Let me have my Portion of good all in my own hands Thus all Mankind had been secured and not left to the hazard of every single Person betraying himself For it is most apparent by Adam what every one would have done he having all possible Advantages in a fresh Vigorous Holiness an unstained World Such a lively Invitation of the Tree of life Such a short Act of Self-denial or refusing to be a God to himself as he thought to be by Eating of that Forbidden Fruit. But now let us see what all this contributes to the Points we are upon which will be found to be exceeding in Enlightning both the Law and the Gospel to us 1. From hence it appears the Law is an immutable and unchangeable Law of Holiness and of Everlasting Obligation while there is such a Being humane Nature For it arises from the Being of God to be enjoyed in Holiness and Blessedness by Man made so to enjoy And it arises from the Image of God Jesus Christ in and by whom that State was to have been Confirmed and so for ever Enjoyed and by whom it is to be so Recovered 2. From hence it Appears there can be no new Law but what must of Necessity entwine and incorporate into that First Law and merge into it so Adequate to the Being of Man Enjoying the holy and Blessed God by Jesus Christ the Image of God Such was that Law of not Eating the Forbidden Fruit It was a Law of Trust in Christ the Image of God the Way and the Truth and the Life by way of Confirmation and so was immediately Adopted into that Law of Righteousnoss and Holiness The Law of Faith in Christ the Redeemer and of Repentance is in this Sense no new Law but that Old Commandment and a New Commandment only by being new Illustrated by a more glorious Light but it unites with that Law first given of Holiness in and by Christ the Image of God for the enjoying God in Conformity to him now in away of Redemption Expiation and Recovery and thereby a Return to our First State according to the first Law 3. From hence it Appears the Everlasting Covenant of God in Predestinating a Number of Mankind to be Conformed to the Image of his Son cannot be disanulled or added to nor taken from by any Dispensation or manner of Speaking that comes after it according to that Fore-mentioned Rule of the Apostle Gal. 4. 3. understanding it of the Elect of God controlling all Doubts so that what Christ was to do as the Image of God by way of Confirmation He now does by way of Redemption by that mighty Eflectuating Image of the Glory of God in Christ by his Spirit 4. From hence it Appears that Jesus Christ in the first and original Right of being the Head of every Man and the Image of the invisible God by whom and for whom All Things were made and without whom nothing was made that was Made and in whom they consist upholds a present State of the World in the Patience and Long-suffering of God and also bears up as he pleases the Natural Law in which Man was made enforcing the Reasonableness Justice and Equity to Turn by Repentance to that God Who leaves not himself without Witness in giving Fruitful Times and Seasons and filling Mens Hearts with Food and Gladness and so signifies Grace and Mercy and to Recover themselves as far as to the utmost they can to that State of Righteousness of which they find such plain mentions of in their Hearts and finding the shortness of their own Power to cast themselves upon Divine Grace and Help And where the Light of the glorious Gospel comes according to all degrees of Divine Revelation the Obligation rises higher and becomes stronger For the Transgression and Ruin of Humane Nature does not take off the Obligation of Duty but it stands wherein soever God does not immediately execute the Penalty or vouchsafes any Remainder of Power at first given or increase and Advantage of that Remainder and wherein soever Men do not thus there is a Just particular Personal Condemnation But yet it Remains according to the first Standard Law of Creation every Man must be miserable for ever and die the Death whoever is not found in the Image of God in Christ in Righteousness and true Holiness for the Enjoyment of him 5. From hence it lastly Appears The Elect of God in Jesus Christ must be perfectly restored into a state of Righteousness and freedom from Guilt into a state of Holiness and Purity for the Enjoyment of God and seeing this cannot be in Man Fallen Sinful Unholy and so Miserable for ever It must be by the Sacrifice Righteoâ—sness and Obedience of Christ imputed by the Restoration of his Spirit and all according to Grace and Riches of Grace and to the Praise of the Glory of that Grace which Adam first refused but is hereby exalted to a far higher Glory by Jesus Christ appearing thus a Redeemer a Reconciler an Eternal Spirit so closely united and fully declar'd in Redemption For the Lord even Christ and his Increated Spirit is that Spirit changing into his own Image from Glory to Glory by that Spirit who is