conceive it was a body that was given him by the Father 2 There was Union from the Father and therefore there is a grace of Union as to us in Mystical Union it is the Father made up the match between us and Christ and we are united unto him for ever so in the Personal and Hypostatical Union it is the Father that made up the match and made the two Natures to become one Person and therefore it is said Luk. 1.35 That holy thing that is born shall be called the Son of God for it was in obedience to the Father that he did come to take this body into Union it is true he did take the seed of Abraham but it was by the Fathers command Heb. 2.16 Heb. 10.7 and in obedience to him and therefore he says A body hast thou prepared me and therefore he did take it upon himself as he did his sufferings The cup that his Father gave him he did drink and so in him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily 3. There is also the grace of Unction God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Joh. 3.34 Jesus of Nazareth whom God has anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power As it pleased the Father in him should all fulness dwell as the Sun of Righteousness and as the fountain of life and this is not in him only as God but as Mediator but all this is still as it pleased the Father acts of his free-grace 4. Assistance in this great work it is true that Christ was God and able to raise himself 1 Joh. 5.11 and did quicken himself and did overcome death and spoiled Principalities and Powers and triumphed over them openly but yet he doth ascribe all this to the gracious assistance of God the Father it is the Lord that made him a promise that he should go through with his work and Christ doth strengthen himself by exercising faith upon the Promises of God the Father who promised Isa 42.4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement in the earth I the Lord have called thee in righteousness I will hold thee by the hand that is by a mighty assistance and support and I will keep thee c. and with these Christ helps himself by exercising faith upon them I will trust in thee he is near that justifies me Isa 50.8 Who will contend with me the Lord is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal 16.8 9 10. therefore my heart is glad and my flesh shall rest in hope for thou will not leave my soul in Hell i. e. in the grave under the power and condemnation of that sin and wrath that now is upon me nor suffer my body to see corruption but thou wilt shew me the path of life c. And Psal 22. he strengthens his faith by experience of his forefathers Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou deliveredst them So that Christs assistance in all his managing of the work of the Covenant is wholly from the free-grace of God the Father and therefore in all the business of it Christ had recourse unto his Father by prayer continually 5. Acceptance It is true that Christ as his Person was in worth and value answerable unto all the Elect of God and beyond them so there was a worth and price in all that he did in his suffering answerable unto whatever the Law and Justice of God did require God did abate him nothing he payed the uttermost farthing else there could not have been satisfaction Isa 63.6 for it must be redditio aequivalentis pro aequivalenti it was a full satisfaction God did abate him nothing in this but God made our sins to meet upon him he did not abate him one sin and being made sin he did not abate him any part of the curse And what mercies soever the Lord doth bestow upon us Christ hath paid a valuable price for them because his obedience did deserve and did truly merit at the hand of God whatever the Lord shall bestow upon us to eternity either in Grace here or Glory hereafter it is indeed free unto us and a gift but yet it is unto Christ a purchase and therefore here indeed there is nothing of grace as it were but all is of debt that is Christ did lay down something answerable unto whatever God did either give or forgive But yet here is Grace in the Lords acceptance of all that Christ hath done and suffered for us and the imputation thereof unto us and that the Lord should account this by a Soveraign imputation to be as done in our stead and for us for the Law did say the soul that sins shall die it is Grace only that brings in the commutation of the Person though there be no commutation of the righteousness that was required of us Heb. 10.10 it is meerly of Grace that the Lord has accepted of Christ for us all the benefits of the Death of Christ as Pardon of Sin Reconciliation with God Justification and Adoption they do all depend upon this will of the Father for had he not appointed this work and thereby declared his acceptation had not he accepted it who was the Judge we could never have had any benefit by it and therefore it is by his will alone that all this is made over unto us there was free-grace abundantly in his acceptation By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 Joh. 6.38 by the knowledge of him and faith in him for of such a knowledge it is meant I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me the meaning is not as if Christ came unwillingly but that his Fathers will was first in this work and so much in it that the thing that Christ did principally aim at was to please his Father and to do his will therein Now because Christs great aim was to do his Fathers will and to please his Father doing all by appointment from him he knew he hath acceptance with him for though Christ had paid the price it was free with God to accept it or no. 6. There is a reward that is given unto Christ for all the services that he does perform He hath a name above every name Phil. 2.9 10. and a seed Isa 53. and a glory He being set on the right hand of the Majesty on high 1 Pet. 1. ult Angels and Principalities and Powers being made subject unto him and this the Lord hath given him as a reward of his service I will not now speak unto that Question put by some Divines Whether Christ did merit for himself which our Divines do deny in this sense as being the great end why he did come into the world to merit for his Elect-ones because the Scripture saith God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Joh. 3.16 And to us a Child is born to us a son is
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
From the Soveraignty of God in the Law ibid. 2. From natural conscience ibid. 3. From the Spirit of God in conscience ibid. 4. From a principle of self-love in men desiring good and fearing evil ibid. 5. From the unrenewedness of the heart which is fully set to do evil Pag. 56 Quest Is a godly man wholly freed from this coaction Pag. 56 57 The Doctrine applied Pag. 57 58 59 60 61 CHAP. V. Col. 1.13 A scriptural account of this translation Pag. 61 Doct. All in Christ are translated out of their former Covenant Pag. 62 1. Such a translation proved from Scripture Pag. 62 63 2. The necessity of such a translation 1. From the nature of the Covenant as it is broken 1 It promiseth no life but upon perfect obedience 2 It is without a Mediator 3 There is in it no promise of pardon 4 No promise of any grace 5 Every sin breaks it 6 It cannot quiet the conscience Pag. 63 64 2. Without this translation no man can receive benefit by the second Covenant Pag. 64 3. God still deals with man in a way of covenant and stipulation 1 Because the first Covenant stands in force upon all out of Christ unto eternity 2 Because all under this covenant must perish 3 All mercies and deliverances that God hath given his people have been by covenant ever since the fall Pag. 65 66 4. No man for the state of his person can stand under both Covenants because one makes void the other 1 The righteousness of the first is in our selves but that of the second in another 2 In the first works are first accepted and then the person in the second the person first and works for the persons sake 3 The first is without a Priest but the second hath one 4 In the first there is matter of glorying in a mans self but in the second all is of grace Pag. 66 Quest May not a man so far as he is flesh be under the covenant of works and so far as regenerate under the covenant of grace Pag. 67 Answ 1 A double image may stand together but two covenants necessarily destroy each other ibid. 2 The change of a mans covenant is a legal act and so is perfect and may be at once but the change of a mans image is perfected by degrees Pag. 68 The Doctrine applied Pag. 68 69 70 71 72 How a man may know whether his covenant be changed Pag. 68 The sinfulness of an unregenerate state Pag. 68 69 The misery of not being translated into the second covenant Pag. 69 70 71 The happiness of those in Christ Pag. 71 72 CHAP. VI. A Mans Translation out of the first Covenant is by Union Gal. 3.29 How our translation is by union with the nature of this union Pag. 73 1. God deals with all men in a way of stipulation ibid. 2. The two Covenants were neither of them made with all men immediately but with a representative head ib. 3. A mans union with either of these heads brings him under either covenant Pag. 74 Doct. A mans Translation out of the first Covenant consists in his Union with the second Adam ibid. The nature of this union explained 1 It is a natural union Henc◠2 Real not meerly voluntary but an union with his person Pag. 75 Quest Whether a man be in Christ before he believe Pag. 76 The reasons why God hath appointed our translation to be in a way of