 and that it may appear that our union with Christ is not a notion and no more but that it is real and powerful and our Faith is lively because it is a working Faith and this righteousness now imputed unto us as we are in him he will never leave till he hath perfected in us Ephes 5.27 That he may present us unto himself without spot or wrinkle this is a work that he hath undertaken unto his Father but yet so as the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found in him alone and made to be imputed only as we are one with him in Gods account and acceptation so that still the Covenant is made with him primarily because in him only the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found and comes unto us at second hand 4. All the promises of the Covenant are made unto him primarily and unto us only at second hand and as we are one with him they are made first unto him and therefore they are called the sure mercies of David and Ephes 1.3 Isa 55.3 God has blessed us with all spiritual mercies in heavenly places in Christ 2 Cor. 1.20 they are made in him that is unto us as we are in him and so they are accomplished If the promises of God were by deed of gift only from the free grace of God they might be made unto us immediately for God may give to whom he will but they are all of them a jointure or an endowment upon a Marriage which can neither be either rationally or legally claimed without an interest in the person All the Promises are as the lines and circumference they all meet in union with Christ as the center for they are all made unto Christ and unto us only so far as we are members of Christ Gal. 3. last Being Christs we are become heirs of the Promise and no otherwise God deals with a people in this as a Father takes an inheritance of a Child in his infancy or it may be unborn and he keeps it in his own hands for him till he comes to years and then puts him into possession thereof So it is with the Saints they are maintained a long time in the womb of Gods election before they are brought forth in a work of calling and regeneration and being called they are not capable of receiving of many of the promises they are in their infancy but yet these promises are conveyed from God to Christ as an inheritance which he receives as a publick person a common Father in their behalf which in Gods time he will put them also in possession of 5. All the graces of the Covenant be first bestowed upon him The Spirit as the Oil is poured first upon the head and afterwards it runs down upon the skirts of his garments Psal 133.2 So Psal 45.7 He is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows and 1 John 2.20 We receive an unction from the holy one Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we receive grace for grace 1 Joh. 5.11 God has given us eternal life and that life is in his son It is laid up in him as in a common treasury even the whole Image of God that he doth intend to bestow upon us in grace and glory it is given unto us and laid up in him for us but yet it is in him and not in us he has received the spirit without measure he is the Son of righteousness Isa 6.57 and our healing is in his wings There are as you may see three steps or degrees of conveyance in this life 1 The living Father as the fountain 2 Christ saith I live by the Father And it is given him to have life in himself as the chanel or way of conveyance 3 You live by me All the graces of the Covenant do actually belong unto him and unto us as we are one with him and therefore it is commonly called the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as that which is originally in him as in the fountain or principle and conveyed unto us only by union as we are members of his body so we have an influence from him as the head and no otherwise 6. All the priviledges of the Covenant do primarily belong to him and unto us only as we are in him he is the Son and from him we receive power to become the Sons of God he is the heir Jo. 1.12 Psal 8.4 Heb. 2. and we co-heirs with him Rom. 8.17 He has put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen c. This is spoken primarily and principally of the man Christ Jesus he is called Gods servant and in him we are servants also he is a King and a Priest and we are made by him Kings and Priests unto God the Father Rev. 1.6 he is the first beloved and we in him he first accepted and we in him he first justified and we in him he first overcomes and we in him we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our Testimony we sit together in heavenly places He judges the world and we in him and when we come to
Covenant that by which all the elect should be saved 2 Sam. 23.5 This is all my hope and all my salvation says David c. Now there is no creature that is intrinsically unchangeable either in his being or working the best of the creatures the Angels are subject to change he is said to charge them with folly not with actual but with possible folly all of them for they be of themselves and in their own nature subject to change and so was man before his fall Therefore much more must he be so afterwards If the Lord should have received a satisfaction for his sin in Christ and afterwards left him in the hand of his own Counsels man would have immediately brought himself into the same condition and would have had great need of a new satisfaction and so Christ might have suffered often and have become as the beasts were a daily sacrifice therefore Christ is called the surety of the better Covenant Heb. 7.22 not only a surety of the old Covenant in paying our debt but of the better Covenant in undertaking our duty that by the one he may deliver us from sin and by the other he may confer upon us immortality and life And thus God could not looking upon man as fallen enter into a Covenant of Grace and reconciliation with him immediately without a surety for satisfaction to pay the debt he owed and therefore it must a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator and so the Lord enters into Covenant with Christ the surety and takes his word for both which we were never able to perform and so he doth sweeten the heart of man to draw near to God and in him we have access with boldness but not in our selves immediately Jer. 31.20 Ephes 3.12 3dly In him alone is the righteousness and the holiness of this Covenant laid up and therefore with him only must this Covenant be made and could be with none other 1 As to the righteousness of the Covenant we see with whomsoever the Lord made a Covenant the righteousness of the Covenant was laid up in him that he had an original power from God to perform the duties of that Covenant as God made a Covenant with the Angels and therefore their fall was a voluntary defection from the Law of their Covenant They abode not in the truth but left their first habitation But we find that all the Angels fell âot but only those that had a hand in and did consent to the transgression and from âence we do rightly conclude that the Covenant was made with every particular Angel for âimself and not with any common head but that every one stood by his own righteousâess but men being to come into the World successively in their several generations and ãâã have their being from another and not all at once therefore the Lord doth make a Coveâant with them by a common head a publick person for them and in him the righteousâess and grace of the Covenant must be deposited Rom. 41 11. and therefore God condemns man by impuâation of anothers sin and he justifies man by imputation of anothers righteousness and therefore though the woman were first in the transgression yet mankind is not said to sin in her âut in Adam who was the common head Now unto man fallen there could not be a righteousness laid up in any other for 1 the righteousness of the second Covenant must be a perfect righteousness such as may make satisfaction not only for the sins of a few but of all the elect of God not only under the New-Testament but under the Old not only those that had been committed before but such as have been since those that are past and those also to come and this he could never do Rom. 3.25 Heb. 9. unless there were a dignity and worth in his person answerable to and beyond all the persons whom he did represent Therefore there must be a worth in Christs person above all the Saints and infinitely beyond theirs and if he stands in our stead he must make God amends and that is only as being God and Man by the hypostatical Union for the person being God-man he is most worthy Now all his sufferings and obedience became the sufferings and obedience of him that was God-man and thus he became a Son of righteousness Mal. 4.2 2 Cor. 5. last the righteousness of his humane nature being the righteousness of God not the essential righteousness of the Divine nature which is infinite and cannot be imputed to a creature but the righteousness wrought in his humane nature unto which the Godhead gave an efficacy and excellency and so he is a full and perfect fountain of righteousness as the Sun is a fountain of light to the World so is his righteousness to all the elect of God 2 The righteousness of the Covenant must be an everlasting righteousness or else the Covenant could never be an everlasting Covenant Dan. 9.24 for if the righteousness of the Covenant be broken the Covenant it self is made void as we see in the Covenant made with Adam and the Angels but such a righteousness could not be laid up in any meer creature which is in its nature subject to change therefore it 's said in Job God put no trust in the Angels even the Angels that fell not Job the election of God kept them from falling and they are now confirmed by Christ by whom as ministring Spirits they are imployed in the second Covenant and kept that they fall not he being the head of all principalities and powers 3 The righteousness of this Covenant must have a merit with it or else it will never answer Gods end nor our necessity for if Christ had paid the old debt and we had been restored into the primitive state this had not answered the riches of Gods Grace in the new Covenant nor mans necessity there is not only ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a redemption price to be paid but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ephes 1.14 a purchase to be made of an inheritance the adoption of Sons to be attained and a Glory to be bestowed Now this could not be in any of the creatures for they were all bound unto the Law and when they had done all that was commanded they were unprofitable servants it was no more than was due and for themselves only they had no righteousness to spare to another and if they had it would not answer this legal debt there is nothing of a sinner can give a legal merit this only can be from him the excellency of whose person doth exempt him from the Law unless by voluntary submission he be made under the Law and by his subjection is the Law glorified more than all the transgressions of the creature could abase it 2 The grace of the Covenant could be laid up in no other and God will not deal with man being a sinner immediately in any thing the
sure rather than to bring in Christ in this Covenant but as our surety and servant barely to supply our defects Object § 3. The Covenant is chiefly seen in the promises of it and is therefore called The covenant of promise and preferred before the old Covenant because stablished upon better promises and therefore that which in this verse is called the promise made to Abraham and his seed is verse 17. called the Covenant so that the nature of the Covenant is chiefly seen in the promises thereof the Covenant being nothing else but a confluence and collection of promises as the Sea is of Waters and all the promises meet in the Covenant as the beams in the Sun or lines in the Center Now there are many promises in this Covenant that cannot be made first unto Christ and then to us for there are some promises made unto Christ alone and cannot belong unto us but unto him only virtute muneris by virtue of his office namely that he should see no corruption that he should by his knowledge and righteousness justifie many that he should see of the travail of his soul and should dye as a grain that he might not abide alone So there are many promises that belong to his members only and cannot be made to Christ as the promise of giving Christ yea Gen. 3.15 even the promise of Christ himself is but part of this Covenant and the very bestowing of Christ is a fruit of the Covenant How then can the Covenant be made first with Christ when it is by this Covenant that Christ is given And there are some promises that cannot be applied to Christ without dishonour to him the promise of pardon of sin giving repentance taking away the heart of stone healing backsliding and pouring upon them clean water that they shall be cleansed from their filthiness now to say that those promises are made to Christ which suppose corruption and imply imperfection were very dishonourable to Christ who hath no sin to be pardoned no corruption to be purged no backsliding to be healed no grace to be perfected But he hath a fullness in him and that fontis of a fountain for himself and to overflow upon all his members How can these promises be looked upon as made unto Christ the head of the Covenant Answ 1. In the Covenant made with Christ God the Father's giving him is to be considered two ways 1 As it is an honour unto him 2 As it is an act of special grace and mercy unto us 1 As it is an honour done to him and so the first promise of giving Christ is made to Christ Isa 42.6 the Lord doth promise to give him as a Covenant to the Nations For the Lords intention was from eternity to glorifie his Son and to exalt him as the Prince of the second Covenant for Gods intention was to glorifie himself in Christ two ways 1 In a way of meer grace by conferring upon his humane nature the highest honour and excellency that a created nature was capable of by the personal union with the Godhead which Divines commonly call gratia unionis the grace of Union that thereby there might be the fullest communication of the Godhead upon him and the highest complacency and delight in him 2 In a way of reward Phil. 2.7 8. 1 As a reward of his own obedience unto the will of his Father therefore God hath highly exalted him 2 As a reward of his sufferings for his members for by the acceptation of the righteousness of Christ for them and imputing it unto them Christ is rewarded by whom they have access with boldness to the throne of Grace which though it be justice unto Christ yet it is mercy unto us And thus will the Lord make Christ the fountain of all good unto his elect and this is as you have heard first promised unto him that the Lord will prepare him a body give him a humane nature take him into personal Union with himself and in that nature give him unto man with a Covenant and an Image and so the giving of Christ is by promise first made unto him and his coming in the flesh is but the fulfilling and the accomplishment of this promise 2 We may consider it as an act of special grace and mercy unto us and so to us Isa 9.6 a son is born and to us a child is given So he is the promised seed unto the Saints that promise which all the Saints of old lived in expectation of that waited for the consolation of Israel so the giving of Christ unto the World is by promise made unto the Saints and so the giving of Christ unto the Saints hath its foundation laid in a promise made unto Christ to give him as an head with a Covenant and an Image and having promised this unto Christ now he adds a promise unto the Saints that he would give him so unto them as the work of vocation in bringing of souls home unto Christ It is not so properly and formally a promise made to us as it is to Christ That God would let him see his seed and prolong his days upon earth and give him the heathen for his inheritance c. and all in pursuance of that antient Covenant between the Father and the Son when he did agree with him for all the elect and chuse them in him as their head and all that is done in time is the fulfilling of what the Father did promise the Son and they come unto us only at second hand as we are looked upon as one with Christ and so the Lord giving us unto Christ and Christ unto us and we being apprehended of him he gives us faith to apprehend him again So it is in this but so that the very giving of Christ is by promise made first unto Christ and then unto us as the other great promises are I will be thy God he is first Christs God and then our God and he is his God as Mediatour no way but by Covenant and our God in him And I will send my spirit he hath the promise first made to him to receive it in its fullness and dispense it and it is conveyed unto us only as we are one with him our head So the promise of Christ also is made unto him first as a point of special honour and unto us as a special favour 2. For the other sort of promises of pardoning of sin giving grace and repentance they are made first unto Christ as the price of his blood and part of his purchase and of that reward that the Lord did intend to bestow upon him for God gives no souls to Christ but those that he hath purchased and bestows no grace upon them but it is done unto Christ as a reward of his purchase and service and as a perfecting of his mystical body till they come unto the fulness of the age of the stature of Christ for the Church it self is a
Covenant only upon his account thou art by sin cut off from God the fountain of all blessings and thou must receive nothing from him immediately but in the hand of a Mediator It is as a King gives some great thing to a stranger at the request of a Favorite the man can only look upon himself as one that hath received his favour âut it is not for his own sake but for anothers my person is not accepted as in my self but in him nor my duties but as in him if God speak to us it is by him and if we speak to God it is by him so that we have nothing to do with God immediately nor receive any thing from him immediately but it is through the Angels hand the Angel of his presence and it belongs to us only by Union the debt iâ paid in him and our duty performed in him Here is nothing but matter of self-denial and abasement for us and we have a continual need for there is a proneness in all men being brought unto God to be too forward to câme unto him in their own names and not to exercise thoughts of Faith upon their Priest by whom they have access to God as they should do and there is no way to keep the Soul humble more than this * Tota vita nostra tentatio est ab insidiante superbiâ nec ipsa tuta est victoria Ambros Ephes 7.3 12. 3 It is of great use for a man to know his place and station for his consolation 1 In this that it being the Covenant made with Christ a man comes under Christs Covenant which is a better Covenant than that which Adam had given him or of the Angels themselves he now stands under the same Covenant that Christ himself is under as Mediator 2 It is of great consolation in this that whatever is required in the Covenant he is the surety so that the Lord hath laid help upon one that is mighty and it is primarily required of him and of us in him as he hath undertaken for us therefore though we want ability yet there is strength in him and he is ingaged to dispense it there is no worthiness in us but there is enough in him and he is ingaged by Covenant to present it to his Father for all the duties of the Covenant are required first of him and all the promises of the Covenant are dispensed first unto him Vse 2 § 2. The second Use is of Exhortation If the Covenant of Grace be made with Christ then if you would have an interest in Christs Covenant you must become one with him Thou art bound unto God by a double bond of creation and stipulation and that Covenant under which thou art by nature makes thee one with the first Adam and that bond of the Covenant hath held the Devil in chains of darkness which none can loose but he that loosed the pains of death he can loose the chains of darkness the curse and bond of the Covenant and that is by a translation into a better Covenant which is only by Union And to allure you and speak to your hearts consider the glories of that Covenant that was made with Christ into which I desire you to be translated 1 In this Covenant the Lord shall be thy God as he is Christs God and thy Father as he is Christs Father 2 Thou shalt be freed from the dominion of the Law The law has dominion over a man whilst he lives but saith Paul I through the law am dead to the law all that is good in the Law thou shalt have but all that is evil and hurtful thou shalt be freed from 3 From the guilt and dominion of sin from the guilt of sin for here is a righteousness without works in this Covenant God justifies the ungodly and from the dominion of sin Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over thee 4 By this Covenant the Spirit is given in all the gifts and graces of it 2 Cor. 3.6 5 By this Covenant the Angels are your servants and all the creatures are yours 6 By this Covenant the World stands and the government of the World is changed Isa 49.8 He has committed all government to the son John 5.22 a Kingdom he hath received from his Father and there is yet a further addition to his dominion that he is to receive when all the persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down Dan. 7.14 and when the residue of the Gentiles shall come in Isa 66.19 Pul Lud and they that have not heard of his name shall come unto him for the coming in of the Jews shall be a new resurrection even life from the dead If this be so that the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ as the second Adam then there are not two Covenants one made with Christ and another with the Saints but as they make up one body with him so it is one and the same Covenant under which they both stand only in this Covenant Christ hath the preeminence he being the head and we the members and therefore it is made with him primarily and with us as in him so that without an interest in him we have no title to it 1. Consider that Christ is not alone in this Covenant it was not a Covenant made with him for himself but as a common person a representative head a second Adam that thereby he might become an everlasting Father to all the elect of God but the Covenant was made with him for your sake and that you might come under it as you were under the Covenant of the first Adam And therefore the Lord is said to give him as a Covenant to the Nations Isa 42.6 and chap. 49.8 The Covenant was not therefore made with him for himself Isa 42.6 and 49.8 but for our sake It 's questioned amongst Interpreters Why Christ is called the Covenant it self and not the person with whom it is made I find in Scripture that when the Lord would express any thing eminently he doth it in abstracto in the abstract Psal 12.2 that being put for the concrete with a commutation also of the subject the faithful fail it is fidelitates from the sons of men So Psal 68.19 He shall lead captivity captive that is a multitude captives And Ezek. 44.6 Thou shalt say unto the rebellion that is Jer. 50.31 to the rebellious house c. Pride is put for the person that was eminently proud So when the Lord would express the eminent and great hand that Christ hath in the Covenant of Grace he doth say he is the Covenant it self as he is said to be our righteousness our sanctification our reconciliation and our peace because these are gloriously wrought by him and he hath the chief and only hand in them and so he is here said to be the Covenant and that in two respects 1 Because the Covenant is made with him in himself and for his own sake
but made with us as in him and for his sake as fire is hot in it self and the Sun light in it self and all things else by participation as they receive from these so Christ is the Covenant because it is with him in himself originally and with us but as we are one with him 2 Because all parts of the Covenant lye upon him whatever is to be done in it if the Covenant be to be made he is the Mediator of it if it be to be confirmed he is the witness of it Isa 55.4 if to be published he is the Angel and if to be performed he is the surety And he is not a surety as other sureties are that enter into one and the same bond so as the creditor may seize on whom he will the debter or the surety and on the debter first for him we commonly call the principal but in this Covenant God takes Christs single bond for us all that so he might be sure of satisfaction and therefore he is said to lay help upon one that is mighty one able to pay and so to discharge us so God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5.19 not imputing their trespasses 2. If you have not an interest in this Covenant you are undone for all the happiness that the antient Saints had was by an interest in that Covenant and all the glory that they or we shall have is by vertue of this Covenant All the benefits of this Covenant are branched into these three sorts 1 Promises and they belong to none but the heirs of promise 2 Graces 3 Priviledges Gal. 4. we read there of a company of men that are Abrahams seed the children of the free-woman that are begotten under the Covenant of Grace and there is no promise or grace or priviledge whether in this life or the life to coââ that belongs unto any but those that are in the Covenant and have accepted it as it appears in the matter of the Sacraments in that of the Lords Supper for a mans self and that of Baptism for his child if a man be not himself within the Covenant the seal can do him no good no more than if a man that had gotten the writings of an heiress should conclude that he should inherit the Lands because he hath the writing whereas the ground thereof is interest in the person first and being made one with her then he doth seize upon the Land by a legal title and never till then so they are Abrahams seed to whom the Sacraments do belong And for that of Baptism the Lord gives a title from the parent to the child he doth not so in the other Acts 2.39 And the thing signified in Baptism the Soul being passive in a Child hath as good ground by Gods Covenant as by the mans profession yea better the mans profession being fallible than he can have any other way and it is a mans own interest in the Covenant that gives him title unto all those priviledges There are indeed membra praesumptiva of the Church of God to whom these priviledges do in appearance belong but not in truth and in reality unless they are within the Covenant 3. This is not a Covenant that is conveyed by nature but by consent Consider here 1 that there is a twofold Union the one natural and the other voluntary and by way of suretiship now we come under Adams Covenant by nature our union with him being natural for we are born under it but the Covenant of the second Adam is not so and therefore we come under Christs Covenant freely and by consent for our new birth is voluntary and our consent is free we are drawn and yet we come for Gods drawing makes men willing to come and therefore faith is commonly expressed by consent who ever will let him come Rev. 22. There is therefore no way of getting into Christs Covenant but by our consent by laying hold of his Covenant Esa 56.4 Esay 56.4 and this is that I would exhort you to the word in the original signifies to take fast hold of a thing and that strongly and with all a mans might as in Job 2.3 it is said of Job Job 2.3 that he did hold fast his integrity Satan and his friends would have plucked it from him and have made him to conclude against himself that he was an Hypocrite and his heart unsound before God but he yet held it and said I will not part with my integrity till I die and so Job 8.15 it 's said of a Hypocrite that made himself a house of gifts and common graces Job 8.15 and outward performances and upon this house he leans puts all his confidence and when God by the way comes and shews him the deceit of it and that it is but a sandy foundation upon which it is built the self-flattery of his own spirit and that it is but a Castle in the Air and will do him no good in the evil day the storm will overflow his hiding place yet the man holds it fast he will live and dye with them and will not cast away his own righteousness it is such a taking hold of the Covenant that is here meant with all a mans heart and might But you 'l say What is it for a man to take hold of Christs Covenant We have formerly heard that there are two wayes of conveyance either by way of gift or by way of dowry The promises and all the graces of the Covenant yea the Covenant it self is not bestowed upon us as a man would give a gift to another without any farther relation but it is by way of a dowry which you cannot have without the person so it is here Christ in the Covenant is a common person a second Adam and if we have an interest in him and be represented by him the Covenant belongs unto us but there can be no benefit in his Covenant without interest in his person As we see the ground and intendment of union is 1 John 5.11.12 that there may be a communion and a communication and all communion is grounded upon union and is the fruit of it Gal. 3. ult it 's our union with the first Adam that brings us under his Covenant wherefore as soon as a man becomes a man his Covenant and the curse of it takes hold on him and therefore Infants die so it was the union of Christ with us that brought him under our Covenant he was made of a woman under the Law Gal. 4.4 had he not been one with us he could never have stood in our stead living and dying so it is our being one with him that gives us an interest in his Covenant and brings us under it 2. The terms and condition of this union is that you shall receive and accept him and give up your selves to him I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Cant. 6.3 you must cut off
