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
then from the condemnation of the Law and the sentence of it there is no appeal or redemption CHAP. III. How and whence it is that sin is irritated by the Law Rom. 7.8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence SECT I. How sin takes occasion and is irritated by the Law § 1. WE have seen that to be under the first Covenant though broken is unto every man in a state of nature a desirable thing though formally indeed men desire it not for they will all disclaim it but interpretatively and by consequence they do desire it as Prov. 8. ult it was finis operis though not operantis it was the end of the work Ezek. 8.3 though not of the worker and so men going about to establish their own righteousness and not submitting unto the righteousness of God and being contented to be acted by a spirit of bondage which is the spirit of the first Covenant which doth produce in them fruits answerable to the Covenant under which they stand this is in Gods account and in the censure of the Scripture an argument of an inward desire and contentment to be under this Covenant still Now because men do look upon it as a desirable condition let us examine what this condition is of a man fallen to be under the first Covenant as broken Divines do commonly say that a man that is in Christ is freed from the Law he being dead to the Law and the Law being dead unto him in some respects as was mentioned at first 1 For Irritation the Law hath not this power in men to irritate and exasperate and enrage their lusts by the restraint and the prohibitions of them and so they apply that place Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law That is saith Beza He exhorts them to Sanctification Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies and he does promise them sin shall not raign under the Law only forbidding sinning and thereby provoking and increasing lust but you are under Grace strengthning against sin and healing it and hence it is concluded from several other Scriptures that a man in Christ and under Grace is freed from the Law and irritation of it 2 For Co-action to keep them from sin by force for fear simply of the curse of the Law and to compell them to duty as a task-master against their wills when the Law they hate and the duty that is required of them that they hate and wish there were no Law and look upon it as a yoak and a burden insupportable for as a godly man says of sin so a wicked man says of duty that which I hate that do I. And it requires of him perfect obedience as a task-master he must work brick but gives no straw requires the full tale of duty but gives no strength nor assistance The Apostle says Gal. 5.8 if you be led by the spirit you are not under the Law the spirit that is in you is the spirit of the second Covenant a spirit of Adoption a spirit of liberty a free and a Princely spirit which enables you to perform duties out of an inward principle of love to them and delight in them unto them the yoak is easie and the burden is light for it 's their happiness and honour and meat and drink to do the will of their Heavenly father And so that place I conceive is to be understood 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law was not made for a righteous man that is neither in the restraining act of it or keeping from sin only for fear of the curse because he has an inward principle that lusts against it and as a fountain casts out the mud an inward antipathy a spirit lusting and rising against it that though there were no curse yet he would hate it and endeavour to avoid it nor in the constraining power of it to force to duty only as that which his soul hates and he comes hardly off too in any measure to do that which is required but he has a spirit within the Law written in his heart an inward principle suitable to what the Law requires of him as it is said of Christ in respect of that great Commandment was laid on him Joh. 10.18 This Commandment have I received of my father for of that I think he speaks lo I come to do thy will thy law is in the middle of my bowels I have power to lay it down and to take it up again He had an inward principle that made him ready and willing and chearful in it and in this respect the Law was never made for them as the only principle upon which they should act 3 For condemnation so as to be able to lay upon a man the guilt of his own sin and condemn him for it for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law there is a destroying power in sin and this it has from the condemning power of the Law do but take away the condemning power of the Law and the sting of death that is that power that it has to destroy the soul is gone because the guilt is taken off the sinner Now Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us And so Gal. 5.23 Against such there is no Law It is not spoken against such works but against such persons there is no Law partly because the Law is against none but those that transgress it and partly because those being the fruits of the spirit do argue and clear to a man that his Covenant is changed because he is acted by the spirit of the second Covenant and therefore he may thereby receive an evidence to himself that the condemning power of the Law is not against him any more Rom. 4.6 4 For Justification For blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works That no man is justified by the Law is evident Gal. 2. ult If righteousness be by the law then Christ is dead in vain And from hence I argue that if they that are in Christ and under the second Covenant are freed from the Law in all these respects then all those that are out of Christ are under the Law still in all those respects and therefore every unregenerate man is under the Law as a Covenant of works and under this Covenant he desires to be now the Covenant being broken he is under it for Justification Irritation Coaction and Condemnation Daven de luâ—ut actuali p. 397. which when we have lookt over it will appear that this is no such happy condition that a man should desire it In being freed thus from the Law the main part of a Christians liberty consists yet there is this difference the two last refer unto a person and state and in those his liberty is perfect and he is wholly freed from the Law