union 1 Because God will have Christ to be the second Adam 2 Because our happiness lies in it 3 Because God cannot enter into covenant immediately with sinners without forfeiting the truth of his threatning Pag. 76 77 78 A mans condition is much changed by this translation 1 God looks upon him no more as the son of Adam 2 He is no more under the rigor of the Law 3 Nor under the curse of the Law 4 He is become heir of the promise 5 God is reconciled 6 His sufferings and services are accepted 7 All things work together for good 8 Sin hath no condemning power 9 He hath communion with God 10 And is of the same body with the Saints Pag. 78 79 The way of obtaining this union is 1 By a work of conviction 2 Of humiliation 3 By a glorious work of revelation Pag. 79 80 Hence the soul resolves to take 〈◊〉 other way of salvation Pag. 81. There is an instinct put into the soul after union with Christ ibid. The soul accepts Christ upon his own terms ibid. CHAP. VII How the Law as a Covenant comes to be abolished Gal. 2.14 Blotting out the Hand-writing c. The words explained Pag. 83 The manner how the Law as a covenant comes to be abolished 1 Christ himself was made under the Law as a covenant of works 2 He hath fully satisfied all this covenant required of us 3 He hath brought in a covenant of grace and reconciliation Pag. 84 85 Hereby the infinite goodness and wisdom of God is discovered Pag. 85 86 CHAP. VIII Gal. 3.17 To all in Christ the first covenant made subservient to the second Pag. 86 The Law taken in Scripture two ways 1 Largely for all the doctrine delivered upon Mount Sinai with the promises and precepts thereof And so it is a covenant of grace 2 Strictly as setting down an exact rule of righteousness and promising life upon perfect obedience And so it is a covenant of works Pag. 88 Mount Sinai's covenant the same for substance with that made with Adam but in many circumstances different Pag. 88 89 A threefold use of the Law as subservient to the Gospel 1 It is a glass to discover sin original actual Pag. 90 91 92. 2 It 's a Judge to condemn it and therein it advances the ends of the Gospel Pag. 93 94 95 96 3 As a bridle to restrain sin Pag. 96 97 98 How the Spirit makes use of the Law for the restraining of sin Pag. 98 99 How herein it is an hand-maid to the Gospel Pag. 99 100 101 102 How the Law is subservient to the Gospel as it is a Rule 1 Within as an Instrument of Conversion in the hand of the Spirit 102 103 104 105. 2 Without to guide and direct men in their way of duty Pag. 105 106 Objections against this Answered Pag. 106 107 108 The great End of God in publishing the Law was for the Saints and their good only Pag. 108 109 Those that cry down the preaching of the Law guilty of folly Pag. 109 Ministers must preach the Law as revealed and delivered in the hand of a Mediator ib. That God hath made the Law a servant to the Gospel is the greatest ground of Comfort and the greatest gift of God next unto Christ and the second Covenant Pag. 110 111. BOOK II. Of the Covenant of Grace CHAP. I. The Author and Fountain of this Covenant Gen. 17.2 THis Covenant was made with four eminent publick persons in Scripture 1 Adam darkly 2 Noah 3 Abraham 4
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
under his Covenant 1 John 5.11 God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son he that has the son has life So that all the benefits of the Covenant are grounded upon our Union with him who is the Prince of the Covenant if you be Abrahams seed How shall that be Gal. 3. last By being Christs and then a man comes under Abrahams Covenant and thereby is a Son of Abraham and that is only by being in Christ They that are born after the spirit are Children of the freewoman Gal. 4.31 2 Cor. 1.20 that is they that believe and it is in him that all the promises are made unto us in him all the promises of God are Yea and Amen they have their truth and their certainty and stability in him and we are made the righteousness of God in him and we bear fruits in him for every promise does carry back the Soul unto his Union with Christ in the right whereof we do claim the promises which are made unto Christ in our behalf and unto us only so far as we are members of Christ as we are in him And from hence the point that I shall gather wherein this translation lies is this Doct. In a mans Vnion with the second Adam his translation out of the first Covenant does consist it is by a mans Vnion that his Covenant is changed § 2. In the opening of it there are three things to be cleared 1 To explain the nature of this Vnion 2 How it comes to pass that this Vnion should be a mans Translation 3 To shew how a man being united unto Christ the prince of the Covenant differs from what he was before his being translated and in what particulars this difference lies § 1. For the nature of this Union it is an Union with him as he is set forth by God publick person as a representative head as a second Adam Now as we were one with the first Adam and therefore said to be in him and to sin in him so we must be one with the second Adam and so are said to be in him also Now in the first Adam we are naturally as we partake of his Spirit every man by nature receiving the spirit of Adam as well as the Image of Adam and voluntarily every man by nature consenting to his Covenant and desiring still to be under it Gal. 4. And as Jesus Christ is become one with us so must we also become one with him Now he is become one with us naturally taking our flesh and voluntarily as entring into our Covenant so we must become one with Christ naturally by receiving his spirit and voluntarily by consenting unto his Covenant And these two are the branches of our Union without which it cannot be compleat and therefore our Union in Scripture is set forth by similitudes that express both parts naturally between the head and the body we are the members of Christ and he the head between the branch and the root he the root and we the branches between the meat and the body that is nourished by it when turned into juice and blood c. And also voluntarily between the Husband and the Wife they two making up one flesh Ephes 5.3 by mutual consent 1. There is a natural Vnion between Christ and the Soul As Christ taking our flesh becomes one with us so also we partaking of his Spirit become one with him As there are some that God has given unto Christ from eternity in his purpose and decree so he has appointed a time when they shall be actually united who though in the Purpose of God and Transaction between the Father and his Son are given unto Christ yet do for the present live without Christ in the World but though Christ in the Purpose of God was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world yet in the fullness of time only he took our flesh so though we were in the counsel of God given unto Christ before the world was yet there is a fullness of time appointed by the Father when he shall bestow upon us his spirit so that the first part of our Union is that we receive the Spirit of Christ for this Union begins on Christs part as he did unite himself unto us by taking our flesh so he does unite us unto himself by imparting of his spirit Phil. 3.12 That I may apprehend as I am apprehended Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He took hold of our nature flying from him So Oecumen We were no more able to lay hold upon Christ than to lay hold on the Sun in the Firmament This â—ending of his spirit makes us become one body with him as the head and the feet make up â—ne body because they are acted by the same soul Because you are Sons Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.9 1 Cor. 6.17 he has sent forth â—e spirit of his son into your hearts If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his â—e spiritual body so Pareus or mystical or in respect of the Copula as Beza as he that 〈◊〉 joyned to a Harlot is one flesh with her his bond is carnal so he that is joyned to the â—ord is one spirit and so a man becomes the Temple of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of Christ dwells in a man and takes up his habitation there for ever never to forsake that man â—fterward There is the inhabitation and the operation of the spirit Jo. 15.26 2 Tim. 1.14 the Holy Ghost dwells â—here and works there for ever and so Christ and he having one spirit they are become one body Hence we see 1 this Union is real and not imaginary though Christ be in Heaven and we upon thâ— Earth yet the bond is real the same spirit in both as many members of one body acted by the same Soul and so though many members be scattered all the World over yet they make up one body for it is a spiritual body and a mysterious Union for â—he same spirit unites the members to the head and one to another for they all partake of â—he same spirit 2. It is a natural and not meerly a voluntary Union and therefore there are many simiâ—itudes some express it by a voluntary and some by a natural Union as the members â—hough they be naturally one and acted by the same spirit yet they are of different forms â—o it is here Christ and the Soul are not only one by consent but they are naturally one c. 3. The Union is not with the Gifts and Graces and Benefits of Christ though indeed the Communion we have is with these but the Union is with his person for Isa 9.6 To us a son is given John 1.14 The word was made flesh and dwelt among us And Psal 45.10 11 Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for
