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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with its radix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequently occurs as Gen. 21.27 32. 26.28 31.44 as elsewhere and answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut or strike a Covenant And thus among the ancient Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby the Covenant of Grace is expressed in the Old Testament as Gen. 9.9 and elsewhere is alwayes rendred by the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the New Testament and never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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 antecedente◠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 superabundan◠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
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 â—ot but only those that had a hand in and did consent to the transgression and from â—ence we do rightly conclude that the Covenant was made with every particular Angel for â—imself and not with any common head but that every one stood by his own righteousâ—ess but men being to come into the World successively in their several generations and 〈◊〉 have their being from another and not all at once therefore the Lord doth make a Coveâ—ant with them by a common head a publick person for them and in him the righteousâ—ess and grace of the Covenant must be deposited Rom. 41 11. and therefore God condemns man by impuâ—ation 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 â—ut 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a redemption price to be paid but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
and the spirit teacheth us to come unto him as our Father so in all our addresses unto God he teacheth us to cry Abba Father and so the Saints in Scripture O Lord thou art my God early will I seek thee 7. Hence comes that glorious communication of properties that is between God and the Saints That as Divines do observe by reason of the hypostatical Union there is a communication of properties that what is done by the humane nature is attributed unto the persons and the blood of the humane nature is called the blood of God Acts 20.28 and God is said to be received up to glory 1 Tim. 3. and Christ is called the Son of God which is proper only to the Divine Nature Luk. 1.35 and the Humane Nature being taken into the same person it comes under the same filiation for the rule of the School-men is filiatio est suppositi filiation is of a person the Son-ship belongs and relates unto the person and not unto the nature so from our Union with Christs person arise those strange communications which some observe the Lord calling himself by the name of a Creature Psal 24.6 This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face O Jacob and that glorious and which some say is an incommunicable name of God Jehovah yet it is said to be attributed to the Creature through his interest in the person of God it 's the name of Christ Jer. 23.6 And in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord our righteousness and this name is also given to the Church Jer. 38.16 And in those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and this is the name wherewith she shall be called The Lord our Righteousness c. and all this flows from interest in the person through personal promises 8. Our interest in the persons is always the same and varies not though the dispensations are very various and there is no Saint of God but doth find changes of the right hand of the most High though the Lord in himself changes not Sometime he lifts up the light of his countenance and sometimes he hides his face but yet in the middle of all this here is the comfort of the Saints the Lord is still their God and they have an interest in him And so did Christ himself find a change of dispensations there was substractio visionis a substraction of vision but yet not unionis of union and when the Lord hid his face from him then Christ flyes to a personal promise and in that he looks upon God when he could look upon him no other way my God my God c. and so doth the Church doubtless thou art our Father And there is a special Art and Mystery that the people of God have learned when they are in the deepest desertions to recover themselves out of it Cant. 5. there the Church falls in love with the person of Christ and looks upon her own interest in him and then she breaks out this is my beloved and this is my friend and this recovers her again so that she glories in Christs interest in her and hers in him I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine the comfort of the Saints in their worst estate is that God has an interest in their persons I am thine O save me may every Saint of God say and so they also have an interest in the person of God this God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 if there be never so great Changes or Dispensations yet our relation unto the person is still the same and therefore so should our claim be 9. The highest objects of Faith are Persons for there is a three-fold object of Faith 1. Primarium primary and that is all Divine Truth 2. Mediatum mediate that is Christ as Mediator 3. Vltimatum ultimate for through Christ we believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 therefore the ultimate and the highest object of Faith is a Person Objectum fidei est jus incomplexum the object of faith is an incomplex right Now that which is the highest object of Faith that is the most perfect in which only Faith can rest and therefore must be the greatest ground of Hope and Love as that wherein our happiness doth ultimately consist 10. The highest act of Gods Love to us is in accepting our persons Electing Love was set upon the person and in Christ he doth accept our persons and has respect unto them therefore if he respect our persons so highly being made over to him in Covenant how much more should we set a high price upon his excellent person being made over to us in Covenant It is his Love unto our persons that doth incline his heart to accept our services and reward them and to bestow all good things upon us and so should our Love unto the person of God be that which should sweeten all his benefits towards us he has not this Treasure only but he has the root also upon which it grows Revel 21.6 He shall inherit all things I will be his God and it is much more than all the Creatures can be to him for he shall receive a hundred fold more in this life it is not to be understood formalitèr formally sed eminentèr but eminently that is they shall have all made up in God that the Creatures could supply if they were a hundred times multiply'd God shall be all in all to them so that they can complain of no want for the Lord is their God Vse § 2. First we may hence gather the devillishness of that Opinion that denies all persons in the Trinity they do thereby make void the main of the New Covenant on Gods part which doth consist in personal promises for if there be no persons then the promises of making of them over by way of interest unto the Saints is void and of none effect And truly of all the Abominations of this last Age which Satan has cast forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athanasius calls it Orat. 1. cont Arian there is not any so desperate an Opinion that strikes more at the root of all Religion than this doth all Heresie is the smoak that arises out of the bottomless pit and it is commonly vented by some Star that falls from Heaven some Man Eminent in the Church and he making an Apostasie and Defection from the Truth the Key of the bottomless pit is given him in judgment a Key is potestatis symbolum a symbol of power as we know and unto one man it 's given as a special Mercy and unto another it 's given as a special Judgment Revel 20.1 to the one it 's given to bind Satan and to the other to let out his smoak and wo to the man to whom such a power is given as Revel 20.1 Satan is ready enough to
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
it can rest in thee as Austin The happiness of the blessed God consists in himself and in the perfect vision and fruition of that blessedness consists our blessedness also § 3. But what is the manner how the Lord becomes the happiness of his people in his Essence That is by way of vision We shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 We shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 1 To this end the Lord will discover himself unto them as he is and he will shew unto the Saints his face then as now he doth his back parts while they live here he dwells in light inaccessible that no man doth or can see but he will make himself visible then to compleat their happiness and that not only to the eyes of the mind though it shall be chiefly there Job 19.26 and therefore glory is not only radicaliter in corde but redundanter in corpore but yet he will discover himself unto their bodily eyes also as in my flesh I shall see God 2 There shall be a glorious light by which the soul shall not only be enlightned as his eyes are by the light here in this life but it shall be elevated and enabled to see that which else it could never see as it 's in the light of grace here the pure in heart do see God Heb. 11.26 Psal 36.9 Mat. 5.8 and Moses saw him that was invisible c. The Psalmist says In thy light we shall see light There is a double light the Saints have there is a light of faith here and there is a light of glory that is reserved for hereafter Lumen quo divinam essentiam tanquam objectum beatificum visione intuitivâ recipere posset Synop. purior Theolog. pag. 807. That light whereby the soul can by an intuitive vision receive the Divine Essence as a beatifick object Whether this shall be by a light immediately created of God or whether it shall be per naturam humanam Christi glorificatam veluti instrumentum Divinitatis conjunctum by the humane nature of Christ glorified as a conjunct instrument of the Deity we will not now inquire or dispute But 3 this vision of God though it shall be of his Essence yet not of it unto perfection for so it 's infinite and therefore cannot be perfectly understood or comprehended by a finite understanding as that of the creature must still be though it be glorified There shall be enough unto our perfection but we shall never be able to know God unto his perfection and therefore the School-men do affirm that though all the Saints for the substance of their happiness shall see God in his Essence as he is yet quoad mensuram ex sola Dei voluntate pendet ex arbitraria dispensatione as to the measure it depends wholly on the Divine Will and his arbitrary dispensation And this is the ground of the degrees of glory in Heaven that as there are different discoveries of good here which are the ground of the different degrees of grace here so it shall be in glory also § 4. Now follows the Nature and Properties of this Vision as it conduces unto the blessedness of the creature 1. Here we see God by Negatives only and speak of him rather as he is not than as he is viâ negationis by denying to him the imperfections of the creatures it 's one of the highest ways that we have here and therefore we say he is invisible incomprehensible and eternal c. that is he hath neither beginning of days nor end of life but we shall then see him in all those Positive excellencies that be in him and we shall come to the knowledge of him in that low way no more Joh. 3.12 2. Here we know God but by way of Resemblance and Metaphors taken from the creatures he doth speak to us heavenly things in an earthly manner he is said to be the Lord of Hosts a man of war and he is said to be a Rock a Fountain a Father an Husband and he is said to have a face and back parts to be the ancient of days to have a garment white as snow and the hair of his head as pure wool and his Throne as a fiery flame Dan. 7.9 And so we see him Discursively as we can gather something of God from these similitudes but we shall then see him Immediately and Intuitively as he is in himself and not through the glass of the creatures any more not by Ideas taken in by the weak and imperfect collections of our understanding but by the glorious pure and perfect representations of himself 3. They shall see God as their own and all the excellencies that are in him as their own portion It 's but a little the Saints do see here of God in this life a small portion is known of him but yet there is this difference between the sight of the Saints that they have of God here and other men as the Apostle says Col. 1.27 It has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to the Saints to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory They read it as they do the Scripture as their own evidence but other men they read over all the mysteries of godliness and Heaven as the evidences of other men and not as their own portion they cannot say as the Saints do Christus in Evangelio tuo meus est Christ in thy Gospel is my Christ as Tertullian to Marcion There is a great difference between a strangers looking upon the glory and excellencies that are in a man and of his wifes looking upon them the one looks upon them and admires them and is affected with them and will talk of the fine sight he has seen and there 's an end he lets the discourse fall again it 's not his concern to be thinking of it ay but his wife looks upon them with another eye as being hers and because she has an interest in his person she has a setled esteem of them and the thought of it is always her contentment So do the Saints look upon the fulness of Christ here with delight and so they behold the glory of God with satisfaction for their soul says unto the Lord Thou art my portion 4. They see themselves in God There is indeed much of God discovered in all the creatures and yet they are but only vestigia Dei the footsteps of God and yet the Saints delight to behold them because they see something of God in them and the more of God is discovered in any creature or any passage of providence the more their hearts are affected with it Psal 8. When I consider the heavens the works of thy hands it 's the speech of Christ he is much affected with the creatures and the sight of God in them but there
c. Thou art Christ the Son of God it 's the confession of Peters faith and is also called the Foundation of the Churches faith 1 Cor. 3.11 And so there is Divine Worship given to Christ as Mediator they worship the Lamb this is by reason of union and yet it is evident Rev. 4. that the humane nature remains a creature after its union and therefore it is as he is the Son and so is coessential with the Father this is the formalis ratio the proper cause of this Divine Faith and Worship and so the Holy Ghost also he is to be believed for himself and his own testimony the Spirit is truth 1 Joh. 5.6 and the Scriptures are to be believed only for the testimony of the Spirit 2 Pet. 1.21 But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost therefore we are commanded to hear what the Spirit says unto the Churches he is called therefore the Spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4.13 4. That we may honour them in our prayers distinctly for whomsoever a man is to believe in him he may pray unto Rom. 10.14 How can they call on him in whom they have not believed And therefore in our prayers we are not only to go unto God but unto each of the persons with distinct petitions suitable unto the acts that they have undertaken and the offices in which they have made over themselves unto the Saints under the new Covenant Christ he prays to the Father Holy Father righteous Father I will that those that thou hast given me be with me sanctifie them by thy truth And Stephen at his death Lord Jesus receive my spirit And the Disciples Lord increase our faith And so doth the Church Tell me where thou feedest c. The Apostle commonly speaks of them all together The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Spirit be with you And Rev. 1.5 6. Grace from him that is and was and is to come and from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne and from Jesus the faithful and true witness And as it is a mans duty to believe in the Son as well as the Father so it is to pray to the Son distinctly as also unto the Father for as our faith must distinctly take in all the objects of faith or else it is imperfect for there are two things that tend to the perfection of any grace 1 When it takes in all the objects in their extent and latitude 2 When they do put forth compleat and perfect acts upon these objects thus I say as faith must take in all its objects or else there is something wanting in it as the Apostle speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wants of faith so must faith give unto each of these their due and proper glory and Christ being to be believed in he may be prayed unto nay it 's an honour that belongs unto him and therefore our faith must give it to him 5. That the soul may have a distinct fellowship and communion with them all and there is a fellowship with the Spirit 1 Joh. 1.3 we are by the Gospel brought into communion with God and it 's a distinct fellowship and communion that we are to have with all the persons our communion is as large as our relation and the soul is to look upon himself as reconciled to them all and therefore all of them are become our friends and we have a particular and distinct interest in them all Now how is a man said to have fellowship with God or to walk with God it is when the thoughts of a mans heart are taken up with God and he has an eye unto him and unto his glory from day to day As a man is said to have communion with the Devil when he walks with his temptations and the desires