even in all his temptations of the Saints as well as wicked men to touch them Jon. 6.7 Job 5.19 and to leave in them an impression and stamp of his own devilishness and therefore the more men sin against knowledg and with despight and disaffection unto God the more he is pleased with it for as God loves holiness in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes unto conformity to God the more God delights in him so Satan loves sin in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes in conformity unto Satan the more spiritual his wickedness grows and Satan delights to act that man of all other 2 The dearer any thing is unto God the more Satan delights to abuse it unto this end and the more God hath set up any thing against sin the more Satan does endeavour to make that a means to draw men unto sin sometimes he seeks to abuse the Creatures of God and stir up lust by them as when a man looks upon the Sun when it shines and his heart is enticed thereby sometimes he looks upon a Woman and lusts after her sometimes he looks upon the Wine when its colour looks red in the glass and thus the Creatures of God are abused by Satan to draw out the lusts of men and whatever is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the ey and the pride of life 1 Joh. 2.15 16. Sometimes he abuseth the servants of God he will enter into Peter and he shall become a tempter unto Christ that he saith Get thee behind me Satan and the woman that God gave man to be a help she shall by Satan be made a dart and sometimes the Law and the Gospel which specially God has set up as a remedy against sin shall act it and improve it and draw it forth Now God leaving a man under the power and dominion of Satan the God of this world who works effectually in the children of disobedience he is as a conquerour over them and triumphs in this that he has made use of the Law of God and the Gospel of God that is made against sin to increase and ripen it yea even the motions and common works of the Spirit of God the heart of man rising and making head against them are the great means by which Satan draws men to the great transgression even to sin against God with despight and revenge § 3. But here is a question Question Are believers who are engrafted into Christ and come under him as a father as the second Adam that is have their Covenant changed as well as their image are these wholly freed from the law in respect of the irritation of it Rom. 6.14 it is said Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law but under grace Which as has been declared is not to be referred unto a mans justification as being freed from the Law for righteousness and life and from the curse of the law for death and condemnation but it is spoken of a mans Sanctification a man is not under the Law as irritating sin and increasing it but under grace not only pardoning but sanctifying and subduing it and in this respect the dominion and the ruling power of sin is taken away in the godly though the being of it remain The Apostle speakes wholly in this place in reference to a mans state of unregeneracy Vers 5 When we were in the flesh the motions of sin that were by the law c. And he speaks this in reference to his own estate before conversion I was alive without the law once and I had not known sin but by the law nor lust to be a sin and the danger of it but that the Law of God discover'd it unto me and so in my former state Sin took occasion by the Commandment and wrought in me c. The word in the Greek signifies to work a thing throughly and effectually and to work it out Phil. 2.20 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling And Rom. 7.18 To will is present with me but to perform or go through with the work I find not a power to do it And so sin by the Commandment wrought in him effectually or wrought in him which we heard before all manner of Concupiscence all lust was thereby drawn out Hath the law of God no such work upon a regenerate man one that is a believer does not sin in a regenerate man take occasion by the Commandment Is a Believer as perfectly freed from the Law for irritation as he is for condemnation Answer Christ says If the Son make you free you are free indeed and the special part of our liberty with which Christ has made us free is in being freed from the Law as a Covenant Some as Paraeus and others do distinguish thus Liberty from the Law is twofold 1 Perfect in respect of justification and condemnation that their perfect obedience to the Law is no way required for the one neither shall any of the transgressions of the Law be imputed for the other 2 Inchoate which is but begun in the Saints and shall be perfected and so they are delivered from the Law only for irritation and coaction but so long as sin remains in them so long they shall never be perfectly delivered from the Law in either of these But to make this plain and bring it down in the particular branches of it unto the meanest understanding There are many things to be considered which I shall now proceed to lay down to make out this general and received Doctrine that is so commonly delivered by our Divines 1. There are remainders of corruption in the best of the Saints Grace destroys the reigning of sin but not the being of it You read how that Abraham the father of the faithful had his unbelief and Moses the meekest man in his generation had his passion and provocation and spake unadvisedly with his lips David a man after Gods own heart yet he complains of his secret sins and Paul that great Apostle had the law of his members rebelling against the law of his mind 2 Cor. 7.1 There is a filthiness of flesh and spirit that is to be purged out as there is something wanting in their Graces and therefore they have a daily growth in Sanctification so there is something remaining of their corruption which requires a daily growth in their mortification therefore they are compared to the Moon Cant. 6.10 which has some spots in it because not wholly enlightned by the Sun they do defile themselves and therefore had need daily to wash their feet Joh. 17.10 2. These remainders of sin in them as they are promoted by Satan so they give Satan an access unto their spirits and are as the seed for him to work upon they are to him a seminary and so much as Satan has in a man so much power he has over him says Christ
shall be effectual to a mans pollution Vse 1 § 5. See here the malignity and the vile nature of sin and what a deadly disease it is when that which God did give of purpose to destroy it will increase it We say that is a very deadly disease that you can apply no physick but it does stir up the disease and it 's increased by it and all that you can take feeds the disease so here sin must needs be a deadly thing that the law should increase it which in its own nature should abate it There are two truths that should be always in a mans eye God to be the chiefest Good and Sin to be the greatest Evil. There is no one thing that does set forth the evil of sin more than this that the Commandment of God which doth forbid it curse it condemn it should improve it It 's no wonder then if mercies make men more wicked and if crosses add to mens sins for the very Law of God and his threatnings and restraints thereof will do it if any thing make sin appear to a man to be out of measure sinful and a disease incurable in it self this will 2. See hereby the vanity of that Doctrine that says Moral perswasion is sufficient unto conversion God enlightning of a mans mind and shewing him what is his duty and what is required of him and perswading of his will it is according to these able to imbrace it and so turn unto God and duty and herein is the drawing of God the Father when as we see that when God does set a mans duty before