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
that they have not their appropriata any peculiar works appropriated unto them but whatever is done is done by the Godhead joyntly and the same thing that is said to be done by the Father is said to be done by the Son also that as God the Father is said to create all things so is the Son also Joh. 1 3 4. All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made and so it is said of the Spirit also Gen. 1.2 The Spirit moved upon the face of the waters Job 26.13 By his Spirit he has garnished the heavens which doth not note the instrument or the minister by whom the Lord wrought but only the order of the working in the Trinity for the order of working is answerable to the order of subsisting the Father works by the Son and the Son works by the Spirit and therefore Job 33.4 The Spirit of God made me and the breath of the Almighty has given me life It 's attributed unto the Spirit alone and not only in the work of Creation but also in the upholding of the things created for Joh. 1.3 4. In him was life that is omnia per ipsum sustentari c. which is expounded by that in him we live and move and have our being and that Col. 1.17 By him all things consist as well as were made by him and in a more special manner the image of God in which man was created was from them all Gen. 1.26 Let us make man in our own image which was but one and the same of all the persons for it is added in the image of God created he him Joh. 1.4 the life is the light of men which is as much as to say hominem per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad imaginem Dei creatum as Chemnitius Thus under the first Covenant all things were carried on by the Godhead joyntly and whatever was done is said to be done by them all without any appropriation of any thing unto one person more than another But when we come to a second Covenant then though God works all in all yet there is a special kind of appropriation of the actions some more peculiarly unto one person and some unto another vel quoad agendi modum vel quoad actionis terminum in quo se unius personae operatio potissimùm elucet c. Med. p. 37. Synops purior c. p. 103. In which though there be a joynt concurrence of all the persons by way of consent for they have all but one will yet they may be in a special manner so appropriated unto the one as they cannot unto the other so the Father is said to send his Son and the Son cannot be said to send himself and so the Son is said to be incarnate the word was made flesh and to take upon him the form of a servant which cannot be said of the Father and so the Father and the Son are said to send the Comforter which cannot be said of the Holy Ghost Mat. 1.20 and the Holy Ghost is said to form Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary the holy thing conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost is the bond of Union between the two Natures and the bond of Union between Christ and us which cannot be said of the Father or the Son though there be a consent of will and so a concurrence of all the persons unto every action that doth tend unto our salvation for having one and the same Essence they have all of them one will also yea they have so taken upon themselves the special offices and acts that per solennem quandam appropriationem by a certain solemn appropriation some of them are said so to be done by the one as that they cannot be said to be done by the other and it is according unto these appropriated Acts that the persons are made over unto us under the second Covenant for though the will of the Father and the Son be one and the same because the Essence is but one yet as the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father so eadem voluntas distinctè appropriat se alteri ut donanti mittenti alteri ut dato misso Cocceius de Testament Dei Disput 9. Thes 92. The same will doth distinctly appropriate it self to one as the giver and sender and to the other as given and sent Now answerable unto this consent of will such are the offices that they have undertaken and such are the actions and operations that they do put forth and by this distinct consent of will unto the several actions which in the Scripture we see they do appropriate unto themselves for it is the Word of God and the Lord speaks it of himself and not any man according unto these do they under the second Covenant make over themselves to the Saints that answerably to these several acts and offices they may be able to look upon each person to whom in Scripture they are appropriated and from that person in faithfulness to expect the accomplishment of them because they have each of them undertaken it speaking so of themselves in the word as if such acts did properly belong unto them and thereby manifesting the distinct appropriation of their wills unto each of them This being premised let us now see how each person has made over himself unto Believers in reference unto the second Covenant 1 As a distinct object of their faith for there are distinct acts of faith to be exercised upon all these persons answerable unto their appropriated acts Joh. 14.1 Ye believe in God says Christ believe also in me for though the ultimate object of faith be God for by Christ the Mediator we believe in God yet the several persons are to have faith distinctly exercised upon them 1 Pet. 1.21 answerable unto that distinct revelation of themselves Joh. 5.23 Rev. 1.4 2 As a distinct object of worship That every man might honour the Son even as they honour the Father Grace and peace from him that is and was and is to come and from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne 3 As distinct grounds of their consolation for though God be the God of all consolation yet there is a distinct consolation comes from each person answerable unto their appropriated acts which is the ground of a distinct communion 4 For their salvation each of the persons having their proper work in bringing many sons to glory but it has been shewed that these appropriated acts which I called Acts of Office are but for a time taken up with reference unto the mediatory Kingdom and when that shall be ended and all the Saints perfected and glorified and the Kingdom again given up into the hand of the Father then God shall be all in all and the persons shall act joyntly without any such appropriation for ever and look what the Spirit in
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
spreads the dung of their sacrifices upon their faces Mal. 3.3 It doth imply two things 1. That the Lord doth reject their Sacrifices with indignation as if they had offered dung in their solemn feasts 2. Summo dedecore eos afficiam I will spread the highest reproach on them so Mercer as you do unto a man when you cast dung in his face the Lord will reject their services and instead of honouring them in them he will cast shame upon them also whereas the services of the Saints are 1 accepted ordine supernaturali as flowing from a heavenly and supernatural principle and 2 ad vitam aeternam ordinata services appointed unto an eternal reward Other mens services are not thus accepted but as they come from a principle of nature so they shall have no higher reward they shall rise no higher than the head of the spring from whence they flow 6. There is a Communion also that the people of God have with the Father 1 Joh. 1.3 Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ There is a communion that the Saints of God have distinctly with all the persons when they receive mercy from them all and rejoyce in the love of them all and they do return to them again all the glory of the grace of them all as faith is distinctly to be exercised upon all the persons so the soul should strive to have a distinct fellowship and communion with all the persons 1 A man should pray to the Father for saith Christ Your Father knows that you have need of all these things 2 You are to give thanks to the Father who has blessed you with all spiritual blessings 3 You are to rejoyce in his love says Christ I will love him Eph. 1.3 Joh. 14.21 23. and he shall be loved of my Father I say not that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loves you you are in his bosom receive all gifts from him as from a Father and come to him as to a Father as one that has communion with him and access to him as unto a Father 4 Glory in the witness of the Father Joh. 5.7 for there are three that do bear witness in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one you are not only to have the Spirits testimony and seal upon your evidences but the Fathers also bearing witness in your souls testifying unto you the adoption of sons There is a glorious communion that the Father gives unto his people as Christ had with the Father so may you also in and through him SECT III. The Relations undertaken by the Father and Christ in this Covenant § 1. THE Father having in this manner made over himself in Covenant to his people they have an interest in all the relations of the Father for we are not only related unto Christ but by him to the Father and as we are to exercise faith upon Christ under all relations so we are also upon the Father and these relations are both honourable and comfortable also to the Saints 1. God the Father is our Father says Christ I ascend unto my Father and your Father Joh. 20.17 Mat. 5.16 to my God and your God that they may glorifie your Father which is in heaven Be you merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful and therefore says the Apostle Rom. 1.7 Grace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ c. Now what is there in such a relation as this is unto God the Father We shall see what it was unto Christ the only begotten Son of the Father and see how in all things he is a Father to us as he is unto Christ though it be in a lower way for Christ in all things must have the preheminence 1 It is the great honour that is put upon Christ as Mediator Joh. 1.14 Luk. 1.35 that he is the Son of God we saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God and in this he is exalted above the Angels Heb. 1.5 Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son and I will be unto him a Father Bernard and he shall be unto me a Son c. Altissimi Filius ac proinde co-altissimus ipse ejusdem penitùs altitudinis dignitatis And in this manner the Saints do partake pro modulo it is the greatest priviledge of the Saints that they do receive from union with the Son and that in which they are exalted above the Angels That as they do stand before God in a higher righteousness in their justification for though the righteousness of Angels be perfect in its kind yet it 's but the righteousness of a meer creature but the righteousness of Christ is called the Righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5.21 which though it were wrought in the humane nature and therefore was not the essential righteousness of God for that could not be imputed yet it was that which being wrought by him that was God and man the Godhead had an influence into it and gave it an excellence and efficacy so they have a higher sonship in their adoption that is it 's founded on a higher right than that of the Angels even in the Sonship of the second person in the Trinity for Christ as Mediator was not a Son by adoption but by generation his humane nature being taken into the same person did by virtue of that grace of union partake of the same Sonship for there was not a double Sonship of Christ one as he was God and the other as he was man for subjectum filiationis est suppositum the subject of filiation is a person as the School-men speak Now as Christ had great glory from other things in relation to the Angels Dan. 9.24 for he is the Head of Principalities and Powers and to the Saints he is the King of Saints the holy of holies and from all the creatures for he is the beginning of the creation of God and is the head over all things to the Church yea in reference to God himself for he is Gods King I will set my King and the man Gods fellow but there is none that is a term of so high an honour unto Christ as this that he is the Son and it 's this that the Lord doth publish to the world as the ground of all the rest Isa 4.5 Psal 2.7 I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son c. so it is with the Saints they are called the glory and the first-fruits of all the creatures the excellent ones Kings and Priests unto God to whom the Angels are but servants and ministring Spirits but yet there is no title of honour like unto this that they are called the Sons of God Men do glory
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
happiness of all those that are in Christ even in this that their Covenant is changed and it was unto David the ground of all his comfort that God had made with him this Everlasting Covenant and well it might be for it was the foundation of all his happiness and his salvation But you 'l say Wherein lies the glory of this condition of a souls being translated from their former root 1. Being translated into this Covenant God is reconciled to thee for the Covenant of Grace is a Covenant of Peace and Reconciliation so that the enmity between thee and God is taken up and he looks upon thee as an enemy no more 2. Being taken into Covenant with God again there do many sweet relations grow out of the Covenant for the Lord saith I will be their God and they shall be my people and the Lord is not ashamed to be called their God he is our father and husband and our friend we have as truly by Covenant an interest in all that is in God for our best good as the Lord himself hath for his own glory his power is made over to us as truly as if we had infinite power and his mercy as if we had infinite mercy and grace and wisdom c. 3. Being once in Covenant he becomes the son of God a mans Covenant is a Covenant of Sonship I will be their God and they shall be my sons and daughters c. 1 Joh. 3.1 Behold what manner of love the father hath shewed unto us that we should be called the sons of God Gal. 4.18 and if sons then heirs in all the inheritance of Christ Being sons of the free-woman it is thereby that we become heirs of the Promise the inheritance is not by the Law but by the Gospel if they that are of the Law be heirs then Christ were dead in vain 4. Hereby a man has a ground for his faith upon all occasions and a bottom for his prayers it is the Covenant that is unto faith the Magna Charta where all the priviledges and liberties of a Believer are found and this Covenant is sure God is a faithful God a God that will not lye that cannot deny himself Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Lord do not abhor us for thou art the Lord our God Jer. 14.21 And the Psalmist hath respect unto this Covenant For all the earth are full of the habitation of crueltieâ— Isa 64.9 Remember not our iniquities for ever behold we beseech thee we are all thy people And take them in the worst terms and when a man has even suffered shipwrack yet the Covenant is tabula post naufragium a plank after shipwrack by which the soul is kept from sinking see it in our Lord Christ himself in that hour of the power of darkness My God my God c. how did Christ call the Lord his God for as Christ is God so he has the same essence with the Father and he thought it no robbery to be equal with Him but as Mediator he is God the Fathers Servant and so the Lord is his God by Covenant Psal 89.36 Christ says Thou art my Father and my God And Joh. 20.17 And he is no other way Christs God and Father but by Covenant for Christ took a new Covenant-right unto God as Mediator And as we come under the Covenant so doth the Lord in him become our God also and we have a right unto him and by looking unto God in Covenant the spirit of a Christian is upheld in the greatest sense of wrath when the Lord did bruise and grind him to powder making his soul an offering for sin A man out of this Covenant has no ground for his faith nor bottom for any of his prayers 5. It is a Covenant that can never be broken an Everlasting Covenant a Covenant of salt Heb. 7. a Covenant that has a surety Christ says If he fail in any thing put it upon my account And Isa 56.7 I know I shall not be ashamed One sin did break the first Covenant and it being broken could never be made up by one offence condemnation came upon all but by the free gift righteousness comes upon all for many offences to justification because the righteousness of the Covenant is a perfect and an everlasting righteousness and upon this is a godly mans comfort mainly grounded David by his sin foresaw that he had undone his Family the Lord threatned him by the Prophet That the sword should never depart from his house yet he comforts himself in this that his Covenant remained sure A godly mans comfort mainly comes in by his state much more than by his actions and he comforts himself in the one when he abhors himself for the other and though God will judge for both yet he will judge of mens actions according to their states Therefore whatever you do give diligence to make your calling and election sure which can never be without a Translation into the Covenant of Grace CHAP. VI. A Mans Translation out of the first Covenant is by Vnion Gal. 3.29 And if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise SECT I. How our Translation is by Vnion with the nature of this Vnion § 1. HAving thus far opened the necessity of a Translation the change of a mans Covenant as well as of his Image we come now unto the Second Head propounded and that is Wherein this Translation doth consist For which I have chosen this Text Gal. 3.29 And if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise In the opening hereof there are Three things that I must lay down as grounds 1. That God will deal with all men not only in a way of Dominion but in a way of Stipulation So that men in Covenant with God are of two sorts either regenerate or unregenerate Sons or Servants Children of the bond-woman or of the free and they that are unregenerate â—emain under the Covenant of Works they that are regenerate are under a Covenant of Grace There is a twofold universal Covenant made with all mankind which Divines do call faedus universale one made with Adam before his fall and with all man-kind For the Curse of his Covenant transgressed coming upon all does plainly prove that the blessing of â—he Covenant should have belonged unto all if it had been observed and the blessing and â—urse of the Covenant does come primarily upon none but those with whom the Covenant â—as made There is another universal Covenant made after the fall made not only with â—an but with all flesh even with every living creature that is upon the earth oâ— Foul and â—attel and every Beast of the earth and it contains in it two Branches 1. That all â—sh shall be no more cut off by the waters or a flood 2. That while the earth remains Sâ—ed-time and Harvest