and thoughts of his heart do run out towards the unfruitful works of darkness a man has fellowship with the Devil in all things as it is said Prov. 6.22 The law shall talk with a man waking and keep him when he is asleep and lead him when he goes how is this is it is but in the thoughts and the meditations of a mans own heart by the suggestions and directions thereof where it doth richly dwell so it is in this also it is communion with God and Gods dwelling in the soul animus ascendit frequenter c. the soul frequently ascends there is gratiarum decursus recursus a flowing down and reflowing of graces and in this doth our communion lye Now a man having an interest in all the persons all of them having undertaken something for a mans good by way of office and a man receiving something from them all and returning praise to them all there is in the soul a distinct fellowship to be exercised with them all sometimes the thoughts of his heart being drawn out to the Father and sometimes unto the Son and sometimes unto the Spirit and observing the witnessing of them all and the sealing of them all unto the evidences of the Saints sometimes we walk with the Father and sometimes with the Son and sometimes with the Spirit and the more distinct a mans communion is the more sweet it is 6. That a man may draw arguments and motives unto duty and against sin from them all and a mans interest in them all We are said to be baptized in the name of them all Mat. 28.20 Mat. 28.20 Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Now what is it to be baptized into the name of the Father it's conceived to be taken from the manner of marriage wherein the wife doth transire in nomen in familiam c. into the name and family of the husband or of servants who had their masters name called upon them 1 Cor. 1.13 and therefore no man might be baptized in the name of a creature it is that which Paul detests that he should baptize in his own name and therefore the meaning is to be baptized in fidem in cultum into the faith and worship of God and so you are unto them all and give up your names unto them all and therefore unto each person we owe both faith and worship distinctly all manner of duty and obedience because we are distinctly baptized unto the faith of them all to believe in them and worship them and a man should draw arguments to keep him from sin from them all and his interest in them all the Father is greater than all and it is by his will we are sanctified If we call him Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1.15 And he says of Christ I send my Angel but take heed of him obey his voice provoke him not for my name is in him And grieve
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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 â—â—ints 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
is Christs King and Lord so he is the Saints 1 He gives them a Law 2 Carries them through their service 3 Destroys their enemies 4 Receives their accounts 5 Rewards them Pag. 321 As the Father stands unto Christ in the relation of a friend or companion so he doth to the Saints Pag. 323 As Christ is the true Vine so the Father is the Husbandman Pag. 324 The visible Church is in Scripture compared to four trees 1 To an Olive-tree 2 To a Palm-tree 3 To a Cedar 4 To a Vine Pag. 325 The Church is compared to a Vine 1 For its excellency 2 Spreading nature 3 Fruitfulness 4 Want of continual husbandry ibid. God the Father is said to be the husbandman 1 Because he plants the Vine 2 Fences it 3 Hires labourers 4 Waters it 5 Prunes it 6 Purges the fruitful branches that they may bring forth more fruit Pag. 326 As the Father is the fountain of the life of Christ so in him he is the fountain of spiritual life unto his Saints Pag. 328 Joh. 6.57 largely explained ibid. Whoever hath an interest in one Person of the Trinity hath at the same time an interest in them all Pag. 331 Yet there is a distinct interest in them all to be attained Pag. 332 The high advancement of the creature lies in union with the Persons Pag. 333 There is more in union with the Persons than in all other benefits whatever ibid. It is our title unto the Person that gives us a title unto all the benefits ibid. If there is such an interest in the Persons every man should examine himself whether he hath that interest Pag. 334 The way of getting this interest is by closing with the Son Pag. 335 If a man be entitled to the Persons there will be the drawing out of his heart towards each Person ibid. There will never be a fulness of assurance till the Persons that have given an interest in themselves do also witness their interest Pag. 336 We are to exercise faith upon all the Persons thus made over under the second covenant ibid. The objects of saith that the soul is to take in in each of the Persons are 1 The Persons themselves we are to believe the record of them all 2 The soul is to rest upon all the promises that in Scripture are made concerning these Persons 3 Faith is to rest upon the love of them all 4 Also upon the appropriated acts of each Person and rely upon them for the performance of them 5 Faith should expect all the Attributes of God to be distinctly exercised by all the Persons 6 Also it should distinctly close with them all in their witnessing ibid. The acts of faith that are distinctly to be put sort upon them all are 1 A fiducial knowledge that the Persons are made over to us 2 A casting of our selves by distinct thought upon each of these Persons 3 A drawing virtue from all the objects of faith 4 A resignation of the soul to God 5 An exercising distinct acts of communion with all the Persons Pag. 339 That there is a distinct communion with all the Persons proved Pag. 340 This communion doth consist 1 In the love one of another 2 In acting one for another 3 In visitations 4 In imparting of counsels 5 In mutual delights in their interest one in another 6 In calling upon one another for further fellowship and communion ibid. Arguments to stir up hereunto 1 This is the great end of the covenant of grace 2 All Christ hath done and suffered was a preparation hereunto 3 There is sweetness in fellowship 4 All mercies are obtained by it Pag. 342 CHAP. V. God in the Covenant of Grace makes over himself in his Alsufficiency That there is enough in the Alsufficiency of God to supply all a mans wants in this life and in the life to come proved at large Pag. 344 That the Alsufficiency of God is by covenant made over unto the Saints proved 1 By promises 2 By instances Pag. 347 The grounds and reasons of it are 1 His own love 2 The insufficiency of all things else 3 Because God would have the happiness of the creature to concenter in him alone 4 Because he will have the creature perfect with him 5 To make up the banks against the greatest temptation that ordinarily befals men 6 To make the soul fear to lose God above all things because its alsufficiency is in him 7 That the creatures may thereby be kept in their own place 8 That the soul may hereby live on God immediately Pag. 349 The Alsufficiency of God belongs unto none but his own covenant-people Pag. 353 The reasons why God suffers his own people to be in as great wants as other men are 1 That their alsufficiency may be in him alone and that they may trust perfectly in him 2 That they may be made partakers of the sufferings of Christ. 3 That God may be alsufficient to them in the loss of all things and want of all things 4 Because it is very sweet to God when we follow him through a wilderness 5 Gods great glory is to manifest his Attributes in their sufferings 6 As our supplies come from God so there is a special token of love and interest discovered in his sufficiency that is sweeter than the mercy it self Pag. 354 Though wicked men may have great sufficiency in outward things yet 1 It is not from their interest in his alsufficiency 2 It is their portion 3 It is given as a snare to themselves and others Pag. 356 Those are justly reprovable that claim an interest by covenant in God and yet expect a sufficiency in the creature 1 Hereby they dishonour God 2 Themselves 3 The creature to whom they flye for sufficiency can do neither good nor evil 4 The creature cannot reach unto the best in man his soul 5 The creatures have no good in them but what is borrowed 6 Retiring to creatures in straits causes God to leave them Pag. 358 Those that place any sufficiency in themselves are also justly reprovable Pag. 361 There is a twofold sufficiency the heart is apt to go out unto 1 In respect of gifts and inward abilities either acquired or infused 2 In respect of grace received ibid. The evil of a self-sufficiency in respect of gifts 1 They are anothers and not our own 2 They are given to wicked men 3 It is to serve Satan in the highest way that can be 4 These gifts cannot be exercised without Divine aid 5 Nor made successful 6 It will provoke God to take them away ibid. In respect of grace received 1 It is quite contrary to the nature of grace 2 No man can act his own grace 3 Grace is but a creature 4 It makes grace an Idol Pag. 363 There is a great proneness in the best to place their sufficiency in grace received both as to matter of strength and comfort Pag. 364 The great policy of Satan therein Pag. 365 To
of Creation and stipulation the one is natural and necessary and the other voluntary Thus God binds the Creature to himself by all imaginable engagements to prevent future Apostasie By the one we are bound to God and by the other God is bound to us God as a Creator has absolute Soveraignty but yet that man might not think much to yield obedience God is pleas'd to engage himself to a recompence The Covenant God made is double according to the twofold state of Man 1 In his state of Integrity And this was faedus amicitiae a Covenant of friendship between persons never at variance 2 In his state of Corruption When man by sin had broken the first and brought himself under the Curse thereof then God brought in the Covenant of reconciliation and that was faedus misericordiae that is a Covenant of mercy And these Covenants were made with two representative heads the first and the second Adam for in them the Lord looks upon all mankind and it is a mans being in either of these that brings him under either Covenant for God will deal with men both in a way of Sin and Righteousness by way of imputation and the ground of all imputation is union In the first Adam all sin and all die because by their union they stand under his Covenant so in the second Adam we are made the Righteousness of God in him We are in him therefore we are righteous in him we live in the Lord and die in the Lord and hence it is that to all those who are in the first Adam the first Covenant stands in force to this day for Adam was a publick person a head that represented all Mankind The Commandment belong'd to the Nature the Tree of Life was not a personal Sacrament but given to the Nature and the curse of the Covenant doth not seize upon Adam's person but the nature of man in him Gal. 3.10 And the duty of the Covenant must be as large as the curse of the Covenant and so large must the Covenant it self be Now the curse comes upon all Mankind therefore to them the duty did belong and they are federates in this Covenant all that are the Sons of the first Adam are all under Adam's Covenant And this will appear from the conveyance of Adam's sin in the guilt of it Rom. 5.12 for upon whom the curse is inflicted unto them the sin is imputed death came in by sin But how is it that they die who never sin'd Though they never sin'd in their own persons yet in their head they sinned Men are in Adam two ways Legally and Naturally now seeing his sin is imputed to us because we stood under the same Covenant then so long as a man stands guilty of Adam's sin which he does till he be ingrafted into Christ so long he is under Adam's Covenant 2. Every man that is under the curse is under that Covenant that inflicts the curse but all Mankind by nature are under the curse therefore the curse is the curse of the first Covenant Joh. 3. ult and the Gospel does not make men miserable but leaves them so He that believes not on the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him that is only by accident as the mercy of it is contemn'd so indeed it heightens the sin and aggravates the condemnation but the curse is properly the curse of the first Covenant the Gospel in it self speaks nothing but blessing As a Physician that is sent to cure a man if through the malignity of the Disease and the frowardness of the Patient he cast away the Potion the Balm that would cure him he dies of the Disease not of the Physick Christ came voluntarily under a Covenant of Works Gal. 4.4 and submitted to all the obedience of it and he was made a curse for us that is in our stead to redeem us that were under the Law It cannot be meant of the Ceremonial Law for that the Galatians were never under and it cannot be meant of the Law as a rule for direction and as a bridle for restraint therefore it must be meant with respect to the Law in some way as a Covenant not as a Covenant of Grace therefore as a Covenant of Works 3. To be freed from the Law as a Covenant is a special fruit that the Saints have by Christ and by his Death Gal. 3.13 He delivers us from the curse of the Law now a man can never be freed from it as a curse that is not freed from it as a Covenant we are not under the Law condemning but under Grace pardoning justifying and accepting or else as Beza and others have it under the Law irritating as the dam makes the waters swell the higher but under Grace not only pardoning and justifying but healing and sanctifying And this follows upon the Law as a Covenant broken and if this be a special priviledge that men have by being in Christ then they that are out of Christ are under the Law as a Covenant still for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness The righteousness that the Law requires is to be found in Christ alone therefore Moses Law was to be laid up in the Ark Christ came not to abolish the Law but by his obedience to fulfil it and establish it 4. From the dealing of God with all men answerable to the Covenant under which they stand and his different dealing with them shews their different Covenants 1 He exacts perfect and personal obedience in their own persons There is indeed in the Gospel commutatio personae a commutation of the person but non Justitiae not of the righteousness but no unregenerate man can attain to this his Covenant admits no Mediator So that Christ's obedience goes not to perfect his Ephes 2.12 Without Christ c. 2 He rejects their best works for the least failing Isa 1.11 12. but under the Covenant of Grace if there be but a willing mind it 's accepted 2 Cor. 8.12 2 Chron. 30.18 19. 3 He hates the persons for the works sake Gen. 4.7 Gal. 3.10 but under the New Covenant he loves the service for the persons sake He had respect to Abel and his offering the weakness of the service did not cause the person to be rejected He never hates their persons when he is angry with their works but he deals with unregenerate men under another Covenant 4 All things are turn'd into a curse for this Covenant being broken speaks nothing but curse as we shall see when we come to speak to the Sanction or the appendix that which is added unto the Covenant to inforce obedience which is but accidental in case of disobedience and that is in the day thou eatest thereof dyâ—ng thou shalt die § 2. But before we speak to this particular let us note these things by the way 1. Why doth God add this threatning unto Adam surely it was that he might by it be