him in the Law with all the threatnings of it and all the promises of it this is so far from converting the man that it improves his sin sin and makes it the more to rage against God and become out of measure sinful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore there is an inward work of God an Almighty Power put forth in changing the heart and converting of the will Moral perswasions may make a man more wicked but they will never convert him or make him the more holy without this inward work put forth by God in changing the heart 3. See here what is the proper rise and ground of that unpardonable sin the sin against the Holy Ghost It is by a curse of the first Covenant coming upon to the word of God that it is an occasional means lust opposing it to make sin rise the higher and first it brings forth in a man sins against knowledge and afterwards sins with malice and despight If the Law had never been revealed again but man had been left as many of the Heathens are who have but that small glimmering of light which some do call the remainders of the Law within them which the Apostle speaks of Rom. 2. They shew the works of the law written in their hearts this sin had never been heard of in the world it is a sin proper unto the Church of God and cannot be committed out of the Church where men are enlightned in the truth and sin takes occasion from the Law to break forth into despight against it 4. See what a vain thing it is for a man to glory in any Church-priviledge The Jews did stand much upon it and doubtless it was a great mercy that unto them did belong the giving of the Law and the Promises and unto them were committed the Oracles of God and therefore they rested in and made their boast of the Law c. Rom. 2.18 19. And what fruit had most of them by the Law it did aggravate their sins in the guilt of them and drew forth their sins in the power of them unto the greater height and in many of them even to the sin against the Holy Ghost And so it does many men that live under the Gospel at this day they have no other fruit by their ordinances and of the word of God amongst them but to make them more exceedingly wicked 5. See what a misery it is to be in a state of unregeneracy he that is so is wicked by nature and every thing wâ—â— make him worse See also what a mercy restraining grace is to a man that is unregenerate when we read of Judas and how Christs reproof did heighten his malice and of the Pharisees how by Christs Sermon their rage was drawn forth and they gnashed their teeth upon him c. What a mercy is it should every soul say that all the Sermons that ever I have heard of Christ c. should not have wrought the same effects in me long ago Luther saith that reading that place Rom. 1.17 The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith and understanding it only de justitia activa scilicet punientè of Gods punishing justice Non amabam imo odiebam justum punientem Deum tacitaque si non blasphemia certe ingenti murmuratione c. odi istud vocabulum poenitentiae I did not love but hate the just and punishing God and by a silent great murmur if not blasphemy I did hate that word Repentance Now that it has not been so to every one of us and we sinned against the Holy Ghost and in the highest acts of direct enmity that there had been no hope of mercy seeing that we cannot say that we have done it ignorantly Oh what a mercy is restraining Grace 6. Lastly how should it engage the people of God to thankfulness that God has freed them from this great misery that now the Law should subdue their lusts and not enrage them and if it does at any time yet it 's not to bring forth fruit unto death not to have a full dominion over them how should it make them fear when they read or hear the Law lest it should add to the disease Oh! how ought people to pray and Ministers pray that they may not be a curse and that the word which they hear and preach may not ripen their sins and draw out and improve their corruptions but their graces and make them holy CHAP. IV. The Rigor and Coactive power of the Law Gal. 5.18 But if you be led by the Spirit you are not under the Law SECT I. Wherein the Coactive power of the Law consists § 1. THere is a double sense of these words given by Interpreters and both may very well be put together The Apostle having said before That in a godly man there are two contrary principles flesh and spirit and they lust and act one against another so that they cannot do the things they would but when they would do good evil is present with them he adds here a consolation to bear up their hearts in this which is the greatest conflict upon earth between flesh and spirit in the same heart and that which made them to look upon themselves as miserable men all their days Rom. 7.24 but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law that is though there
be a principle of flesh in you and this principle is sinful contrary to the Law and condemned by the Law yet it shall never prevail to condemn you though it will many times to defile you for you are not under the Law for condemnation they may be and will be matter of your trouble and affliction here but never the matter of your condemnation hereafter And so the meaning is that the godly that have received the spirit of Grace and submit themselves willingly to be acted and guided thereby though they have the remainders of sin in them that deserve death yet they shall never infer death because they are not for the condition of their persons under the Laws condemning power Rom. 8.1 Though there be in the Saints matter of condemnation yet there is in them no actual condemnation There is a second interpretation given of it and that is That though there be remainders of sin contrary lustings within you so that you cannot do the things you would do but all your performances 〈◊〉 blemished and defiled as a Collier and Fuller dwelling in the same house what the one whites the other pollutes Yet this shall not make your services hateful before God shall not hinder their acceptation for you are not under the rigor and conviction of the Law requiring perfect obedience or else it cannot be accepted as it is with all unregenerate men but you are not so under the Law neither shall this contrary principle be wholly able to hinder you in duties for you are not under the Law constraining you and forcibly compelling unto duty without giving you strength to perform it but you have a spirit within you as well as a rule without you the one directing and the other assisting and inabling Both these will make one compleat sense and are for consolation to the condition of those that are in Christ that though corruptions may remain in them yet they shall never prevail against them to their condemnation neither shall they hinder their acceptation with the Lord in the midst of all their failings We must consider that the dispensations of God to every man are according to the Covenant under which he stands and the administrations of both Covenants are ever since the fall in the hand of