Saints their smell is as Lebanon and therefore is resembled to the Roses and Lillies Hos 14.7 which is the most fragrant smell else they are of no worth for they are done not for the worth of the thing but for the acceptance that they should find with the Lord and let him come and eat the fruit of his pleasant things It is the Lord before whom we must appear i. e. before the judgment seat of Christ and therefore to find acceptance with our Judge is our great concern Now how comes Christ to be accepted of God It is by the Covenant made with him and by vertue of the same Covenant we are accepted Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in his beloved our services in him are accepted and our persons also It 's your Covenant only that 's the ground of your acceptation as Luther says well it is not from the dignity and worth of the duties but from the nature of the Covenant by which they are offered and under which they stand 1 The Father loves you 2 The services are holy and from a holy heart But 3 it is from a Covenant in which the Lord hath promised to accept all his peoples services as fruits in Christ 8. And Lastly The glory of the Saints is the glory of Christ and it is the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven that makes Heaven the place of Glory it is to enter into your Masters joy and to be dissolved and be with Christ is a Saints hope were it only the reward of your own graces it were much but to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God is a great priviledg but O! what is it for a Soul to sit with Christ upon his Throne As he overcame and sat down with the Father upon his Throne so also shall we be exalted by him to sit upon his Throne in Heaven CHAP. III. The Covenant of Grace made with Believers opened and applied Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee SECT I. The Covenant as made with Believers explicated and demonstrated § 1. THat the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ primarily as the second Adam has been formerly cleared unto you but when we look farther into the Scripture we find also that God did establish that Covenant with the Faithful and with their seed and this the Text holds forth clearly to you when I have but premised this position That the Covenant that God made with Abraham is the same for substance with the Covenant under which the Saints under the New-Testament do and shall stand to the end of the world Luk. 1.72 which I conceive is to perform the mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the oath which he sware to our Father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of all our enemies might serve him without fear c. and Rom. 4.11 He received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the rigteousness of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised that he might be the Father of them that believe though they be not circumcised and the Father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only but do walk in the steps of the faith of our Father Abraham and therefore vers 16. he is said to be the Father of us all If you are Christs then are you Abrahams seed and heirs of the Promise and Galat. 4.28 now we brethren as Isaac was are children of the promise c. so that both Jews and Gentiles are Abrahams seed because they come under Abrahams Covenant therefore there is the same Covenant now for substance Act. 3.25 that was made with Abraham and hence Acts 3.25 't is said ye are the children of the Covenant which God made with your Fathers Therefore as Abrahams Covenant so the Covenant made with the Saints is made with them and with their seed Hence we do learn in the next place Doctrine Doctrine That the Covenant of grace that was principally made with Christ is also made with the faithful the members of Christ In the opening of this Doctrine there are three things to be spoken to 1 To prove that the Covenant is made with the Saints 2 To shew why it must be so 3 To shew the different manner how it 's made with Christ and with them 1. That the Covenant of grace is made with the Saints and they are all federates therein Rom. 5. 1 Cor. 15.47 will appear by these arguments 1. From the type of the first Adam for he is made the type of him that was to come Now the Covenant that God did make with Adam was not made with him only but with all his posterity as appears plainly because the curse of the Covenant being broken comes upon them all in Adam all dyed because in him all sinned now the Covenant must be as large as the Curse and the Curse coming upon them must argue the Covenant to be made with them and so it is in the second Covenant also God has not only taken Christ into Covenant but he being an everlasting Father has taken in all his seed for he is the Father of all the faithful and the Lord enters into Covenant with them also So that all his posterity were bound unto the same Covenant and to perform the same obedience or to endure the same Curse that he did if they did transgress And whereas it may be said then as all that was required of the first Adam lay upon his posterity so all that is required of the second lies upon his posterity also and as what Adam was to perform they were in their own persons to perform so what Christ did perform that also lies upon all his posterity to perform in this there is a great deal of difference between Adam and Christ the first Adam stood before God as a publick person as a representative head that is such a one as personates and acts the part of another by the allowance of the Law so that what he doth is by the Law accounted to be done by him whom he represents and what is done unto him is accounted by the Law to be done unto the other so in the Law an Attorney appears for another receives money or takes possession for another and that stands good in Law as if a man had done it in his own person and so Embassadors do represent the Princes or States from whence they come and from whom they are sent what they do the Prince that sends them is accounted by the Law of Nations to do if they act according to their commission and what is done unto them the Prince doth take as done unto himself c. And so indeed Adam was a Common or a Publick person standing in our
of grace that all the persons have undertaken peculiar offices for the good of men and no men have benefit by them but they that are brought under this Covenant it is for their sake that the Father has given the Kingdom into the hand of his Son and what benefit other men have by it it is but as the beasts have and in some respect as the Devils have they have some less degree of torment and that 's granted them for their sakes who are heirs of promise and for their sake the spirit is the prorex and has undertaken to rule under Christ all the Offices of Christ are for their sake and for their good and all the Offices of the Spirit either inlightning convincing sanctifying or comforting they are all for their good and the common works of the Spirit that do fall upon any wicked men in the world is by the Saints Covenant or else you should have no more of them oh hear all you wicked ones than the Devils and damned in Hell have at this day Now the great plot of the Gospel in the new Covenant is not only to honour the Attributes of the nature but also to honour the Persons in the hearts of men this was the way for the Persons to undertake certain appropriated works in the dayes of the Gospel in the administration of the Covenant and all the parts thereof Now as you will have no benefit by the attributes of the divine nature but they all make against you and will at last day bring in their several charges against your souls that are out of this Covenant not only the Holiness and Justice of God but even the Mercy and Patience of God will cry against you Justice Lord for Mercies sake so you will have no benefit by the Offices of the persons but they will all of them be used against you and bring in their several charges against you Christ as a King a Prophet and a Priest will charge thee then shall the King say Go ye cursed and the Spirit of God as a Spirit that has been convincing thee and inlightning thee in thy life time shall condemn thee and Christ as a Judge will condemn thee and the Spirit of Christ as a Spirit of Bondage will in Hell perfectly torment thee for as in Heaven the Spirit shall be perfectly a Spirit of Adoption so he shall be in Hell perfectly a Spirit of Bondage for ever 3. Unless thou art in Covenant this way the Lord regards thee not nor any thing that thou dost an instance of it we have Heb. 8.9 There are Gods own people whom he took into Covenant with himself and for the outward part of the Covenant they did enter into Covenant with him but yet their hearts did not consent unto the terms of the Covenant and therefore they brake the Covenant The meaning is not that ever they were truly and indeed spiritually in Covenant for then the Covenant could never have been broken but they were only in the Covenant externally but their hearts did not come up unto the spiritual part of the Covenant and therefore the Lord saies I regard them not I took no care for them I made no account of them at all whatever became of them it was all one to me as it is with us of things that we have no regard of and for God not to regard a man or a people is the sum of all Judgement whatever did befall them the Lord pitied them not assisted them not c. But in the place whence it is taken Jer. 31.33 there is something more in it it is I Lorded it over them when I consider how the name Baal is used Hos 2.16 he did exercise his Lordly authority over them when they would not be ruled by him as a Husband he doth then lay Judgement and Chastisement upon them as a Lord he did not regard their persons whereas precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints yea he puts their Tears in his Bottle c. and he does pour out their blood as dust and their flesh as dung and he regards them not Psal 49. but man though in honour if he understands not becomes like the beasts that perish Without that Covenant he may be compared to the Beasts that perish pardon the expression but it 's suitable unto the intention of the Holy Ghost he is unto God counted no better than a Dog that dyes in a ditch And as it is for their persons so it is for their services also a man that is out of Covenant the Lord accepts nothing that he doth unto Cain and his offering he had no respect But a man in Covenant with God the words of his mouth the meditations of his heart find acceptance with God and be to him incense of a sweet savour their persons and their services their smell is as the Wine of Lebanon Hos 14. according to the promise of acceptation but all the services of men out of the Covenant are abominable to God as the Grapes of Sodom all the acts performed by them that are in Covenant are as the Grapes of Lebanon your works are very acceptable The Sun of righteousness shall rise upon you with healing in his Wings but for all others that are not in Covenant with him the Lord does not respect their offering or take it with good will at their hands but he saith Mal. 2.13 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices Incense is an abomination unto me it is a burden even your solemn assemblies are an offence to me I will not smell in them I am weary to bear them and when you kill an Ox it is as if you killed a man Isa 66.3 and he that burns Incense as if he blessed an Idol because you have chosen your own wayes therefore the Lord abhors you 4. This is a matrimonial Covenant and it is a Covenant of friendship it is of this Covenant that the Lord saith I will betroath you to me for ever Hos 2. and it is the same Covenant which when God had entred into with Abraham he doth call him Abraham my friend Wife and Friend are two of the sweetest and highest relations if any could prevail it would be the Wife of thy Bosome or thy Friend which is as thy own soul Deut. 13.6 Now in this Covenant a man enters into both these relations with God there is the nearest union with him he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit with him there is the interest love of the persons one to another they are most precious one to another and all the world besides are but as Pebbles to Diamonds which outshine all other stones and they are still prizing the love one of another how excellent is thy loving kindness O God! it is better than life because he has set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him and love him at all times and in
11.5 as the Lord says Obey my voice according to all that I command thee so shall you be my people and I will be your God and I will perform the oath that I swore to your Fathers and the Prophet did answer Amen O Lord c. so should our souls do take heed of the treachery that is in your spirits that you behave not your selves unfaithfully in the Covenant for though it is true that the Covenant cannot be broken by your unfaithfulness because the Lord hath laid help upon one that is mighty who is the surety of your Covenant yet remember that Covenant-breaking is a great aggravation of every sin on your parts and there is a quarrel of the Covenant that the Lord will certainly avenge and the stripes even of a God in Covenant are terrible even our God is a consuming fire Lev. 20.25 Vse 2 § 2. Having entred into Covenant with the Lord let me now exhort you to make Conscience to keep it let thy heart be faithful and stedfast in the Covenant It is that which the Lord requires of all those that do enter into Covenant with him Exod. 19.5 If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant you shall be unto me a peculiar treasure Mal. 3.17 my Jewels above all people in the world therefore being taken into Covenant he doth expect you should observe the breach of it and be careful to avoid it 1. From the nature of a Covenant and the ends thereof it is vinculum conservandae fidei the great bond and engagement that men lay upon themselves for the being faithful in the promises that they make each to other And therefore Ezech. 20.37 it is called the bond of the Covenant because by it a man is bound unto the terms thereof and therefore if men keep not their Covenants it destroys their end and makes them of none effect and it is an obligation that a man takes and lays upon himself by his own consent for every Covenant must be free and voluntary Voluntas est spontanea the will is most free And therefore it being free and voluntary afterwards for us to recede and go back is the greater abomination Ezek. 17.18 He despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant after he had given his hand and therefore they say Let us bind our selves in an everlasting Covenant Jer. 50.5 never to be forgotten And for a man to be unsteady and depart from his ingagement in which he hath freely bound himself is the greater evil but always Covenants have amongst men been counted sacred and nature has taught men to keep them inviolable if it had been but a mans Covenant Gal. 3.18 no man would disannul or add thereunto and it was looked upon as the binding that men could not go back from although it were never so much against their hearts to keep it it is sanctissimum humani pectoris bonum Seneca de benefic l. 5. to 10. and therefore perfidi lege Aegyptiorum capite plectebantur quòd duplici tenerentur scelere quòd pietatem in Deos violarent fidem inter homines tollerent Diodor. Sic. l. 1. to 6. Tholos de rep l. 8. Perfidious persons were by the law of the Egyptians beheaded because they were guilty of a double crime impiety towards God and unfaithfulness to man Now if there be so much respect unto Covenants between man and man how sacred should the Covenant be between God and man the holy Covenant 2. It is a Covenant made unto God and there is no going back for 1 God knows it if he falsifie the Covenant in the least God will find it out There is a great deal of falseness of heart within us this way Our righteousness is like unto the morning dew and as an early cloud we promise and go back from our purposes and promises and our purposes are broken off we repent and repent of our repentance we vow Prov. 20 25. and after our vows we make enquiry we come out of Sodom and yet with Lot's wife we look back we are brought out of Egypt and yet our hearts turn back into Egypt again Now our Covenant being made with God he will observe it though the treachery of our Spirits be carried never so secretly and therefore Psal 44.21 the Psalmist says God would search it out If we have forgot thy name and stretched out our hands to any strange God God will find it out for he knows the secrets of our hearts and this Covenant is a Marriage Covenant and therefore the Lord looks upon the breaches of it with a jealous eye which is exceeding quick-sighted there is no disguising of ones self from a true Lover he observes every motion and out-going of the heart and will not admit the least deviation from the royal Law of Love And our God is of purer eyes than to behold the least iniquity he trys the heart and the reins by him actions are weighed 2 God hath declared that he hates Covenant-breaking and unsteadiness of spirit therein and he will certainly punish it There is not only the mercy of the Covenant but there is the quarrel of the Covenant I ãâã âeal with thee says the Lord as thou hast done Lev. 36.25 Ezech. 16.59 for thou hast despised the Oath in brâââng the Covenant That is he would deal with them in judgment as they had dealt with him in a way of sinning Quis miles a regibus hostibus stipendium captat nisi planè transfuga desertor Tert. de praescript c. 12. For a man that is a subject to one king to be a Pensioner to an enemy we judge it very hateful amongst men that wear the Livery and take the Wages of one Master and do the work of another A subject to Christ and a pensioner to Satan is exceeding hateful to the Lord. And therefore when the Lord would express the worse sort of sinners the Apostate Jews that did joyn with Antiochus the Vile Dan. 11.30 Jer. 34.18 he calls them those that forsake the holy Covenant God will surely avenge the breach of humane Covenants as we see in the story of Zedekiah because he falsified his oath he had sworn by God much more will he avenge the holy Covenant when that is broken by any and therefore it being a Covenant made unto God there is no dallying it is one of the great things of God and if we despise it and cast it behind our back the wrath of God will surely overtake us 3. We have the highest patterns for our imitation the glorious Angels they abide in the truth they never left their first habitation they have alwaies kept their Covenant and they stand before God to this day in the Covenant of their Creation And consider your own Prayers Tert. you do pray that the will of God may be done by you on earth as it is in Heaven do not therefore perseverante iracundia orationem perdere will you
heed lest any of us fall short of the grace of God and lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 For there is nothing that the heart of man is more prone to than backsliding and therefore we had need be often admonished to keep firm to the Covenant under which we stand for there is not the greatest cheat in the World that is in falseness and unstedfastness like our hearts wherefore we need many bonds upon it and should have regard to the cords of love that God ties us with to himself in this Covenant 2. We had need be exhorted to it from the slothfulness and heedlesness of our spirits in whatever is good though we be bound unto it by so many bonds the Lord hath always respect unto his Covenant and we desire he should do so now we had need to have respect always to the Covenant and to be continually minded that we forget not what the Lord our God requires of us as 2 King 10.31 it was a brand upon Jehu That he took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord his God Heedlesness in a mans carriage to God is a high provocation to walk with God at an adventure without respect unto the Covenants and great ingagements in which you stand to God Lev. 26.23 Hos 7.8 this is to be towards the Lord as a Cake not turned which is baked only on one side and no more therefore we had need have the more frequent admonition to take heed lest any man fall short of the grace of God we ought to give the more diligent heed lest by any means we let slip the things that we have heard and had need to be warned to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart and to desire of the Lord that he would fix and unite our hearts to fear his name as the Psalmist doth Psal 86.11 Let these things quicken any secure Soul that goes on in any way of disobedience unto God for thou wilt pay dear at last for all thy wanderings from the paths of this Covenant and thou shalt experience it an evil and a bitter thing to draw back from God 3. That you may be quickened to seek unto the Lord for Grace to keep this Covenant and may acknowledge before the Lord that the stability and eternity of the second Covenant lies not in us nor in the observation of it for as much as in us lies we do break it continually but from the eternal love of God and the inseparable union between Christ and us and the Lord having made him the surety of the Covenant therefore it stands but were we left unto our selves we should break it every day and every sin in us would spend all the grace of the Covenant as it did in Adam but there is without us a fountain for a supply for truly the stability of the Covenant doth not proceed from our part in the Covenant as the Lord says in Ezekiel Ezek. 16.61 that the mercies he would give them should not be by their Covenant but all proceed from his and therefore Hos 10.12 it is sow in righteousness and reap in mercy and it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in ore Hos 10.12 in the mouth of mercy that is according to the measure of mercy The mercies and blessings of the Covenant God doth dispense not according to the proportion of our righteousness and stability of the Covenant but according to the proportion of his own grace manifested there and there is no argument that is more effectual amongst men than this As one came unto a Prince and desired him to perform a Covenant and ingagement that he had made unto them which he refusing being in his Robes the Soldier touching his Purple said Imperator hac veste indutum mentiri nefas est O Emperor it is not lawful for him who his clothed with this Robe to lye 4. We had need be continually minded of the Covenant that we may fear those sins that do come nearest a Covenant-breaking It is true there is no sin of a Godly man that can break his Covenant as I have already shewed you but yet there are some sins that come nearer to Covenant-breaking than others do and in this respect are to be looked upon as sins of a very hanious nature and of a deeper dye c. This is a rule That which doth manifest the most unsoundness of heart that doth break the Covenant for the condition of the Covenant is that a mans heart should be perfect with God Gen. 17.2 And it is one of these sorts or I may say both these sorts of sinning that do come nearest thereunto 1 when a man doth sin against light and doth it deliberately and with a high hand for Eo magis peccatum quo magis voluntarium The will is the measure of all sins The more of the Will there is in any evil the greater the sin is and therefore it is made the measure of the sin against the holy Ghost Heb. 10.26 it is sinning wilfully after a man hath received the knowledge of the truth and in this David came nearest to breaking this Covenant 1 King 15.5 He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Vriah David had many other sins lay upon him and he says his iniquities were gone over his head and as a sore burden for him to bear but the Lord said he turned not aside from the Lord in any thing but this because it was a studied plotted sin committed against knowledge and therefore with a high hand thus to sin did manifest the greatest unfaithfulness of Davids spirit towards God that he did show all the days of his life 2 When a man walks on in a sin and lies in it a long time together unrepented of and can act it again and again and it is as a thread drawn through the course of a mans life it comes nearest to an unsound heart and that denominates a man an Adulterer or an Adulteress as James 4.4 as we see in Solomon he lived a great while in these evils and though he were beloved of the Lord yet his heart was turn'd away from following the Lord and he said to his heart Go to now and I will provoke thee with wine Now his lying and living in sin it is true did not break the Covenant between God and him yet it was the most dangerous step to an unsound heart and therefore came nearest to breaking the Covenant A godly man cannot lye and live and dye in any known sin but he may live in it long and be continually insnared and turn away to folly but the more it is thus with thee the nearer thou dost come unto Covenant-breaking with the Lord. But what shall I do to keep