's utterly defaced and a new Image is now stampt upon us We are all by nature the children of the Devil and there is an image that 's earthly which we do now bear 1 Cor. 15.49 therefore we must be renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created us for all knowledge and inward abilities of mind either to know God or the Creature is lost and the soul is darkness it self Ephes 4.18 dark in its principles and dark in its reasonings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is darkness and though Divines do commonly say that there are some common notions as fragments of the former image I conceive we are beholding to the Covenant of Grace for them and that they are preserved in us by Christ as our lives are and the support of the Creatures for our use and whatever does tend to our comfortable being whatever is on this side Hell we have not as a part of the first Image and from the first Covenant but as an overflowing of the Grace of the second Covenant by which I say the world stands for surely man fell in lutum lapidosum into a stony mire as Bernard the one blotted out the image of Holiness and the other brake in pieces all his natural abilities It 's laid for a ground that Original sin is alike in all now how comes it to pass that it has not the same punishment and power upon all Take a natural fool and the veriest idiot and every one of us was as guilty of Adam's sin as he now why are those common notions blotted out in him and preserved in us surely it is from the different dispensations of the Mediator into whose hand the government and administration of all things are committed and it 's said Joh. 1.9 That he enlightens every man there is not only a supernatural light from Christ to all the Elect but there is some kind of light that even all mankind has from Christ by vertue of the second Covenant that it 's not destroy'd it is from him and that glorious freedom of Will is wholly lost that though man acts as a free-willer because he does it answerable to the dictates of Reason yet it is libertas adulterina an adulterine liberty and that which has a shew of liberty but is only bondage for surely that libertas contrarietatis velle bonum vel malum is not liberty for that 's a perfection and so is not the other neither can there be liberty in Heaven then but now the soul is wholly servile because it can will nothing else but evil Phil. 2.13 he must work the will c. Facit ut velimus praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati Aug. 4. The Soul has lost all fellowship and communion with God Adam could walk with God and enjoy fellowship as a friend with God and so do the Saints that have this image renewed but it 's grace only fits a man for fellowship Being made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 And so for glory also Col. 1.12 Ephes 4.18 Estranged from the life of God So call'd either because it 's wrought by God as the righteousness of Christ is call'd the righteousness of God it's God that lives in the soul by his spirit and it 's the life of God by way of eminency and excellency for things excellent are call'd the things of God and it 's the life of God because it does fit a man to walk with God and to live to God Now from this life men are strangers Isa 44.20 they live a natural life and they feed upon the carnal comforts that are below that nature desires and seeks after and they live a civil life they converse with men in civil affairs but for a godly life a life to God to walk with God converse with him in all their ways this they are strangers to this is only the life of Saints But men live the life of satan he lives in them being the spirit of this world and he acts them and with him they converse and his lusts they do As Augustin says of himself speaking of the lusts of his youthful time Hi sunt amici quibus acquievi consules quibus credidi aves quibus cohabitavi But for God they have no acquaintance with him in all their ways 5. The Soul is at enmity with God Col. 1.21 Enemies in our minds and this enmity is twofold either direct or collateral enmity as when mens lusts run out to the Creatures and the using of them loco mariti in the stead of an husband it 's an enmity unto God though we intend it not but Jam 4.4 only pleasure in the Creature carries us on and we prove adulterers therewith when mens spirits are carried unto several lusts for pleasure sake and profits sake c. and so it 's enmity against God but indirectly and men say they never meant God any evil I never intended it as they in Ezech. 8.3 They set up the image of jealousie to provoke me to go far from my sanctuary that was finis operis the end of the work though not operantis of the worker But there is a kind of direct enmity which carries a man on unto that which is simply evil and that for no cause but because it does displease and dishonour God as in swearing a sin wherein is neither pleasure nor profit there is no ground for it but barely because God is dishonoured by it We read Heb. 10.29 there is a despighting of the spirit of Grace there is an enmity to do evil for no other end but to despight the spirit of Grace which is the great transgression Psal 19.13 There is an inclination in our nature to this great offence unto which not only presumptuous sins but even secret sins are steps and degrees Men reject the Soveraignty of God and scorn his Laws and despise his power and judgments deny his being and exalt themselves above him saying there is no God 6. The Souls death lies in this mainly that it hates and is an enemy to all those ways that might bring him back unto God again resists whatever may reconcile God and his soul let but a good thought of God come into their head and they hate it Rom. 1.28 We naturally like not to retain God in our knowledge let any thing be offered unto us that exalts God and we reject it we are enemies to all righteousness Take but the offers of Christ and the grace of the Gospel there is nothing that the heart rises so much against and opposes because it 's the way that brings us to God they will find out another of their own they desire to be under the Law go about to establish their own righteousness and not submit to the righteousness of Christ This will be the great condemnation of the World Nay even in a godly man let but a little of God be set upon his soul presently flesh lusts against it Gal. 5.17 and would
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 Apostle says Rom. 10.3 They were ignorant of the righteousness of God therefore they went about to establish their own righteousness By the righteousness of God is here meant the righteousness of Christ as Mediator which he has wrought for us and to be imputed unto us a righteousness which God has prepared a righteousness which God imputeth and a righteousness unto which the Godhead did give efficacy and excellency though it be not the essential and infinite righteousness of God for if a Creature should be righteous thereby then it must be God 1 They see not the excellency of this righteousness that it perfectly answers the Law and that by reason of the Union with the Godhead and by this means it far exceeds the righteousness of the Angels and is far more glorious than ever we could have had if Adam had stood that we should be made the righteousness of God in him and that the matter of our righteousness should be the great things performed by him suffered by him imputed unto us and we thereupon reputed by an act of soveraignty righteous before God this men do not see and therefore they admire the righteousness of a Creature so much as Paul did his own righteousness by the Law but when he had but a glimpse discovered to him of the righteousness of Christ he does abhor his own righteousness for ever Phil. 3.9 10. That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness but the righteousness which is of God by faith There is the glory of the Lord to be seen in the glass of the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.18 which is by a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him Ephes 1.17 which till a man does see his heart will never be inflamed with admiration of the righteousness of Christ and with an instinct after union with him when God did let but a glimpse of this into Luther and he did but consider Rom. 1.17 That the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith Oh how he admired it and was ravished with it having never understood that Scripture before The Prophet Isaiah did wonder that all men did not believe in him and that so few were converted when he saw his Glory but the reason was they saw it not 2 Men are ignorant of the necessity of Christs righteousness for they come unto God in their own name and as Priests they offer up their own sacrifice they make a difference between themselves and others Luk. 18.11 I thank thee I am not as other men are But Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance all are sick all are sinners but yet they are not so in their own apprehension and therefore they see no such necessity of Christ wherefore men come to God and never consider this Can two walk together except they are agreed what fellowship can light have with darkness righteousness with unrighteousness and what fellowship can sin have with holiness Nay stubble and thorns with devouring fire and everlasting burnings My person wants a Mediator it is burdened with infinite guilt my Nature wants a Mediator it is overspread with universal defilement my Sins want a Mediator for they are without number and without measure sinful my services want a Mediator for they are full of iniquity even my holy things and therefore men can be content to live without the righteousness of Christ 3. Men are ignorant of the glorious state and condition of that soul that stands before God in the righteousness of God and who at the last day shall not be found in his own righteousness When the Apostle Paul saw it he counted all things dross and dung for it and I doubt not but if the glorious Angels in Heaven had it revealed unto them that it was the mind of God after they had stood so many thousand years that they should abandon all their own righteousness and now lay hold upon a higher and more glorious righteousness in his Son they would speedily do it and cast away all the services that ever they have done as preferring this righteousness far above their own and their condition therein above what it can be by their own righteousness For the righteousness of an Angel is but the righteousness of a Creature but the righteousness of Christ though it be only the righteousness wrought in his humane nature in obedience to the Law yet it is that unto which the Godhead gave efficacy The righteousness of the Angels hath in it a possibility of being lost they are not by nature impeccable though they are by grace God does charge them not with actual folly indeed Job 4.18 yet with possible folly but Christ as Mediator is impeccable unless we can suppose God to sin the union between the natures being personal actus est suppositorum acts are of persons and therefore unless a possibility of sinning should befall the Godhead the person cannot sin and so it is righteousness in an unchangable head which could never be in the Angels neither was it in Adam in the state of innocency And therefore blessed is the man whose unrighteousness is forgiven Now by the imputation of this righteousness without works he is put into a far more glorious condition than ever he should have been by the first Covenant if he had never sinned Believers having now a more glorious name not only the servants of God and the sons of God as the Angels are called but the brethren of Christ and the members of his flesh and bone a higher sonship not only sons by creation but by a mystical union having a part in the sonship of Christ he gives them the priviledge to be called sons of God a higher inheritance made co-heirs with Christ for it is said Enter into your Masters joy § 2. The second cause why men desire to be under the Law is a principle of enmity Rom. 1.21 They will not glorifie him as God All the lusts of mens hearts are ungodly lusts Jude v. 18. opposition to God and to his glory and any thing that exalts God and makes for his glory it is ground enough why the heart of man should be set in opposition thereunto In the second Covenant God is glorified in a far higher way than in the first for there are higher manifestations of God in the second Covenant Now glory is but the reflection of an excellency and therefore the more glorious the manifestation the more glorious must the reflection be God did manifest himself indeed in the first Covenant gloriously and yet God has set forth a larger systeme of himself in the second and put the Angels to study that by beholding the marvelous glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ therefore the Saints now glorifie God in a higher way than under the first Covenant 1 He had before manifested his wisdom in giving the Creatures a being and had raised out of nothing a glorious fabrick every thing in
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 thâ—â— 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 〈◊〉 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
shewed many ways â—â—w 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 gloriâ—us 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 â—vil 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 â—he 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
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
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 Je◠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
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
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
heart hast thou done these great things that is of thy own free grace and unexpected Love because thou wouldst have mercy and yet it is Mercy to Abraham but it is Truth to Jacob c. Mic. 7. v. ult and therefore Austin calls the promise Chirographum Dei Gods Bond it is the bond or hand-writing that God has given the creature to assure him of Heaven so that as the Apostle calls the Law Chirographum contra nos Col. 2. a bond against us so are the promises the bond that is for us because they do speak God to be with us 4. All this is through Christ both making and performing 2 Cor. 1.20 so it is in him that the promises are Yea and Amen as all the precepts of the Law though given to us yet they are principally required of Christ as our surety and the transgressions of them are laid upon him so all the promises of the Gospel though they be made unto the Saints yet they be primarily made unto Christ as our head and representative for as we have heard he is the seed with whom the covenant is made and he is given unto us as a covenant so he is primarily the Heir of promise and as in respect of possession Esa 49.8 we enter into his inheritance called our masters joy so in respect of the promise and reversion we come under his covenant and so partake of his inheritance and have no further any promise made to us than as we are one with Christ and no promise is performed to us but by virtue of union with him and therefore it's Christus in aggregato Christ mystical that is the proper subject of all the promises and their accomplishment is to himself as the head and to the Saints as the body § 2. Why doth Gods part of the Covenant in this life mainly consist in promises It 's true that these promises shall end in performances and Heaven is the accomplishment of all the promises it is a promised as well as a purchased possession when the Saints are all gathered home all the promises shall be at an end and therefore in that respect faith shall cease for the object of it shall be taken away and therefore the acts of it must needs come to an end though it 's true that the habit of faith as well as all other graces being a part of the image of God and the new creation of Christ is of an eternal nature but yet the Lord does mainly dwell with his people in a way of promise and the covenant on his part doth run in promises 1 Cor. 2.5 7. 1. The life that the Saints live in this world must be a life of faith and not by sight there is another life though we live by faith and not by sight here that in glory is reserved for us and another manner of living and the main objects of faith are the promises Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4.19 21. He staggered not through unbelief He did not reason pro and con about it because faithful is he that has promised and he will also do it he is able to perform It 's true there is a faith that rests upon the whole Word of God as true and good and so the soul receives it but yet the object of faith by which the soul rests on God is mainly the promise so that as obedience is the Law written in the heart so also the object of faith is the promise written in the heart the Lord lets in the promise and the soul rests thereupon and if the Lord had not dealt so in a way of promises our life could never have been a life of faith 2. They are the great grounds of our hope and thereby the Lord will sweeten our obedience he doth not give forth a bare command as an act of Soveraignty but he adds thereunto a promise as an act of Grace Heb. 6.18 The Lord willing to shew the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that we might have strong consolation who are fled for refuge to the hope set before them which hope we have as an anchor to the soul And the Anchor is cast under water and takes hold of something that is not seen as yet for if I see it why do I yet hope for it Now though it 's true a godly man should not yield obedience meerly for reward yet a man may have respect to the recompence of reward and though it is true that this should not be the great thing that should launch them forth in duties of holiness yet this is a good wind to fill the sails the Lord letting him see that there is an inseparable communion of Gods glory and our good also duty and mercy 〈◊〉 hand in hand and that the Lord requires no duty but it is for our good always t◠he may perform unto us the promise that is annexed thereunto There is an amor merc◠〈◊〉 love of reward that is not mercenary Heb. 12.1 Christ had the joy set before him that did sweete 〈◊〉 sufferings he had a glory and a posterity promised him and Moses had respect also to the recompence of the reward Heb. 11.25 And the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.18 While we look at the things that are not seen that is the scope and the main aim of the soul in all our obedience active or passive and by this the Lord doth delight to sweeten our way 3. The promises are the great means of the souls purification 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us purge our selves having these promises and perfect holiness And by these great and precious promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature The promises are the Treasury of all that grace that God doth intend to bestow upon his people and from thence do the Saints fetch it Isa 12.3 for they are the wells of salvation and it is by this that the soul is fitted for the performance there is a being made meet and 't is the promise that made them so as a mans beholding of God in himself doth transform him perfectly into the image of God Col. 1.12 2 Cor. 3.18 so beholding God in the promise does transform a man by degrees into the image of that holiness that is in the promise A man looking upon himself sees his heart as a barren wilderness as empty of grace as the first Chaos was of form and beauty Now he says what is impossible with man is possible with God and the soul sucks a promise and is thereby changed into the image thereof 4. That they may be the rule of the prayers of the Saints for his will must be the rule of our prayers as well as of all other acts of our obedience the precepts of the one and the promises of the other we must ask according to his will if we hope to speed and therefore our prayers should be nothing else but pressing God with