Himself Jehovah That I may now make a nearer Approach to resolve this great and weighty Question Whether the Gospel can be in true proper and strict Sense stiled a Law I will now propose these Two Heads to discourse it upon 1. I will shew how far the Law as it is a Law must yet needs join its Authority for and with the Gospel according to its eternally Holy and righteous Nature and then I will on the other side shew how far the Gospel without any Abatement of its purest Gospel-Nature makes use of the Law as a most righteous holy Law to its own most graoious Ends. 2. I shall make it yet most evident from Scripture that the Law can never as it is Law in the Scripture Definings and Discourses of it become Gospel Nor on the other side can the Gospel as it is Gospel and drawn out according to the Everlasting Covenant pass into the nature of Law according to Scriptures describing of Law I begin with the First Head to shew how far the Law cannot even as Law but join its Authority to the Gospel 1. That the Law of Reason and Understanding of Righteousness Holiness Goodness that God hath engraven upon the Heart of Man and seated in his Conscience cannot but Establish the Revelation of Christ and Grace by him manifested by such a mighty Power from Heaven and asserted by so many Infallible Proofs to be from God so full of Goodness and Grace above the very Law of Creation it self Implanted in Mans Heart It cannot I say but Establish it as a Faithful Saying and worthy of All Acceptation of both Faith Love and Obedience So that in this very Regard it may be truly and properly stiled a Law of Faith and Obedience to the Gospel
Father as Jesus Christ in all his Mediatory Discourses most fully declared and his Apostles after him and as all along the Kingdom of God is in Christ's Kingdom So It is at last delivered up to God All in All Which I lay in the Foundation to shew the absolute Excellency Perfection and Immutability of the Divine Law of Creation standing in Participation of and Conformity to the Divine Nature in Holiness for the Participation also of its Blessedness both which are the Glory of God 2. It is much to be Considered and deeply Pondered What Scripture so often says of Man being made in the Image of God This Image of God Jesus Christ is most positively affirmed to be 2 Cor. 4. Colos 1. He is the Image of the Invisible God The Eternal Word fore-seen in Humane Nature is the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1. and as in Humane Nature He is the First-born of every Creature Colos 1. The Glory of God spoken of so much in the former Particular is in the Face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. and Christ is the Head of every Man 1 Cor. 11. even as God is the Head of Christ and Man viz. that great Supream Man is primarily the Image and Glory of God v. 7. For Christ being the Head of Man as between God and Man It is He must be the Image and Glory of God else God without Christ intervening would be the Head of every Man which the Apostle says expresly Christ is and God the Head of Christ as whose Image and Glory the Man Christ is Therefore is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manly Man Rev. 12. 5. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 7. foreseen in human Nature and not every Man immediately and so the Apostles Argument in that place Reaches from Christ to every Man All these great Expressions of Christ shew more nearly who that Image of God is in which Adam was made For all these cannot be supposed to come in upon Sin and on that Occasion or Necessity only They have place before it And this I say not only to ascribe Excellency to our Mediator but to shew how fit He is to be so who is thus the Original Image of God by whom as the Eternal Word He made and Created All I speak it also with a peculiar Respect to the Point to be discoursed Concerning that Admirable Agreement and Conspiration between the Law and the Gospel and so to resolve whether the Gospel can be called a Law On all which these Things well apprehended will reflect great Light 3. When Man was thus made in the Participation of the Divine Nature and in the Image of God which Image Christ is in order to the Eternal Enjoyment of God in Blessedness and in his Glory As it became an Immutable unchangeable Law upon Man which can no more be put off than his very Being So it must needs be secondarily a Law upon Him to be like Christ who is the Image of God Now therefore here It comes to be solemnly enquired whether Adam had any Notices of Jesus Christ the Image of God wherein He was made and there are Two great Reasons that He had Notices 1. Because it being so expresly said God made Adam in that Image which is Christ It is not probable He could be ignorant of it in so perfect a State of holy Understanding as wherein He was made 2. Because the Apostle says Adam was the Type of Him to Come as the great and supream