his wisdom and industry could not find out And what is that secret of the Covenant The Covenant is the secret and it is with them that he may make it known unto them therefore there is a mysterie in the dutys of the Covenant that is not revealed unto all but it is unto them that fear him and the Lord will do it suitably unto our frame as our grace comes in by constant supplies of the Spirit of God so doth our knowledge also and all by a daily increase of light from the Spirit and this is by a frequent repetition of the same act of faith and therefore the people of God love to repeat it and thereby they see farther into these mysteries from day to day and they do the more exceedingly prize the mercy of the Covenant as the greatest mercy they can injoy 3. How is this work to be done and what is it for a man to renew his Covenant 1. He that will renew his Covenant with God must be deeply sensible of the breach of Covenant and of the unfaithfulness of his heart therein It should deeply humble us to consider that no bonds should hold us If there were no other tye upon us but that of our creation that we had our being from him and that out of nothing but when unto this natural and necessary bond we have added a voluntary and have consented unto the Lord yet now for us to forget the Covenant of our God and prove perfidious to him and draw back is this your return unto God for his Grace in taking you into Covenant and who doth always remember Covenant mercies for you even then when you forget duty to him Is this your requital of the Lord who in the performance of the Covenant did not spare his Son when he cryed that he might be saved God was so resolved upon his Covenant with you that the death of his Son was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and he was delighted in it in performance of the grace of the Covenant made with you And also the Lord Christ met with variety of discouragements not only the weight of sin in the guilt of it which he complained of as his own though he knew no sin Psal 40.12 but the wrath of the Father the rage of his enemies the hour and the power of darkness the falshood of his Disciples and yet when he was tempted to come down from the Cross he doth hold it out that he might thereby shew that he loved you to the uttermost and would save you to the utmost And now for you Prov. 20.25 after vows to make inquiry whenas no man doth receed or go back from the Covenant in which he hath ingaged himself without infamy and it 's as odious as for a man to prove false to his friend and betray him and as unfair dealing it is as for a Servant to run away from his Master or a Soldier from his Commander and as David says by way of reproach he hath broken his Covenant and laid his hand upon him that was at peace with him yea for the Wife of a mans bosom to betray a man and to forget the Covenant of her God for a man to forget his Oath that he took at his Baptism and as the Jews did labour to make their circumcision uncircumcision and to do this unto a God that was never a Wilderness to you nor ever gives you cause to repent of your ingagement surely hereby you see not only your perfidiousness and unthankfulness but also fully to make forfeiture of all Covenant mercies to bring upon your selves all the curses of the Covenant Gen. 2.28 Num. 14.34 and to put God upon breach of Covenant with you who have behaved your selves so unfaithfully towards him and thereby you acknowledge though you have subscribed your names in the register of Zion yet you deserve unto your perpetual ignominy to have them expunged thence and to be written in the earth and given up to an everlasting forgetfulness So it was with Josiah when he made his Covenant his heart was tender and he did humble himself before the Lord for their Covenant-breaking 2 Chron. 34.27 31. Neh. 10. And Ezra 10. it doth follow upon a great humiliation a man that is not sensible of and his heart not affected with the breach of Covenant that man is not fit to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 2. It must be with a resolution of heart to break all other Covenants men are said Isa 28.15 To make a Covenant with death and hell that is they were as secure Isa 28.15 and as fearless of it as a man that hath a person in Covenant with him whom he looks upon as his friend and fears him not and thus they make a Covenant with sin and ingage themselves to serve other gods and so when the people renewed the Covenant in Joshuah's time you see the Command you have chosen the Lord to serve him Josh 24.22 put away therefore your strange gods and so the command was to put away their strange wives Ezra There are cords of vanity and there are bonds of iniquity by which men do bind themselves Now all these Covenants must be broken if a man come to renew his Covenant with the Lord for the answer you must give to the Covenant must be the answer of a good conscience and that Conscience that reserves to it self any league with sin unbroken 1 Pet 3.21 is not a good conscience before God a Covenant that is sinful is in it self void and a nullity because in every such ingagement there is dolus deceit and error which are destroying to the nature of a Covenant which should be free and deliberate and therefore it is in all such Covenants as with Herods Oath they bind to nothing but repentance for Juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis and therefore a man must resolve to break Covenant with all sinful ingagements if he do intend to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 3. A man must know the terms and read over the Articles of the Covenant anew for no wise man will set his hand to an obligation of which he is not well acquainted with the condition and if there were no other cause nor ingagement upon man to know the will of God and their own duty this were enough they have bound themselves to serve him and therefore by the same Covenant they are bound to know the rules by which he will be served for Deo serviendum non est ex arbitrio sed ex imperio so doth Josiah 2 Chron. 34.30 he caused to be read in the ears of the people all the words of the book of the Covenant and then he stood up and made a Covenant before the Lord to perform all the words of the Covenant written in the Book 4. It must be with a free and full consent of heart for the Covenant in the renewing of it must
a special manner offered to you and unto you first because you are the children of the Covenant and therefore have in a special manner a right to it 2 To the Parents Act. 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins for the promise is to you and your children not only you shall have benefit by it but your children upon whom you have brought a curse and therefore were not parentes sed peremptores as Bernard speaks of all men in reference to their children in a state of nature they also shall have benefit by it and by your laying hold of the Covenant be brought in under the same Covenant with you your children that are now children of the curse they shall become children of the Covenant Now as it should be a great argument to keep men from sin that therein they wrong their Posterity it 's a Treason that taints the blood so it should be a great engagement unto all Parents to come within the Covenant that the Grace of the Covenant might also be extended in them unto all their seed 3. This is the great and only difference that God hath put in his Word between the children of Believers within the Covenant of Grace and the seed of Strangers who are strangers to the Covenant that their children belong unto the Family of God and are own'd by God as such in a visible way whereas all the rest of the Families of the world that are Unbelievers belong to the Kingdom of Satan and are to be looked upon as without Deut. 4.37 and therefore Deut. 4.37 the Lord chose their seed after them it 's not spoken of an Election to salvation but there is an Election to Priviledges as well as to Life and yet both flow from a special Love for there is but a two-fold Kingdom of God and of the World and of these there is a two-fold God there is Satan the God of this world and all they that are in this Kingdom have for their God the God of this world but there is a Kingdom of God and all that are in that Kingdom the Lord has taken to be his people and they have in a peculiar manner the Lord for their God as Israel had the Name of God call'd upon them and they only had the means of salvation for salvation is of the Jews and the Lord did take them as his peculiar Treasure and did avouch them to be his people above all people of the earth they were under more glorious Administrations under a peculiar Providence and care above all people of the earth and yet many of them nay the greatest part of them wicked and but a remnant amongst them according to the Election of grace and it were apparently to put the seed of Abrahams faith into a far worse condition in respect of their posterity than the seed of Abraham according to the flesh were when the Apostle in respect of the adoption made no difference between Jew and Greek bond and free And this also is the only ground as I may call it for though there be other arguments given yet they all have their stress from this and depend upon it for applying of Ordinances unto the children of Believers and therein to put a difference between them and the children of Heathen and this is not a ground of our making but of the Lords the Lord takes Abraham into Covenant and his seed also Gen. 17.7 and having taken them into Covenant he doth command him to apply the seal of the same Covenant unto them the command of God was the bond of applying the seal but the ground of the command lay in their interest in the Covenant being taken in together with their parents and so whereas it 's true as Tertullian saith fiunt non nascuntur Christiani men are made Rom. 1.2 3. not born Christians it is not a birth-priviledge such as comes upon them by nature for by nature one man has no more right to an Ordinance than another for there is no difference all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God but what they have not by nature Chrysostome in Rom. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they may yet receive by grace as a birth-priviledge to which by their fathers Covenant they were after a sort born as the posterity of Abraham according to the flesh were 4. It 's the only ground that I know that Believers can have of the salvation of their children if they dye in their infancy I do not now speak of Gods secret counsel for the foundation of God stands sure having this seal The Lord knows who are his and what number he has belonging unto the Election of Grace amongst them that are afar off we know not secret things belong to God but we find no promise of salvation made unto any out of the visible Church of God salvation is of the Jews and 't is Gods promise that is to be the rule of our faith and the ground of our hope and not our counsel Joh. 4. Now if the children of believing parents be not taken into Covenant with their parents they have no more a promise of salvation than the children of a Pagan For as I told you this world is divided into two Kingdoms either the Kingdom of Christ or the Kingdom of Satan Col. 1.13 He has translated us out of the power of darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son Now as long as a person is a visible Member of the Kingdom of Christ and under a promise of salvation that the Lord will be his God I have no reason or ground out of the Word to question their election or salvation but rather in the judgment of charity grounded upon the Covenant to hope and believe or be perswaded of the same till they visibly manifest the contrary though there may be some Reprobates amongst them on the contrary though we know Christ gathers his Elect out of the Kingdom of Satan and therefore many of the Elect remain yet under his power yet I have no ground to hope of any particular person that he is elected of God being still under Satans Kingdom till he give some testimony of the contrary for either all infants dying in infancy must be saved or they must all be damned or else there must be a difference by grace put between them that are saved and them that are damned for in nature there is no difference Now what difference the Lord may put in his secret counsel we know not but there is no difference put in his word but that which is grounded on the Covenant under which they stand being taken into it together with their parents What ground had a Jew if his child died to hope its salvation but that God promised to be his God and the God of his seed also and the same ground has a Christian to hope the salvation
another unto the end of the world thy seed after thee in their generations and therefore Abraham is call'd the rock out of which they were hewed Isa 51.1 and the hole or the pit out of which they were digged and he is call'd Rom. 11. the root upon which they did grow and out of which they did spring not onely in their natural estate but also in their covenant state the covenant did as it were begin in him And the next person with whom the covenant of grace was eminently renewed was David 2 Sam. 7.14.19 Psal 89.28 29 30. the Lord did not only speak of David's person but of his house for a great while to come and when the Lord took a whole Nation into Covenant as he did the Nation of the Jews it was not made only with them that were present and then alive or men grown up but with their seed also so that their children were taken into the same covenant with their parents though they were not able to understand the nature of the covenant nor to restipulate and not only they that were present but Deut. 20.15 with him that is not here with us this day Deut. 29.11 13 14 15. who are they that are hereby meant their Posterity unto whom this covenant did alike belong there was a foundation laid for them to come into this covenant as soon as they should be born into the world Ipsos Deus anteverterat gratiâ suâ multis antequam nati essent seculis Calvin Meaning thereby their Posterity in all succeeding generations and therefore Eezek 16.18 I entred into covenant with thee and thou becamest mine and then vers 20. Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me and hast sacrificed them to be devoured c. this is only spoken in reference to the covenant so they were children born unto God and so the Lord was their God Neither was this dispensation of the covenant of grace to the Jews only but also unto the Gentiles for Rom. 11. they were grafted in to be the seed of Abraham by vertue of the covenant of Abraham for he was the father of us all now as the natural branches were broken off so were the others grafted in but the Jews were broken off themselves and their Posterity disinherited for many generations therefore the Gentiles are grafted in they and their posterity and thence Act. 2.39 The promise is to you and your children and unto them that are afar off Ephes 2.17 i. e. the Gentiles also and their children the promise belongs to them whomsoever the Lord shall call it 's for themselves and for their seed after them Zacheus a Publican being converted Luk. 19.9 Christ tells him salvation is come to his house where by salvation coming to his house cannot be meant unto himself or his person but that his whole Family is taken into covenant with God thereby and the reason of it is given because that he himself is a son of Abraham that is he is brought under Abraham's Covenant the tenure of which Covenant is not only to a mans self but also unto his family and his seed Act. 16.31 c. and so Paul to the Jaylour Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine house the meaning is not that all of them should be saved eternally as if one man could be saved by another mans faith but salvation is commonly put for the ordinary means of salvation Acts 28.28 Now this Covenant-way is the only ordinary means of salvation Heb. 2.3 and when the Jews shall be taken in in the latter days of the world though it 's said that the Lord will make a new Covenant with them in those days yet it s but the old Covenant renewed they shall be taken into the Covenant of their fathers for so Rom. 11.24 the natural branches that were cut off shall be grafted in again to their own Olive-tree as they were cast off Parents and children disinherited so shall their grafting in again be so that 't is a part of the Gospel and a gâorious doctrine of the covenant of grace that children are taken into the same Covenant with their Parents and there is never a Covenant made with the Parents in the Scripture but the children are expressely mention'd as coming under it and therefore our faith is to receive it and rely upon it 2. The People of God have believed it and exercised their faith upon it and that both Parents for their Children and the Children for themselves 1 Parents for their Children it was this that Adam did rejoyce in immediately after the revelation of the second Covenant in behalf of himself and his Posterity when he Gen. 3.20 called his wifes name Evah Gen. 3.20 because she was the mother of all living and this is conceived by Interpreters to have a threefold respect 1 As an Expression of his own Faith in the Promise to shew that the woman that should have brought Death into the world and was first in the transgression and should have been the mother of none but dead children now he saith That she should be the mother of all the living the Covenant of grace and life beginning in her for life and immortality never saw light till the Gospel 2 An expression of thankfulness for so great a mercy that he might keep the mercy in memory and that was the ancient manner to give names sometimes to places Jacob call'd the place Bethel the house of God as the Altar Jehovah Nissi c. and sometimes the Monument of his mercy preserved in a child Samuel one asked of God and here Adam continues the memory of his mercy in the name of his wife it 's spoken by way of gratitude Merc. ut vel ipso nomine beneficium tantum agnosceret Merc. The Name is a Memorial of the Mercy 3 An expression of consolation the woman being first in the transgression was much affected with the displeasure of God from which they fled and of the misery that she had brought upon her self and all her Posterity if the Lord should prolong her days that they should labour in the sweat of their brows till they were turn'd to the earth c. Adam now comforts her and tells her Be of good cheer there is a seed yet that shall come from thee that shall overcome death and him that had the power of death that is the Devil and therefore he doth not call himself the Father of all living but her the Mother of all living and thus Adam did comfort himself with the Promise made unto his Posterity in the Covenant as soon as it was revealed And so did Evah exercise faith this way first in Cain as some conceive Gen. 4.1 Gen. 4.1 she said I have gotten a man from the Lord the Septuagint render it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the Vulgar answerable per Dominum by the Lord Trem. adds Ã
Domino but Luther renders it by apposition Virum Dominum a man the Lord and Solom Glass follows him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and makes the particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but an expression of the Accusative case and thereby she did manifest quanto desiderio expectaverit promissionis complementum c. with how great desire she expected the fulfilling of the Promise she was mistaken in the person yet it shews the exercise of her faith upon the Promise that her seed should bruise the Serpents head And when Cain had slain Abel his brother and the Lord had given her another son she called his name Seth God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel Gen. 4.25 It 's observed to be both Sermo verbum fiduciae Gen. 4.25 prophetiae a fiducial and prophetick speech that this seed should not be untimely taken away as Abel was but he should be fundamentum ecclesiae subsequentis Par. quae in hujus posteritate propagetur servetur usque ad Christum the foundation of the Church c. of Cain she had no hope for he was excommunicated and cast out from the presence of the Lord though his life was prolonged yet all the Church Priviledges were taken away and forfeited as Gen. 4.11 c. now was there not a man to be a seed to the Church of God in after-times yet then she had respect to the Covenant and she looked for a seed that God had promised her in whom as well as in her own person the Covenant that God had made with her should be fulfilled Noah afterward exercised faith in reference to his Posterity Gen. 9.27 God shall perswade Japhet c. he had a Spirit of Prophecy Gen. 9.27 which doth foreshew it self in that Canan and his Posterity shall be servants but as for Shem the Church of God should be continued in him for the present and for time to come God should perswade Japhet which either has reference to the conversion of the Gentiles when they shall be converted upon the rejection of the Jews and come into their Tents that is become the Church of God in their room they being the wild Olive but grafted into the true Olive when the natural branches are broken off so the Gentiles are surrogated Israel or else when the Jews shall be a Church the Gentiles the posterity of Japhet shall come in unto them either as Proselytes and be added unto them or else when they shall be again converted they shall lay hold of the skirt of a Jew and shall come into the same fold together with them and so both make up one fold under one Shepherd And thus doth David pray when he came to dye 2 Sam. 23.5 Thou hast made with my house an everlasting Covenant ordered and sure and this is all my hope and mâ salvation though the Lord make it not to grow he did foresee that there was a cloud and a darkness coming upon his family but then though the Lord did not make it to grow he could rejoyce in the Covenant that God had made with him in reference to his Posterity for he had spoken of his house for a great while to come and so Psal 102. last vers The children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be established before thee c. 2 Children have exercised Faith by vertue of their Parents Covenant and pleaded to God their Covenant-interest So David Psal 86.16 O turn unto me and have mercy upon me give thy strength to thy servant and save the son of thy handmaid truly I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid and so doth Ethan afterward Psal 116.16 Psal 89.49 Where are thy former loving kindnesses which thou swarest to David in thy truth Remember the reproach of thy servants and how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people Thus we see that this is a truth of the Gospel That under the second Covenant Children are taken in with their Parents and all the People of God have believed it and in all Ages exercised their faith thereupon and when I observe the Spirit of God in Scripture speaking so much of this it makes me the more wonder at those men that so much deride and scorn this Doctrine and the derivative right which they in scorn some of them call imputative § 2. Let us now come to take a view of the Reasons why the Lord will take children into their Parents Covenant and not take in the Parents alone and leave their children in the condition in which they were by nature the grounds of it are these 1. To shew the Extent of the Grace of the second Covenant the Lord hath not dealt with men as he did with the Angels he did make a particular Covenant with every particular Angel but he doth not so with men he has always delighted to take in man into a Covenant made with Parents for them that men might see that Grace prevented them and that they were engaged unto God and his Promise was out of Grace entailed upon them as a birth-right and therefore as in the first Covenant God takes in Adam and all his posterity and the second Covenant is made with the second Adam and all his posterity so that there may be a resemblance hereof kept in the world he hath taken in the children into their Parents Covenant that they may see Grace extended beyond their persons even to their posterity It 's a wonderfull enlargement of the Grace of God in the first Covenant that all the creatures came under man's Covenant and because they did so therefore they all fell in him or else why should the curse of Adams sin come upon the creatures Cursed be the ground for thy sake And so in the Covenant of Grace there is a Promise that they should be all renewed in Christ and therefore the creatures do wait for the manifestation of the liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.22 because when we shall be delivered then shall they be also from the bondage of corruption under which now they groan and thence when God is reconciled to his People and takes them into Covenant Hos 2.21 Then I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn c. and if this be a great manifestation of grace to take in creatures which are but a mans servants how much more to take in the children which are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Even as Noah cursed Cham Gen. 9.25 and denounced that the blessing of the Covenant should never come upon him and his Posterity There shall be no Canaanite in the house of the Lord for ever Zach. 14.21 and dearer to them than any creatures can be And therefore the Lord out of his abundant and overflowing grace in the second Covenant is pleased to make the childrens federal interest to be the Parents