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
any one of them he may by consequence and by way of deduction conclude the Love of them all yet a man should expect to have it not only discursive but intuitive radio directo by a direct beam that a man may in Prayer from a principle of sealing cry to God Abba Father and may say I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine and so the Soul may walk in the Love of them all distinctly though not severally and the Soul is never able to triumph and make his boast of God till he has assurance of his interest in all the persons and in all these respects we see that the great grounds of a Christians comfort lye in his interest in the persons and therefore it 's no wonder if the great promises of the Covenant to a Christian be personal promises CHAP. II. The Covenant of Grace makes God to be our God SECT I. The Covenant of Grace makes God ours and the Benefits hereof § 1. LEt us come more particularly unto the words of the Promise in which the main of the Covenant lyes on Gods part for we have heard it 's unfolded in promises or to use the Apostles word established in Promises Hebr. 8.6 and these promises Musculus calls Caput foederis the Head of the Covenant the chief and the bottom promise on which the Covenant stands is this I will be thy God and Pareus calls it anima foederis the soul of the Covenant for it 's the principal promise of the Second Covenant as in our part of the Covenant there is one great Commandment Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart so there is in Gods part of the Covenant one great promise and that is that he will be our God and we shall be his people and therefore a great weight is to be laid upon it 1. For the opening of it we are to consider there are Two things to be distinctly considered in God 1. Essentia his Essence 2. Subsistentia his Subsistence 1. The Essence of God is but one pure and simple act of Being but yet cannot be comprehended as such by a finite understanding because it 's infinite therefore it is set forth unto us by several Attributes which though in God they be all one yet they are diversify'd according to the different objects upon which they are set and about which they are conversant and the different acts that they do put forth unto the Creatures and so when the Lord doth promise to be our God he doth make over unto the Creature by promise an interest in all the Attributes of the Essence and Divine Nature 2. In this Divine Nature there are three distinct subsistences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word used by the Apostle Hebr. 1.3 and why we should be offended as some of late at the word Person by which it is expressed I know not but from the novelty and curiosity of this last Age There is in the God-head Father Son and Spirit and these Three are One. Joh. 5.7 Now when the Lord doth promise to be a God to his People he doth make over his whole self God in Essence according to all the Attributes of his Nature and God in Subsistence according unto all the persons or subsistences in the God-head and it is very necessary that as in point of obedience we take in the whole latitude and extent of the Law for the Commandment is exceeding broad so in point of Faith also that we take in the whole latitude and extent of the promises that as in the one our hearts and desires in obeying may answer God's in commanding so in the other our hearts and desires in believing may answer God's in promising 2. To be a God implies a sufficiency 1 It is a term of Sufficiency and so it is here Gen. 17.1 I am God all-sufficient he that is self-sufficient in himself is all-sufficient to his people What is there that can be necessary unto your happiness but it shall be had in me and therefore Psal 144. ult Blessed is the people whose God is Jehovah because in God there is an all-sufficiency that not only you shall have all happiness from him but you shall have all things in him so that as he is sufficient for himself of and from himself without going forth unto any other so shall you have all things in him immediately that you need look unto nothing else to make you happy for all the perfections of a God shall be yours 2 To be a God is a term of Soveraignty for he is the most high King of Kings and Lord of Lords Dan. 4.17 the most High rules in the Kingdoms of mortal men and he is God over all Rom. 9.5 blessed for evermore Therefore to be a mans God is to undertake the rule and government over him and to rule and govern all things for his good that they may be all unto him a blessing Eph. 1. v. ult that as Christ is made the head of all things for the Churches sake so will the Lord rule over all things for his peoples sake rule all as a God as truly for their good as for his own glory 3. It points also to the manner of the fulfilling of this promise it shall be as becomes a God and in the way of a God and so much also A Lapide hints upon the place Ero tuus tuorúmque Deus ut à vobis solus colar I will be the God of thee and thine that I may be worshipped by thee Now there are two ways by which a people employ their interest in God 1 by way of Communion they come unto God and they draw near to him which are terms of Communion 2 by way of Fruition their happiness is in him and he will be their portion and reward in the land of the living When the Lord casts off a people from being a Church to himself he will own them in ways of worship no more he doth express it so Hos 1.9 calls them Loammi they are not my people I will not be their God he does not say You shall not have the creatures to be yours as the fruits of my bounty you shall not have respite of torment as the fruits of my patience but yet when you have all things here below you shall not have me in them all in ways of communion here or of fruition hereafter Doctrine 2 The main intendment of God in the new Covenant is this That he may become the God of his people Every man that is brought into the new Covenant doth change his God Jer. 2.10 it 's said Pass over to the Isles of Chittim and send unto Kedar and see if there be such a thing has any nation changed their God It 's looked upon as a strange thing in the world and yet this is the condition of all those that come under the second Covenant and therefore as the great Commandment to a people
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
all the creatures of God for his inheritance Lastly the application of all unto our selves 1. That the Lord has made over all his Attributes unto the Saints And that will appear by these arguments or demonstrations 1. The Lord is said in Scripture to be the portion of his people their lot and their inheritance so the Church Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my portion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says my soul And it is the same claim and in the same way that Christ made unto God Psal 16.5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance The word signifies to divide into parts as the land of Canaan was divided by several lots and every man had his share and thus it is here there is a division and a distribution made all ungodly men have their portion out of God Psal 17.14 because they are not in Covenant with him and they have their portion in this life and in the things of this life Son remember that in thy life time thou hadst thy good things but in this a Saint is not satisfied he will not be put off with this worlds goods as Luther says Valde protestatus sum me nolle sic satiari I greatly protested I will not be so satisfied Gen. 15.1 And the Lord says I am thy exceeding great reward the word in the Original doth signifie praemium laboris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reward of thy labour c. and the Hebrews having no Superlatives do express them by an Adjective and an Adverb and so it is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding great and it 's as much as to say thy greatest reward There are variety of rewards that God gives unto all his labourers even in this life though it be true as Manasse Ben Israel has observed That this life is mundus laboris the world of labour and the world to come retributionis of reward yet the reward is begun in this life There is no man that shall labour for God in vain no man shall shut his door or open it for nothing but yet God doth give many things as a reward unto those to whom he doth never give himself because there are many that do work for God that do never give themselves unto God and therefore Jehu shall have a Kingdom and Nebuchadnezzar shall have Egypt for his hire c. they have their reward from God but yet the Lord himself is not their reward And even the people of God have many great blessings from the Lord as the reward of their services 1 Cor. 3.21 for the Apostle Paul says All things are yours but yet the greatest of all their rewards and that without which all the rest were nothing lies in this that the Lord is their God Now how doth God become the portion and reward of his people in this life but as he has revealed himself There is a discovery of God that is beyond the capacity of grace in this life and the people of God by virtue of this promise may rejoyce in the hope of it as Rom. 5.2 but yet they cannot possess it in this life but as the Lord has revealed himself to his people in this life so he hath made over himself unto them Now the great discovery of God being in the Attributes of the Divine Nature it 's in thi◠that he has made over himself unto his people this is the portion Christ had and his reward and ours also by virtue of the same Covenant 2. This will appear also if we consider the Promises are that we shall have all in God He that overcomes shall inherit all things I will be his God the Lord is his Inheritance Revel 21.7 and he that has God he doth inherit all things he shall have a hundred-fold more in this life Mark 10.30 that forsakes any comfort of it for God in this present time Now a man cannot understand this formaliter formally but eminentèr eminently he shall have that in God that shall exceed all this if they were a hundred times multiplyed and so the Lord is a Sun and a Shield Psal 84. and how is all this to be understood but that we have all in God It 's true that a Christian has all things in promises but yet the promises are not the root of his inheritance but there is something that is a root and is the foundation of all the promises and that is the Attributes of the Divine Nature and the goodness and faithfulness of God c. which I conceive also is the meaning of that Isai 2.6 and last Come my people enter into your Chambers c. it 's refer'd unto the mind and the state of the Soul and so it doth signifie pacatum animi statum the quiet state of the mind But I conceive this is not all the meaning Calvin that the Soul is quiet as in its Chambers of refuge in the time of the greatest trouble and unquietness but as Forer hath it Ne solliciti essetis de rerum visibilium vicissitudine sed de Deo c. be not solicitous about visible things but about God And the Chambers in which the Soul only rests are the Chambers of Promises and of Providences For upon all the Glory there shall be a defence but the Attributes of God are the secrets of his presence in them both so that the people of God have all in him as there are attributes in him that answer unto all their conditions 3. So much the several relations in which God stands to his People do imply the Lord is said to be unto them a Father I will be their Father and they shall be my Sons and Daughters 2 Cor. 6.16 Isai 54.5 James 2.23 and he is said to be their Husband Thy Maker is thy Husband and their Friend as he was Abraham's Friend and he was called the Friend of God and the terms of friendship are mutual and it is the sweetest relation a true friend is as a mans own soul Now what do all these relations import amongst the Creatures but this that answerably to the Wisdom and the Power and the Mercy and the Love that is in me saith God so will I lay them all out for you as the duties or offices of my relation do require and we know amongst men relations are great obligations and they do carry with them vast affections they are maxima efficaciae of greatest efficace as the School-men speak therefore though it be less to say I will be thy Father thy Husband or thy Friend than it is to say I will be thy God because this imports an Infinite Being yet it is as much he being a God to stand in these relations as if he should have said I will be thy Father and Husband and Friend after the manner of a God whatever there is in infinite wisdom and in infinite power and in infinite goodness or holiness to dispense it shall be laid out for thee
suitable unto the relation in which I stand unto thee for though men in their relations act weakly as men yet in the relations which God stands in to his People he doth act infinitely and as it becomes a God 4. It will appear also by the expressions in Scripture that the Saints have interest in several Attributes of God and from their interest in some of them we may conclude their interest in all for God is not divided Integram salutem à Deo diviso sperare non possumus we may not hope for an entire salvation from a divided God Psal 59.10 he is call'd not only the God of Mercy as he is commonly but the God of my Mercy so of all the Mercy that was in God David lays claim to it as his Mercy it 's in God indeed subjectivè but yet it is mine even all the Mercy that is in God and he is the God of my Mercy Psal 84.5 Ephes 6.10 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee and the Apostle's exhortation is Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might the meaning is that very Omnipotence that is in God is by the Covenant on Gods part so made over unto his people that it becomes as effectually theirs unto all the ends and intents thereof as if they themselves were the subjects of it and the meaning of the Apostle doth arise unto this height that they should take unto themselves as great confidence in the overcoming of enemies be they never so powerful and in performing of duties also be they never so difficult as if they had Omnipotence in their own hand to exercise and put forth according to their own desires and for the effectual procuring of their own happiness and on this ground it is that the Saints are said to glory in God and make their boast of him all the day long Hab. 3.18 and they triumph in the God of their salvation because they do look upon all things as having the attributes of God ingaged unto them and by this means the Soul treads down strength for what can be too intricate for infinite wisdom and what can be too hainous for infinite mercy or too difficult for infinite power c and so the Soul does laugh at all oppositions and all the power of man to scorn because he looks upon himself with all the Saints to be interessed in all the Attributes of God and fortified by them 5. The great end of Christ's coming into the world was to bring us unto God and that was not only 1 Pet. 3.18 that all the Attributes of God should work for us as they did for Christ which because we had forfeited therefore they all acted against us and should have done for ever but that Christ by bringing us to God might give us also an interest in them all that they should all become ours as they were his for Christ is but the way as he himself saith I am the way the truth and the life and therefore Aquinas hath well branched Divinity into these heads De Deo de Christo prout via est nobis tendendi in Deum Of God and of Christ as he is the way tending to God Christ came to reconcile all the Attributes of God unto Man and the great purchase of the death of Christ was not an interest in all the Creatures but an interest in all the Attributes of the Divine Nature that they should be ours and should act for us 1. Pet. 1.21 6. The highest object of faith is God he is Objectum ultimatum the ultimate Object Christ is but Mediatum the Mediate Object Now what is there in God that is revealed unto our Faith but his Attributes we know him no otherwise but by his back parts and we know that every Attribute of God is an object of Faith in the Scripture and whatever Faith lays hold on as its object it makes it to become its own in ipso amplexu in the very embracement He that takes hold of Christ by Faith makes him his own Thou art my Lord and my God and if it lay hold of its promises they become its own and there is nothing that gives a propriety to the Soul but its receiving of it and appropriating it he loved me and died for me and gave himself for me Thus Faith argues and appropriates Christ and all his Benefits and so it is in laying hold of every attribute of God that doth appropriate it unto his person and it becomes his own rests upon infinite wisdom and lays hold on infinite power and relies upon infinite mercy and holiness and grace and all shall be thine Believe Soul and all shall be thine for all the objects of faith are offered and propounded by God and nothing is required to make them ours but receiving them as it 's said of Christ Joh. 1.12 To as many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God to them that believe in his Name so it 's of promises and of attributes also and if they be not ours it 's because we receive them not our interest lies in our application § 2. This is peculiar to the Second Covenant that the Lord should make over unto his people the inheritance of all his Attributes 1. It 's true that Adam had an interest in God or else he could not have lost it But we have heard of Mans great misery in the Fall that it lay in his loss of God Ephes 2.12 and we know that if he had continued in that state of Innocency that Covenant would have brought him unto God for death threatned upon his breach of it was eternal separation from God in Hell therefore the Life promised must be an eternal fruition of God in Heaven but yet it was not such an interest as the Saints have under the second Covenant for that was limited only unto one condition that men if they did stand in their integrity the Lord would be so unto them but if they fell the Lord would become their God no more but now is become their enemy c. But there is this in the New Covenant that the Lord is their God in all conditions whatever and they have in all conditions an interest in all the Attributes and they may expect that they shall be all imployed for them and every Saint may conclude with the Psalmist surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all my dayes which is more than the petra sequens that Rock that followed the People of Israel in the wilderness in their long journey they had wisdom to direct them and power to protect them and mercy to pardon them and grace to heal them and so it is of all the other Attributes of God they belong unto his People in all conditions and though there be never so great changes in them yet there is no change in the Lord. Isai 57.17 18. We read in Isai