Christ as Mediator he dispenseth the Curse of the first Covenant as well as the Grace of the second and at the day of Judgment it is the Man Christ Jesus that shall say to the wicked Go you cursed as well as to the Saints Come you blessed c. Now for the administration of all things according to this great trust Jesus Christ as Mediator has received the spirit as a spirit of union and a spirit of unction and this spirit is the viceroy or prorex that works all the works and all the administrations of Christ in this great Kingdom only he dispenses this spirit to some as a Lord and to others as a head unto some only as a spirit of qualification for service unto others as a spirit of sanctification for their Salvation So that all that Christ does he does by the spirit and answerable unto the condition of the person so is the spirit that works in him all is wrought suitably unto the Covenant under which he stands if the man be under the first Covenant he is a bondman for his Covenant genders unto bondage and all the works of the spirit of God in that man are only the works of bondage and this spirit is a spirit of fear There is a double spirit by which wicked men are acted there is a spirit of the world that works effectually in the children of disobedience the strong man armed keeps the house and they are taken by him as beasts taken alive and led captive at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 and this spirit does act them wholly in most of the acts of their lives but God has reserved unto himself a Judicature in the man and that is Conscience but this commonly works not there is a fearedness a spirit of slumber and senslesness a being past feeling that sin has brought upon it but sometimes the spirit of God comes into the Court of Conscience and awakens it and then it speaks in Gods name unto the man and therefore it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Conscience and it is always a co-witness Rom. 9.1 A renewed Conscience can never work of it self nor witness of it self neither does a natural Conscience but as it is acted by the spirit of God Now if the man be in the condition of a servant the spirit does witness unto him and speaks in his Conscience nothing but fear and bondage and therefore it is called answerable to the condition of the man a spirit of bondage But if the man be under the second Covenant and in the condition of a son then the spirit does speak peace favour and acceptance unto him and liberty and is a spirit of Sonship Not that in a godly man there is never any thing else spoken but from Rom. 8.15 where the Apostle says You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father I conclude The Spirit of God never speaks bondage to a godly man that he is in a state of bondage and death and binding a man over to wrath again though sometimes God leaving a man unto the spirit of Satan he may speak so in his heart and tell him he is unregenerate and then the darkness of a mans own spirit may be apt to gather such conclusions but the Spirit of God does never speak any thing unto a Saint concerning his eternal state but liberty after his translation out of the first Covenant Every regenerate man having received the Spirit of Christ and his Covenant being changed this spirit has undertaken to be dux viae his guide Joh. 16. to lead him on in his way till he comes to glory Now a man that is in Christ and has received the Spirit of Christ and is led by that Spirit Rom. 8.14 that man is not under the Law neither for condemnation nor for coaction therefore every man that is out of Christ and not led by this Spirit but has received a spirit of bondage he is under the Law both these ways § 2. Hence we observe Doct. Tom. 4. p. 87. That every man that is out of Christ is under the coaction and rigor of the Law Austin upon this place in the Galatians makes a fourfold state of man 1 Ante legem before the Law when a man did sin without the knowledg of sin and committed it without restraint or controul and so it is with many men that lay the reins upon their lusts necks 2 Sub lege under the law c. when a man does strive against sin his Conscience being convinced that it is sin but yet he is over-come though he does strive 3
inward principle that answers the law without Heb. 8.10 a law written in his heart an inward and secret Bible that he always carries with him that though he were not forced to it by a law without yet there is in his heart an inward principle a law within And therefore Chrysostome doth distinguish men into two sorts that make use of the law men that live under the law and men that live above the law that is that have not only a law without commanding but within a law restraining so that a man out of Christ is under the law as a yoke and as a burden that no man is able to bear which he hates but cannot love 4. To an unregenerate man though the law command duty yet as he cannot love it so he can take no delight in it it does indeed exact it of him but so as he groans under it and does snuff at it and says what a weariness is it and his heart loaths it and he can take no pleasure in it from day to day he looks upon it as his only misery chains and fetters of iron c. Joh. 5.3 But to a godly man the Commandments of God are not grievous it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meiosis that is they are very pleasing and delightsome they are dearer than thousands of gold and silver they are sweeter than honey and the honey-comb Mat. 11. ult My yoke is easie and my burthen is light is taken from the agility of Harts to escape 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you may delight your self in it It is so far from taking away the comfort of your lives that it will exceedingly add thereto it is a regenerate mans meat and drink to do the will of his Heavenly Father and his soul is satisfied in it as with marrow and fatness he binds the law of God as frontlets upon his eyes and as a chain about his neck they are the great ornaments that he delights to wear the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace And this I conceive to be the meaning of the Apostle Rom. 7.6 To serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter the oldness of the letter is only the letter requiring duty without and the newness of the spirit is the heart delighted with duty within Spiritu novo spontaneo to serve God with a free and a Princely spirit 5. The law forbids sin but it heals it not it does revive it but it does not cast it out Rom. 7.9 When the commandment came sin revived and I died it does shew men sin and trouble their consciences for it but it is but as Ezekiels pot the scum rises and boils in again Had Paul gone no further than the Law sin might have revived by that and the man have died again but sin would never have died that he might live for though a man do abstain from it for fear and out of a slavish spirit yet he loves it still and desires it still because the law may keep a man from acting sin but it will never stir up a man to the hatred of sin and