administer it unto one that hath spiritually no right to it as we see in the Scripture the Apostles themselves were deceived but Gods promise in giving the children an interest in the fathers priviledge is a sure ground to go by more than any mans believing or profession in the world can be for himself and therefore a man is bound to believe that his seed is taken into covenant and that they do belong to the Election of grace and are truly justified sanctified adopted and accepted in Christ till they manifest the contrary and we have more than a negative ground for it that we know nothing to the contrary for we have a positive ground and that is the indefinite promise which we have cause to interpret in the most favourable sense and I am sure is a more certain ground for me to pass a judgment upon than any mans profession can be seeing that I know my judgment is not infallible in either but I may be deceived in reference to the person to whom it 's applied therefore consider that 1 Children while in their infancy are members of the visible Church of God 2 They have always been taken into membership in the same Church with their parents and accounted as of the same Church with them 1. Children while they are infants may be members of the visible Church of God before they come to years to be able to understand the nature of a Church or to consent unto the Duties unto which they are obliged in that relation and that will appear Luk. 18.16 Mar. 10.13 1 What children were those spoken of they were not children in meekness and harmlesness as some would have it but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã infants young children teneri adhuc ab uberibus pendentes pueruli Beza the same word is used of new-born babes 1 Pet. 2.2 and so much do the words also import ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he took them in his arms which notes that they were children in their infancy 2 What doth he say to these children he saith That the kingdom of heaven did belong to such what doth he mean by the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Heaven is put for the Kingdom of Grace here in a visible Church or else for the Kingdom of Glory Mat. 8.11 12. Many shall come from the East and shall sit down with Abraham in the kingdom of heaven i. e. shall be added unto the Church upon Earth and shall enter into the Kingdom of glory when the children of the Kingdom of the Jews the natural branches born children by an external right shall be cast out And Mat. 16.19 I give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven it 's meant of the Kingdom of Grace here the Church and the Kingdom of Glory in Heaven for he gives him power to bind on earth and loose on earth and promises that it shall be ratified in Heaven but yet all Officers are for the visible Church and all their power is to be exercised in the visible Church and though it be for the good of the Elect the Church of the first-born the Church invisible yet that is not the proper place thereof but Officers are for the visible Church So then theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven that is not only they shall be saved and so fill up the Kingdom of glory but also they belong to the Kingdom of grace and the Subjects of this Kingdom here are members of the visible Church they are actually Subjects of this Kingdom 3 Neither doth he speak of these very individual children as a priviledge which belonged unto them alone he by his omniscience knowing them to be elected of God but he saith Of such as these are delivering it therefore as an ordinary rule of our judgment in the like case of all other children of parents in covenant unto the end of the world therefore children that are infants are members of the visible Church and therefore taken into a church-Church-covenant with their parents for by nature no man is a Church-member Eph. 2.12 but all strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel and men afar off for if any man were so by nature then all men by nature must be so therefore it 's a priviledge by grace that they are taken into their parents covenant and are members of the same Church with them 2. Children have been always taken into the same covenant with their parents and have been members of the same Church with them When the Lord made a covenant with Abraham he took in his family to be a Church when he took in the Jews he took in their children also to be unto him a holy and a peculiar people and when he did cast out the children of the Kingdom and did give them a bill of divorce removing the candlestick he did excommunicate and disinherit their children and when he takes the Gentiles into covenant also it is with them and with their seed in their generations and therefore the master of the family being converted salvation is come to his house and there is a Church in his house his family becomes of those of whom the visible Church is constituted for the Gentiles were grafted in as the Jews were broken off and that was in reference to a Church-state for themselves and their posterity and so were the Gentiles grafted into a Church-state for themselves and their posterity and the Lord has given us a rule for it Deut. 29.14 Deut. 29.14 15. when he enters into a Church-covenant with that people and with their little ones that they should be a people unto himself that is a Church unto God vers 15. Neither with you only do I make this covenant but also with him that is not here with us this day If you understand it of the Jews only this leaves to us these two things 1 That children are included in their fathers covenant though they be not of themselves able to restipulate 2 That it is the will of God it should not only be so at that time but in after-ages with them and their seed in their generations But if we understand by them that are not here this day all that shall be taken into the same covenant in time to come as it may be then it will leave a door open to bring in all the believing Gentiles and their seed to the end of the world Thus the Lord out of love unto the parents doth take not only them but their seed also into a visible Church that they may be a holy and a peculiar people unto himself 5. They that have a right of membership are to be admitted into the visible Church and to be looked upon as having a right Mat. 16.19 for the Lord has appointed the power of the Keys in his Church unto this end Church-power and authority is commonly expressed in Scripture by the name of Keys the sign being put for the thing signified and the ensign of authority for the
left to the judgment of God as a man is that is wholly cast off from all care of the Church 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be Anathema maranatha to shew that the Church had done their utmost used all means that were possible for them to do and they did avail nothing and therefore they did now cast him off as incurable and left him to the judgment of the Lord at his coming so they that are without are left to Gods judgment but they that are within are under the Churches care and judgment Now that Cain was cast out is plain Gen. 4.14 Gen. 4.14 Thou hast cast me out from the face of the earth and from thy face c. and so the meaning is a vagabond I shall be on the earth from thy face shall I be hid Of this there 's a double interpretation that 's commonly given answerable to a twofold acceptation of the face of God 1 By Gods face is meant Gods favour love protection and all the fruits of favour as all men seek the face of the Ruler and God says I 'le shew thee the back and not the face in the day of their calamity Mercer Gloss 2 Others by the face of God do understand locum patefactionis divinae c. the place of Gods manifestation and so it 's put for the visible Church where the Lord in a special manner doth reveal himself and therefore are the Jews called Jesuron or the seeing people and Jerusalem called the valley of Vision c. and so to be hid from the face of God est ab Ecclesia parentum ubi cultum Deo praestabant c. is to be cast out of the parents Church c. and this is the interpretation that most of our Divines give of it 3 It 's said That whoever did find him would slay him Cain was therefore a man taken into a Church-covenant together with his parents though he was but the seed according to the flesh and so he continued till for the just desert of his own sin he was cast out and had an immediate sentence of Excommunication past upon him by God himself the first example that we read of in Scripture of a Church-censure and the same is true also of Ismael Gen. 21.10 12. Gal. 4.30 Cast out the bond-woman and her son she did speak it may be sensu suo de haereditate facultatum but the Lord did carry it higher as Pareus hath observed and he expounds it de haereditate spirituali Abrahams family was a resemblance of the visible Church and the ejection was a casting out of the visible Church and is to be understood of a visible casting out therefore while Ismael and his mother were in Abrahams family they were members and came under Abrahams covenant but when they were cast out then they were to be looked upon as people in covenant with God no longer they could lay no claim to the covenant of Abraham The same may be said of the whole Nation of the Jews who were all taken into a Church-covenant they and their children Deut. 29.12 14. and yet but a remnant a very few of them were saved and taken into the spiritual benefit of the covenant and those that were not taken in they and their posterity were also ejected and the Lord called them Loammi and gave them a bill of divorce to be such as he would owne in way of Church-fellowship and Communion no longer and the same course the Lord takes with the Gentiles also when he removes the Candlestick Rev. 2.5 Rev. 2.5 By the Candlestick is meant not only the preaching of the Gospel and the Ordinances thereof but the Church it self for so Rev. 1.20 the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches and the Lord would take away his Ordinances and they and their posterity should be no more owned by God as his Church and people in covenant with him so that they were broken off as the Jews were Now they that are spiritually and savingly in the covenant can never be cast out of any part of the covenant it 's everlasting and they never can be broken off therefore it 's meant of the carnal seed those that are externally in covenant but not spiritually and savingly 3. As for that place Gen. 21.12 For in Isaac shall thy seed be called Gen. 21.12 which is made so much use of to overthrow this Doctrine and that none are taken into covenant with God but theâ that do truly believe and be the sons of Abrahams faith the meaning seems plainly to be this 1 It is to be understood that the Messiah the promised seed should not come from Ishmael but from Isaac It 's to be understood de semine benedicto 2 Of the spiritual Seed and that in a double sence 1 Of the peculiar and electing Love of God which should run in Isaac and his posterity 2 De privilegio foederis for all his Posterity were not elected and spiritually holy and in covenant with God but in his seed the visible Church of God should be continued and they should be those amongst whom the Lord would hold forth his Name and set up his Worship and this must be chiefly the meaning for it 's a comfort to Abraham against casting out of Ishmael out of his Family which had a resemblance of the visible Church and in the execution of this Church-censure to be done by Abraham the Priest of the Family he must excommunicate one Son as he was as a Priest to offer the other and now the Lord comforts him in this affliction that the seed that should be accounted his and should be continued as the blessed seed amongst the Nations should be the Posterity of Isaac and they should be reckoned for his Seed an expression answerable unto that of Eve Gen. 4.15 God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew that is in whom and in whose posterity the Church of God should be continued unto the end of the world though Cain were excommunicated and Abel slain yet the Covenant of God should be made good unto the Woman and her seed and so by thy seed shall be called in Isaac is meant the continuance of the visible Church in the Posterity of Isaac when Ishmael was cast out and therefore this makes nothing to prove that none of Abrahams seed were taken into the Covenant but those that were elected and did walk in the steps of the Faith of Abraham Quest 2 § 2. Into what of the Covenant are they taken and in what respect can they be said to be under the Covenant of Grace who are in a state of nature in the old Adam and therefore as you have shewed us under a Covenant of works and we have heard from Gal. 4. that it 's as impossible for a man to be under two Covenants at one and the same time as it is for a man to be born of two Mothers and when the son of
Church with them when the Lord shall make the Church of the Jews the Mother-Church and should give them unto the Jews fââ daughters c. so in Abraham and his Posterity and that they might still lay claim unto the Covenant and the Promise made unto their Fathers being born the Sons of the Covenant To have any particular office prescribed by God in a Family is look'd upon and promised as a great mercy to have a Priesthood continued in the Family of Aaron and afterwards of Phineas as a reward of that great act of his in being zealous for the Lord in executing Judgement for the Lord gave him an everlasting Priesthood and to have the Kingdom continued unto David and his Posterity as he takes notice Thou hast spoken of my house for a great while to come there shall not want a man of his loyns to sit upon the Throne of Israel and it 's look'd upon as a great Judgment for a Family and a Posterity to be disinherited as for the family of Esau to be cast out of the Priesthood and the Family of Saul to be cast out of the Kingdom how much more then is it a mercy to have the visible Church of God continued in any mans Posterity for all blessings descend according unto this as it appears in the Sons of Noah there is a blessing upon Shem and Japhet and their Posterity but it is in reference to a Church-state but there is no blessing upon Cham but cursed be Canan God would never take a Church out of his loyns it should never be continued in his posterity There shall not be a Cananite in the house of the Lord for ever Zac. 14. ult and therefore a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren the curse and blessing is answerable unto the respect men have to a Church-state 4. It 's the greatest wrath that God doth pour out upon men in this life to cast them out of external Church-priviledges The Jews as when they were taken into covenant it was for themselves and their posterity that God would owne their seed as his and would avouch them to be his people so when God did cast them out and gave them a bill of divorce called them Loammi and did remove the Candlestick he did cast them out and their seed the natural branches were broken off if it be not a blessing to injoy it surely it 's no great judgment to be deprived of it but the Apostle saith Wrath iâ come upon them to the uttermost or to the end therefore it the wrath be so great in a casting out surely there is a great deal of mercy shewed in the taking in 5. The Apostle speaks even of an interest in the external priviledges of the covenant as a very great matter having shewed that all men by nature are in the same condition and in a mans spiritual estate outward and Church-priviledges make no difference he doth demand Then what advantage a man hath by Church-priviledges and what good there is in them Rom. 3.22 if they make not men to differ what excellency hath the Jew above any other men or any other people The Apostle says Much every way therefore though they may not differ in reference to a spiritual state yet there is a great excellency and advantage and the Apostle speaking of the grafting in of the Gentiles into the same Church-covenant them and the posterity when the Jews were disinherited he says Rom. 11.17 Privilegia beneficia foederis in Ecclesia patrum deposita Par. That they did partake of the root and the fatness of the olive-tree therefore in Scripture it 's commended as a great advantage and priviledge unto a man to be brought into the external rights and to have an interest in outward priviledges of the Church of God 2. But what are those priviledges and those particular benefits that come upon a person and his posterity thereby 1 Many of them shall be saved elected and converted to God for the Lord doth take the number of his Elect out of the loyns of his own the Church of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven is hid in the visible Church here as wheat in a heap of chaff 2 It 's the only ground of hope that parents have for the salvation of their children dying in their infancy David did hope it though he might say with Austin Ego in illo puero nihil habui praeter delictum yet he saith I shall go to him and his heart was quieted concerning his eternal state by virtue of the Covenant made with him We have no other promise but this I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and this is Gospel a man is as truly bound to lay hold of the promise and cast himself upon it for his seed as for himself 3 There is no ordinary way of salvation but it is amongst them that are taken into Covenant salvation is of the Jews Joh. 4. there was in an ordinary way salvation to be had no where else and therefore by being taken into the outward priviledges of the Church a man is brought into the ordinary way of salvation Esa 5.7 Exod. 15.5 Gen. 6.2 4 It 's a special honour to be the vineyard of the Lord the garden of the Lord hedged in from the rest of the world his wall a wine press a garden inclosed a fountain sealed to be called the Sons of God the people of God and the Lord to avouch them such publickly before all the world to be his peculiar treasure the Lord to be their God and they his people above all people of the earth theirs is the Adoption it 's spoken of this federal external sonship Rom. 9.4 Esa 22.1 29.1 Rom. 3.2 5 By this you have special priviledges Jerusalem is the valley of Vision and Jesuron the seeing people it is Ariel the Altar of the Lord chiefly to them are committed the Oracles of God which they are to keep and to transmit unto posterity it 's a depositum laid up and concredited to them In Judah is God known his name is great in Israel Psal 147. ult he hath not dealt so with other nations they are a people near unto him and the Lord hath promised that he will give them his special presence I will dwell in the midst of them Zac. 8.3 2 Cor. 6. Christ walks in the middle of the golden Candlesticks though he be in glory 6 By coming under the outward priviledges of this Covenant they have very glorious operations mighty works upon them that other men have never experience of and all this even in them that perish and they have this as a fruit of their external interest for Hos 6.5 there is hewing and slaying there is sowing and planting when the rest of the common fields lye untilled Mat. 13.3 1 Cor. 12.8 and there are great gifts bestowed such as the Lord doth not bestow on any
though the Catechumeni were admitted to hear and were called Audientes and Orantes yet those that they did excommunicate they did allow those Ordinances to and therefore they did use to sentence them Orent per triennium inter Catechumenos or sometimes more years according to the nature of the fact but yet they still did deprive them of the seals as being a priviledge of members only 2 Baptism is a Sacrament of initiation and the Ordinance of visible admission into the Church and that must not be done promiscuously and without discrimination for as it 's a sin to keep out those whose right it is so it 's a sin also to admit them that have no right because thereby the Ordinances of Christ are abused and misplaced where he never intended them and for whom he never instituted them Now a person must have a right to membership before ever he is to be admitted a member and he has no right to claim admission of those who have the power of the Keys unless it be upon this ground that a right of membership does belong unto him and therefore he does upon this desire admission as a member that so he be not defrauded of his right And Calvin professes in another Epistle Nisi inter vos vigeat discrimen aliquod ut prohibeantur qui sine crassa Dei injuria admitti nequeunt pro confesso sumo tam baptismum quam coenam profanari To whom is this spoken It was not to Jews and Turks and the admission of Heathens but unto Christians and Professors and yet he says that there must be among them discriminatio quaedam a certain discrimination though they were Christians in profession yet that did not give them all a title if it had there needed no difference to be put and observe he will have this difference to be put in reference to the Sacrament of Baptism as well as the Supper of the Lord and he complaineth of this disorder of administring the Sacrament promiscuously and exhorteth the Ministers to endeavour the reforming it if they could not say how it was lawful for them to hold their places certè ubi rogando hortando nihil proficitur ac frustra etiam conquesti sumus nos religione constringi ne pergamus scientes volentes sacra Dei mysteria profanare in tam confusa ordinis perturbatione quomodo stare nobis liceat nescio 2. Right of membership conveyed unto children from the immediate parents is a truth that the whole Scripture seems to hold forth 1 When-ever the immediate parents were taken into Covenant whatever their Ancestors have been their posterity were taken into Covenant also and had a right to membership together with their parents Abrahams father was Terah And he with his father served other gods beyond the river Josh 24.2 and yet as soon as the Lord took Abraham into Covenant he took in his posterity also with him immediately and therefore the children of those that are Church-members are called the children of the Covenant Act. 3.25 so as their interest in the Covenant comes upon them as their birth-right For it is true that there are but two ways of conveying a Covenant-right unto men either personal by their own faith or parental and this is not of nature for by nature one mans child has as much right as anothers none are born Christians but it 's a gift of grace and which doth follow upon the child by virtue of the parents Covenant and though none of his Ancestors were Believers but served other gods yet the immediate parents being Believers can give a right without respect unto the condition of their Ancestors and so it was with the Proselytes among the Jews their children were taken into Covenant with their immediate parents though their Ancestors were for many generations wicked Many instances of this have been given before 2 Children taken into Covenant have with their immediate parents been cast out Ismael was taken into Covenant and received the seal of the Covenant but when he was cast out though Abraham was alive yet Ismaels family was never after looked upon as in Covenant or as members of the visible Church of God so it was with Esau and his posterity the Edomites their father being put out of Covenant though they did attain Circumcision which was a seal of the Covenant yet it was not Circumcision in Gods account for they were never by God accounted a Church unto him But that 's a remarkable instance amongst the Jews when the Church of God had continued in that Nation for many generations and though God had there a greater income of holiness once than he had in all the world beside and was not ashamed to be called their God and to call them of all the nations of the earth his peculiar people yet when the Lord cast off their immediate parents and gave them a bill of divorce he did also cast off their children who can never claim a right from their Ancestors neither would any man by this claim I conceive admit a Jew unto the seals of the Covenant And yet after this long interruption wherein wrath is come upon them to the uttermost when the immediate parents shall be converted and taken into Covenant with God again then also shall their children be gathered in together with them and this as far as I understand is the whole tenour of the Scripture and I know no instance that children were taken into Covenant whatever their Ancestors were unless their immediate parents were Church-members 3. The right of membership does not consist barely in being baptized and making a profession of the name of Christ and therefore parents may have both these and yet not be judged Church-members 1 Being baptized doth not give a man a right unto Church-membership and the grounds of it are these 1 That which is the seal of our admission into the visible Church cannot give a man a right to it so as to make a man a member that is if a man ought to have the right of membership before he be baptized then his Baptism does not give him this right but seal it only and gives a visible confirmation thereunto but Baptism is a seal of a mans admission therefore it 's not Baptism that gives him a right of admission but the promise Act. 2.39 For the promise is to you and your children therefore says the Apostle Be baptized therefore it 's something before Baptism that gives a right of membership by virtue of which a man lays claim to Baptism for the seals belong to Church-members only 2 If Baptism make a man a member of the visible Church then while the Baptism remains firm the membership remains for forma dat esse rei but we see that is not so in a double case 1. In the case of wilful Apostasie when men withdraw themselves from the Church They went out from us 1 Joh. 2.19 because they were not of us these were
nisi quod traditum yet conceiving it after my best examination to be a truth of God for I did desire to believe before I spake I could not but speak what I apprehended to be the mind of God therein I should not desire to obtrude any thing upon you without examination if it be upon tryal but hay and stubble I shall be content that it shall burn but if it be a truth of God it will abide the tryal and though such a truth as this is may receive some prejudice by the weakness of the instrument yet if it be a truth the Lord Jesus will certainly raise up such instruments as shall be able to carry it through against all opposition I come now to answer the former Objection I do acknowledge that there is no way for the Gentiles to come under Abrahams covenant but by faith they cannot claim a title from Abraham begetting that belongs to the Jews only who are therefore called by the Apostle the natural Branches Rom. 11.24 and the Gentiles are said to be ingrafted contrary unto nature and therefore the Gentiles can claim no interest in Abrahams covenant but from believing Abraham and yet I deny that the faith which shall give a man any kind of right or title must be true saving and justifying faith And to clear this I must give you a threefold distinction 1. Of Abraham as a father and it 's plain that the Scripture speaks of a threefold paternity of Abraham 1 Abraham is a natural father and so to the Jews only for they are his posterity according to the flesh the natural branches that grow out of this root and this is the paternity that the Jews did glory in We have Abraham to our father Mat. 3.9 Joh. 8.39 2 Abraham is a spiritual father unto all true Believers who walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham whether they be of the Jews or of the Gentiles and they shall be blessed with faithful Abraham Rom. 4.11 12. for which cause I suppose it is that Heaven is called Abrahams bosom Luk. 16.22 Luk. 16.22 Abraham being the father of all the Faithful they shall be received into the same happiness with himself and he will shew unto them special love and tenderness Infantes in parentum sinu gestati amorem benevolentiam intimam experiuntur and so to be gathered to the Saints our fathers is a special mercy because we shall have an experience of the highest love of the Saints even Abraham himself the father of us all will owne us for his sons and receive us into his bosom Others take it as a Metaphor from the custom of the Jews in conviviis in their feasts where they did alter in alterius sinu occumbere lye down one in the others bosom Joh. 13.23 answerable unto that Mat. 8.11 They shall sit down with Abraham Isaac Joh. 13.23 Mat. 8.11 and Jacob in the kingdom of God which doth very fitly suit unto the Parable in hand Lazarus stands at the door of the rich man and was not admitted to taste of his meat much less to sit down at his table but he shall sit down in Heaven at the supper of the Lamb with Abraham Isaac and Jacob he shall there lean upon Abrahams bosom 3 Abraham is also an Ecclesiastical or a Church-father Rom. 11.16 as it appears Rom 11.16 he is the root upon which the Churches of the Jews did grow and into which the Churches of the Gentiles are ingrafted many of the Jews were not spiritually his seed and yet they are said to be broken off not from being Abrahams natural seed that they could never be deprived of they were the posterity of Abraham according to the flesh and so they do remain even after their breaking off but they are only broken off from a Church-relation and so they are the seed of Abraham no more and the Gentiles are grafted not into Abraham as a natural father a natural root for they never can be the posterity of Abraham according to nature and many of them are not from him as a spiritual father for many of them believe not and therefore are in danger of being cut off as the Jews were broken off whence they grow upon Abraham and are ingrafted into him as an Ecclesiastical or Church-father So then the answer is there is not a sufficient enumeration of Abrahams paternities It 's confessed the Gentiles cannot become the posterity of Abraham as a natural father or as a spiritual father for so many of the Gentiles are not of the seed of Abraham as do not walk in the steps of his faith but yet Abraham is an Ecclesiastical father unto the Gentiles as well as he was to the Jews that believed not for the Gentiles are ingrafted into the same root out of which the natural branches were broken off which cannot be spoken of his faith and grace that 's never broken off therefore it is of his Ecclesiastical or Church respect it must be meant 2. In the Covenant of Abraham there are two parts the one spiritual consisting in the inward graces and priviledges the other external consisting in outward priviledges only and this doth plainly appear in Isaac who was the child of the free woman and unto whom the Covenant descended according to the spiritual graces and priviledges thereof and in Ismael who was the son of the bond-woman born after the flesh and taken into covenant only in reference to the external priviledges thereof Deut. 29.10 12 13 14. Rom. 9.4 and thus were all the Jews taken into covenant with God as it appears Ezech. 16.8 and yet with many of them God was not well pleased they never had an interest in the saving graces and the spiritual priviledges of the Covenant for Rom. 9.6 They are not all Israel that are of Israel they were all inchurch'd Israel but they were not all of elected Israel for as there is an external calling Mat. 22.14 and sanctification Mat. 22.14 Joh. 15.2 Heb. 10.29 and an external being in Christ so there is also an external being in Covenant with God or being taken into the Covenant of Abraham for Abraham is the root of the Covenant into which the Gentiles also are ingrafted Rom. 11.17 there is a fatness that is from the Olive-tree communicated to the branches even to such branches as were broken off in whose places the Gentiles were grafted in Now the saving graces of the Covenant are not communicated from any Company of men in the world no not from the invisible Church but from Christ only who is therefore said to be the Root of David Rev. 22.16 and the fountain of the Gardens Cant. 3.15 but Ordinances and outward Priviledges are properly the Churches and from the Church are communicated to others as members whether they be elect or reprobate the Gentiles therefore may have an interest in Abrahams Covenant in reference to the outward Priviledges and Ordinances thereof though