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
might cause his power to be acknowledged 2. God hath made over his attributes to his people that they may take from them all grounds of faith with an assurance that they shall be all exercised for them according unto their necessities Psal 13.5 so the Mercy of God I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation Here is mercy the object of faith and an assurance that this attribute shall shew forth it self in a work of salvation and deliverance for him I have trusted in the mercy of God for the bringing me out of this and another affliction and I have been delivered Psal 52.8 therefore I will always exalt the mercy of God So for the Power of God the soul can argue from thence Dan. 3. when men threaten and Devils rage and the fiery furnace may be heated seven times hotter to consume the soul that has no help amongst creatures yet says Daniel and the three Children the God whom we serve is able to deliver us And the Lord encourages the soul from the assurance of his power Is my arm shortned that I cannot save is any thing too hard for the Lord is there any restraint to omnipotence And so also Christ puts them upon it in this With man it 's impossible but with God all things are possible it 's spoken in reference to a work of Sanctification when the Disciples said Who then can be saved Esay 26.4 Esay 27.5 So for the Eternity of God Trust in the Lord for ever for the Lord Jehovah is a Rock of Ages and so men are said to take hold of the strength of God And so of the Holiness of God I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David and therefore Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life And so Abraham believed God was able to raise him up again from the dead if it might stand with his glory he did not question his will but that his power should be put forth for the accomplishment of his promise We know that the ultimate object of faith is God through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 our faith and hope is in God now the highest object of faith in God is the attributes of God that he has discovered for we can believe in him no otherwise than we know him and as he has revealed himself and the way of Gods revealing himself unto his people in this life is only by his back parts which are his attributes and therefore this is the way of the acting of faith in this life and all the promises of God and the precepts and the threatnings of God are all of them founded on his attributes and in these doth the strength and stability of them lye because the Lord Jehovah is a rock of ages As it is in ends all intermediate ends work in the strength and the power of the utmost end so it is in objects also Objectum mediatum fidei movet in virtute objecti ultimati ab eo perfectionem accipit The mediate object of faith moves in the virtue of the ultimate object and receives perfection from it Eph. 4.18.23.24 3. That from these the soul may receive all principles of grace grace is called the Life of God and the Divine Nature the Image of God created in the soul it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according unto God Now in an image there are two things required 1 Proportion or similitude and resemblance 2 There is a deduction or a derivation it must be taken from it As there is a resemblance of the nature of God so there is a derivation of it from God Now though the incommunicable attributes of God are so called because there are in the creatures no footsteps or resemblances yet there are of the attributes that are communicable from them the image of God is derived unto us and we are made partakers of his holiness holy as he is holy Heb. 12.10 Jam. 1.5 and merciful as he is merciful and wise as he is wise If any man want wisdom let him ask it of God as all of them shall be employed for man without him so all of them shall work in man an image or a resemblance of himself within him that a man beholding the glory of the Lord is transformed thereby into the same image And this is to be made the rule to judge the measure of our graces by for primum est mensura reliquorum c. The first is the measure of the rest in that kind So far as they do come short of bearing a resemblance with the communicable attributes of God I say of bearing a resemblance for they are in God by nature but in us by grace and by new creation they are nature in him they are not so in us so far we are to bewail the defects of our graces and so far grace is the image of God in us but in part a good work begun and no more and it is a discovery of his attributes which are the original pattern that doth perfect his image in us which is but the counterpane and therefore we shall be perfectly like him when we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 4. God hath in Covenant made over his Attributes that from these the soul may take all rules of duty and as the highest objects of faith are in God so from him are the highest rules of duty and therefore Eph. 5.1 the exhortation is Be ye imitators of God 1 Pet. 1.15 and be you holy in all manner of conversation because he is holy and so from the Soveraignty of God it 's the ordinary argument thou shalt do thus and thus for I am Jehovah thy God And David takes his rule from this in the preparation he made for the Temple the house must be exceeding magnificent and therefore all his preparation though the wealth of a Kingdom was but an act of his poverty for it is for the Lord who is a great God and dwells not in Temples made with hands c. And it 's the argument that he himself useth as the rule unto them in their performances Mal. 1.13 I am a great King and my name is dreadful amongst the Heathen As the soul is never rightly bottomed upon a promise till it is carried out into that attribute upon which the promise doth depend so the soul is never grounded in duty till it looks beyond the precept and sees the attributes in God which are the foundation of the duty and this is properly to walk worthy of God Col. 1.10 That ye may walk worthy c. It doth not note exactam proportionem Daven sed quandam decentiam convenientiam not an exact proportion but a certain decence and convenience when a mans duties are done by rules taken from so great a God and proportionable unto the nature holiness and excellency of that God God is a Spirit
1 Joh. 4.24 and therefore must be worshipped in spirit and truth 5. That the great motives unto duty and the great restraints from sin be taken from these It 's a matter of great consequence not only that we do the duties that God requires but also what motives they are that fill the sails in our performances For a man to perform high duties upon low motives argues a heart full of flesh to preach the Gospel is a high service but to do it to serve a mans belly or his pride to gather Disciples after him that he may have the credit of a Teacher of others and be cryed up amongst them this doth in a great measure blast all his service therefore let men look to their motives in their performances And so for sin it 's not enough to abstain from sin but a man is to have an eye upon the principle that lyes the restraint upon him what it is many a man may be kept from sin for fleshy aims as Haman refrained himself till he came home and so King Joash during all the days of Jehoiada the fear of man will restrain lust many times where there is no fear of God There are as it were several topicks from which the arguments and reasonings of the soul are taken for the Word of God is quick and powerful c. Heb. 4.12 the one refers to principles for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the seat of principles and the other to the dianoetick faculty a mans arguments and reasonings from those principles and there are some high and noble motives suitable to the nature of grace and there are some low and sinful motives agreeable to the nature of flesh and the Word of God is a curious discerner of both and it 's a great matter from what topicks a man doth take the argument that does mainly act his spirit in duty and as the highest rule of duty is to be found in the attributes of God so the noblest motives unto duty are to be found in them also Joel 2.13 Rent your hearts and not your garments and turn to the Lord your God for he is merciful and gracious he is long-suffering slow to anger and of great kindness who knows if he will return and repent And Gen. 17.1 I am God all-sufficient walk before me and be upright There are arguments enough to be taken from God and those of the highest kind to quicken a soul in all duties required of him And so it is also as to restraint from sin Hos 3.5 They shall fear the Lord and his goodness Heb. 12.29 Let us have grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire Exod. 34.14 Thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God 6. That they may be unto the Saints the ground of prayer and that is in three things 1 They desire that God would manifest his attributes it 's something of God that they would have discovered therefore they cry out with the Psalmist Psal 57.3 O send out thy light and thy truth send forth thy mercy and thy truth it is the discovery and manifestation of an attribute that is the great thing the people of God do beg in all their prayers Num. 14.17 Let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast said 2 It 's the great argument that they use in prayer the main argument of faith is from an attribute and a mans interest therein Remember me O Lord for this and pardon me according to the greatness of thy mercy Nehem. 13.22 Psal 115.1 2 Chron. 14.11 for thy mercy and for thy truths sake And Asa argues from the power of God It 's all one to thee to save with few as with many 3 They do come to God under such an attribute suitable to the mercy that they beg and their faith is staid thereupon and 't is a great matter to look upon God under an attribute that answers our necessity as Christ when he would speak of Judgment Mat. 11.24 Joh. 17. Num. 14.14 and give God thanks for it he call him righteous Father and when he begs Sanctification for his people he calls him holy Father and so when Moses prays for the pardon of sin he calls him the Lord merciful and gracious 7. That they may admire and adore the Lord for the excellencies that are in his Divine Nature and that they may give him the glory of every attribute Glory is but the shining forth of an excellency the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Effulgence and brightness of it Heb. 1.3 and our giving glory is but the reflexion of this excellency Now we give God the glory of his works and of his going forth unto the creature but we should not only give him the glory of these but also of the excellency of his own nature there is none holy as the Lord who is a God like our God pardoning iniquity If we had hearts truly spiritual we would admire God more for the excellencies that are in himself than for all his goings forth to the creature and so the Saints and Angels in Heaven do 8. That in the manifestation of every attribute and the working of it for his people the Saints may rejoyce and particularly give God the glory of that attribute which he hath now so eminently put forth for them and that they may glory in their inheritance thereby Psal 21.13 Be thou exalted O Lord in thy own strength so will we sing and praise thy power I will sing of thy power Psal 59.16 17. and I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble To thee O my strength will I sing for God is my defence and the God of my mercy Rev. 4.8 and so do all the Saints holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which is and was and is to come The attributes of God are the last city of refuge that the Saints can flye unto Prov. 18.10 even the Name of the Lord is their strong tower and when the Lord doth make bare his arm and takes to himself his great power and sends forth his mercy and relieves his people in their distresses Oh! how then do the Saints triumph and rejoyce in him The last refuge is in God and the highest triumph is in God and these are the glorious ends for which God has made over his attributes unto the Saints § 3. See the glory of this inheritance that of the creatures is indeed glorious and that of promises is more but the foundation of all and top of all lyes in attributes It 's of no small concernment for a soul to know the glory of his own inheritance partly because there is a prophaneness of heart in all men that do undervalue spiritual things as well spiritual priviledges as spiritual truths or spiritual graces with
Esau who did despise the birth-bright Heb. 12. and partly that the soul understanding it may receive satisfaction and see an all-sufficiency in it Aristotle for godliness hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-sufficience going with it as it is 1 Tim. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect good seems to be self-sufficient and for this cause the Apostle prays for a spirit of illumination Eph. 1.18 That the eyes of their understanding being opened they might know what is the hope of their calling and the riches of this inheritance which God has prepared for the Saints that God whose are all things and of whom are all things yet his portion is his people they are of all people his peculiar treasure and what a glorious inheritance the Lord has chosen to himself in them making up one glorious body with the Lord Jesus Christ Now if it be necessary the eyes of our understanding should be enlightned to know the glory of Gods inheritance in us how much more the glory of our inheritance in Gods attributes that the soul may be able to rejoyce in the goodness of the Lord and say Thou art my portion says my soul that as Calvin observes upon that place Zac. 9.12 Satis praesidii in uno Deo There 's safeguard enough in one God so it may be said of all things else there is wisdom enough and holiness enough and all to be had in him and it is enough if it be in him alone There is a threefold inheritance that Christ hath stated upon his people for Christ is heir of all things 1 by Nature and Generation 2 by Donation as he was man now the first belongs unto him alone and he cannot communicate it and the other he doth impart unto us as we are one body with him and as we partake with him in the same Sonship so we do also in his inheritance Eph. 1.14 and this inheritance of Christ the Saints have a treble benefit by 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is the Heir of all things we have by him an inheritance of creatures as Christ is God he comes not under an act of Gods will and therefore it 's spoken of him as he was Mediator 2 He has an inheritance of promises for they are all made first unto him Gal. 3.16 2 Cor. 1.20 to him were the promises made not of seeds as of many but as of one who is Christ and therefore it 's in him that all the promises are Yea and Amen as we were chosen in him he was first elected and we in him so the promises were first Yea and then Amen in him and by virtue of our union with him unto us 3 There is a higher inheritance and that is Psal 16.5 that the Lord is the portion of Christ The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup Psal 45.7 c. Answerable unto this is the inheritance that Christ has made over unto the Saints who as they are fellows with him in his Unction so they are Coheirs with him in his Inheritance Rom. 8.17 as they have an inheritance in creatures for all all things are yours whether life or death and also in promises 1 Cor. 3.22 which is beyond what they have in any of the creatures so they have an inheritance that is far beyond both these and that is in God himself Rev. 21.7 He shall inherit all things I will be his God Heb. 6.12 Now if we consider it we shall see that there are great riches in this to have all the attributes of God theirs is greater than to have all the creatures and the promises of God made over to them 1. The Attributes of God are nothing else but the transcendent perfections that are in God the Divine Nature shadowed forth to us according to the capacity of the creatures in which the Lord as in his back parts that is pro nostro modulo according to our capacity makes known himself unto us and causes his goodness to pass before us and if the Lord would take any soul of us as he did Moses and in this manner discover himself there is nothing in the world would affect the soul like unto it for if these be the perfections of God how infinitely must they needs exceed all things that are in the creatures for they are all in him after the manner of a God and therefore all the attributes may be predicated of God in abstracto he is Wisdom and Holiness and Mercy c. because they are all of them the Divine Nature all the excellencies that are in the creature are received from him and therefore surely there is infinite more in himself Thence the Saints have been more taken with the Divine Excellencies that are in the Nature of God immediately than in all the blessings and benefits that come from him 1 Sam. 2.2 as Hanna after the blessing she had received from him she admires his goodness and the excellency that is in him there is none holy as the Lord and who is a Rock save our God and if the Saints did not do so their love were not of a right kind Austin plus diligere attractum quà m sponsum meretricius amor to love the token more than the bridegroom is adulterous love 2. This is the foundation of all our interest and all the comfort of it either in creatures or in promises How comes it to pass that all things are yours and promises yours c. but because the Lord is our God and therefore it 's brought in as the foundation of all blessedness having spoken of all creature-comforts in the highest he adds this Psal 144. Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. There is a blessedness therein without the creatures and the only foundation of blessedness in the creatures lyes in this 1 In creatures consider this is the difference between the portions of godly men and wicked men they may both possess the same thing but with a different temper and the one has only a title unto creatures as a gift of God but the other as he has a title unto God the one has them by a single and the other by a double title and so a little that the righteous has is better than great riches of many wicked because he has all that he has conveyed unto him from his interest in God as the Original thereof 2 In promises it 's true that their inheritance in them is very glorious far beyond that of Adam in Paradise but yet the foundation of all the promises is an attribute and they must all lead the soul unto God and his interest in him that did promise for Faithful is he that has promised and he will also do it There is a promise of pardon of sin but still it is to be resolved into an attribute 1 Joh. 2.1 He is faithful