then a man is said to be under the law indeed Luther has a story of one that did use to relate of himself how it was with him before he was brought home to Christ I more than a thousand times promised to God in duties more than I could perform and so he came at last to be out of hope ever to perform them which he says was to him pia sancta desperatio an holy despair and this brought him home to Christ When a man has lookt upon the law long that saith Thou shalt not commit adultery and thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain and yet the heart of the man is carried after the sin though he may abstain from the outward act yet his spirit boiles after it he may pray against it and vow against it and yet still the grace that must subdue it must come from the Gospel But now a man in Christ he has his nature changed and so his pleasures and delights are changed and he says I am not I as Augustine said Others wonder how you can live without these things that you were so much delighted with heretofore alas the new nature wonders as much at the old A new nature brings new delights and now suave est istis suavitatibus carere it is sweet to want those sweets 6. The Law carries a man to God as a Judg. God does give the Law a Soveraignty and so doth judg all men according to this Law without respect of persons according to their works which fills a mans Conscience full of doubtful inquiries Rom. 10.5 And the righteousness of the law says who shall ascend up to heaven or fetch Christ down c. And a mans heart is full of jealousie of God and he does apprehend that he has offended God he does wish there were no God So the soul looks upon God as one that will strictly observe what has been done amiss and he stands afar off from God and cares not for coming near the Lord. But a man in Christ the Gospel carries him unto God as unto a Father My Father says Christ and your Father my God and your God Mal. 3.16 He will spare them as a father does his son that serves him He accepts of his endeavours when there is a willing mind he takes any thing well because it is from a child And there is an inward principle of affection and eternal love that carries God towards the man And so in the mans approaches to God in duties there is a great deal of sweetness and confidence when in an other mans duties there is a great deal of terrour and amazement because in the one he comes to God as a Judg through the exacting of the Law and there he is full of fear for he expects a doleful sentence and the other man comes to God as a Father and he fears not accusation nor a rejection 7. It does force a man to see sin whether he will or no and sets it yea holds it before the mans eyes when his desire is to cast it behind his back There is no unregenerate man in the world that is either willing to see his duty or his iniquity and obliquity not his duty and therefore he casts the Law of God behind his back as a thing that he is not willing to see and is most willing to put away from him Neh. 9.26 And cast the law behind their backs Psal 50.17 2 Pet. 3.5 and slew the Prophets which testified against them and therefore they are said to hide their eyes and to be willingly ignorant neither would they see and therefore they desire not to look into that glass which discovers their sins but Isa 29.21 They hate them that reprove in the gate they have many pleas to
translated out of this Covenant if he ever hope to receive any benefit by the second Covenant for no man can stand under both Covenants no more than he can be born of two Mothers Gal. 4. the two Covenants are there compared unto two Mothers and the Covenants are two roots and 't is impossible if one grow upon the one root but he must be cut off from the other I do confess that an unregenerate man that is for the state of his person under the Covenant of works may have many outward benefits and priviledges from the Covenant of Grace As 1 They are preserved by it for it is by the second Covenant that the world stands and it is for their sakes that are heirs of blessing therein Isa 42.6 He is given as a Covenant to the Nations to establish the earth and it is by the Covenant of Grace to the Kingdom of Christ that the curse of the first Covenant is not presently executed upon wicked men 2 Wicked men have this benefit by the Covenant of Grace they have the Creatures to serve them he makes the Sun to shine upon the just and the unjust Mat. 5. The Creatures are made subject to vanity by reason of him that has subjected them in hope it is a vanity of service and subjection unto the necessities of unregenerate men which is a benefit that they have by the second Covenant 3 They have an imployment by Christ Prov. 8. it 's said By me Kings reign and that men are set in honourable places and do service in this Kingdom of Christ Saul was made a King and Cyrus and Judas was an Apostle 4 They have great gifts given them by the Spirit of God dispensed in this Kingdom which is only by the Covenant of Grace they are inlightned made partakers of the Holy Ghost taste of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come they may prophesie in the name of Christ and in his name cast out Devils and do many great works 5 They have great priviledges given them they are called the Sons of God they have the Law and the Promises they may live in the Church and claim an outward right unto Ordinances and the offers of Grace as belonging unto them Abraham's son Ishmael was circumcised as well as Isaac and he had an outward right unto it and so all external Church-priviledges Hypocrites may have a right unto as Judas had among the other Disciples being undetected 6 They may have for all these services great Temporal rewards labouring in the Lord's Vineyard they shall have their penny Cyrus a Heathen Prince yet doing works for God he shall have a Kingdom for his reward and Nebuchadnezzar shall have Egypt for his hire great honours and rewards before men riches in abundance that they may wash their steps in butter Ishmael had the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth These and many other benefits unregenerate men may have by the Covenant of Grace who yet for the estate of their persons are under a Covenant of Works only unto all godly men they are all given as a blessing and unto them that are unregenerate men they are all given as a curse and will be a means but to ripen their sins and add unto their account and condemnation and therefore though a man may have many external benefits by the Covenant of Grace who for the estate of his person is under the Covenant of Works yet he cannot stand under both Covenants § 3. God will deal with him still as he did in his Creation in a way of Covenant and Stipulation and not in a way of absolute Soveraignty and Dominion and he will keep both on foot and exercise both together In mans Creation God did some things by way of absolute Dominion he gave him what being he pleased and appointed him to what end and gave him what Law he pleased and placed Adam as the common root the