made with him an everlasting Covenant 2 Sam. 23.5 though he make it not to grow it was not spoken in respect unto himself alone but unto his Family and his House also and that was Luther's will I have neither Lands nor Possessions to leave them Tibi reddo nutri doce serva ut hactenus me qui pater es pupillorum judex viduarum And so a man may dye in faith not only in reference unto himself and his own Covenant-interest but the Covenant-interest of his Posterity also BOOK III. The Covenant of Grace its Nature and Benefits CHAP. I. Gods part of the Covenant doth consist in Promises SECT I. What Promises are why and how the Covenant of Grace doth consist of Promises and of what HAving spoken thus far of two general heads 1 the Person that made the Covenant and had the first great hand in it and that was God and therefore it 's called Gods Covenant and not mans I will establish my Covenant between me and thee 2 the persons with whom this Covenant is made and that in a threefold subordination 1 with Christ as Mediator as a publick person as the second Adam 2 with Believers in him 3 in them with all their seed Let us now come to look into the nature of this Covenant more particularly and examine the essentials thereof There are three things that are ordinarily distinguished by Divines a Law a Testament and a Covenant A Law depends upon the absolute Soveraignty of the Law-giver and requires subjection whether the persons commanded consent to it or no and so all the Laws of God do depend upon the absolute Soveraignty of God as he is a Law-giver able to save and to destroy A Testament is grounded only upon the Will of the Testator bequeathing of such Legacies freely without requiring the consent of the party to whom they are bequeathed but a Covenant differs from them both in this that it requires the consent and agreement of both parties and therein each party binds himself freely to the performance of several conditions each to other Cocceius doth ground it upon that place Heb. 8.6 A Covenant established upon better promises and he defines it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Divina legislatio promissionibus sancita It is a Law that God establishes upon Promises and therefore implies two things something on Gods part which is the promise and something on mans part which is the duty and unto both these consent of parties is required Gods consent unto the promise and mans consent unto the service and therefore by a Synecdoche the name Covenant is applied unto both parts of these and both of them are called the Covenant 1 The Covenant is sometimes put for the Promise of God which is the Covenant on Gods part Exod. 34.10 Behold I will make a Covenant before all thy people I will do marvels the meaning is no more but voluntaria promissione me obstringo c. I bind my self by a voluntary promise This is my covenant with thee Esa 59.21 says the Lord My Spirit that is put upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth c. Numb 18.19 All the heave-offering of the holy things which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord have I given thee and thy sons by a statute for ever it it a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord. It is spoken only of the free promise of God made unto Aaron and his sons in reference unto the Prieshood 2 The Covenant is sometimes put for the command of God in which he doth require a duty from man Moses was with the Lord in the Mount forty days and nights and he writ upon the Tables the words of the Covenant Exod. 34.28 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the ten Commandments and it 's common in Scripture-acceptation to put the command of God and the duty of man under the name of the Covenant of God So that there are in the essentials of the Covenant two things 1 there is the promise on Gods part which is Gods part of the Covenant 2 there is the duty on man's part in reference unto the command of God there is mercy and duty and mutual consent of both We shall begin with the Convenant on Gods part that we may see what of his free grace he doth oblige and bind himself unto though it 's true he is debtor to none any further than his own free grace makes him so Deus promittendo se debitorem fecit Austin Now Gods part of the Covenant consists in promises and rewards and mans part of the Covenant consists in services and in these two are the essentials of the covenant and these will be our three general heads to be spoken to First Gods part of the covenant doth consist in promises such is the covenant that he made with Abraham wherein he does promise to be a God unto him and to his seed after him and this will appear in four things 1 Because in Scripture we find the covenant and the promises to be put for one and the same thing Gal. 3.16 To Abraham and his seed were the promises made and this I say that the covenant confirmed before of God in Christ the law that was four hundred and thirty years after could not disannul or make the promise of none effect And hence it is called the covenant of promise Eph. 2.12 which though some of our Divines do put and may be not unfitly as a distinction of the covenant of Grace into two branches Ball of the Covenant 4. p. 27. the covenant of promise and the new covenant taking this for the covenant made with the Fathers before the exhibiting of Christ in the flesh who did only see the promises afar off and saluted them Heb. 11.13 and therefore they are called the children of the covenant and of the promise Act. 3.25 yet the truth is so long as there is any one part of it unaccomplished so far it will be the covenant of promise and consist in promises still till Gods people do come to Heaven and receive the happiness and the inheritance of the covenant which the Lord has now promised to the Saints 2 A people taken into covenant with God are said to be intitled unto the promises which before they were strangers unto Rom. 9.4 and could claim no interest in when God took the people of Israel into covenant with himself and they became unto him a peculiar people and treasure of all the people of the earth then unto them did belong ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the worship of God and the promises which all the other Nations of the Earth could lay no claim unto and upon this ground all those that are confederates with God and taken into covenant they are called the coheirs of promise because they have a title unto all those great things which God in covenant has ingaged himself to bestow 3 When the Lord
personal and real c. We have seen that the Covenant on Gods part does consist in promises and that these promises are either absolute or conditional either performed by God without any required condition in us not only citra meritum sed conditionem not only without merit but also condition or else performed by God upon a certain condition wrought in us as a preparation or a qualification of the subject to receive the promises And we find in the next place that these absolute promises are of two sorts answerable unto a twofold object of faith that the Scripture doth hold forth they are either personal or real either promises of persons or of things 1 Promises of things that are absolute and real and of these are chiefly four 1 Ezech. 36.26 I will take away the heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh 2 Jer. 31.33 I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts And these two are promises of conversion and of the power of God in Christ put forth upon the Elect of God 3 Esa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins And unto this belong many other promises of remission 4 There are also promises of perseverance Jer. 32.40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 2 There are also personal Promises and these are the great and leading promises of the second Covenant Here I will shew you 1 that there are such promises and 2 shew you the nature of them 3 the grounds of it why the second Covenant must have such promises as these 4 wherein the excellency of these promises doth consist 1. That there are some personal Promises in which all the three persons in the Godhead are made over unto the soul The first great promise was Gen. 3.15 personal it was of the seed of the woman that the Lord would give Jesus Christ his Son to be born of a woman and to take mans nature and pitch his Tent with us that he should take not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham c. and so Esa 9.6 To us a Son is given And when the Lord came to renew the Covenant with Abraham it is That he will be a God unto him and to his seed after him and that is common in Scripture for God to say Jer. 31.33 I will be their God and they shall be my people And there is a further discovery of the promise in Esa 44.3 I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring And so Joel 2.28 I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh So that these three are the great personal Promises of the Gospel and in these doth the main grace of the new Covenant lye 2. As for the nature of personal Promises they do import a gracious propriety in the persons which God doth by Covenant make over unto the creature The end of promises is to give a propriety and we know that a propriety amongst the creatures is nothing else but jus ad rem when a man doth claim such a thing as his own and has a power to use it and dispose of it in a lawful way for his own benefit and advantage as it seemeth good to him so that propriety as it were puts the thing into the mans hand to do with it what he pleaseth to make improvement and advantage of it that it may be for his own accommodation he may do what he list with his own c. As if a man hath a propriety in Lands or Houses he may either sell or let or give or leave or live upon them as he pleaseth Now as there is a real propriety that respects things so there is a personal propriety that respects persons which is grounded either in natural or voluntary relations as a Father has a propriety in his Son and the Son in the Father and the Husband in the Wife and the Wife in the Husband the Prince in the People and the People in their Prince and the intent of personal propriety is the same in its kind with that which is real that every person that has such a propriety in another should enjoy all benefits and advantages as they could in a way of equity expect or desire to do as the husband that hath a propriety in the wife if there were no sinful defects in the persons that are so appropriated should receive from her all manner of help and assistance as if he himself were the wife and his wife receive from her husband all that kindness and support as if she were the husband and as if all were in her own power to use And so it is in personal promises the intent of them is to make over the persons that when the Lord says I will be thy God the meaning is whatsoever is in me as a God shall be truly thine my infinite power my infinite wisdom and grace and mercy all shall be thine that the soul may lawfully lay claim to it and confidently expect it of him and that as truly as if the creature it self had infinite power and wisdom and mercy and all in his own hands So it is in giving the person of the Son that we should have a propriety and an interest in him as our Brother our Husband our Head and whatever is in him whether of grace or merit shall be as truly ours as it is his and as truly laid out for us as if we had it all inherent in our selves And so it is in giving the Spirit it is a propriety in the person so that the Spirit for conviction for conversion for sanctification for renovation for direction and for consolation doth as truly improve these for us as if they were our own and as if they were inherent in us or we could use and exercise them according to our own pleasure and they are these personal promises of the Covenant that do intitle the soul to such an interest in the persons 3. The grounds of them why must the second Covenant have personal promises The grounds of it are these 1. Man in his Fall had wholly lost God and therefore he is said Eph. 2. to be without God in the world one that had no relation to him one that had no interest in him It 's true that Adam before his Fall had a natural propriety in God both as his Creator and as his Father Luc. 3. ult Adam was the Son of God and so it 's true of the Angels they are called his Sons because they did bear his Image Job 1.6 which no other Creature did but after his Fall all Right unto God was forfeited and man could not look upon him in any relation either as a
Father Son and Spirit in one and the same essence and therefore if any man say a person is something or nothing I say it is something it is Essentia Divina cum proprietate sua hypostatica the Divine Essence with its relative propertie As what is the Father He is God begetting the Son and what is the Son He is God and begotten of the Father c. and so the Father is infinite and the Son infinite because they have all Three an Unity of Essence which is infinite and therefore there is no reason why there should be so much exception against the title of Person as some of the looser sort would seem to take it being a word that doth most fully that I know express the nature of the thing that we can have and most answers the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã used by the Apostle Heb. 1.3 Who being the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high but call them either Persons or Subsistences so the thing be the same I shall not contend for the words 3 But suppose that the manner of it we were not able to express yet it is and should be enough unto us that the thing is clearly set down in Scripture and that we walk by grounds of faith and not by reason it is enough to us that there is but one God and yet that Father Son and Holy Spirit are three and are yet said to be one if we could not describe how three are one nor how one is three yet the deep things of God we must not bring unto the rule of our blind crooked and presumptuous reason a quomodo or how in the things of God is hateful unto God and not agreeing to the nature of faith Col. 2.8 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and is very unbeseeming Christians Take heed lest any man spoil you through philosophy the word notes to make a prize of you and carry you away as Pirates do another mans goods and so there is many a man made a prize of at this day Philosophy is nothing in it self but rectified and raised reason and res Dei ratio est Tertullian and whilst reason is subordinate unto Religion and a hand-maid it 's of excellent use but when it will step out of its place and will needs be a Judge in the things of God then it 's vain that man that will bring down the Scripture unto the rules of his own reason will quickly be made a prey of by any seducers Cum de rebus sibi subjectis pronunciat philosophia audienda est Daven sed cùm de rebus ad fidem spectantibus explodenda When philosophy judgeth of things that belong to her let her be heard but when she judgeth of things belonging to faith let her be exploded Dav. And this has heen the true ground of all these Heresies of Arminianism and Socinianism which have especially in these latter ages pester'd the world because they will arraign the highest Truths of God at the Bar of their own blind and presumptuous Reason and Understanding And this is that which in answer to it Justin Martyr often pressed De recta fidei confessione ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã pag. 375. It becometh the Churches adherents to measure divine things not by humane reason but according to the intention of the Spirits doctrine So having in the same Book affirmed the Union of the two Natures of Christ he addes pag. 382. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If you ask me the manner of this Vnion I am not ashamed to say and confess my ignorance therein but rather I glory in this that I do upon the authority of God believe that which my reason cannot comprehend nor my tongue express Vse 2 2. Exercise faith upon all the persons grounded upon these promises and walk in the love of them all and expect the sealing of them all and so much these promises will carry you unto Exercise faith upon all the persons grounded upon these promises they are the great and ultimate objects of faith now faith is imperfect that takes not in all the objects of faith and it 's a greater imperfection for a grace to fail in its object than to fail in any of the acts of it The Apostle 1 Thess 1. speaks of some defects in faith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and truly these are the great defects there be abundance of objects of faith that faith doth not act upon because we know but in part c. nay the greatest suspicion that a man has of his faith lies in this if any object of it be willingly neglected as in a mans obedience it 's a great ground for a man to question the sincerity and the truth of it if the meanest duty thereof be willingly neglected so it 's ground enough to question the sincerity and truth of our faith much more if a man do observe the lesser duties of obedience and be precise in them but the great and weighty things of the Law are neglected by him so it 's here if a man take in lesser and inferiour promises but as for the promises of the persons which are the great things of the Gospel they are neglected and faith acts not upon them Here a mans faith should take in these particulars 1 That all the persons have a special hand in the salvation of a sinner and that by these promises every believer hath an interest in them all in reference unto these works Opera ad extra sunt indivisa It 's true they having one and the same nature and essence what the one of them doth the other doth also whatever thing the Father doth the same thing doth the Son likewise But yet though these be not opera propria proper works yet they are appropriata appropriate There are peculiar works attributed unto each person as 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ Now suitable to these appropriated works so should a mans faith eye each of the persons and his interest in them When the soul is conversant about Election faith then must look upon God the Father and when about Redemption then faith must look upon God the Son and when upon Sanctification then faith must eye the Holy Ghost because these are the works that the Persons have undertaken under the second Covenant to accomplish in mans salvation and they are by promise made over to these ends 2 One main intendment of God in the Gospel is not only to advance the Attributes of the Divine nature to glorifie his Justice and his Mercy and Grace by making higher discoveries of them than ever could have been shewed forth under the old Covenant but it is also to
because we chuse him and the soul of man is in nothing more free than in his choice specially in the choice of his God and therefore 't is said Hos 9.10 They joyned themselves unto Baal-Peor and separated themselves unto that shame So in conversion a man doth change his God the great work of grace is upon the will The Lord shall perswade Japhet vocatione alta secreta by a deep and secret vocation and all that power is put forth by making them a willing people Psal 110.3 2. He that has Jehovah for his God must have no other God Psal 81.9 There shall be no strange God in thee thou shalt have none other gods but me And therefore Dagon falls before the Ark. And it was the great objection of the Senate against worshipping of Christ as a God in their Capitol when offered by Tiberias because he would be God alone it 's the great objection that Nature has against exalting of God in the heart when God is exalted all lusts must give place Satan then falls from Heaven as Lightning Luk. 10. Hos 14.8 and all the Idols of the soul give place to God What have I to do any more with Idols There are Parelii in Nature by way of reflection two Suns but there cannot be so in the Soul in reference to Gods and if there be so and any thing allowed in the soul for God but the true God that mans interest in God is but a fancy 3. If the Lord be thy God thou wilt exercise all these acts of soul towards him that becomes a God for that is to have Jehovah for thy God for Mic. 4.5 All nations do walk in the name of their gods and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever There is a twofold worship of God 1 Cultus naturalis natural Worship which is inward and there is something in nature that dictates it without a word of institution 2 Institutus instituted Worship an outward worship that depends upon an additional manifestation of his will and these outward acts of worship may be interrupted but the inward acts can never be but you may be abundant in them namely to fear him as a God to trust him as a God and to love him and believe in him as a God and these acts let thy soul be most in offer all thou hast to him and expect all good from him he it is that is called the hope of Israel because all their hopes are in him as all our springs are in him look for your happiness from no other depend upon none but him take up this noble resolution before all the world and say it shall never be said that the King of Sodom made Abraham rich by the things of this life I will have all from my God and then they are all blessings indeed because God comes home to the soul with every mercy and the more immediately any mercy comes from God the sweeter it is and this should make a man walk worthy of God and of such an interest in him It was said of Felix by Tacitus Jus regium servili ingenio exercuit He exercised the kingly power with a servile mind a greatness of mind a Princely spirit answerable to the greatness of your interest is becoming you it is the honour and glory of the Saints to be always shewing themselves worthy of their high calling before the world SECT II. God in the Covenant has made over all his Attributes § 1. LET us now come unto the first thing to be considered in God and that is his Divine Essence there is a twofold discovery a double manifestation of God that the Scripture speaks of the face and the back parts of God Gods face is his Essence Exod. 33.20 21. 1 Joh. 1.2 1 Cor. 13.12 for that is to see him as he is we shall see him face to face which is the vision that the Saints and Angels have of God in Heaven for their Angels behold the face of your Father in Heaven Mat. 18.10 And this is that in which the happiness of rational creatures doth consist it is this which destroys sin and perfects grace and makes the creature impeccable our conformity unto God in holiness and happiness is grounded upon our vision of him 1 Joh. 3.2 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and it 's true that this is also promised by God unto his people in this promise to be their God in fruition as will afterwards appear for this promise is never fully accomplished till we come to Heaven Job 11.7 and yet even then we shall not find out the Almighty to perfection for an infinite Being can never be comprehended by a finite understanding It 's the happiness of God to know himself to perfection We shall know him sufficiently for our perfection but we shall never be able to know him according unto his perfection but the knowledge of God in his Essence doth not agree unto a mans present state the imperfection whereof is set forth by a threefold similitude 1 Cor. 13.12 1 of a glass 2 of a riddle 3 it is answerable to the knowledge of a child of the things of a man Therefore the knowledge that we have of God in this life is not of his essence or his face but of his back parts non sicut est sed sicut vult non as he is but as he wills Bern. And the back parts of God are those Attributes that he is pleased to express of himself in the Scripture by which he is made known either viâ negationis in a way of negation as he is infinite immortal incomprehensible invisible unchangeable or else viâ causalitatis in a way of causality as he is holy and merciful and just and wise c. These being excellencies in the creature are attributed unto God as being wrought by him and therefore must needs be in him in a more glorious and transcendent manner than they can be in any creature This is a knowledge of God suitable unto this life and it is an interest in God that is attainable in this life God has made over himself to his people in all his Attributes Doctrine Observe hence That the Lord in the Covenant of grace has made over unto his people all the Attributes of his Divine Nature Here for the opening of it we must shew 1 That it is so that Gods Attributes are made over 2 That this is peculiar to the second Covenant and is the Saints priviledge or portion 3 The manner of making them over how they are in God and how a man may conclude that they belong to us 4 To what end they are made over unto the Saints 5 What a glorious revenue such have who have an interest in the Attributes of God and how infinitely more it is than a mans interest in all the promises of God and