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 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 â—o 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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. â—8 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
now are in prison who sometimes were disobedient in the days of Noah They were then men upon Earth but they are now Spirits in prison 5 He gave the Law and he did appoint and institute all those legal ways of worship and all those types and shadows of the Law which were but praeludia humanitatis preludes of the humanity that it might be represented unto the faith of his people as lively as might be till the fulness of time appointed by the Father was come Heb. 12.25 6 He it was that brought Israel into Canaan and planted them a Church there unto himself Esay 5.1 2. I will sing unto my well-beloved a song of my beloveds concerning his vineyard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is generally conceived to be a name given unto the Messiah and he had a vineyard in a fruitful Hill he fenced it and gathered out the stones planted it with the choicest Vine and built a Tower in the middle of it and made a Wine-press therein and all this is the act of him whom he doth call my Beloved 3. The Father did prepare the nature that Christ was to assume unto union with himself Heb. 10.5 Burnt offering hadst thou no pleasure in but a body hast thou prepared me he that called him to be a Sacrifice he did prepare a body c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this is included the soul also that very individual nature though formed by the Holy Ghost yet according to the appointment of the Father Col. 2.9 for in him was the fulness of the Godhead bodily to dwell that is he was to take our nature thus prepared into a personal union with himself so that not only that Christ should take the nature of man but that very individual soul and body that he was to take was appointed and prepared by God the Father which he would have to be as a Sacrifice to himself and unto him he would give this grace of union that it should become one with the second Person in the Godhead 4. This very humane nature thus prepared by the Father and by the Son thus assumed the Father did fill with all habitual grace Col. 1.19 Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell the meaning is not only that he should have fulness of grace in himself but such a fulness also that he might convey and communicate unto us that all the fulness of the creatures should be derived from him Joh. 1.16 That of his fulness we may receive grace for grace he hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son and he is therefore said to receive the Spirit without measure because he has the Spirit so as to fill all the Saints the Spirit so as to dispense the Spirit this cannot be spoken of Christ as God for so he cannot receive the Spirit and so he cannot receive grace but it 's spoken of him in reference to his humane nature which the Father prepared and anointed as he saith The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for the Lord hath anointed me he cannot be said to be anointed as God but as he is Mediator and therefore there is a double grace comes from the Father upon this nature of Christ a grace of Vnion and a grace of Vnction also so that though the Godhead of Christ were infinitely holy yet his Godhead doth not qualifie the humane nature but he being the Fathers servant and the grace that was to be dispensed was by the appointment of the Father therefore it is the Father that laid up this grace in the humane nature of Christ as in a common Treasury making him a second Adam that he might dispense it unto us 5. Having in this manner prepared him the Father did send him forth into the world and owned him before the world to be his Son at his Baptism Mat. 3. ult A voice came from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son and in his Transfiguration Mat. 17.5 it was again repeated and 2 Pet. 1.17 God the Father gave him glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased God the Father did declare him to be the Son of God with power partly by the doctrine that he preached for no man spake as he spake he spake of heavenly things as one that had seen them for he came down from Heaven as one that came out of the bosom of the Father and also by the Miracles that he wrought the Lord did give a testimony to him to be the Son of God by opening of the eyes of the blind healing the sick raising the dead c. So that the Father did eminently owne him to be his Son before all the world that men might believe in him which is a thing of mighty concernment to us and Heb. 1.6 when he brings his first begotten Son into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him so that he is owned by the Father before men and Angels as the person that it was the design of the Father to set up as the Head of all Principalities and Powers for the happiness of his Saints and the glory of God the Father 6. The Father did appoint how long he should live upon earth and what death he should dye He was delivered by the determinate counsel of God and therefore Christ tells them Act. 2.23 My hour is not yet come and that is given as the reason why they that were so malicious had not seized upon him sooner it was because his hour and the power of darkness appointed by the Father was not yet come he was to dye a crucified death being made a curse for us for it 's written Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree Gal. 3.13 7. The Father also becomes Christs Executioner It is true sin did not only set God against us but all the creatures also and therefore Christ standing in our stead he shall have men to be his enemies and they shall seek to destroy him he shall be delivered into the hands of men and they will serve the turn to destroy his body but it is no more that they can do but it is the soul of man that was the great Traitor against God and men cannot reach the soul to afflict it therefore it pleased the Father to bruise him when he made his soul an offering for sin and therefore his great satisfaction being there his great purchase is made thereby for it is said He shall see of the travel of his soul which then mainly begun in the garden though it 's true all his life time he had been a man of sorrow but specially when he cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. yet he had then some lucida intervalla but in the three hours darkness when he fought it out between God and him alone then the Lord did inlarge his faculties
quicken those that are dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.5 they are made alive unto God 3 There is a death in sorrow and under misery as the Jews were in their Captivity they were dry bones dead and their restoring of peace and comfort was a resurrection from the dead Ezech. 37.12 and so Heman is free amongst the dead as they that are wounded and lye in the grave c. and in opposition thereunto there is a life of consolation 1 Thess 3.8 1 Thess 3.8 Now we live if you stand fast in the Lord that is this will be one of the greatest comforts of our lives our happiness our glory and crown of rejoycing c. Rom. 7.9 Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the law once alive in performances and alive in presumption alive in comforts alive in confidences and that is the meaning of Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his faith Hab. 2.4 and in the same sense it is used Heb. 10.38 He that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.38 now the just shall live by his faith There is a double sense of these words 1 In matter of Justification Gal. 3.11 No man is justified by the law it is evident for the just shall live by faith 2 In matter of consolation in any affliction and so faith doth not only make a man live keep body and soul together but it makes a man live a comfortable and a chearful life also non est vivere sed valere vita c. 4 There is a death eternal which is an everlasting separation from the vision and fruition of God who is the fountain of life and so we read of the second death and so there is a life of glory Joh 3.36 He that believes not in the Son of God shall not see life but the wrath of God abides upon him and Heaven is commonly in the Scripture called everlasting life c. Now in all these respects the Son lives by the living Father and they that are one with him do live by him 1. Christ as Mediator receives from the living Father a life of justification he was made under the Law and under the curse 2 Cor. 5.21 it pleased the Father to make all our sins meet upon him he did bear the sins of many he did appear the first time of his coming into the world loaden with transgression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he shall appear the second time without sin Heb. 9.28 and this was by the Fathers imputation Hostilem incursum designat c. and his voluntary susception but when he arose from the dead he is acquitted by God the Father and therefore is said to be justified in the Spirit i. e. by his own Godhead and 1 Pet. 3.18 he is said to be quickned by the Spirit that is he raised up himself by the power of his own Godhead so being raised he is justified that is he is acquitted from the guilt of all the sins that he did before lye under and so he is taken from prison he did not break prison but he was released and had a fair discharge and the judgment that was past upon him he was absolved from Isa 53.8 Now as the sentence of his condemnation came forth from the Father so must also his justification and as he says Joh. 16.10 Ye see me no more to note that his death should fully satisfie and his sacrifice be perfectly offered as for other Priests they came often to present their Sacrifices which were imperfect and the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin off the sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. He received from the living Father a life of holiness and sanctification Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell What fulness is here meant Plenitudo gratiae habitualis an habitual fulness of grace Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we have all received grace for grace as he was anointed by the Father he received not the Spirit by measure Joh. 3.34 for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him It 's true that grace in the humane nature of Christ which is the subject of habitual grace is not infinite for that only belongs to the Holiness of God but yet there is all fulness in it because it 's laid up in him that he might dispence it and there is a sufficiency and there are supplies of the Spirit for all the Saints and therefore he is called Dan. 9.24 The most holy Dan. 9.24 or holiness of holinesses the humane nature is capable of more grace and therefore of greater glory by reason of its personal union than all the creatures in Heaven and Earth either men or Angels for he is the Son of Righteousness 3. He received from the living Father a life of consolation It 's true if we look to his condition amongst the creatures so he was a man of sorrows but if we respect his communion with the Father and the fulness of the consolation of the Spirit for where the Spirit is truly a Spirit of Sanctification there also he is in perfection a Spirit of Consolation so he is said Psal 45.7 To be anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows his blessed Soul had experience as of greater and higher priviledges so of far greater comforts than of the creature men or Angels and though it 's true that when he bore the sins of men and the wrath of God there was substractio visionis and therefore he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as extra confortium vivere Mar. 14.33 to live without society he was to be sequestred as in a wilderness and set apart unto grief and to nothing else yet it was but for a short time for as the Sun did recover its light again so did his Spirit also and his Soul was filled with unspeakable joys as he before under-went unutterable sorrows therefore he says Joh. 15.10 I kept my Fathers commandment and abide in his love my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth c. Psal 16.11 4. He received from the living Father a life of glory Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore and therefore Rev. 3.21 Rev. 3.21 He that overcomes I will grant to sit with me upon my Throne even as I overcame and am sate down with my Father in his Throne c. Jesus Christ has a Throne on which he now sits ruling the Nations having received a Kingdom from the Ancient of days and he has a Throne in the Church a Throne is set in Heaven Rev. 4.2 and there is a more glorious Throne to be erected at the last and great day when he shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory c. but all this while Heaven is the Fathers Throne and when the works of God are
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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