Summer and Winter Day and Night shall not cease and this is an universal and an absolute Covenant called the Covenant of the day and of the night Gen. 8.22 9.9 10. and used to express the stability of the Covenant of Grace and the perpetuity thereof Says the Lord If you can break my Covenant of the day Jer. 33.20 c. then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant So that all man-kind is in Covenant with God and stands bound to him in a Covenant-way 2. The two main Covenants though the federates in them may be said to be all man-kind yet they were not made with all men immediately but in a publick person a representative head There being two sorts of creatures that God will deal with in a Covenant-way some that were created all at once and did not proceed from one another neither had dependance one upon another and with them God made a personal and a particular Covenant and that he did with every individual Angel and therefore every one stood for himself and fell for himself Thence some fell and others stood they that consented to the Transgression and abode not in the Truth they left their first habitation Ephes 3.10 But there was a second sort of reasonable creatures that were to come into the World successively and to flow from one as from a common root all must come out of his loyns therefore all Nations are said to be made of one blood for God loves variety that he may shew forth his manifold Wisdom and therefore he made a Covenant with this head this common root in whom they all were and in whom they must all stand or fall And he will make him also to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the type of him that was to come that he may suit all things one to another For as his Wisdom is wonderfully seen in the order of his creatures and the suiting of one thiâ—g to another so it is wonderfully seen in his works of Grace also in a special manner towards man and therefore by his absolute Sovereignty he calls things that are not as if they were and things are so because he counteth them so not because man counts them so He has appointed a twofold common head of all man-kind 1 Cor. 15. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Covenant was made with the first Adam and therefore by one man and by one offence of that one man Judgment came up on all unto condemnation â—om 5. and so all mankind are under the Law and under the Curse Children of the bond-woman even unregenerate men that live in the Church that is of the Covenant of Works as broken which only binds men over unto wrath and wholly genders unto bondage And the second Covenant made with the second Adam the Covenant that was made with Abraham Gal. 3.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was confirmed by God in Christ Gal. 3.17 which refers to Vers 16 To Abraham and his seed was the Covenant made he says not seeds as many but one which is Christ About which there is some controversy some do understand it of Christ in individuo personally some of Christ in aggregato or a Christ mystically but in which sence soever it is primarily in Christ as the head and surety of the Covenant So that neither of the Covenants are made with man immediately as in himself but in another 3. It is a mans Vnion with either of these publick persons or representative heads that doth bring a man under either Covenant If a man be one with the first Adam then he is under his Covenant and if he be one with the second Adam then he is under his Covenant The ground of a mans Covenant is his Vnion with him that is the head of his Covenant This appears in both Men come not under the Angels Covenant because they are not one with them the Lord Jesus Christ proceeding from Adam not in a natural way but voluntarily taking to himself the seed of Abraham and being made flesh therefore he does voluntarily and freely Gal. 4.5 not necessarily come under Adam's Covenant he was made of a woman made under the Law and because he was not of necessity one with Adam therefore he was not of necessity but freely under his Covenant but all mankind coming from Adam by a necessity of nature because they are naturally and necessarily one with him they are therefore necessarily under his Covenant And therefore Divines do ask how a man becomes a sinner he cannot have sin in his soul because it is created by God immediately pure and holy and creando infunditur in the very act of creating it is infused and sin being only the act of a reasonable creature there cannot be sin in this body before the soul is infused Now if there be no sin in the Soul then it cannot defile the body and if there be no sin in the body how can that infect the soul Our Divines do answer That the soul is created by God pure and has no spot in it and the body cannot have sin in it actually but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potentially and the body cannot work upon the soul being a Spirit Anima non dicitur priùs habere peccatum quà m corpori conjuncta est ratio est quia tunc primum facti sunt homines Adami peccatum non transfertur nisi in homines Zan. de peccato Origen p. 49. Chrys on Rom. 5.12 to corrupt it neither has the soul sin in it nor the body Zanchy saith That the soul cannot be said to have sin before united to the body c. And therefore he adds Propter conjunctionem cum corpore anima inficitur non tam actione corporis in animam quam Dei ordinatione qui dixerat Adamo die quo commederis morte morieris The soul is infected by reason of its conjunction with the body yet not so much by the action of the body on the soul as by Gods ordination who said to Adam in the day that thou sinnest c. So that when a man becomes a man he becomes one with the first Adam and by his Union comes under his Covenant and then the transgression of Adam and the curse of his Covenant takes place upon him And therefore the Apostle says Rom. 5 In him all sinned and by one judgment came upon all to condemnation By one offence this Covenant was so broken that it could never be made up again but all men must perish under it therefore they all stood under it as they were in him and as they were from him successively in their generations and did receive their nature from him so they were to be one with him and being one with him they come under his Covenant and his Curse Chrysostom saith That he falling all men did partake of his fall So for the second Adam it is only union with him that brings us
people prepared for the Lord. This Union is wrought by the Spirit of the â—ord Jesus by cutting off the soul from his old root for there is at least in order of nature a cutting off before a grafting in Rom. 11.24 1 Pet. 2.5 We as living stones are built upon him a spiritual house a holy temple Therefore Isa 28.16 Thus saith the Lord God Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone c. A foundation that is a sure â—nd a firm foundation for the repetition does signifie excellency and certainty Isa 26.3 He shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee Matt. 7.24 Now there are but two foundations the Rock and the Sand a man must be removed and taken off the one before he can be built upon the other Rom. 13.14 Union with Christ is compared to putting him on as a garment a man must put off his old garment before he can put on the new and the wedding-garment which every man by nature is without It is a Matrimonial Vnion and a man must be dead to his former husband that he may be married to another says the Apostle I through the law am dead to the law Rom. 7.4 Gal. 2.19 Rom. 7.9 that I may be married to another Again I through the law am dead to the law that I may live unto God Paul in his state of unregeneracy was alive to the Law that is in the performance of it he thought he could keep the whole Law and expected by it that righteousness that should save him but now the Commandment came in a lively and effectual manner by the mighty working of the Spirit upon his soul convincing him of his guilt and his inability that for the curse of the Law he lay under it and the condemning power thereof by reason of his guilt and that he was able to perform no duty that the Law required through the inability that was in him and so he became dead unto it that is he expected life thereby no more and trusted upon his own strength no more for he knew he was able to do nothing and he that knows he is able to perform no duty of the Law and can expect no reward of the Law he is dead unto it Joh. 16.8 And this is done 1 by a work of Conviction convincing the world of sin that is that a man is in a state of sin under the guilt and power of it under the guilt of it that he is in his own person lyable to the wrath of God for it and that all the curses of the Law are his portion and that by nature Hell is his proper place and he is so under the power of it that he can perform no duty nor resist any temptation cannot subject himself unto the Righteousness of God nor to the Law of God he is in a state of impotency and of enmity and if the Lord do offer him Grace and come to convert him he cannot but resist and there is some special and darling lust in the cords of which he is held that will prove his destruction 2 And by a work of Humiliation the pleasure of all a mans former sins are dampt and taken away and the man is dead to them all and he cannot taste them as in times past and making a man to look upon himself as a miserable and undone man to loath himself to lye under the fear and expectation of wrath that the Law has threatned Acts 2.37 