that he might bear the iniquity of us all c. and therefore he is set forth as a propitiation for the remission of the sins that are past through the forbearance of God Rom. Heb. 10. 3.25 and as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world Joh. 1. Therefore the Lord cannot become our God immediately Gal. 3.19 Job 9.33 no not so much as by Law but in the hand of a Mediator that is Ministerio by the intervention of a Mediator who is as it were a days-man to lay hold upon both parties Now the Lord therefore becomes Christ's God in Covenant and makes over all his Attributes unto him Joh. 20.17 and therefore saith Christ I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God and therefore says the Apostle Eph. 1.3 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and it 's that which Christ lays hold of for himself and his people Psal 22.1 89.26 Phil. 2.7 My God my God c Now how doth the Lord becomes Christ's God as he is the second Person no that he cannot for so he thinks it no robbery to be equal with God One person cannot be said to be a God to another having all of them the name of God given to them and all of them having one and the same Essence or Divine Nature But as Christ is Mediator as he is God-man as the Word is made flesh so the Lord is become Christ's God by the Covenant that he did enter into with his Son when he did possess him in the beginning of his way Prov. 8.21 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Psal 2.6 that is of all his goings forth towards the creature and therefore did anoint him and set his King upon his holy hill which is the same word as is used Psal 2.6 And by this Covenant the Lord did wonderfully manifest his love to his Son by ingaging himself that all the Attributes of the Divine Nature should work for him Joh. 3.35 Joh. 5.20 the Love of God should work for him for the Father loveth the Son and shews him all things and gives him all things into his hand and the Power of God works for him Esa 42.6 I will hold thee by the hand and I will keep thee and the Justice of God works for him that when he had paid the debt he should be released out of prison and therefore after he had lain three days in the grave to shew forth the truth of his death Esa 53.8 the Lord sent an Angel as a publick Minister of Justice for he was taken from prison and from judgment and the Faithfulness of God is also ingaged for him Thus saith the Lord Esa 49.7 to him whom man despiseth and the nation abhors to a servant of rulers Kings shall see and arise Princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful and he shall chuse thee c. And we may see what it is in vers 8. In an acceptable time have I heard thee in a day of salvation have I helped thee I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant to the people to establish the earth c. So that Christ has a double inheritance 1 in God all that is in God is his and all works for him for the Lord is become his God Heb. 1.3 2 In the creatures for he is appointed heir of all things Now all the Attributes being in this manner made over unto Christ by the Father and he given as a Covenant to the Nations and as primus foederatus the first federate in the Covenant and that covenanting being not only for himself but as a second Adam for us hence it is that whatever is made over unto Christ by his Covenant is made over unto us also he being our head and so we come not only to have the same claim to the creatures that Christ had and can say all things are ours 1 Cor. 3.21 Joh. 17.23 but the same claim also unto God that Christ has for we can say that whatever is in God is ours because he is become our God and therefore he is said to love us as he loved Christ and a great ground of a Christians consolation comes in by it that they may know that thou hast loved them even as thou hast loved me and that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them that is that this love in the apprehension and assurance of it may be shed abroad in their hearts abundantly and that under this notion that it 's the same love that God bears unto us that he did bear unto the Lord Christ as Mediator it is to be understood of an as of similitude not of equality it was such a love as made over not only all creatures unto Christ but all Attributes unto Christ and it was a love that gave Christ an union and an unction and such a love it is unto us in both but consider it is but pro modulo according unto our condition so as the Lord Christ in all things may have the preheminence 2. The Lord hath made over all his Attributes to Christ as Mediator that they shall all of them work and be employed for us according unto the necessity we are in For Christ did not only as Mediator make way for all the Attributes to work and to be put forth for us that so no Attribute might stand in the way of mercy and goodness towards us and so Christ came in as causa removens prohibens c. but all the Attributes thus made over to Christ in covenant are all of them to be acted and exercised by Christ as Mediator as the government of all the creatures is committed to him so also the discovery and the exercise of all the Attributes of God are committed to him and therefore it 's said My Angel shall go before thee Exod. 23.21 and that Angel that God sent and led his people in the Wilderness was Christ called therefore the Angel of his presence or of his face because in him the face or the glory of God is discovered Mat. 18.10 and not only because he doth behold his face for so do the other Angels it cannot be spoken of Christ as God for so he is not the Angel that is the Messenger of God sent forth from God and it 's said of this Angel that the name of God is in him Now the name of God is whatever God is made known by and therefore when the Lord doth publish his Attributes he saith he will proclaim his name Exod. 33.19 and therefore all the Attributes of God are in him and by him to be acted and exercised for the Father judgeth no man but has committed the administration of all things to the Son to this end that all men may honour the Son even as they honour the Father and therefore Col. 1.15 he is said to be the image of
man to ingage the Attributes of God against himself as to ingage against those that have an interest in the Attributes of God for the Covenant that God hath made with his people is offensive and defensive and the Lord will surely appear for them it 's therefore a design that did never prosper in the hand of any that did undertake it nay be sure thou wilt perish under the power of those attributes there is no such way to turn the edge of them all against thee as this is as it was said of Canaan It 's a land that eats up the inhabitants so we may say of this it 's a work that devours the workers the Lord will rebuke Kings for their sakes if they touch his anointed and there is no vengeance like unto that of the Temple thou wilt surely perish in thy own opposition for it doth arm all the Attributes of God against thee and they do arm the Church against thee and therefore the worm Jacob must thresh the mountain Isa 41. and when the strength of the Churches enemies is greatest and their hopes highest when they are folded up as thorns and while they are drunken as drunkards Nah. 1.10 they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry and in the same place where they did expect the destruction of the Church they shall be sure to find their own Mic. 4.11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee that say Let her be defiled and let our eye look upon Sion but they know not the thoughts of the Lord neither understand they his counsel for he shall gather them as the sheaves in the floor Arise and thresh O daughter of Sion for I will make thy horn iron and I will make thy hoofs brass and thou shall beat in pieces many people c. They are to the world as a burdensom stone all men will be lifting at them till they be broken in pieces by them it 's their own folly to dash and fall upon them percussum è pectore ferrum 2. It 's a Use of direction to the Saints that have an interest in God as their God in Covenant and so are intitled unto all the Attributes of God 1 Exercise faith upon every attribute and thereby make it to be your own in the use and improvement thereof Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that is let your faith take hold of the strength of God and thereby let it rise unto such a height of confidence as if you had almighty power in your own hand to exercise if thou be in any streight and dost want wisdom to direct thee in thy way be thou wise by the wisdom of God and let thy faith raise thee up unto that height of confidence that it is as impossible for Satan to out-wit thee as it is to go beyond infinite Wisdom and so if thou sin at any time question thy pardon no more than if thou hadst infinite mercy in thy own hand and wert able to pardon thy self for it 's all made over to thee in this one promise I will be thy God for that which is originally and essentially in God that by our dependency becomes ours as truly as if we were the subjects in which it doth reside 2 It should raise up in a man a holy greatness of mind suitable unto such a priviledge and it 's a thing of no small concernment that the people of God should be raised up to such a holy greatness for it would free them from those vain hopes and fears and those low imployments that now they are busied about for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there is nothing great here below a man should look upon all things with the eye of God to have all the Attributes of God made over to him if dangers offer themselves the soul is not surprized for as God sits in Heaven and laughs them to scorn when the workers of Babel did build a Tower to their own confusion so do the Saints also the virgin the daughter of Sion doth laugh thee to scorn c. If wisdom shew it self and a man hath to do with the policy of an Achitophel he fears it no more than folly and believes it shall be as he prays Lord turn it into folly and he laughs at the plot And if the guilt of sin rise up in his conscience he can say Though I have sinned and am a sinner yet God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and grace is free Jesus Christ is ascended up into Heaven and sits at the right hand of God for it 's a fault in the Saints they think when they sin it 's their duty to question their estates their interest in God and it 's good to question it for tryal and examination but not by way of diffidence unto a mans dejection for the way to increase a mans sanctification is not to weaken his faith in the point of justification and if the power of sin do prevail yet a man goes forth against it in the strength of the Lord and he saith Though it be to ãâã impossible yet it is possible with God and his power is ingaged for my perfection and this were to live the life of God as grace is called Eph. 4.18 3 Sing unto God the praises of every Attribute for as we should look through all that is in Christ that our hearts might take in whole Christ and the Church doth so Cant. Psal 21.13 5 and Paul Phil. 3.7 8 9. so should we of all the Attributes of God also Be thou exalted in thy own strength O Lord so will we sing and praise thy power and I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of trouble Observe the attributes that at any time God discovers to thee in thy straits specially and unto those sing praises it 's all that the Lord expects as a return for all that his attributes work for you that you should give them glory and the way to ingage any Attribute of God for you again is to give it the glory of any of the former discoveries thereof and the way to disingage an attribute is to neglect to give that attribute its glory when it has been put forth Cessat gratiarum decursus ubi cessat recursus c. Where the recurse or return of graces ceaseth the decurse or flowing forth of fresh graces ceaseth For the Lords aim under the new Covenant is the glory of the attributes of his nature as well as the glory of the persons that they all of them may have their due place and order in our hearts and as the Lord doth distinctly put them forth in their order for a man as his necessity does require so he does expect that we should take them as our portion and rejoycing in the Lord therein give unto them in our hearts their particular and distinct honour for the Lord
have fancied but it is Gods dispensing himself in wrath Heb 12. ult for our God is a consuming fire It 's disputed amongst the School-men Whether the Devils who were unto men incensores in culpa abettors in the sin shall be also tortores in poena c. tormentors in the punishment And it 's denied by some of them solidly upon these grounds 1 The Devils ministery shall last no longer than the time of the ministery of good Angels and that shall be but for the time of this life for Satan shall be the God of this world no more after this life and the good Angels shall be Principalities and Powers no more for all rule and all authority shall be put down whether good or evil and therefore what power soever Satan has over wicked men while they are here for he works effectually in them he shall have no power over them hereafter 2 The Devil himself being the greatest in sin shall be the deepest in torment for Hell is prepared chiefly for the Devil and his Angels Now who shall torment the Devils who can have power over them this must be by God immediately it must be done by his own hand Therefore man being appointed to partake with the Devil in the same torment and by the same fire look what it is that torments the Devil that also must be the torment of those that in a way of sinning have given themselves unto him 3 No creature can make a man perfectly miserable there is no creature that can deprive the soul of God and shut out all hope of mercy make it utter darkness if the soul did not apprehend it to come from Gods hand his hope in God would still be continued but as God hides his face in mercy sometimes here from his own people so he shall shew the wicked his face in wrath for ever and therefore as in Heaven he is immediately the happiness and the glory of the Saints so in Hell he is immediately the torment of the wicked and the Lord Christ as he is man shall pronounce the sentence against them but it is as God that he shall inflict the punishment As the sufferings of Christ here upon earth the greatness of them lay in this that God hid his face and it pleased the Father to bruise him so the same way will God tâ with all unregenerate men and therefore cursed art thou O man if thy portion be ãâã in the Essence of God for good and for blessedness it shall lie in the Essence of God for misery and torment for ever Vse 2 § 3. Therefore let your hearts and thoughts rise unto this height to seek God for himself and be satisfied with nothing else for all the creatures and the good things of this life are but given by the Lord to try men whether they will prove baits to them and to see whether they will rest satisfied in them without God and herein lies the power of godliness when a man is carried towards God for himself and when there is nothing that comes from God will satisfie without God for a regenerate mans happiness lies in the Essence of God and in the vision thereof and in this lies the happiness of Christ as Mediator Psal 16. that the Lord is the portion of his inheritance and of his cup. It 's true that Christ hath a great deal of satisfaction in seeing the travel of his soul and is satisfied in the Saints they are his friends and his Spouse and his brethren c. but yet the happiness of Christ as Mediator doth not consist therein but only in the enjoyment of God himself the vision of his Essence and in this is the sincerity of a mans heart made manifest when his heart is right with God and he can say Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee And truly in God a soul shall have all things he that gives himself will deny thee nothing Oh the height of the happiness of the Saints that that which is the happiness of Christ and the blessedness of God himself that shall be thy blessedness also and therefore we may cry out O the blessedness of that man whose God is Jehovah Now the ways of attaining of this blessedness are these 1 Pet. 2.21 1. By way of Vnion with Christ for God is first Christs God and then our God Christs end is to bring us unto God and it must be by entring into Covenant and there is no way of coming into Covenant but by Union be one with Christ and then God is thine in Covenant Joh. 3.3 2. By a work of Regeneration Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Grace is above nature and grace is a principle that doth qualifie a man for the enjoying of God there is no beatifical vision without a fiducial vision no seeing God without holiness no man shall see the Lord for it is by this that a man is made a meet inheritor with the Saints in light Rom. 12.1 3. There must be Self-resignation to God Give your selves unto the Lord for he that will have Christ to be his must be Christs he that will have the Lord for his portion must also himself be the Lords portion and therefore the Scripture speaks it reciprocally The Lord is the portion of his people Vse 3 3. See the riches of the Love of God under the second Covenant called the riches of his grace Eph. 1.7 Indeed it was great Love that the Lord was pleased to shew to man in his Creation when he did make over all his creatures to him for his use even all the works of his hands and great was his bounty therein but all this is nothing in comparison to the second Covenant for so bountiful is his love that he gives himself that he will not only act for you but he will be yours truly wholly entirely yours so as your happiness shall consist in him and not in your self he will be your chief good and your utmost end and the bottom of free grace lies in this the ground of his giving his Son and of all the great things in the new Covenant is this they were the men of his good will that should be happy in himself and he will bestow himself upon them And that he may do so he gives them his Son to bring them to God all tends but to this end Vse 4 4. It 's the highest ground of comfort and assurance unto faith in the world if God give his Son if he give himself therefore he will give them all spiritual and temporal blessings There is unto the Saints all things in God therefore when the Lord desires to give unto his people full assurance Heb. 6.17 as if he were in dispute about it it 's said When he could swear by no greater he swore by himself as if the Lord had been solicitous
about it and so desirous to give a man ground of fulness of assurance that if there had been a greater God would have sworn by it but because there was no greater he swore by himself and so it 's here in this particular also the Lord is desirous to shew his Love unto his Saints to the utmost and Love is mainly seen in the bounty of it Now if there had been a greater gift than himself he would have bestowed it but because there was no greater he gave himself and made over his own Essence to them which is not only a strong ground of assurance that you shall be happy for he is the blessed God and his blessedness lies in himself and he is his own blessedness but that he shall according to the possibility of the creature become thy happiness also and it 's a sure ground that he that gives himself will deny nothing that may conduce to bring thee unto that glorious end which is the vision of Gods own Essence in which the height of his Love and of thy happiness ãâã and therefore Psal 84.11 He will be a sun and a shield he will give grace and glory and he can withhold or hold back nothing non prohibebit c. He that has given himself and could not withhold himself and his own Essence surely there is nothing else that he can withhold from thee that lovest him Vse 5 5. Admire the happiness of the Saints blessed men that you are who have your portion in the Lord Psal 144. ult O the blessedness and the infinite happiness of that people who have as their trust so their portion in God alone O happy must that creature be that hath his happiness in an infinite Being It is the glory of the righteousness of the Saints that it is setled in another and not in themselves and therefore the Saints should glory in their portion and make their boast of God Psal 34. My soul shall make her boast of God in God we boast all the day long The word in the Original is laudabit se shall praise it self ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã admire its own happiness and blessed condition every man answerably unto what he places his happiness in so he doth solace himself and glory in it Psal 44.8 Rich men boast themselves in the multitude of their riches and praise their condition as the only happy men in the world but this doth properly belong unto the Saints and therefore though thou art in never so mean a condition below though thy commons be short and thou art fed in the world as a Lamb in a large place yet thy happiness ends in God and that doth please thee more than all the corn and wine and oyl in this world as it did Christ Psal 16. the Lord is my portion the lot is fallen to me in a fair ground I have a goodly heritage Who is able to measure that happiness that lies in an infinite Essence and an infinite goodness I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandments are exceeding broad so say all the Saints nothing is to be compared with a God Vse 6 Lastly If this be the happiness of the Saints then look through all the means that lead unto this end and let this be the great thing in your eye for Christ and Promises and Ordinances all of them are but to this end to bring you to God therefore look through them all to a further end Christ himself is but a medium thereunto and therefore for this happiness sigh and groan and be not satisfied with any thing else no not with the graces of God and communion with Jesus Christ but consider the enjoyment of the ultimate object of faith is God and then will our happiness be compleated when we shall be ever with the Lord then and not till then CHAP. IV. In the Covenant of Grace God makes over all the Persons in the Trinity SECT I. The distinct Offices and Acts of each Person in the Trinity in this Covenant § 1. I Now come unto the third Head in this great and glorious Promise and that is When the Lord doth promise to be the God of his people he doth make over to them in Covenant all the Persons in the Divine Nature for they had all of them a hand in the making of the Covenant and therefore all the promises of the Covenant come from them all they all of them do make over themselves unto the Saints and this will appear 1 by looking upon them all as free Agents and those that are absolute Lords and have dominion over their own acts and they have all given themselves 1 God the Father has made over himself I will be unto him a Father it 's spoken of Christ and therefore he is called by the Apostle the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and by this means he is our Father my Father and your Father my God and your God say Christ Joh. 20. Esay 9.6 2 He gives the Son unto us Unto us a Son is given and therefore he is called by way of eminency the gift of God Joh. 4.10 Rom. 8. He that spared not his own Son but gave him to death for us all And yet the Son is not so given by the Father but he doth also freely give himself for he saith I and my Father are one not only one in essence but also one in will Joh. 10.30 in reference unto the great work of Redemption and therefore God doth âo sooner make the motion to him Psal 40. it is brought in as the consultation held in Heaven before the Lord dispatched Christ into the world but Christ saith Lo I come to do thy will O God Psal 40. Joh. 10.18 I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me There is none that takes away my life but I lay it down of my self 3 And the giving of the Spirit it 's sometimes said to be the gift of the Father and therefore called the Promise of the Father which they were to wait for Acts 1.8 and sometimes the gift of the Son I will send the Comforter again Joh. 14.26 The Comforter that I will send you from the Father Joh. 15.26 and the Comforter whom the Father will send in my name Which is not to be interpreted as a promise only of the gifts and graces of the Spirit to come in but at second hand but as the giving of the Son is a giving of his person and giving us an interest therein so giving the Spirit is a giving of the person of the Spirit also and giving us a personal interest in him and as the Father and Son are one so is the Spirit also one with them and therefore has the same will with them and doth freely bestow himself upon the Saints for their portion as the Son doth to accomplish the great designs of the Gospel 2. This will