distinct objects for faith to work and rest upon as mercy and justice and holiness and wisdom and faithfulness and the soul should not only be content with a general apprehension that he hath an interest in them all but should be distinctly drawn forth and exercise distinct acts of faith upon them all And as it is in Christ there are distinct excellencies in him there is the Holiness of his Nature the Holiness of his Life and the fulness of his Satisfaction the glory of his Merit and a soul that hath an interest in Christ and is made one with him hath immediately an interest in all these but yet the Lord requires that the faith of his Saints should be exercised about them all and have their apprehension raised by the glory of them all As a man that believes any one part of the Word of God doth believe the whole Word of God at the same time for faith that doth close with any Divine Truth aright doth it upon this ground to rest upon God tam in revelatis quà m revelandis as well in what is revealed as what is to be revealed as it was with Adam and the Angels unto whom there are made daily new discoveries of the will and counsel of God that they never knew before but yet there is not a precept Eph. 3.10 promise or threatning in the whole Word of God but it is a distinct object of faith and the Lord would have the apprehensions of his people particularly set upon them that they may be particularly affected with them and see and admire the grace of God in giving them an interest in this promise and in that threatning So it is true that a man that hath an interest in the Son of God hath an interest also in God the Father and so a man may consider it discursivè discursively but the Lord would have the soul stay upon the particular interest he hath in the Father and the glory thereof and upon the particular interest he hath in the Son and the glory thereof also As it is in point of assurance though he that hath the witness of the Father and the Son hath the witness of the Spirit also and he that is assured of the love of one may be assured of the love of them all yet there is a distinct bringing home of the love of each person to the soul so that a man doth not by way of discourse only reason himself into the Father Son and Spirit who having one nature have also one love and if I have a testimony of the love of the Son in me I have also a witness thereby of the love of the Father also but when the soul is particularly drawn out and distinctly affected with the love of each of the persons his apprehensions are raised by reason of this interest and so it is in the work of faith also and the ground of it is this 1 because all the glory that God hath by us here is when he is exalted in our hearts for Gods glory is in the hearts of his Saints as all their melody is in their hearts Ephes 5.19 when all things in the inward man are in tune and set right Exod. 15.2 He is my God and I will exalt him Now as our apprehensions do rise in the consideration of the glory of any thing that is in God God hath the more distinct glory thereby for as he hath given us variety of ordinances and he will be honoured by us in them all so he hath propounded to our faith distinct objects and he will be honoured by our faith in them all for as you heard the glory that God hath in this world chiefly is in the hearts of the Saints they only do glorifie him actively all things else do it but occasionally that is by giving them an occasion to glorifie him 2 Because there is a distinct sweetness and vertue that comes from every one of these when the soul is distinctly drawn out to them and they are distinctly exercised as Phil. 3.10 says the Apostle That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his sufferings c. When a man looks upon the death of Christ there is a vertue will come out of it and if upon the sufferings of Christ there is a vertue will come out of them all and they have all of them their peculiar and proper vertue upon the soul The Apostle speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.14 a savor of knowledge now it is here as it is in a Posie there are many flowers put together and they do yield a very fragrant smell that is very refreshing and delightsom but he that will be affected with each flower must take them all apart and he will find that each of them hath its distinct and proper savor which unless the man had taken apart he would never have known and so it is also in all the glorious excellencies that are in God and in Christ Vse 2 § 2. The second Use is of Exhortation and that 1. To stir you up to consider the glory of this interest in the Persons this was that did most affect Christ Psal 16.5 The Lord is the portion of my inheritance it is his interest in the Father that mainly his heart doth glory in He had several other interests that he might have boasted of for he was Heir of all things Heb. 1.3 but in a more special manner he hath a glorious inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1.18 which may be interprâ—â—â— either that his inheritance is in them for they are his both dono and merito by a gift and by a purchase also or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for inter as it is rendred Acts 26.18 To give them an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the Saints have a great inheritance to glory in they are heirs of promises yea they inherit all things but the main of Christs glory is his inheritance in the person of the Father and that should be also the glory of the Saints and here consider 1 that the high advancement of the creature lyes in union with the persons as the highest advancement of the humane nature of Christ lyes in the personal Union the grace of Union is far greater than the grace of Unction that he was made one with the second Person in the Trinity and the advancement of our nature is more by our mystical Union with the Person of Christ than in all the benefits we receive from him but there is a higher union that this tends to and that is an union with all the persons in the Trinity thereby for communio fundatur in unione Now having communion with all the persons it argues that we have an union with them all and as we have a higher union with the person of the Son than the Angels have so we have
The soul is to rest upon all the promises that in Scripture are made concerning these persons there are promises that have a peculiar respect unto them all 1 There are promises that specially concern the Father which though they be formally made unto the Son yet it is with special respect unto the Saints as the promise of giving Christ unto their souls and nourishment and life by him for he says Joh. 6.32 Moses gave you not the bread that came down from heaven my Father gives you the true bread promises of justification by him Esa 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many that is as much as to say as many as believe in him shall receive remission of sins and a promise of guidance Exod. 23.20 Behold I send my Angel before you They were in a strait for they were in the wilderness where there was no way now the Father doth promise the Son should undertake their guidance and it is not a promise that is peculiar unto those times only though there was something peculiar in it And there is a promise of gifts Acts 1.4 Wait for the promise of the Father The extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost that were to be poured out to fit men for office in those times it 's called the promise of the Father and the promise also of preservation and perseverance My Father that gave them me is greater than all Joh. 10.29 and no man can pluck them out of my Fathers hand 2 There are some promises that do more especially belong unto the Son as that of grace and a continual supply he shall go in and out and find pasture and says Christ I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly and a promise of a constant presence I will dwell in them and walk amongst them Joh. 10.9 10. what concord hath Christ with Belial I am with you to the end of the world that he will beautifie his Church and sanctifie it and cleanse it that he may present it unto himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 6.26 27. and that he will subdue our enemies Esay 63.3 4. I will take them in my arms and keep them from their enemies fury their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment for the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is come he shall be cloathed with a garment d pt in blood and his name shall be called the word of God Rev. 19.13 3 There are some promises that in a more special manner respect the holy Spirit he has promised them a spirit of sanctification and he will purge the filth of the daughter of Sion by a spirit of burning Esa 4.4 promises of direction The Spirit shall lead you into all truth Joh. 16.13 he shall undertake to be the guide of your way and you shall hear a voice crying behind you This is the way walk in it a spirit of liberty also you shall have 2 Cor. 3.17 for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and a spirit of victory Esa 59.19 when the enemy doth break in as a floud the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him so that they shall conquer not by might nor by power but by my Spirit Zac. 4 6. Now all these lead a man unto the person of the Spirit and his interest in him as so many lines into a centre for as all the promises do lead a man to union with Christ by which means he becomes an heir of promise so do all the promises lead a man to an interest in his person without which he can lay no claim unto the promise that is made by any of the persons for they are not universal and made unto all but as the promises of Christ belong unto those that are one with him so all the promises of the persons belong only unto those that have an interest in them and therefore we are to cast our selves upon the persons for the accomplishment of the promises 3 Faith is to rest upon the love of them all for though they are essentially one and therefore have but one will yet as they are personally distinguished so they are three and have distinct wills and distinct loves and therefore Christ distinguishes between his will and the Fathers will I am come not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me not my will but thy will be done essentially his will and the Fathers are one but they are personally distinguished so they have essentially one love but if we look upon them as persons so they have each of them his own proper and peculiar love He that loves me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him if any man love me my Father will love him Joh. 14.21 c. so that faith is not only to close with the love of God in general as it is an Attribute of the Divine Nature as his Wisdom and Holiness Mercy and Power are but faith is also to close with the love of each of the persons as they are relatively distinguished one from another the love of the Father and the love of the Son and Spirit and as it is the love of God essentially that is the ground of all that God has wrought for us it was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.4 and though Esau was Jacobs brother yet I loved Jacob Mal. 1.2 so it is the personal love of all the persons that is the ground of all those workings of the persons for us and therefore you are to take in that love also as an object of your faith 4 Faith should rest upon the appropriated acts of each of these persons and rely upon them for the performance of them We have formerly heard that each person hath undertaken some special and peculiar acts for mens salvation as 1 the work of Vocation Adoption Justification Preservation Glorification for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdom they are all of them undertaken by God the Father And 2 the work of Satisfaction Presentation Oblation Intercession Conquest Judgment all these the Son has undertaken 3 The work of Sanctification Direction Consolation Supplication they are all of them undertaken by the Spirit Now we are not only to rely upon the essential faithfulness of God for the performance of it Heb. 6.17 but upon the personal faithfulness of each of these undertakers for they are all of them ingaged in it and here is a farther and higher consideration to be taken in the acts of the persons and they are of two sorts 1 Acts ad intrà internal acts and they are acts of nature which are acts one towards another as the generation of the Father in respect of the Son and the procession of the Holy Ghost as from them both 2 There are acts ad
extrà which are terminated in the creatures and are meerly acts of will now faith is not only by this means to be exercised and taste the sweetness of the acts of will ad extrà but the acts of nature ad intrà for I have an interest in that Father as the Father that did from all Eternity beget the Son and I have an interest in that Son that was begotten by the Father so that those acts of nature that were of God before the world was they have all some respect unto me and I can taste a sweetness in them all that as I have not only an interest in the absolute perfections of God which are his Attributes but in the relative perfections of God also which respect the persons so I have not only an interest in and benefit by all the actings of the Atrributes of God but by the eternal actings of the persons also that we may see how high it reaches and that there is nothing in God but it is as truly for our good as it is for his own glory therefore we may rejoyce in them all 5 A mans faith should expect all the Attributes of God to be distinctly exercised for him by all the persons a man has an interest in them all in all the works that they do put forth for as they are three in their subsistence so they are but one in their Essence and therefore all the Attributes of God come in unto them all the Son thinks it no robbery to be equal with the Father Phil. 2.6 for he is found in the form of God that is in the nature of God subsisting in the nature or essence of God and therefore Divines do commonly when they prove the Deity of the Son and Spirit shew that the Attributes of God are in Scripture given unto them as Esa 9.6 Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father Prince of peace that 's given to the Son and to the Spirit is given Omnipotency Omnipresence and Omniscience c. Now when the Father comes to work he has the power of God the wisdom of God the holiness of God put forth for the accomplishment of his work and so have the Son and Spirit also and therefore we see that the Son could not miscarry in any thing that he did and though he dyed yet it was impossible that he should be held by death Acts 2. because he had the power of the Godhead to carry him through and so it is with the Persons in all their operations and undertakings for men in the work of our salvation and therefore it is good for a man not only to exercise faith upon the Attributes of the Divine Nature in common as they are infinite and absolute perfections but as those Attributes are to be found in each of the persons and to be exercised for us in all their appropriated actions and by this means the Attributes of the nature are made over not only by the Essence but also that they shall be all of them exercised by each person acting according to their own acts which they have undertaken and so we have an assurance of the acting of the Attributes for us in a threefold way and a threefold cord is not broken 6 As it is the recumbency of faith so it should be in the assurance of faith also it should distinctly close with them all in their witnessing as well as in their working 1 Joh. 5.6 7. 1 Joh. 5.6 7. There are three that bear record in heaven it is not only a testimony to the truth of the Gospel but it is a testimony also given unto the state of the Saints for they have the witness in themselves for it is that they may know that they have eternal life vers 13. which could not be unless the testimony were given in the heart and a mans state put out of controversie Now though they be one in Essence and though their testimony do agree in one yet they are three in their witness in the word and in the heart now under the Law in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established we receive the witness of man but the witness of God is greater the same God who hath but a few witnesses amongst men but two witnesses Rev. 11.3 yet he will not let a mans assurance go without a full testimony there shall be two classes of witnesses some on Earth and some in Heaven and they shall be three of each of them therefore as in acts of recumbency we are to close with the love of all the persons so in acts of assurance we are to close with the witness of all the persons and thus we see that there are distinct objects of faith upon which it is to work in them all 2. Now let us come to consider the acts of faith that are distinctly to be put forth upon them all as 1. There is to be a fiducial knowledge hereof that the persons are made over to us for as faith without works is dead so faith without knowledge is blind therefore faith is commonly set forth by knowledge in the Scripture Joh. 17. ult and Phil. 3.8 9. To know him and be found in him c. But it is not every knowledge but that which is described Col. 2.2 and Tit. 1.1 A knowledge of the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ a knowledge that draws an acknowledgment with it that carries the consent of the soul with it and he sits down under it and lies under the power thereof a sapida scientia a knowledge of a truth that lets in the savour of the goodness of it with the truth 2. The soul is distinctly to cast it self by distinct thoughts upon each of these persons as when a soul comes to Christ he sees his need of him that he is undone without him he sees the excellency that is in him and thereupon he doth leave himself with Christ and will look out for salvation in no other there is an exclusive resolution against all other ways and a full determination to go this way only and if I perish here I will perish so when a soul sees all this and sees his need of the persons and the glory that is not only in Christ but in the Father and the Spirit and sees that without an interest in them he is undone for else there are no benefits by them thereupon he doth distinctly resign himself unto each of them for as all the promises of the Gospel being distinct objects of faith have not their due honour unless we exercise distinct acts of faith upon them so it is true also of all the persons much more because Christ is set forth as an object of faith therefore we rely upon him so we should upon the Father and Spirit also and therefore Christ looks upon it as a dishonour that being set forth to them they did not distinctly believe in him 3. Faith
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shaddai which has a double notation or derivation amongst Interpreters some derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esa 13.6 Joel 1.15 It shall come as destruction from the Almighty and sometimes it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 31.2 and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that has a sufficiency in himself and so they make it to answer unto the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