Rom. 7.9 and his guilty condition has deserved which is the proper work of the spirit of bondage to be pricked in his heart for a man to die to look upon himself as a dead man and to be dead in his own apprehension full of confession of his own sin and condemnation of himself as the Prodigal son Father I am unworthy to be called thy Son 3. There is a mighty and a glorious work of revelation discovering to a soul the good will of God the Father and of Christ which is called the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him Ephes 1.18 revealing his son in a man Gal. 1. And convincing a man of righteousness in Christ Joh. 6. for the salvation of sinners that there is a holiness in the Person of Christ and a sufficiency in his Righteousness for the salvation of sinners This is called seeing the Son Joh. 6.40 which is not barely a notional knowledge which a man had before of Christ but a knowledge and apprehension of Christ and his Glory let into the soul such a knowledge as a man never had before seeing Christ to be a proportionable good to the Saints one that is able to save to the uttermost and one that he may have an interest in and he may become his for ever Joh. 12.44 Which when the Prophet saw he wondered all men did not believe in him his Glory did so ravish him and if a man that slighted Christ before once discern this presently he has an high esteem of this excellent person To them that believe he is precious 1 Pet. 2.7 And they look upon him with another eye than ever they did in time past and this was the plot that God the Father delighted in before the World was and that Christ was but the Father's servant in all this that he did and that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that God was not averse to the work as an angry Judge but that Christ would bring souls to God and the Father did love to have it so and that all was the fruit of his own everlasting love to sinners before the world was 1 Joh. 3.16 That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son And then all the offers of Christ the calls and the invitations of God and his compassionate intreaties that are in his Word all these begin to take place upon the soul Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters come and buy whosoever will let him come and take of the waters of life freely That the price is already paid and that the blood of Christ was shed to cleanse sinners the Angels need it not the Devils can have no benefit by it it was given only for poor lapsed man and therefore it is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners This is the drawing and the teaching of the Father Joh. 6.44 not but that it is done by the Spirit also but it is said to be the work of the Father because the offer of Christ being Gods gift is presented unto the soul in the Fathers name with a command from him to accept of him and to believe in him For this is his Commandment that we believe in him whom he hath sent because him has God the Father sealed And this took Luther so much when he understood the righteousness of God that
as truly an interest in himself and all that is his as he does desire to have an interest in Christ and all that is his Cant. 6.3 he can say as truly I am my beloveds as my beloved is mine It is with a soul as it is with a wife she gives her self to her husband he must be the covering of her eyes he must have all her love she must not lift up her eye amorously upon any other 〈◊〉 â—ll her hope of protection and provision must be from him alone or as it is said 〈◊〉 â—â—phâ—r He left all that he had in Josephs hand and he knew nothing that he had tha◠〈◊〉 he took care and thought for nothing but left all unto Joseph or to use the expression of â—â—araoh to Joseph of the great trust that he would put in him and the great honour he would put upon him Without thy self says he no man shall lift up a hand or foot in all the land of Egypt So can the soul put it self wholly over into Christs hand This is giving up a mans self to the Lord and trusting him and resigning up all to him there is nothing dear to him he loves not father or mother or friend c. he will part with all when God calls for it as a snare or as a sacrifice if the Lord please to have it he thinks nothing lost that is spent upon him but if it be a box of precious Ointment never so costly John 12. if he call for as his Wisdom it is his and for his Honour 2 Tim. 1.12 and his Estate it shall be imployed by him or forsaken for him for he will forsake all that he has that he may be Christs disciple I know says the Apostle whom I have trusted He had committed his soul into his hand and he could give up unto him all things else It was a great act of trust in the poor Widow 1 King 17.13 that had but a little meal yet she must bestow that upon the Prophet and trust God upon his word to create more out of nothing To give up all a mans happiness and to leave all in Gods hand this is the mighty work of Faith These are the ordinary steps and degrees of Union between Christ and the Soul look what you have found of this in you or which of you find from day to day any such workings of spirit towards him as these And all that we can do towards it is only 1 To bring our selves under the Ordinances and place our selves there where Christ is usually dispensed and there is his bed Cant. 1.16 where souls are begotten to the Lord. 2 In these Ordinances the soul is at first meerly passive as it is in regeneration so in union for without Christs abiding in us we can do nothing much less can we unite our selves the body can as well in the dust lift up it self and unite it self to the soul and bring the soul down into it as we can concur to unite our selves to Christ but yet when the Spirit of God does work in us and has begun a spiritual life we must concur for we are built upon Christ but yet we are not built as dead stones that are meerly passive in the building 1 Pet. 2. but as living stones that have an actual concurrence in it we must be still nourishing and following those motions of the Spirit cherishing not quenching them Vse 2 § 2. If you be one with Christ do all things by vertue of Union 1 Be sensible of your own impotency Joh. 15.45 Gal. 2.20 2 Cor. 3.3 Phil. 4.13 2 Cor. 5.10 11. 2 Cor. 8.9 1 Pet. 2.21 Gâ—rbard 2 Cor. 2.2 Ephes 1.6 and look only unto Christ for power there is not only a deadness in nature but a weakness even in grace to act it self without an immediate concurrence of God God is the immediate Agent of all spiritual works it 's Christ that strengthens the soul to do all things and from him it draws the main arguments that carry it on in all duties and that fill the sails For we must all appear says the Apostle before the judgment-seat of Christ c. For ye know the grace of our Lord Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich For even hereunto were you called because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example c. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you c. That is novo singulari suo exemplo commendavit he commended it by his own new and singular example 2 Refer all to the glory of Christ alone he works all our works in us in him is our fruit found 3 Let your expectation be in Christ alone for acceptance Rev. 8.4 5. Ansâ—l and account all your own righteousness as filthy rags Rev. 8.4 5. all that is accepted must come out of the Angels hand Terret me vita mea My life is terrible to me saith Anselme Though he offer but a pair of Turtles a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple he finds acceptance for it is the altar that sanctifies the gift and the Lord doth regard not only gemmas the Jewels but sordes sanctorum the meanest services of the Saints and our least sufferings also are accepted of God by vertue of our Union and every scoff and reproach cast upon us is the suffering of Christ so every duty that we do by vertue of our Union with him is the obedience of Christ and shall find acceptance with God not as from the person that brings it but from the Pâ—â—â— that offers it and from the Altar that sanctifies the gift CHAP. VII How the Law as a Covenant comes to be abolished Col. 2.14 Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross § 1. OF a mans â—ranslation out of the first Covenant with the manner and the nature of it which is by Union with Christ we have spoken hitherto now let us come unto the thing remaining and that is the abolition of this Covenant which I conceive these words do hold forth to us There are two things in the words to be explained 1 The â—hing it self which is to be abolished it is the hand-writing 2 The manner of the abolishing how it is to be done blotting it out taking it out of the way and nailing it to his Cross 1 The thing that is to be abolished is the hand-writing The use of these things in civil contracts between man and man are of no other end but for a man to acknowledg his debt under his own hand Vehementius obligat syngrapha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erasm and therefore the Greeks call it Chirographum and what this hand-writing is there is a great deal of difference amongst â—nterpreters There are three Interpretations commonly given