of promise who is the earnest of your inheritance And so 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God through the sanctification of the Spirit and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ therefore by reason of the special interest that they have given unto the Saints in themselves they have undertaken distinct offices and this is plain in Son and Spirit which are terms of office He that is sent doth imply as much as to be imployed in the business of another and to receive his commission from another This will appear 1 in the work of Conversion and Election the Father begets calls draws For no man says Christ can come to me except God the Father draws him Christ he receives men but he receives none but those that the Father has given him he gives him the souls that he must save and they that come to him are so given him of the Father these shall come and none else he will in no wise cast them off And as Christ receives them so the Spirit unites God and the soul for he is the bond of union between them and their Head he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit and we are one Spirit baptized into one body and therefore in the work of Election each of them have their distinct acts and office 2 In all the duties of the Saints they have their proper and distinct works as in hearing it is God the Father whose the truths are that they hear Eph. 3.9 they are a mystery hid in God from ages and from generations The book of his counsels are in the hand of him that sits upon the Throne who is the Word of God that is the Interpreter of the Fathers mind as the word of a man is of the mind of a man which I conceive is the proper meaning of that expression and so Joh. 1.17 The law came by Moses but grace and truth by Jesus Christ meritoriously for there is not a truth revealed but cost the blood of Christ and it is as the Lamb that was slain by virtue of his Priesthood that he doth open the book Rev. 5. And so the Spirit is the Eye-salve that gives us an understanding to receive the truths that are revealed and doth ingraft the word into the heart so in prayer also Joh. 5.20 the Father is prayed unto and therefore Christ teaches us in our prayers to look up unto God and to cry Our Father not but that Christ and the Spirit may be prayed to for they are God they are believed in and therefore are to be prayed unto but yet because of the different offices of the persons in this work of prayer therefore we are mainly directed to pray unto the Father so that he hears prayers and the Spirit indites them Rom. 8.26 and the Son he offers them with his own odours Rev. 8.3 3 It will appear also in the sealing of the Saints which I conceive is not the working of grace as some say and so the allusion is of a seal modo naturali and so the Spirit in working an impression of the image of Christ upon the soul is said to seal it leaving the like impression in the man but it is after a man believes Eph. 1.13 and I conceive that sealing is used in Scripture chiefly in a metaphorical sense to assure and to mark out a person as it 's said Ezech. 9. They were sealed that is set apart for it and seal the stone that is to make it sure to ratifie and confirm it Now there are the distinct seals of all the persons unto the evidences of the Saints they have all of them a distinct witness 1 Joh. 5.7 The Father the Word and the Spirit and they three agree in one they do all of them testifie the same thing but yet they do all of them give a distinct witness in the hearts of the Saints as they did witness unto Christ the Father from Heaven and the Son in his Baptism and the Spirit descending as a Dove so they do also unto the souls of the Saints and therefore Sacraments are called Seals not that they do work the righteousness of faith in any man for they do not work grace but strengthen and witness grace but because they do assure it unto the man that doth receive them and for that cause are said to be sealing Ordinances § 2. Now these distinct acts of office they do perform are grounded upon the distinct interest that the Saints have in them all and I call these acts of Office upon a double ground 1 Because they are but for a time during the present administration of the mediatory Kingdom which shall have its period and then the Father will draw souls to Christ no more the Son will present sacrifice to God no more 1 Cor. 15.24 the Spirit will no longer assist call purge sanctifie seal but all the graces of the Subjects of the Kingdom of Christ shall be perfected and all Gods ends in the Covenant of grace attained and then the offices that were undertaken but for the accomplishment of these ends shall be laid down 2 Because there is a personal glory that doth redound unto each person by these offices there be natural acts that do add to the essential glory the glory of the nature but acts of Office being personal they add unto the glory of the persons that do perform them 1 Cor. 5.17 18. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself the Father hath the glory thereof and the Son he hath taken the form of a servant and paid the service and made a purchase and he has the glory thereof all Nations are given unto him and the honour of it in the hearts of all the Saints Joh. 5.23 That all men may honour the Son c. And the Holy Ghost he works all in the hearts of the Saints he begins the good work Phil. 1.6 and he perfects it for all the graces of the Saints are but fruits of the Spirit and therefore he has a distinct glory also The great end and intent of God in the new Covenant was not only to shew forth the Attributes of his Nature and to glorifie them in a higher way than ever they were formerly under the first Covenant discovered as we have formerly seen but also to exalt the glory of all the persons in the hearts of the Saints that they might with hearts ravished with the love goodness and the offices of them all cry out Glory be unto the Father Son and holy Ghost and pray unto them all Rev. 1.5 6. Grace be unto you and peace from him which was and is and which is to come and from the seven Spirits before the Throne and from Jesus the faithful and true witness the first begotten of the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth who has loved us and washed us from our sins by his own blood and has made
us Kings and Priests unto God and the Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever c. They have each of them their peculiar glory of the distinct works that they themselves have wrought and all of it is grounded upon this distinct interest that the Lord doth promise to the Saints that he will be their God 5. When the Saints come to glory their communion with all these glorious persons shall be perfected they shall not only have perfect sanctification but communion and as their communion in this life is not with God only but with all the persons distinctly having hearts affected with love and sensible of the communion of them all so it shall be much more in Heaven for the communion here that we have shall be perfected Now in Heaven we shall have not only the vision of God that is of his Essence but also of all the persons we shall see God in Trinity as well as in Vnity for what we have here by faith we shall have there by sight but here we have that by faith therefore we shall see them there or else we cannot see him as he is and according to our vision so shall our communion be but we shall have a distinct fellowship and sweetness in the Father Son and Spirit for ever Now the grounds of it are these 1. That our happiness might appear to consist in the vision and fruition of them all therefore they are all of them distinctly made over by Covenant to us we shall not only see God in his Unity but in his Trinity also not only the glory of the Divine Essence but the excellency of each of the persons This is a mystery now that is inconceivable unto us which we are not to pry into which the Angel in a vision told Austin while he was studying and did endeavour to comprehend he did but attempt to empty the Sea with a spoon into a pit Scrutator Majestatis opprimitur à gloria This Mystery is here discovered only to the faith of the Saints but that revelation which is in this life imperfect shall be perfected in Heaven and our knowledge which in a way of faith is imperfect for faith is a grace that doth suppose imperfection that shall be perfected in vision for in Heaven whatever doth suppose sin or implies imperfection shall be done away therefore the Father as distinguished from the Son and the Son from the Father the nature of the generation of the Son and the procession of the Holy Ghost which now we have only revealed unto us that it is so the nature and the manner of it we shall understand so far as the creature is capable of such glorious and inconceivable mysteries and then in them all shall our happiness consist and our soul is to have its portion in them all 2. That the soul may honour them distinctly for the aim of God in the new Covenant is not barely the glory of the Divine Essence and to exalt in the hearts of the Saints the Attributes of the Nature but the excellency of the persons also that they may honour the Son Joh. 5.23 as they honour the Father that they may give glory to the Father Son and holy Spirit and may cry always day and night Holy holy holy Rev. 4.8 repetitâ acclamatione unum Jehovam celebrant quem etiam trinum agnoscunt Bright And the Lord doth in Scripture exceedingly stand upon a distinct glory and to that very end requires not only a general and confused but a distinct acknowledgment not only that we should know God to have all goodness and all sufficiency in him but the particular attributes and excellencies that are in God and not only to know Christ to have all fulness in him but that the soul see the several offices and the particular excellencies that are laid up in Christ as the Church doth Cant. 5. for as else a man can never give God glory till his particular excellencies be known and discovered so a man will never be in his own soul affected with it for they are particulars that do affect as whilst the Queen of Sheba heard but a general report of the wisdom of Solomon she was so far affected as that she was moved to come a great journey even from the farthest parts of the Earth to hear his wisdom but when she saw his wisdom in the particulars of it when he had answered all her questions and she had seen all his glory there was no more spirit left in her 1 King 10.5 they were the particulars that did affect his wisdom and his house and his servants c. As it 's in confession they are not generals that do affect it 's a small thing for men to say That they are all sinners and they have broken all the commands but when a man sees his sins in the particulars set down in order before him then is his soul amazed and he doth abhor himself never till then and so it is in thanksgiving also Now because that all the persons shall be glorified and they shall all have great glory therefore it must be distinct and that it may come from a heart truly affected with it also therefore he must give unto each person his distinct glory 3. That a man in this life may exercise distinct acts of faith upon them all Joh. 14.1 You believe in God believe also in me not only to the glory of God the Father but of the Son and Spirit also that faith may have an eye unto God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ as Eph. 1.14 and unto Christ as the Son in whom he is well pleased as Mat. 17.3 therefore he is in the bosom of the Father able to reveal all his Fathers counsels unto the Saints and interceding as he is the Son and therefore is very powerful with him Joh. 3.16 he cannot deny the cry of a Son Heb. 7. ult Though Christ as he is God cannot pray because he can stand in need of nothing that he should go out of himself for for he is God all-sufficient 1 Cor. 3.11 Rev. 4. yet it is the Godhead that gives an efficacy to all that is done in the humane nature There are two things Christ does as he is a Priest 1 His Satisfaction and the sufficiency thereof is put upon the Godhead in the Scripture Acts 20.28 The blood of God and We are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 and Heb. 9.14 He offered himself by the eternal Spirit without spot to God 2 His Intercession and though he doth intercede by the power of his satisfaction for he doth enter within the most holy place and doth sprinkle the blood with the incense his blood is a speaking blood yet the prevalency of his Intercession is commonly put upon the strength of the relation between God and him Psal 2.7 8. Thou art my Son c. Ask of me and I will give thee
not the holy Spirit by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption do not resist the Holy Ghost do not tempt him lest he forsake you and say I will strive with you no more A man should fear the evil aspect of any word of God and the estrangement of any promise of God that he should be in such a condition that he cannot go to it with boldness and comfort and be kept off from an Ordinance of God that he cannot eat the Passover with the people of God in the season of it how much more when a man shall look up upon the Father Son and Spirit and sees any of these estranged from him for they seek the glory one of another and delight to have each other honoured in the hearts of the Saints and if thou walk unworthily towards any of them they are all of them provoked and displeased thereby § 3. Let us now take a view of the particulars how and in what respect each person doth make over himself unto the Saints in the second Covenant that we may see how they have an interest in them all 1. God the Father makes over himself in Covenant unto the Saints as he is the Father Joh. 20. therefore Christ calls him My Father and your Father my God and your God The Saints also call him our Father 2 Thess 1.1 In God our Father c. Christ is his Son by nature as he is God and as Mediator he is taken into the same Sonship by the grace of personal Vnion Luke 1.35 That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God And we are also taken into the same Sonship by the grace of Adoption by virtue of the mystical Union even as the Manhood of Christ is by the personal Union Now what is it to have an interest in him as a Father that we can call him Abba Father The sweetness of that relation is very great unto the Saints for he is the Father of mercies and he is the Father of lights 2 Cor. 1.3 Jam. 1.17 by which Majesty Holiness and Perfection is intimated for so much Light doth signifie 1 Joh. 1.5 and therefore he is said to dwell in light and Heaven to be an inheritance in light and he is the Fountain and Father of all Light whether it be lumen fidei or lumen gloriae Col. 1.12 the light of faith or the light of glory and from hence Saints looking upon God the Father making over himself unto them are greatly affected considering 1 they have the honour of such a relation and truly the highest honour of the Saints is that of Sonship as it was the highest honour of Christ in his relation that he was the Son of the Father and we count it a high honour to stand in relation unto a Prince as David said Is it a small matter to be Son-in-law to a King It is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a priviledge or prerogative to be called the Sons of God Behold what manner of love the Father has shewed us Joh. 1.12 13. that we should be called the sons of God! Now we are the sons of God in this life we have this title of honour put upon us though it is true our condition doth not seem answerable unto such a relation adoptionis fructus nondum apparet c. 1 Joh. 3.2 2 We may be sure to be acquainted with his secrets and see all his actings for the Father loves the Son and shews him all that he himself does he did so to Christ and in your measure he will deal so with you also for the Son is in the bosom of the Father and therefore he knows his mind and his purpose The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him Joh. 1. â8 i. e. the secrets of his counsel with them and the secret of his providence over them his Law is in their hearts 3 He loves you as a Father My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And we know the bowels of a father to his son by Abrahams to Ismael for his everlasting state his love did rise so high though we are begotten not of the will of man but of God And though Absolom were a disobedient son yet David doth love him so that his heart went out to him even when he rebelled against him there is an efficacy in love 4 As a Father he 'l hear your prayers Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me I know thou hearest me always whatever you ask of the Father he will give it you also that are his children It is by our sonship that we prevail with God in prayer at any time we have an Advocate in the Father The Father himself loves you saith Christ and therefore whatever you ask the Father be sure you shall speed and Christ argues the case with us Why should you doubt this If you know how to give good gifts to your children that are evil how much more shall your heavenly Father give to them that ask 5 He will as a Father give you a supply for all your wants The Father loves the Son and has committed all things into his hand all judgment is committed to the Son so he will give you as a Father the greatest gifts he gives his Son his Spirit he will give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him he will give grace and glory he doth not think Heaven too dear for them because they are sons and his own Essence he will make their portion and happiness 6 He rejoyceth in your prosperity here in your well-doing when wisdom is justified of her children he rejoyceth in their well-doing a wise son maketh a glad father he loves to see them prosper to see their graces grow and their souls thrive that they may have all good things both here and hereafter 7 He spares them in their services as a father spares his son that serves him though they be weak he doth not reject their offerings and he doth accept the will for the deed does not deal with us as an enemy that watches for our halting but as a father we do not stand without as the rest of the world do but we come into the inner Court. 8 Lastly they have an interest in him for correction Whom I love I chastise says God and in all their afflictions he doth pity them as a father Eph. 3.12 he doth correct in judgment not in fury but in measure c. it is for their profit that they may say it was good for them c. But more particularly this must be premised How and in what respect each of the Persons have made over themselves to the Saints under the second Covenant that under the first Covenant all the persons had an equal hand in the same things and there were not opera propria but what the Father is said to do that the Son and Spirit also are said to do so
because all the fulness of Christ he doth receive it from the Father Therefore whensoever we have recourse unto Christ for righteousness holiness and comforts and see him to live by the Father in all these and when we look up unto him who is our Head and see him exalted above all Principalities and Powers and that he lives by the power of God now say Christ lives by the power and the glory of the Father and the life that I live is by the faith of the Son of God 2 As by the Father he is made the fountain of life unto us for the Father did give eternal life unto us when he laid it up in the Son therefore it is said That they killed the Prince of life Joh. 5.11 Acts 3.25 as he is the King of Righteousness and the Prince of Peace it is said Moses was a man of peace but he could not command peace in the mutinous and murmuring people but if he had been a Prince of peace he could and so Christ as a Prince of life can convey life and dispense it Rev. 22.14 We having fallen and forfeited Paradise and the Tree of Life we were secluded from it Now God the Father hath appointed another Tree of Life which is the Lord Jesus Christ and he will give unto men a right or a priviledge to eat thereof also which they were formerly shut out of So that you see it is the Father that hath given him power to quicken whom he will to have life in himself and to give eternal life to as many as believe in him SECT IV. Our Covenant-Interest in Offices Acts and Relations of the Trinity applied Vse 1 § 1. HAving finished the doctrinal part and seen how God the Father makes over himself in the Covenant of Grace to the Saints for their portion lyes in God not only in the Attributes of the nature but in an interest in the persons also and we have an interest in all the actions that the Father appropriated whether they be eternal or in time and those whether terminated in Christ immediately or in us and we have seen how we have an interest in all the personal relations of the Father that in the same relations he stands to Christ in the same he stands to us also he is his Father and our Father his God and our God he is our Father our King our Friend our Husbandman and the Fountain of our life for he hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son Now we come to apply all this to our selves and it shall be 1. for Information that so in so great a truth as this we may not be mistaken And here we are to consider 1 that a man hath interest in all the persons at once they all be given together a man hath not first an interest in the Father and then in the Son and then in the Spirit but having an interest in one he hath an interest in them all he that hath the Son hath the Father also he hath the Father and the Son Joh. 2.23 Joh. 2.9 And by this we may see what a glorious change there is in a man when he is converted and made one with Christ he hath an interest in all the Attributes of God It 's true that they do all act for him afterwards successively and according to a mans necessity at several times they work for his good sometimes an act of mercy is put forth for him sometimes an act of power sometimes wisdom sometimes patience but yet the soul comes to have an interest in them all at once and at the same time and when he is intitled to the one he is intitled to the other even to them all and so it is with the Persons also the title Believers have to them begins at once As a man hath interest in Christ the Mediator it 's true that Christ doth exercise all his Offices for his spiritual good successively and he is now to him a Priest to offer his Sacrifice and to bear his iniquity now he is a Prophet to teach him now he is a King to govern him and there are distinct acts of all these offices but yet the soul hath an interest in them all at once As it is in all grace it 's true that the graces of Gods Spirit do all of them act in their places 2 Pet. 1.5 for we are to add to our faith vertue and to our vertue knowledge c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is taken ab iis qui choros ducunt from such as lead the dance in which every one keeps his own place and acts his own part for grace brings the most glorious order into the soul that can be but yet all grace is wrought together even the whole new man is begotten at once And so for all the creatures of God it is true that they do all in their places act for the Saints the Stars in their courses do fight against Sisera but yet a man comes to have jus haereditarium an hereditary right to them all at once And this is the glory of the change at a mans first conversion which a man may admire ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a man that had before no interest in any Attribute of God in any person in the Godhead or any of the Offices of Christ or any grace of the Spirit or any promise of the Gospel or in any creature of God yet at once in the very same instant he comes to have a title unto all these that though all the promises be fulfilled by degrees and in their time yet the soul hath a title unto them all and that as true and as great as he shall have when he comes to Heaven 1 Cor. 13.10 11. for it is by the same title that he shall injoy Heaven for this is but our nonage and childhood yet a child hath the same title to the land his father left him as when he comes to be a man only he hath not the possession of it and so the title by which you shall injoy God for ever is begun in this life only there are two great changes you must pass through the first is conversion the second is death by the one the soul is intitled to his heavenly inheritance and by the other he is fully put into possession 2. Though the interest of Gods people begin at once in all the persons yet the Lord would have us take notice that there is a distinct interest in them all to be attained unto for the more distinct our apprehensions are the more glory we give unto God and the greater will our own comfort be God delights not in generalities neither in general confessions nor in general apprehensions or thanksgivings As it is in the Attributes of the Nature of God though a soul that hath an interest in God in Covenant hath a title to them all at once yet they are all of them as so many
a nearer union with the Father and with the Spirit also and herein lyes the greatest exaltation 2 There is more in union with the persons than there is in all other benefits whatsoever and all other interests as there is more in the person of Christ than there is in all the benefits of Christ so there is more in giving of the person of Christ than in giving of all the benefits that he bestows Thus there is more in our title to the persons than in all other interests whatsoever whether we have an interest in promises in creatures in ordinances nay it is more in some respect than an interest in Attributes for under the first Covenant the Attributes were after a sort made over to Adam that they should all work for him they were his portion but under the second Covenant it is that the interest in the persons comes in for if Adam had stood he had had an interest in God in common whatever was in the Nature of God all the Attributes of his Nature should have been his but it is the second Covenant that brings in union with the Son of God that gives us a distinct union with the Father and with the Spirit and therefore it is a personal interest that is the great mercy and glory of the new Covenant 3 It is our title unto the person that gives us a title unto all the benefits as it is in our union with Christ 1 Joh. 5.12 He that has the Son has life it 's our union with the Son that gives us a title unto life for him for the Covenant is matrimonial and it is the union with the person only that intitles the woman to her husbands honour and estate so it 's in this also having an interest in all the persons gives a man a title unto all the promises and unto all the priviledges of the Saints and therefore the jus haereditarium of the Saints unto all other good things from God lyes in this that they have an union with all the persons for they that are not intitled unto the persons do in vain hope to intitle themselves to the benefits 4 This gives a man a threefold title and interest 1 in all the Attributes 2 in the Divine Nature 3 in their actings for as they are all made over unto the Saints so they know that all these attributes are to be found in all the persons There is in the Father infinite wisdom and infinite power and infinite mercy and infinite grace c. so there is in the Son also for the attributes of the nature are in common to them all they having all of them but one and the same simple and undivided Essence and it is glorious to a Saint to see all the attributes in them all and thereby he is assured that in all the actings of the Father he will improve all the attributes and so it is in all the actings of the Son and the Spirit also and so they become ours in the actings of them by reason of our interest in all the three persons 5 This is the proper ground of our communion with God wherein lyes the sweetness of a Christians life here but mainly in that fellowship that he hath with God that he walks with God and that he is not alone but the Father is with him c Now all communion is personal and is a mutual intercourse between persons 1 Joh. 1.5 Our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ And there is a fellowship of the Spirit 2 Cor. 13.14 It 's true we have an inheritance in attributes and in promises but we cannot properly be said to have fellowship with him but in regard of the persons Adam had in his creation an inheritance in all the creatures but yet he could not have communion with them there was none meet for fellowship with him but Eve so it 's here there is nothing but a person that a man can have communion with It 's true our communion is in things as we have communion with Christ in his righteousness and in his priviledges in his graces in his victories that is we have a share together with him in them all and they are as truly ours as they are his according unto our necessity but yet remember our communion is with the person of Christ not with the benefits so it is in this also we have a communion with Father Son and Spirit in the attributes of the Nature so that they are as truly ours according to the tenour and for the ends of the new Covenant as they are his but still our union and communion is with the persons in them therein doth properly the foundation lye as if a husband marry a wife she shall have a communion with him that is a common share in his honour and in his estate in whatever is his but yet the communion that she hath is with the person of her husband ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now man being a sociable creature we know what sweetness there is in fellowship with the persons of men to have the communion of those he takes most delight in as nature doth inable a man to taste the sweetness of that fellowship so doth grace being a Divine nature and fitting the soul for communion it doth inable a man to taste the sweetness that is in fellowship with the Divine nature with all the persons in whom only there is all fulness and joy unspeakable and full of glory 2. If there be such an interest in the persons to be had then let every man examine himself whether he have such a title unto the persons or no. In all other titles we do use to try because we would not be deceived and upon the tryal of a title a man doth conclude it is good illud certum quod ex dubio certum that is certain which out of doubtful is made certain Let us therefore examine our title which we have so much the greater cause to do because there is this vanity in the heart of a man that it 's very apt to suppose a title here without trying and this is the overthrow of many a soul the foolish Virgins did suppose that they had been espoused unto Christ and should have gone unto the marriage with him as well as the wise c. as men do in the benefits of Christ they are willing to suppose that their sins are pardoned and their persons are accepted and so they deceive their own souls there is a fallacy when a man disputes ex falsis suppositis from false suppositions and then all the conclusions that he doth build upon them are unsound and that 's the very condition of most Christians they argue ex falsis suppositis from false suppositions all their life time Jam. 1.22 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and that 's the fallacy spoken of Jam. 1.22 But be you doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own souls