Adam though the Second in order of Time of Appearance yet the First in Dignity and Designation Again therefore here I argue Adam in so Perfect a State could not probably be ignorant of so great a Truth as of the Second-First-Adam of whom He was a Type And this I desire the further Observation of as much tending to shew how close the Gospel and this Eternal Law may conspire 3. Though the Perfection of Man's Being was as hath been said a Law Adequate to his Being as in Conformity to the Divine Being and to the Image of God Jesus Christ Yet because Man was but a living Soul and not a quickning Spirit as the Second Adam that is he was but a Vessel that had its measure and not a Fountain or Spring still supplying it self Therefore what ever further Revelation of the Will and Pleasure of God to which He should be Obedient God would please to vouchsafe Adam for the securing his Perseverance and the Consirming Him in a Continuation of that happy State wherein his Creator had placed Him such Revelation became as much of the Essence of the Law of his Creation as his Conformity in any Branch of it whatever to the Divine Being in the Image of God viz. Christ both because of the Authority and Goodness of the Revealer to which that Eternal Law must needs oblige him as also because it tended to secure and confirm him in that Blessed Estate For whatever did so must needs bind Him even as the Preservation of that Conformity to God and his Image in any other Essential Branch did and herein if possible more Because it Secured and Confirmed all the rest It pleased therefore that Infinite Wisdom and Goodness as well as Supream Authority of God to appoint in the Paradise wherein he placed Adam as the Representation of his Holy and Happy State Two Sacramental Trees One the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Other the Tree of Life By the One He was under a Test of his Obedience in refraining from it By Eating of the Other he was to receive a visible Pledge and Seal of the Confirmation of his Blessed State The refraining therefore from the one was to be but for a time till which time of Abstinence observed and expired he had no right to Eat of the Other For so is signified In that the Tree of Life was plainly prepared to be Eaten so there must be a Time for the Eating of it And in the Care God took Adam should not Eat of it after he had Sinned It appears God intended Adam should not Eat of it and Dye For it was a Sacrament of living for ever as God said least he put forth his Hand and Eat of the Tree of Life and Live forever which however spoken in derision yet imports the Sacramental Sense of the Tree of Life According to all which Sense It is said of the true and substantial Tree of life Blessed are They that do his Commandments that they may have Right to the Tree of life Rev. 21. 14. Alluding to the First Tree of life of which Adam if he for the time appointed had kept the Command of God in not Eating of the Tree Forbidden he would in due Season have had Right to Eat of the Tree of life Now we may conceive two great Reasons of God's forbidding the Fruit of this Tree 1. The Observation of this Command had fixed Adam in
requires Faith and Repentance Holiness and Obedience as Qualifications and Conditions This Publication of the Gospel reduced to the Everlasting Covenant must be Interpreted in Relation to the Elect so that Faith and Repentance may be understood to be no Qualifications Conditions or Means as on our Parts nor dependent on us but as Free and Absolute Gift to us though in us and Rising as from us when so given to us and so Scripture speaks often to the same purpose as is after to be shewn For All was both distinctly and together settled and Established in the same Eternal Council and under the Sanction and unmoveable Confirmation of an Everlasting Covenant whom he Predestinated He Called He Justified He Glorified All in one and the same Eternity in regard of Council in regard of Covenant All was then passed and Christ Enfeoffed in All for us however to be fulfilled in the Order of Time appointed by God with Christ To say then if the Elect do not Believe and Repent They shall be Damned I must confess may receive some Countenance from the Apostle Paul's saying to the Company that Sailed with him to Rome concerning the Shipmen Acts 28. 21. 31. 