in any meer creature whatsoever for the more of God is in any creature the more God can delight in it and the less of God the less delight Now it is only in Christ that the fulness of the Godhead doth bodily dwell and he is his Image therefore there can be a full delight in none but in him he charges his Angels with folly not with actual but possible folly but yet the humane nature of Christ is impeccable by reason of its union for actiones sunt suppositi and therefore in him he takes full delight Isa 42.1 2 God did intend to glorifie his Son by making him the fountain of all that goodness and glory that ever he did intend to bestow upon the creatures that he should be a fountain of all good unto the creature upon whom he set his love sutable unto their condition and necessity 1 If the elect Angels retain their integrity and keep their first habitation abide in the truth Christ should be to them medium confirmationis 2 If man be fallen he shall become unto him medium reconciliationis And this I conceive to be the Order of the Election of God he doth chuse Christ as the person to whom he will in the fullest manner communicate himself and in whom he will glorifie himself in the highest way and as that person that shall be the fountain of all good to the creature sutably unto their necessity and condition whatever they be if they stand to confirm them if they fall to repair them And so he was first chosen and elected and they in him as in their head and so the Lamb hath a Book of life Rev. 13.8 as well as the Father and he saith all these are mine and mine are thine there is not a soul in Gods Book that is not in Christs Book they were chosen in him and given unto him in their Election Now the Covenant of Grace is but a Copy or counter-pain of this electing love of God it must therefore proceed in the same way that election doth election is first of Christ as the head and of us in him 2. The new Covenant was given in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3.19 therefore after the falâ— there could be no Covenant made with man immediately but with a second or a middle person a days man that might lay hold upon both This is evident 1. from the necessity of a satisfaction Job 9. some have very curiously disputed Vtrum Deus per potentiam absolutam potest peccata remittere sine satisfactione Whether God could pardon sin without satisfaction Matt. 36.39 meerly out of sovereignty and prerogative But Christ saith If it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt And it seems to me to silence all such disputes when I consider that every creature is subject to the will of the Creator by the Law of his creation for there are many acts of sovereignty that belong to the Creator 1 To appoint the creature an end and to give it a Law which may bring it unto this end 2 That this Law every creature is bound to obey and yield obedience to from his own election and choice For it must be reasonable service Rom. 12.1 and a man must chuse the way of truth 3 That every aberration or deviation from this will of the Creator hath an evil and an iniquity in it being an undue act that doth intrinsically carry with it great obligation to punishment 4 That the same Law-giver that hath power to give the Law hath also power to threaten and inflict a Curse and punishment for the transgression of that Law 5 Mans sin being wilfull a chosen transgression the punishment whereof he was before instructed in he doth most justly bring himself under that Curse and punishment that God had threatned upon such a transgression For God was his judge having given him a Law as before he was his Creator in giving him a being he was subject to his will as his Creator and was subject to his sentence as his Judge 6 This sin God could not suffer to go unpunished 1 In testimony of his holiness that he might shew that he was of purer eyes than to suffer it Hab. 1.13 and that no evil could dwell with him Psal 5.6 being that which he hates and therefore can be contented with nothing but its destruction 2 Because of the Covenant wherein the truth and faithfulness of God was ingaged The day thou eatest thou shalt dye He had established a Law against sin Matt. 5.18 which he could in no wise abolish for Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather than one tittle of it It was strange if that which did provoke the justice of God unto the execution of the Law should procure the abrogation of the Law therefore here is only place for a punishment to be inflicted but none for a Covenant to be established without a Mediator For the old Covenant is broken and till there be a way found to satisfie the Curse of the first Covenant there can be no place for a second Now this satisfaction must be in our selves or in some other that shall undertake it by the appointment and acceptation of God in our behalf In our selves it is impossible the redemption of a Soul is so great for whatever man can do for time to come is but a debt and to pay a debt or service that we owe at present will not satisfie for a debt that we contracted before and the demerit of sin is infinite being against an infinite God infinite glory is debased and infinite justice despised and man is but finite in his being and his services are all but finite and between finite and infinite there can be no proportion therefore there can be no satisfaction for satisfaction is that which is equivalent c. Wherefore if the Lord will be satisfied it cannot be in a mans self therefore it must be in a Mediator 1 Tim. 2.6 And whereas there is a double need of a Mediator one of Intercession and the other of satisfaction there is such a one required and so was Christ Thus the second Covenant is a Covenant of friendship Hos 2 19. Rev. 19. Abraham my friend and it is a Marriage Covenant the bride the Lambs wife and God could not take a creature into his bosom immediately unless his Justice were satisfied for by the rules of his government he must destroy them he could not covenant with them or propound any terms of reconciliation to them the Curse of the first Covenant must be born and thereby abolished Thus God could not enter into Covenant with man immediately but it must be by a Mediator that should bear the Curse and satisfie the Covenant 2. This Curse being born and satisfaction being made God could not enter into Covenant with man immediately in the second Covenant for he did intend it should be an everlasting
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
but made with us as in him and for his sake as fire is hot in it self and the Sun light in it self and all things else by participation as they receive from these so Christ is the Covenant because it is with him in himself originally and with us but as we are one with him 2 Because all parts of the Covenant lye upon him whatever is to be done in it if the Covenant be to be made he is the Mediator of it if it be to be confirmed he is the witness of it Isa 55.4 if to be published he is the Angel and if to be performed he is the surety And he is not a surety as other sureties are that enter into one and the same bond so as the creditor may seize on whom he will the debter or the surety and on the debter first for him we commonly call the principal but in this Covenant God takes Christs single bond for us all that so he might be sure of satisfaction and therefore he is said to lay help upon one that is mighty one able to pay and so to discharge us so God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5.19 not imputing their trespasses 2. If you have not an interest in this Covenant you are undone for all the happiness that the antient Saints had was by an interest in that Covenant and all the glory that they or we shall have is by vertue of this Covenant All the benefits of this Covenant are branched into these three sorts 1 Promises and they belong to none but the heirs of promise 2 Graces 3 Priviledges Gal. 4. we read there of a company of men that are Abrahams seed the children of the free-woman that are begotten under the Covenant of Grace and there is no promise or grace or priviledge whether in this life or the life to coâ—â— that belongs unto any but those that are in the Covenant and have accepted it as it appears in the matter of the Sacraments in that of the Lords Supper for a mans self and that of Baptism for his child if a man be not himself within the Covenant the seal can do him no good no more than if a man that had gotten the writings of an heiress should conclude that he should inherit the Lands because he hath the writing whereas the ground thereof is interest in the person first and being made one with her then he doth seize upon the Land by a legal title and never till then so they are Abrahams seed to whom the Sacraments do belong And for that of Baptism the Lord gives a title from the parent to the child he doth not so in the other Acts 2.39 And the thing signified in Baptism the Soul being passive in a Child hath as good ground by Gods Covenant as by the mans profession yea better the mans profession being fallible than he can have any other way and it is a mans own interest in the Covenant that gives him title unto all those priviledges There are indeed membra praesumptiva of the Church of God to whom these priviledges do in appearance belong but not in truth and in reality unless they are within the Covenant 3. This is not a Covenant that is conveyed by nature but by consent Consider here 1 that there is a twofold Union the one natural and the other voluntary and by way of suretiship now we come under Adams Covenant by nature our union with him being natural for we are born under it but the Covenant of the second Adam is not so and therefore we come under Christs Covenant freely and by consent for our new birth is