representative head and put all his posterity under him as those that were to come under his Covenant and to stand or fall with him and as the Covenant made with Adam and us in him is â—n act of Soveraignty so the act of Imputation of his sin or righteousness is an act of Soveraignty also But God did not deal with Adam in this way only but also in a way of Covenant giving him a command and promising life and blessedness upon his obedience and all the Dispensations of God in his Government unto men since have been by vertue of and according unto the Covenant Whilst man stood all the blessings he did enjoy were by vertue of the Covenant God made with him and since his fall all the curses that he has undergone are the curses of the Covenant So unto man in his fall God will deal with him still the same way there are some acts of Soveraignty and absolute Dominion which he has reserved to himself he gives man what Law he pleaseth and according to his own pleasure changes and abrogates Laws as he will and he has out of his own absolute Soveraignty appointed the second Adam to be the head of the regenerate and he does as an act of Soveraignty make a Covenant with us in him and accounts us one with him and by a Soveraign Imputation counts his Righteousness ours and our sins his and calls things that are not as if they were But yet though he will keep both ways of Government in his own hand yet he has declared himself that in his ordinary way he will rule man by a Covenant and according unto the rules of that Covenant he will dispense himself in mercy or in wrath according to the Promises or the threatnings thereof and though man has fallen and broken the first Covenant and therefore now God might have dealt with him in a way only of Soveraignty and Prerogative yet the Lord will keep himself unto a Covenant-way and will so deal with man again and therefore man having broken the first he will establish the second Covenant And the grounds why God will deal with man still in a Covenant-way are these 1 Because the first Covenant stands in force upon all men out of Christ unto eternity as it appears because by that Covenant sin is imputed and the curse of that Covenant is inflicted unto eternity 2 Because that under this Covenant all that remain must perish for as many as are under the Law as a Covenant are under the Curse wherefore the Lord has instituted a second Covenant which all that are in Christ shall remain under And though â—here be some difference in circumstances and in the manner of administration yet it is for substance the same from the fall unto the worlds end There is indeed a Triplex Aera a threefold account or three several periods in Scripture of the Covenant of Grace 1 As it was made with Adam after his fall promising the seed of the woman and life and salvation
of it 1 Some understand â—t of the Moral Law and the Law given to Adam in Paradise In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die 2 By the hand-writing some of them say is meant the Ceremonial Law and the whole Paedagogy of Moses consisting in Rites and Ordinances by which men did acknowledg themselves guilty of the breach of the Moral Law for they were all of them open and publick confessions of sin and thus much doth Calvin and Beza only understand by the hand-writing 3 There is another Interpretation that I have met withal in Glassius quoted also and hinted by Erasmus Chirographum est conscientia arguens condemnans the hand-writing is the Conscience accusing and condemning according to that Scripture The iniquity of Jacob is written with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond noting that knowledg of sin in a mans Conscience and a mans obligation unto wrath thereby And all these I conceive to be meant by the hand-writing in this place 1 It must be understood of the Moâ—al Law because it is a consolation given to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews but they were never bound unto the Ceremonial Law 2 It is to be understood of the Ceremonial â—aw as an appendix to the Moral Law and both these had a power upon the Conscience to condemn a man and lay him as guilty before God therefore with Aretius I should understand Quicquid nos apud Deum potuit reos peragere quicquid nos damnat quicquid Satan contra nos citare potest hoc totum Chirographum esse hoc est testimonium peccati So that the Moral Law of God enjoining us obedience and the Ceremonial Law convincing us of sin and the conscience of both these are all meant by the hand-writing against us 2 The manner of the abolition and that in several gradations There are three ways of cancelling Bonds and making them void 1 Dispunctione by Dispunction or Cancellation 2 Laceratione by Laceration 3 Litura by the sponge blotting out c. Now if the seal be taken off and the Bond rent it is cancelled but yet so that the characters of the writing remain but now in blotting it out which is here meant it does not only cancel the Bond but it does it so that nothing can be read against a man for time to come and therefore it is as if it had never been but the Bond remains though the hand-writing be bloted out Therefore it is further added he has taken it away as well as blotted it out But though it be taken away it may be reserved against a man to the day of judgment no it was rent in pieces and nailed to the Cross of Christ with the same nails that Christ himself was so that the obligatory power of the Law and the damnatory power of it is utterly abolished by the death of Christ Vniversaliter sufficienter universally and sufficiently upon the Cross Particulariter efficaciter particularly and efficaciously when it is by the Spirit applied unto the Conscience of a man and speaks pardon to him being justified by faith so that he hath peace with God c. Thence to blot out the hand-writing is to take away the sentence of condemnation Wherefore the observation from hence is this Doctrin The first Covenant is perfectly and utterly abolished by Christ to all that are in him § 2. That the Law is taken away as a Covenant has been shewed at large in respect of the main 〈◊〉 of it namely 1 That it remains not for Justification For no man is justified by the law in the sight of God Gal. 3.11 Christ is the end of the law for righteousness 2 Neither does the Law remain for condemnation for he has redeemed us from the curse of the law and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Nor 3 for Irritation You are not under the law says the Apostle therefore sin shall not have dominion over you Not under the Law forbidding sin barely and so provoking it but under Grace healing a mans nature and strengthning him against sin 4 Nor for Coaction If you are led by the spirit you are not under the Law that is not under the Law as a slave under a Tyrant forcibly compelling but you have a spirit of Sonship which freely leads a man in all his ways and carries him on with a free and a willing spirit Thus the Law is abolished as a Covenant with respect to all ends for which it can serve whether principal or accidental