them as if his sufficiency were in them then immediately the creatures have left their place and they have gotten the rule over the man and this is an evil that many times befals the best men they do not keep the world at a distance and confine it to its own place as they ought to do but when a man saith The creatures are my comfort but my sufficiency is not in them my portion is not in them ubi omnia mea sunt tu scis this will keep the creatures from incroaching upon a man and usurping authority over a man Tenet and bring them into subjection unto his servants which is contrary to the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free hence it comes to pass that men set their hearts too much upon them contrary to Psal 69.10 If riches increase set not your hearts upon them The more any mans heart runs out upon the creature and the more he doth place his happiness in any of them the more his soul departs from the alsufficiency of God And hence if you take away the creature from a man he saith you have taken away my heart and therefore he sorrows as a man without hope when another man can see the creatures departing and melting as ice under his feet and he can rejoyce in their departure and bid them farewel with joy because he has had the Moon under his feet and these being gone he knows he shall be restored unto that wherein more immediately his alsufficiency doth consist And the way to cast off this weight is to keep up the alsufficiency of God in the soul all my sufficiency lies in him alone and because he has made over his alsufficiency to me therefore I will not look upon any thing else as my sufficiency and happiness the man whose eyes are opened to see his alsufficiency to be in God in the middle of the creature-enjoyments is in a blessed condition 8. That the soul may upon this ground live in God immediately as in whom his alsufficiency doth consist 1 Thess 1.1 Joh. 3.21 there is a being in God and a dwelling in God he that dwells in love dwells in God and a working in God he comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God and therefore Nazianzen speaks of grace that it doth after a sort deifie the man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only begin a divine nature in him but making him to live out of himself in the alsufficiency of the Divine nature and the School-men speak of an illapsus Dei a certain illapse or coming down of God into the soul he is said to dwell in us 2 Cor. 6.16 that is cum infinita quadam opulentia with a certain kind of infinite plenitude and by this means spiritus nunc ab omni velle liber est acsi in coelo aut terra c. as if there were nothing that he did stand in need of in Heaven and Earth for when Gods love dwells in us it is in the manifestation of God and when God in his sufficiency dwells in us it is in the manifestation of it Harp p. 678. c. and therefore the soul looks upon God ut mare quoddam infinitae magnitudinis Harp pag. 666. our sufficiency comes from him and returns unto him again but all is in him and the soul looks upon all the creatures as things indifferent but if he sin he looks upon alsufficiency to pardon him Who is a God like our God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin and he looks upon alsufficiency for healing and if he has a work to do for God he looks upon alsufficiency for strength and if he has a cross to bear he looks for the support of everlasting arms and if there be creatures either to work with him or against him he saith that they can do neither good nor evil they work but as instruments in the hand of God and the wicked man is but thy sword Nebuchadnezzar that great King is but the staff of mine anger and if there be no creatures Psal 17. he saith there is no need of any for he is as able to save with few as many and his supplies tarry not for man he waits not for the sons of men nor for any humane concurrence in his work Mic. 5. and therefore his eyes are turned away from beholding vanity and he lives upon God alone for he saith What is Heaven and what have the Angels of God and the souls of just men made perfect to feed upon they neither eat nor drink they marry not all earthly comforts and relations cease they are but for the time of this life and no more but then God is all in all now if it shall be enough to live upon him in Heaven and it shall be there my happiness and perfection surely the more my heart is staid on him and the more it is setled upon his alsufficiency the nearer it comes to happiness and the less shall my spirit be disquieted by the changes and uncertainties of things below and unto this Christ did train up his Disciples Do not say What shall I eat and what shall I drink but say There is an alsufficiency in God which I have an interest in and it shall be manifested for me either for my provision or my protection for he that hath made it over to me by Covenant will lay it out for me and therefore I leave my self with him and cast my care upon him for my sufficiency is in him alone § 3. This Alsufficiency of God belongs unto none but unto his own Covenant-people it 's a joy that no stranger can intermeddle withal it is the hidden Manna that they only do feed upon who are fled for refuge to the hope set before them Gen. 17.1 2. I am God alsufficient walk before me and be upright and I will make a covenant with thee to be a God to thee and he is a Sun and a Shield not unto every one but unto them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 there is a secret river the streams whereof do make glad the City of God when the earth is moved and the mountains cast into the middle of the Sea Psal 46.4 there is an Olive-tree that doth drop oil into the golden Candlestick Zac. 4.3 Zac. 4.3 it is new Jerusalem that comes down from God out of Heaven that has no need of the light of the Sun but the glory of the Lord and of the Lamb are the light thereof it is spoken of the light of creatures Rev. 21.23 and not of Scriptures as some would interpret it it 's only upon the glory that there is a covering 1 It is only by Covenant that he is thus made over and therefore it can be only unto his Covenant-people all men in Adam have forfeited their interest in God and they can lay no claim to him though it 's true that men in
he lays up that as a choice receipt all his life time and when he sees other men cast the materials of it away as a thing of no value he saith O! there is an excellency in it did men know it they would set a high price upon it I was in such an extremity and it relieved me so it is with all the Attributes of God they are exalted in the soul suitable to the use and experience that a man hath had of them as he that doth undervalue duties doth it because he hath not found the spiritual good that is in them so he that doth undervalue the Attributes of God doth it from want of experience which makes spiritual things great in our eyes and therefore Paul having an interest in the mercy of God we see how it was exalted in him 1 Tim. 1.14 the grace of God was exceeding abundant God who was rich in mercy out of his abundant love and pardoning mercy c. Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like to our God that pardons iniquity transgression and sin And the Saints that have perfection of holiness from him they give him the glory of his holiness from day to day saying Holy holy holy for the highest glory that we can give unto God here is that we honour those Attributes in our hearts which he doth honour in his dispensation towards us whether it be wisdom or holiness or faithfulness or patience c. as he doth honour the word that he doth accomplish so we are to honour the Attributes that he doth put forth Jah is the same name with Jehovah and is a name of Being denoting that God is he that hath his Being of himself and gives being unto all things else he that is the Fountain of Being whence a soul having had experience of him to be such a one lets his glory in that respect arise and be exalted in his soul if you would have any Attribute work for you then exalt that Attribute by trusting in it and when it hath wrought for you then exalt it also by glorifying of it and as you have exalted God by his name Jah so by his name Elshaddi a God alsufficient also for there is no name of God but it will be exalted in the soul suitable to the interest that we have in it and the taste that the soul hath of it For there is a double putting forth of every Attribute of God savingly upon his Elect not only a putting of it forth in his works and administrations towards them but there is also a putting of it forth by exalting it in a man and therein the main sweetness of the discovering of it doth lye He therefore that hath not had the price of this Attribute raised in his soul nor tasted the sweetness of it nor rejoyced in it nor adored and admired it and God as such a one under the apprehension of such an attribute truly that man hath no interest in it If a Saint cannot say that attribute is mine and this attribute I have an interest in yet he can admire the attribute and give God the glory of it as an excellency in himself and he doth not only praise God for his goodness towards him but as it is in himself for the glorious excellencies that are in the Divine nature as we may see it in Hannah 1 Sam. 2.1 2. My heart rejoyceth in the Lord and my horn is exalted in the Lord my mouth is enlarged over my enemies I will rejoyce in thy salvation there is none holy as the Lord c. And as it is exceeding sweet unto the people of God and a Paradise to walk from one Tree to another in the Paradise of God and to say such a truth the Lord fulfilled unto me in such a case and in such an extremity and such a promise at such a time so much more for a man to be able to look over all the attributes of God and to say such a time the Lord did glorifie such an attribute towards me and such a time such a one and to see all the attributes of God as well as all the works of God to work together for a mans good every one in their proper places as the stars in their courses fought against Sisera and the threatnings of God fight against wicked men so to have the word of God the works of God and the attributes of God work for a man is their happiness and their joy 4. He that hath an interest in the alsufficiency of God will be raised up in his soul to an holy self-sufficiency as there is no grace that is in Christ but it will have a resemblance in us so there is no attribute of God but it hath its resemblance therefore 1 Pet. 2.9 we are said to shew forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vertues of him that hath called us and in this doth properly our conformity unto God in this world lye there is something in us that doth hold a resemblance with the attributes of God that are manifested and put forth for us And in this is the greatest exercise of the attributes of God for our good when the patience of God works patience in us and we be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful and holy as he is holy when the wisdom of God works wisdom in us and there is a resemblance of the power of God in us that we are able to do all things through Christ that strengthens us when the greatness of God works in us a holy greatness of mind and when the alsufficiency of God works in us a gracious self-sufficiency for there is a self-sufficiency that is a duty as there is a self-sufficiency that is a sin 1 Tim. 6.6 Godliness is great gain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 9.8 Every where and in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and it is that which the Apostle had learned Phil. 4.11 so Prov. 14.14 A good man is satisfied from himself There is self as divided from God which is a sin but self as united unto God is a great duty Self-sufficiency in opposition to the creatures is a duty for a man can be happy without them but self-sufficiency in opposition to God is a sin for if a man be one with God then a mans self-sufficiency is Gods alsufficiency for having God and that sufficiency that is in him he hath all though amongst the creatures he hath no portion no inheritance when a man hath the Moon under his feet and he can say when he sees all the world destroyed Se nihil habere bonum tantâ mole perdendum c. and can look upon the general conflagration of the world as Lot did upon Sodom in the burning without a relenting thought because his portion is not in them this man hath a self-sufficiency grounded upon his interest in the alsufficiency of God for as the Apostle saith of the Fathers Heb. 11.13 That chusing to be pilgrims they did declare
because he is the Son of man that was foretold Dan. 7.13 14. Dan. 7.13 14. to whom the kingdom should be given by the Ancient of days and therefore is given unto him all government because he is the person that was foretold to whom it should be communicated 2 Because he is the Son of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred quatenus and so it is by Beza that is he hath all power given unto him and all judgment not only as he is God as he is the second person but as he is the Son of man quatenus homo c. non tantùm secundùm naturam divinam sed etiam humanam and so Chemnit doth from hence infer humana natura in Christo assumpta est in communicationem gubernationis rerum omnium praecipuè verò regno Deo in Ecclesia 3 It is by many others interpreted by that place Phil. 2.10 Because he humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that to the name of Jesus every knee should bow c. that is this is the reward that the Father hath given him for his obedience in his humiliation taking upon him our nature the form of a servant therefore he is exalted unto the highest pitch of Majesty and of Authority to be next to God himself Now which interpretation soever we take of these it will appear that this power is given unto him not only as he is God but as he is Mediator and that the formalis ratio of giving it unto him is as he is the Son of man and not as he is God for as he is God he had an equal hand in the Soveraignty of all things and an equal right to it with the Father and the Spirit and so it could not be said to be given to him but it is given him as the Son of man and as a reward of his obedience because he became the Son of man But to answer an Objection or two about this 1. It is objected It appears plainly by Scripture and is by you granted That there is a double Kingdom of Christ the one belonging to him by nature and the other given to him by the Father the one proper only unto Christ the Mediator the other common to the Father and the Spirit as well as to the Son the one to be exercised for ever and the other but for a time wherefore there are two distinct Kingdoms of Christ why therefore may we not say that as he is the second Person he rules in the world and as he is the Mediator he rules in the Church only Answ I do confess there are two Kingdoms and these are really distinguished one from another that Christ as God hath an essential Kingdom equal with the Father and a Kingdom which he doth receive by donation from the Father as he is God-man but I say That the exercise and administration of both Kingdoms are now in the hand of the Mediator and shall be unto the time of the restitution of all things for the Father judges no man Joh. 5.22 that is natura divina absolutè sine Mediatore judicium sive totam administrationem dedit Filio Mediatori incarnato c. Chemnit i. e. totius mundi imperium c. The Divine nature hath committed all judgment to Christ c. so that the spiritual Kingdom is administred by the Spirit in the ordinances of the Gospel and the providential Kingdom by the power of his Spirit working without ordinances who orders and disposes of all the creatures unto their several ends but yet all this is by the hand of the Mediator and he doth not simply as he is God rule in the providential Kingdom only for all judgment is committed to him that is the government of all things as he is the Son of man as he is the Son of man so he rules the Angels and they act the wheels and as he is the Son of man so he is appointed Heir of all things and as he is the Son of man so all things are put under his feet all sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field c. therefore it 's but a conceit to say That Christ doth rule the world indeed as he is God but he doth rule the Church as he is Mediator for it appears plainly That both of them are acts of his Kingly Office as he is Mediator as the judging of the world will be at the last day and he tells us that God gave him all this power for this end That he might give eternal life unto as many as the Father had given him Joh. 17.20 he doth rule all things in the world so as he makes them serviceable unto spiritual ends but it 's done by him not simply as God but as Mediator and so much Mr. Gilespy cannot but grant out of Calvin in Aarons Rod pag. 203. that all things are put under the feet of Christ the Mediator not only in respect of glory and dignity but in respect of his power and over-ruling providence whereby he can dispose of all things so as they make most for his glory c. which is all that I assert and that the Mediator is not barely Gods servant in the spiritual Kingdom but in the Kingdom of Providence also is plain from Psal 8.6 Eph. 1.22 Object 2. But Christ as Mediator is King Priest and Prophet but he is not so any where but in his Church therefore to say that Christ as Mediator doth it is as much as to say he doth it as King Priest and Prophet and so he shall be made a King Priest and Prophet unto the Pagans and unto all other creatures even to the Devils c. Answ It 's not necessary that whatever he doth as Mediator must flow from all his Offices for he doth many things as he is King that he doth not as he is a Priest or a Prophet he is unto the Angels a King and that as he is the Son of man for he is the Head of all Principalities and Powers and yet he is not unto the Angels a Priest yet as Mediator he rules them and they do belong unto his Kingdom as Mediator and as he is King so he shall judge the world also at the last day so he shall judge the Heathen he shall judge the Devils and so he doth rule them now and over-rule them for the good of the Church and yet he is not unto the Heathen a Priest nor a Prophet neither is he so unto the Devils But his rule and dominion over the works of God is as truly part of his Kingdom as his rule and dominion over the souls of the Saints the Mediator is not a Priest and a Prophet to every thing to whom he is a King and yet he is a King as Mediator and so far as any thing relates unto his Kingly Office so far it may be said to