voluntary and our consent is free we are drawn and yet we come for Gods drawing makes men willing to come and therefore faith is commonly expressed by consent who ever will let him come Rev. 22. There is therefore no way of getting into Christs Covenant but by our consent by laying hold of his Covenant Esa 56.4 Esay 56.4 and this is that I would exhort you to the word in the original signifies to take fast hold of a thing and that strongly and with all a mans might as in Job 2.3 it is said of Job Job 2.3 that he did hold fast his integrity Satan and his friends would have plucked it from him and have made him to conclude against himself that he was an Hypocrite and his heart unsound before God but he yet held it and said I will not part with my integrity till I die and so Job 8.15 it 's said of a Hypocrite that made himself a house of gifts and common graces Job 8.15 and outward performances and upon this house he leans puts all his confidence and when God by the way comes and shews him the deceit of it and that it is but a sandy foundation upon which it is built the self-flattery of his own spirit and that it is but a Castle in the Air and will do him no good in the evil day the storm will overflow his hiding place yet the man holds it fast he will live and dye with them and will not cast away his own righteousness it is such a taking hold of the Covenant that is here meant with all a mans heart and might But you 'l say What is it for a man to take hold of Christs Covenant We have formerly heard that there are two wayes of conveyance either by way of gift or by way of dowry The promises and all the graces of the Covenant yea the Covenant it self is not bestowed upon us as a man would give a gift to another without any farther relation but it is by way of a dowry which you cannot have without the person so it is here Christ in the Covenant is a common person a second Adam and if we have an interest in him and be represented by him the Covenant belongs unto us but there can be no benefit in his Covenant without interest in his person As we see the ground and intendment of union is 1 John 5.11.12 that there may be a communion and a communication and all communion is grounded upon union and is the fruit of it Gal. 3. ult it 's our union with the first Adam that brings us under his Covenant wherefore as soon as a man becomes a man his Covenant and the curse of it takes hold on him and therefore Infants die so it was the union of Christ with us that brought him under our Covenant he was made of a woman under the Law Gal. 4.4 had he not been one with us he could never have stood in our stead living and dying so it is our being one with him that gives us an interest in his Covenant and brings us under it 2. The terms and condition of this union is that you shall receive and accept him and give up your selves to him I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Cant. 6.3 you must cut off
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
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
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
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
the great and the wise and the noble and make choice of babes and the foolish things of this world that have nothing in them that should commend them but free-grace made the difference and it is this that raiseth them up above their brethren He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and he gives a commission to his loving kindness to take hold of such a soul and he hears a voice behind him when he is posting with his back upon God and his face towards Hell and there is a voice that he hears that other men do not therefore it is said Act. 9.22 That they saw the light but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me they were with him and yet there was a voice came to Paul a noise and a sound of it they did hear but to hear so as to have it made effectual to their souls that proceeds only from peculiar love 4. That in this Covenant 1 Our persons should be taken into the same Covenant with the Son of God is the highest advancement as the greatest and lowest abasement of Christ was Gal. 4.4 to be made under our Covenant to be made under the Law and so under the curse thereof being made sin so the highest advancement of man is to come under Christs Covenant and thereby we have an interest in his Righteousness and Sonship and by this there is the nearest relation between God and us for it is a Matrimonial Covenant the nearest and the sweetest Union and it is a Covenant of Friendship wherein there is the fullest communion beyond that of the Angels themselves for we are betrothed unto the Lord in mercies and loving kindness Hos 2.18 19. 2 In respect of our services it is by the Covenant that they have a reference unto a reward there is not the meanest services of the Saints that shall lose their reward not a cup of cold water therefore Luther says The whole world has not a reward good enough for the least service of a Saint and professes he had rather be the author of the meanest work of the Saints than of the most glorious acts of Alexander or of Caesar And this reference unto a reward riseth from this Covenant for Psal 16.3 Christ saith Our goodness extends not unto God There was in Christ a merit but it was only ex pacto Heb. 10. it is by his will they are sanctified and through his acceptation had not he made a Covenant with the Lord it had been free with God the Father to accept the righteousness of Christ or not and therefore there is the Grace of Union and of Unction and even the Merit of Christ the ground of it is free-grace by vertue of the Covenant that passed between the Father and the Son and therefore much more that our works or any thing we do should have any relation to a reward from God especially as to Eternal Life § 2. But did not Christ purchase this Covenant or else by his entreaty obtain it for Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant and therefore it may be at his request the Lord did make this Covenant with us and not singly out of his own love to us I answer No Christ did not merit the Grace of the Covenant there is a difference to be carefully put between the Covenant it self and the benefits and fruits of the Covenant all the fruits of the Covenant are dispensed by Christ and are part of his purchase as Heaven Grace and Glory the very being of a Church God has purchased it with his own blood but as for the Covenant it self it is that in which Christ is promised and all the Merits of Christ and all our acceptation with God through him and it is part of the Covenant that God makes with us I will give you my Son and one of the grand promises thereof and when he did resolve to enter into Covenant with man then Christ becomes his servant and his chosen he being to be the second Adam and Person into whose hand all the transactions of this Covenant should be committed And to exalt this free-grace in him that is the Prince of the Covenant and that we may see all things are of God 2 Cor. 5.18 Who has reconciled us to himself in Christ and all things that do appertain to the Kingdom of Christ He that built all things is God Heb. 3.4 it is spoken in reference to his House that is his Church and not in reference to the general works of Creation so that though it is Christ that is the builder of his House and as a Lord in his own House yet in Christ it is God that is the builder of it all things are originally of him and this Grace of God in Christ as the Prince of the Covenant will appear in these Particulars 1. There is free-grace in designation for he is the Elect of God Isa 42.1 and Prov. 8.22 He is the beginning of the ways of God the first-born among many brethren one first in the womb of Gods Decree and therefore had therein the preheminence he was first elected and we in him And as our Election was an act of free-grace He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy so was Christs also an act of the same grace and therefore Heb. 1.3 He is the brightness of his glory the express image of his person As he is God so all the acts of the Father are acts of nature as his generation is from God naturally and therefore necessarily But as he is the Head of the Church and the Prince of the Covenant of Grace as God-man so he comes under the acts of the will of God and it was free with God whether he would have chosen him to this Office and put this honour upon him or no and therefore as in the one he is haeres natus a born heir so in the other he is constitutus a constituted heir So that even in Christ all is of Gods free-grace he did not honour himself he did not appoint himself but it was the Lord that did call him and design him to this service and wrote his name in the volume of his book so some expound that place Heb. 10.7 the first page of it he being the beginning of all Gods going forth towards the Creature 2. There is free-grace in the Fathers qualification and preparing and fitting of Christ for this great work it is true that Christ was God and had a power equal with his Father and therefore thought it no robbery to be so yet the Scripture doth attribute all unto the free-grace of the Father 1 It was God the Father that prepared him a body he that doth give unto every one of us a body as it pleased him he also did give the Lord Christ a body and did fashion it according to his good pleasure even a humane nature Heb. 10.5 the Holy Ghost did overshadow the Virgin that she should