34. Except these abide in the Ship ye cannot be Saved when by a Prior Oracle He had assured them That there should not be the loss of any Man's life but only of the Ship which certainly included all the necâ—ssary Means of Preservation and so of the Shipmens being â—ept in the Ship that being such a Means before determined and so the Apostle returns to the first Certainty There shall not a Hair fall from any of your Heads Thus in Pressing Faith and Repentance it may very well be said Except ye believe and Repent You shall certainly Perish But concerning the Elâ—â—t it mâ—y be said You shall certainly be Saved as he that Repents and Believes shâ—ll be Saved For they shall certainly Repent and Believe and â—â—â—â—ved And I find not the Scripture is â—elâ— to spâ—â—k to allude to 〈◊〉 of the Arch Angel Jude on any Supposal whatever of the Elects being Damned but as with a Reverence of Election it says To deceive if possible the very Elect and except Those Days had been shortned No Flesh could be Saved but for the Elects sake Those Days shall be shortned For the Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth Them that are His This is the Supream or Sovereign Seal And It carries the Exhortation importing the other Seal along with it Let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity For that Departure from Iniquity is settled equally by way of Gift in the Everlasting Covenant and not by way of Condition or Limitation but by the same Eternal Council Covenant and Free Gift upon it even as Justification or Glorification One is as free and as Indefailable as the Other and as Self-subsistent without dependance upon our selves or upon one another One as the Other saving yet the Wisdom of the Divine Order And no after manner of Speaking can Turn Gods Hath Called hath Justified hath Glorified into Conditional Dependent and Incertain no more then his Fore-knowledge or Predestination into Conditional or Incertain I therfore deny any of the Graces or Duties Required by the Gospel can be in supream Sense called either Condition or Qualification with Relation to any other part of Salvation or Dependance on our Acts When we speak of them whom Scripture stiles The Election Head 2. I come now to the Second Head which I stile a noble Question whether the Gospel can by it self be stiled a Law according to which Believers are Justified Suppose but upon the very point of Believing or in that they have Believed and Repented and Obeyed that Law of the New Covenant or the Covenant of Grace and with Sincerity though not to Perfection all the Holy Laws and Rules of it And this I undertake the Negative of That it ought not to be stiled a Law And that this Principal Qestion may be duly stated I must first lay down that most Prime Consideration both of the Gospel and Covenant of Grace and also of the Law as an Everlasting Covenant of Righteousness and how these Two both Conspire in the Eternal Salvation and Blessedness of the Elect and yet how they do in some Critical or as I may so call them Nodal Points oppose and Eclipse one the other It is manifest from Scripture by what hath been already said that the First and Supream Point in the Council of God is the Purpose and Grace of having many Sons among the Children of Men whom He would bring to Glory and make Conformable to the Image of his Son and so as to be Holy and without Blame before Him in Love All which was Established in Christ the Eternal Son of God the Eternal Son of His Love and so this Decree and Purpose is properly called the Adoption of Children When this was Decreed by God the Creation of these Heirs of Life must needs be and so of the whole Humane Nature must needs be supposed to stand before and to the Eye of God in that Decree as Created and therefore there must be by any that would distiâ—ctly and stedfastly Understand these Points a most intent and due Consideration of what Scripture hath Revealed to us Concerning the First Creation of Man 1. It must then be acknowledged that Communication of the Divine Glory in the Creating an Intellectual and Immortal Spirit and in Righteousness and True Holiness the most lively Expressions of the Divine Being to us and so to be Happy and Glorious and Blessed in the Enjoyment of Himself in a Perfection of Holiness and Righteousness is the Supream Scripture Account of Creation and It becomes the Immutable and Unchangeable Law upon Man that can no more vary nor alter than the very Being of God and therefore in that great Relation wherein Jesus Christ stood in the Creation of Man It is said 1 Cor. 11. 3. God is the Head of Christ and the Man especially as we shall presently see intending Christ is the Image and Glory of God Christ speaking of himself even as Mediator in the human Nature He says My Father is greater than I while as Mediator in the Divine Nature He thought it no Robbery to be Equal with God John 14. Phil. 2. This is the Primo-Prime as may be said Foundation of Holiness and Happiness To Know and Enjoy the only True God Which Scripture calls the Glory of God 2 Cor. 4. as First in Nature and is before the Face of Christ And the Praise of this Glory is Sovereign even to Election in Christ Eph. 1. Of this Glory Man is fallen short or become destitute Rom. 3. 23. by Sin But neither Sin nor Redemption can bring down this Highest Glory For notwithstanding Sin and even Hell it self An Immortal Intellectual Spirit is eternally Obliged and Redemption is Bringing or Restoring to God and to an Access to the