These Particulars having been already largely opened that which I would now chiefly speak to in the opening of this Doctrine is the manner how the Law as a Covenant comes to be abolished and this is by these steps 1. Christ himself is made under the Law as a Covenant of Works the Law that is here meant is not only the Ceremonial Law which he did freely subject himself to being a Jew but also and chiefly the Moral Law to which he did subject himself as a man for it 's said He was made under the Law to redeem us that were under it therefore it must be understood of that Law under which we were and from which Christs purpose was to redeem us and that wherein our redemption does mainly lie Now so all men are in particular the Galatians who were not under the Ceremonial Law therefore it must be meant of the Moral Law that he is said Gal. 3.13 to be made under the curse of the Moral Law now who-ever comes under the curse must also so far come under the Covenant therefore Christ being made under the Moral Law as it is a Covenant came under the curse of it 2. Christ was made under the Law two ways as he was man 1 In respect of the debt to be paid 2 In reference to the bond to be cancelled for if man could have paid the debt of the Law of obedience and undergone the curse yet he could never have taken off the bond of the Law it would have lain upon him for ever he would have been for ever under the Law Now Christ must do both 1 As our surety he paid the debt the principal of which was obedience so that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us to Justification and by the Gospel the Law is not made void but established and also the forfeiture taken off he being made sin was also made a curse for us 2 That the Law might not stand in force against us for the time to come as a Covenant therefore he has also cancelled the bond being made under the Law as a Covenant of Works he has taken away the Law as a Covenant unto all the Saints He delivered us from sin being made sin for us and from the curse being made a curse for us and from the Law as a Covenant by being made under the same Covenant And so he did not only pay the debt
in whom all happiness â—es whose very Presence makes Heaven should be made a curse that he who only hath Immortality should give himself unto death that the Incomprehensible should be comprehenâ—ed and Eternity have a beginning and the Ancient of days become a child who can â—ut admire that such things as these should be united and all to make a righteous and a holy God and a sinful creature to become one again So for the Distinctions to see God in Christ dividing between the guilt and stain of sin the guilt Christ will take upon himself by Imputation but he will not take the stain of sin to distinguish between the sin and the sinner that the sin shall be damned and the sinner saved God will take sin off the sinner that there should be a change of the person but not of the righteousness that the guilt of all sin should be taken away perfectly at once but the stain of it blotted out by degrees A mans Covenant is at once renewed and his image but in part so for God to distinguish between the Law as a rule and the Law as a Covenant and the Lord will utterly abolish it in the one respect but not in the other In all this is seen the Majesty and Wisdom of God therefore as our Divines use to say If there had been a Council called of Men and Angels after the Fall how a way might be found out to answer the different demands of the Attributes of God Mercy inclining to spare the Creature as miserable and Justice requiring vengeance upon the Creature as sinful how Mercy and Justice may be satisfied and God and Man be reconciled how God satisfied and the sinner saved how the sin may go to Hell and the sinner to Heaven how the Curse of the Law may be executed and yet the Grace of the Gospel exercised towards man all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth could not have found out a way so I may say in this particular the Creature must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own rule a rule it must have to walk by which must be the manifestation of Gods will or else what it does can never be accepted Tert. for Deo serviendum est non ex arbitrio sed ex imperio And this is the Eternal rule that God will have his Creatures to walk by as answering his holy nature and can be no other and therefore if we walk not after Gods rule Gods curse must follow us Now take away and abolish the Law as a Covenant and so the curse will be thereby removed and now for God to do this and yet to continue the Law as a rule to take that away that was against a man and yet to continue that which was for him it was that which all the wisdom of the Creatures could never have found out a way to accomplish that the Law as a Covenant might be abolished and yet as a rule continued for ever CHAP. VIII To all that are in Christ the first Covenant is made subservient to the second Gal. 3.17 18 19 And this I say that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disanull that it should make the promise of none effect for if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise Wherefore then serveth the Law it was added because of transgression till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator SECT I. The subservience of the first Covenant to the second in general § 1. HAving largely opened to you the Doctrine of the first Covenant we are come at last to conclude it in these three heads 1 A mans Translation out of this Covenant with the nature and necessity thereof 2 The abolition of this Covenant unto all that are in Christ that it is a writing cancelled 3 The subordination thereof unto the Gospel and Covenant of Grace Of the two first we have formerly treated and come now to speak of the last and so to conclude the Doctrine of the first Covenant There are in this Chapter two principal parts 1 Here is a Doctrine confirmed 2 Here are some Objections against it answered and cleared 1. Here is a Doctrine confirmed in which Satan had bewitched the Galatians and they had fallen off from it and that is Justification by the righteousness of Christ alone without the works of the Law and this the Apostle proves by several arguments 1 That which conveys the gifts and graces of the Spirit by that a man is justified in the sight of God but that is not by the works of the Law but by the Doctrine of the Gospel v. 2. 