therefore being so highly advanced as to be enjoyers of communion with God be exalted 1 to grow in your conformity to Jesus Christ for that is the ground of all communion What fellowship hath light with darkness O 't is a blessed thing to have this testimony from God himself which David had I have found David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart which shall fulfil all my wills 2 Accustom your selves to communion with him Job 22.21 acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come to thee receive the Law from his mouth and lay up his words in thy heart we cannot have too much communion with God who is our life our joy our peace who is our all c. and the more communion we have with God the greater blessings we shall be to the Nation wherein we dwell not only to procure blessings for them but to divert Judgments CHAP. V. God in the Covenant of Grace makes over himself in his Alsufficience SECT I. The Alsufficience of God as made over to the Saints explicated and demonstrated § 1. HAving spoken thus far of the great Promise of the new Covenant which is called anima foederis the soul of the Covenant by Pareus and Musc calls it foederis caput the head of the Covenant unto which all the other promises are subordinate even the gift of Christ himself is but to bring us to God and that our faith and hope might be in God and though we have formerly seen that in this promise all the Attributes of the Divine Nature are made over unto the Saints and what we have further to say might be included under that head yet to be a God I find in Scripture doth in a special manner point us unto two things 1 To be a God notes one that has an alsufficiency unto his own Being and blessedness and an alsufficience to the Being and the blessedness of all the creatures 2 It notes him to have a Soveraignty and Dominion over all the creatures which are but the works of his hands the first they take from Gen. 17.1 I am God alsufficient and I will make a covenant between thee and me and the terms of that Covenant on Gods part are I will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee that as I am a God alsufficient so I will be thy God thy God in my alsufficiency and the other they do commonly take from that place Rom. 9.5 God over all blessed for evermore so that he that is God is over all as the first notes the Sufficiency so the other notes the Soveraignty of God 1. I am God alsufficient Gen. 17.1 I will in my alsufficiency be thy God Gen. 17.1 the word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Shaddai which has a double notation or derivation amongst Interpreters some derive it from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies vastavit spoliavit he hath destroyed and so it signifies the omnipotent one that is able to destroy all things as he made all things of nothing so he is able to reduce them unto their first nothing and according to this derivation the LXX render it sometimes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Esa 13.6 Joel 1.15 It shall come as destruction from the Almighty and sometimes it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he that made all things Job 8.3 Doth the Almighty pervert judgment And some of the Rabbins conceive that he adds this unto it à vastatione mundi in diluvio c. from the destruction of the world by the floud others derive it from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sufficience and they say it is qui sibi aliis sufficiens est he that is sufficient for himself and others and so the LXX render it by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Job 31.2 and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he that has a sufficiency in himself and so they make it to answer unto the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã self-sufficient These and some other are the derivations of the word but I conceive they do all coincidere or fall in with these two 1 Some make it a title only given unto Christ as Mediator Lib. 3. c. 15. so doth Pet. Galatinus de arcanis Nomen hoc divinum propriè soli Messiae sit congruum which he proves from that place Job 3.4 anima Shadai vivificavit me and he saith the Father has not a soul animam solus Dei Filius habet the Son of God only hath a soul So Glass in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã pag. 33. which he proves from Gen. 48.16 The Angel Goel that redeemed me from all evil c. which though it be a notion that I shall not insist on yet it doth prove the Godhead of Christ having the glorious names of God given to him as he is called Jehovah our Righteousness and he is called God Heb. 1. Thy throne O God endures for ever and Esa 9.6 he is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã also But 2 we shall take it at this time as a term of alsufficiency and so it takes in Gods Omniscience and all his other Attributes I am God alsufficient and I that am so will be thy God in my alsufficiency Doct. The Lord who is a God in Covenant with the Saints doth make over himself unto them in his Alsufficiency In the opening whereof I must shew 1 What the alsufficiency of God is and why he is called Alsufficient and in what respect 2 That by the Covenant of Grace he makes over himself in his Alsufficience unto the Saints with the grounds thereof 3 That this Alsufficience belongs unto none but unto his Covenant-people 4 We must descend to the Application 1. What is meant by the Alsufficience of God or why is God called Alsufficient A perfect good is an alsufficient good Arist Ethic. l. 1. c. 7. Now that is a perfect good which supplies all a mans wants and does satisfie all his desires both in this life and in the life to come which only can do it if enjoyed alone and without which nothing else can if a man had all the enjoyments of Heaven and of Earth 1. There is in God enough to supply all a mans wants a man cannot stand in need of that blessing that is not to be found in the blessed God and that is not only efficiently as all good things come from him but formally as all good things are in him for he doth make use of the support of the creatures as he doth of all their operations not to supply any defect that is in himself and therefore sometimes he will make use of their assistance and sometimes he will do it without them to shew that they are but instruments and operantur ac si non operarentur and this will appear Psal 84.11 The Lord God is a Sun there is a double notion of a Sun in Scripture 1 Ob splendorem foelicitatem significat 2 Ob
but this and 't is as well as I could wish for my self though I have nothing of the things below 2 In the Saints and because their condition in this life is commonly set forth by the state of the people of Israel in Egypt let that be the instance to express it unto us when they were come out of Egypt they were in a barren and howling wilderness death did a thousand ways present it self to them and under as many shapes they had neither bread nor water nor provision nor protection but what they had from God immediately and yet having God in Covenant they had enough because they were interessed in the alsufficiency of God and therefore if they want bread he gives them Manna and if water he doth cause the Rock to yield it if protection if direction he is a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night in allusion to which the Prophet speaks Esa 4.4 5. Now we shall see this set forth by Moses who was an eye-witness of it and a Leader of the people through the wilderness Deut. 33.27 for their provision it 's true that he has a land of corn and wine and the Heavens drop down dew but it is from the fountain of Jacob it 's commonly expounded the posterity of Jacob and so haply it may be understood Qui à Jacobo instar fontis perennis ortum ducunt but there is yet a spiritual meaning in it and so Cocceius observes Fons Jacobi dicitur quòd est fons salutis Psal 68.27 The fountain of Jacob is the fountain of salvation So that all these mercies they had from him that was the Father and the Fountain of mercy he was the Fountain of Israel and for protection the eternal God is thy refuge in danger you need flye to no other Asylum but to him alone Esa 26.20 Come my people enter into your chambers and shut the door about you it is the Attributes of God and his alsufficiency that are the chambers into which the Saints are called to hide themselves and therefore it is to preserve them from dangers that if they fall at any time they may never fall to the ground for under them are the everlasting arms which notes two things 1 Potentiae sustentationem sustentation by his power 2 Gratiae amplexum the embracement of his grace he doth carry them in his arms and though they fall yet still his arms are under them and who is this that is in this manner all unto them it is he that is alsufficient he that is thy God in Covenant the God of Jeshuron for a habitation they and thy fathers wandred up and down having no setled dwelling place incertis sedibus but thou Lord Psal 90.1 hast been our habitation in all generations and when they wanted Ordinances in the Captivity they had neither Tabernacle nor Temple but he was a Sanctuary to them Ezech. 11.16 he did supply the want of publick Ordinances in himself and for their guidance and Deut. 32.10 12. The Lord alone led them and there was no strange God with him he did all by himself alone he led them and he fed them and there was none other joyned with him in the work he was alsufficient to them But to come to the reasons and grounds of all this Reas 1 1. The first and great ground of all this is his own love it was only his love that brought him into Covenant with them because the Lord loved thee and made thee to be his people it was looking upon them in the time of love and this love is the womb in which the Covenant and all the mercies of the Covenant were bred now the nature of love is bountiful nescit nimium it knows no excess The Father loved the Son Joh. 3.3 5. 2 Thess 2.16 and has given all things into his hand the Father hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace The great thing that God aims at in the second Covenant is his own glory manifestative glory now he cannot receive manifestative glory but according to the measure of love manifested unto the creature and his love therefore being the highest he must find out an expression that is suitable to the manifestation of such a love the gift must be such as may express the height and depth and breadth of his love and therefore it must be in giving the greatest blessing or else it could not have been an expression of the greatest love if there had been any thing greater or better to have been bestowed that is in point of consolation he would have given it Heb. 6.13 If there had been a greater he would have sworn by it so he doth in point of affection also if there had been a greater he would have given that gift but a greater than himself in his alsufficiency God had not to bestow 2. It was necessary from the insufficiency of all things else to supply our wants there is an insufficiency in all the creatures and therefore a continual restlesness in the soul while it is bottomed upon the creatures they are but broken cisterns Jer. 2.13 that can hold no water when once man departed from God and forsook him the Fountain of living water he sought a sufficiency in the creatures alone they immediately became vanity they have not a vanity in themselves but it is the sin of man that fills the creature with vanity if the Lord should give a man as he has done the Devil the dominion of the world for he is not only the Prince of the air but he is the god of this world yet all this would but leave a man in the Devils condition and his soul would never be satisfied with it there is still something wanting that all the creatures cannot supply so that the soul saith as Austin Quicquid nobis adest praeter Deum nostrum dulce non est nolumus omnia quae dedit si non dat seipsum qui dedit omnia 3. Because the Lord would have the happiness of the creatures to concenter in him alone which could never be if he were not an alsufficient God Esa 26.3 Trust in the Lord for ever 1 Pet. 1.13 trust perfectly in the grace that is revealed unto us by Jesus Christ if there were any thing wanting in him to be supplied and fetched in elsewhere the soul could never trust in him alone but he will have them have no other god therefore surely there is no need of any other he hath all good things in him the happiness of the soul lies in the rest of it Psal 116.7 and therefore when a man comes to Heaven he is said to enter into his rest Now God is the resting place of the soul return unto thy rest O my soul wherefore if there were not an alsufficiency but something wanting in God the soul must needs be restless till it know whither to go for a supply but he being
Christ himself tells us That he hath received such a commission from the Father not only to govern the Church but to rule and to order all things in the world for their sake Joh. 3.35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand that is in his power under his government and at his dispose as Gen. 24.10 all the goods of his Master were in his hand under his power and authority and at his dispose and so Job 1.12 the Lord saith unto Satan concerning Job Behold all that he hath is in thy hand he did not give this to Satan as by commission but by permission he left all the goods of Job in the Devils power Joh. 5.22 to do with them what he would and Joh. 5.22 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son there is indeed a Kingdom which belongs unto Christ as he is the second person in the Trinity a Kingdom which is regnum naturale a natural Kingdom wherein Christ is equal with the Father and a Kingdom that he doth not receive from the Father neither is he subordinate unto the Father in it he is not the Fathers servant as he is in the mediatory Kingdom for this is the same to all the persons Father Son and Spirit and the Son hath the same dominion and is equal with them all but this cannot be the Kingdom that is here spoken of for it cannot be delegated by God because it is natural and he cannot put the Kingdom out of himself neither can it as a gift be received by the Son because it is natural unto the Son as it is unto the Father it 's his own proper right but the Kingdom that is here spoken of is a power given unto the Son in which he is the Fathers servant and subordinate unto him and therefore it 's not spoken of the nature of the essential Kingdom the government which belongs unto Christ as God but as Mediator only and by Judgment Interpreters generally understand pro imperio administratione rerum omnium in coelo in terra Chemnit so that the government of all things is in the hand of the Mediator for it is a power that is given by the Father unto the Son which could not be unto him simply as God but as Mediator only 6 The Spirit of Christ doth rule act and order all things in the Providential as well as in the Spiritual Kingdom as we see it Ezech. 1.12 20. Ezech. 1.12 20. there is Christ set forth as ruling all things in heaven and earth and it is not spoken of Christ as he is the second person but as he is Mediator for it 's spoken of him as having a dominion given to him as he is the Son of man the Angels move the wheels and the Spirit acts the Angels Now how doth Christ as Mediator govern It is by the guidance of the Spirit and this Spirit moves both the Angels and the wheels it is not spoken of those spiritual acts of the Holy Ghost upon the hearts of the Saints but of the ordinary dispensations of Providence ordering all things here below so as the ends of Christ may be attained It is the Mediator therefore that doth govern all things and the motions and impressions that are made both upon the Angels and the wheels they are from the Spirit of the Mediator who makes the Spirit to be the Viceroy in the providential as well as in the spiritual Kingdom as the Father makes the Mediator to be in them both and as the Father doth not divest himself of power but keeps the original of it in himself that we may still say to him Thine is the kingdom only he doth it by the Son who doth exercise it so it is true of the Spirit also the Son hath the power he governs all he doth it immediately by the Spirit the immediate execution and administration of it is in the hand of the Spirit in the one Kingdom as well as in the other 7 This will further appear by the session of Christ at the right hand of the Father for it doth import potestatis Majestatis plenitudinem a plenitude of power and Majesty 1 The highest Majesty and glory for it is the highest degree of his exaltation Heb. 8.1 therefore called the right hand of Majesty in the heavens 2 It is the highest Authority and Soveraignty for sitting at his right hand implies that all things are put under his feet as it is Psal 110.1 1 Pet. 3. ult sitting down upon his Throne Angels and Powers being made subject unto him Eph. 1.20 22. all things put under his feet which is the highest Soveraignty and the greatest subjection that can be for all to be his servants his vassals and therefore Rev. 1.18 when he is in heaven he is said to have the keys of hell and of death keys are an ensign of authority and so are used in the Scripture the keys of the kingdom of heaven are his and the keys of death and hell are his all authority in this world and the world to come and therefore Mat. 28.17 immediately before his ascension he saith All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth it 's true that he had it given him from the Fall and he did exercise it by virtue of the Covenant that was passed between him and the Father for his Kingly Office and his Priestly Office in the efficacy of them began together but yet he did not actually reign as Mediator that is as God-man till in our nature he ascended up on high and sate down in heaven with the Father upon his Throne and though quoad potestatem judiviariam according to his judiciary power all things are now put under his feet for the administration of all things are in his hand yet quoad executionem actualem as to actual execution so it is not there are many things that seem to oppose him and to be enemies unto his government therefore he must reign till he hath put all his enemies actually under his feet 1 Cor. 15.15 so then he that sits at the right hand of God rules the world but Christ as God doth not sit at the right hand of God and as he is the second person therefore it is as he is Mediator that he sits at Gods right hand and so all judgment and authority are executed by him 8 If this be made as the ground why all authority is in the hand of Christ because he is the Son of man then he hath this authority over all things not as he is the second person only but as he is Mediator as he is God-man but this is the reason and the ground of it Joh. 5.17 He hath given him power to execute judgment because he is the Son of man Joh. 5.27 which hath several interpretations given of it all will prove the thing 1 Because he is the Son of man that is
to convey the same nature and having transgressed his will being wicked it is a guilty cursed and forsaken nature that is conveyed unto all mankind from him they all sinning in him else corruption of nature might be their punishment but their sin it could never be 2. All Adams posterity comes under the Curse even they that never sinned themselves âctually and knowingly as Adam did after the similitude of Adams transgression even Children of a span-long Now the Curse is a Curse of the Covenant Death is a part of Juâtice and that must suppose sin upon the person upon whom it is inflicted and no man can âome under the curse of the Covenant who is not himself under the Covenant Now âad Adam stood Life should have been conveyed unto them and holiness but he falling âin and death takes hold of them and the Scripture doth speak not only of death entring âpon all but sin upon all and guilt Rom. 5.12 17 By one man sin entred into the world ând death by sin poena mediante reatu Thus if God will deal with a man in a Covenant-way it was necessary if they grow out âf one common root that a Covenant be made with the first man for all his posterity and ãâã by Union they become guilty of this sin and come under the curse of the Covenant Now the Lord will have the grace and righteousness of the second Covenant conveyed the âame way by a second Adam a publick person Isa 9.6 that should stand in the stead of all his poâterity and become an everlasting Father and he will have Adam in all this to become âhe type of him that was to come Rom. 5.14 That as by one man sin entered into the world ând death by sin so by one man righteousness and life might enter by one Christ Jesus Reas 2 § 2. Herein our happiness lyes under the second Covenant that it is not made with us imâediately but made with him who is the common head the second Adam and with us in ââe second place as we are one with him and no otherwise 1 Herein consists the chief âânour and glory of this Covenant beyond the first because it is made with a more gloriââ head and therefore though the first Covenant had much glory in it yet the second ââh far exceed in glory for the first man was but of the earth earthly and the second ãâã was the Lord from Heaven heavenly 2. And hence it is that the Covenant is sure and everlasting and an unchangeable Covenant because made with an unchangeable head and grounded upon an everlasting righteousness and therefore Rom. 4 it is of Faith that it might be sure 2 Sam. 23. because that makes us one with him with whom the Covenant is established and in whom all the promiâes of it are yea and Amen So that it being made with him and he being the surety of it ând we one with him it can never fail 3. Hence it is also an Ordered Covenant Heb. 9.12 Lu. 9.24 and therein David takes a great deal of comâort that the mercies of it were the sure mercies of David How Because his Covenant was ordered in all things and sure That as the first Adam in the Covenant of works entred ânto a Covenant in an order not only for himself but for all his posterity also but so as he himself was primus faederatus and all mankind in him So is Jesus Christ also and the Covenant made first with him and then with all his posterity in him so that it is in the mercies of the Covenant as it is said of the resurrection of the dead all shall rise but every man in his own order first Christ then they that are Christs at his coming c. So it is here all the people of God are in Covenant with him and they are all his Covenant people for all that are in Christ are Abrahams seed but yet every man in his own order first Christ and then they that are in Christ by reason of their Union and no small part of our happiness and comfort comes in this way from the order of the Covenant as will appear afterward if ever we come to handle this property of the Covenant of Grace Reas 3 § 3. Supposing man to be a sinner God cannot enter into Covenant with him immediately any more unless we do suppose that the Lord should forfeit the truth of his threatning and so deny himself for he said Gen. 2.17 The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Now while this stands in force against a man God cannot deal with him in any way but to destroy him therefore if he will bring in a second Covenant that must be a Covenant of mercy and reconciliation and in that there must be satisfaction to God as well as sanctification of man the sin must be sent to Hell as well as the sinner to Heaven Now this satisfaction man of himself can never give it cost more to redeem his Soul than if he had offered thousands of Rams and ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl or his first-born for his transgression and the fruit of his Body for the sin of his Soul as Mich. 6.6 7. But we cannot be redeemed by corruptible things and therefore if God will have satisfaction answerable unto the wrong the creature has done him it cannot be had from any creature wherefore he finds out one that is able to bear it one that is mighty the man of his right-hand that he should be made sin and become a curse And how doth the satisfaction that Christ gives to the Lord become ours It can be no other way but by Union and this union must be 1 Natural he must take upon him our nature for our debt was a debt of body and soul to be offered as a sacrifice unto the wrath of God And therefore it is said Heb. 2.1 He that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are both of one He must take our nature and in that nature suffer as being one with us for without shedding of blood there is no remission 2 Voluntary and by consent he becoming our surety and so under our Covenant putting his name into our bond Gal. 4.4 and voluntary on our part accepting of him as our surety and consenting to his Covenant and the terms of the agreement and the consent of the Judge to whom the debt was due and against whom the offence was committed Sin must be condemned by the ordination of the Judge and the Surety must accept and submit to what was required of him in order to a satisfaction and the consent and approbation of the delinquent also and by this is the Union made up and all that Christ hath done becomes ours And thus as man is a sinner God cannot enter into Covenant with him immediately but it must be a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator which can be no otherwise but as we are one with him and consent