2 All men that are Abrahams seed must be justified the same way that Abraham was but Abraham was justified by faith for he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness Rom. 4.21 22. Therefore they that are justified by faith only are the children of Abraham 3 Justification and blessedness are upon the same persons and that either to them that are of faith or of the works of the Law but it is not by the works of the Law but by faith that they are blessed with faithful Abraham 4 They that are under the curse cannot receive Justification and Life from the Law but they that are under the Law are under the curse 5 God has said that the just shall live by faith but the Law is not of faith that is it does not require faith and propound that way of salvation and life but it requires obedience for it saith He that does them shall live in them 6 If a man do make a Covenant he does disinable himself by his subsequent acts to break it for by his own act he is bound how much more then is the wise God engaged to keep his Covenant who is not as man that he should repent therefore his acts are firm and unchangeable like himself So that the Covenant with Abraham being made 430 years before an after-act in giving the Law cannot make it void 2. Now the Objections follow It will be said that the way of Justification and Salvation by the Law and by the promise are directly contrary or contradictory one to the other the Law is not of saith if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise so that Justification and Salvation cannot be by them both they cannot stand together and therefore it should seem that God did repent of his promise to Abraham and disanulled it or else why would he for four hundred and thirty years after reveal the Law as a quite contrary way to Heaven one by doing and the other by believing It should seem therefore that the Law doth make the promise of God of none effect or at least that God would have both stand together For if a
of right belong to them and God hath therefore separated them from other people that he might set his Tabernacle in the middle of them and they have his presence with them Rom. 9.4 Rev. 4. there the worship of God is there is a glorious Throne by which is meant the Lord Christ in the presence of his people and it is of a visible Church for there are Beasts and Elders there are Believers and there are Officers which cannot be in the Church invisible therefore this presence of God in Ordinances and the Ordinances themselves do belong unto this visible Church and the members of it have a right unto them all as being born of believing parents and they have not only jus haereditarium an hereditary right but jus actuale an actual right which is called jus in re when they shall be made fit for them and are capable of them it was the great honour of Israel that it was the valley of Vision and that because of the presence of God there it is called the holy City Esa 12.1 29.1 Rev. 21.3 Ezech. 48.35 Ariel the Altar of God and the great honour of the new Jerusalem is Rev. 21.3 That the tabernacle of the Lord shall be with men it is not meant of Heaven for it is a Tabernacle there shall be Ordinances therein and the same is spoken of Ezech. 48.35 Jehovah shammah 3. There is a special Providence that doth watch over them though it is true not the same peculiar Providence that doth watch over those that are really Saints and by union members of Christ but yet there is a special Providence towards the visible Church in reference unto all the works of God and therefore Zac. 2.5 to hurt them is as touching the apple of his eye and he will be a wall of fire about Jerusalem theirs is such a protection as other men have not and therefore when the Lord did unchurch them he says he will take away the wall and the hedge Esa 5.5 and they shall be trodden down that is that peculiar Providence that the Lord did before exercise towards them now he will remove and give them up into the hands of men to devour them as it is in Deut. 32.30 said that their rock had sold them God did put them into the hands of their enemies Thou sellest thy people for nought and we know amongst men what it is for an out-law a proscribed man to be put out of the protection of the Law and so when the Lord doth cast any man out of the Church he doth put him out of protection also 4. The great and special workings of the Spirit of Christ do belong unto such it is true that Christ hath a providential Kingdom as well as a spiritual and the Spirit is the Viceroy and Prorex in both the Spirit rules for him and therefore there are mighty workings of the Spirit of God raising up the spirits of men and fitting and preparing of them for to accomplish the Lords work and to bring about his ends but yet in the spiritual Kingdom there are the chief operations of the Spirit the Apostle counts three things as works of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. 1 Gifts of the Spirit 2 There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrations functions and offices and they are divers which these gifts qualifie men for 3 There are different fruits and effects works and successes that the Spirit doth give unto these gifts in different offices and administrations but unto whom doth all this belong they do all of them belong to the Church vers 12 28. he hath set in the Church offices and given them gifts and his saving gifts are amongst these and many very glorious common works by which even unregenerate men are sanctified for the Blood of Christ by which they are sanctified they may despise as an unholy thing and in this priviledge of being a member of the visible Church of God and having the Name of God called upon him and the services of God pertaining to him in this doth this holiness consist and a man thereby is separated from all other people in the world Quest 5 § 5. Is this federal right to the children only the priviledge of parents and so conveyed unto the child from the parents one or both of them being Believers or is there any other way of conveyance We read Gen. 17.12 how not only they came under Abrahams Covenant that were of his seed but he that was born in his house that was not of his seed or bought with his money or any stranger he was to come under Abrahams Covenant and was to be circumcised as well as any that did come out of Abrahams loyns and we find that the Church of God did therefore ordain Sureties which were to take upon them the care of the education of such children answerable unto that Religion into which they were baptized and they were admitted thereunto by their proparentes right which otherwise had no right thereunto by their natural parents and this is so ancient that I find in the second Century Hyginus Susceptores ad baptismum Christianorum adjecit c. Magdeb. And Tertullian has a hint of it as in use in his time also Tertul. de coron milit August which hath been justified by Divines since and therefore practised in the Church of God in succeeding ages to this day Aliquando filiis infidelium per statum haec gratia ut baptizentur cùm occulta Dei providentia in manu piorum qumodocunque perveniunt Aug. de Grat. lib. And hence our Divines generally have concluded that as there is a spiritualis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ doth convey unto the Saints a sonship before God so there is a priviledge that belongs to Christians of those that are taken by them into their care and charge Et adoptati pro liberis sunt habendi Gerh. loc com de baptis p. 582. they have a priviledge to convey a kind of sonship unto them by a spiritual Adoption And Mr. Calvin in an Epistle to Farel about the baptizing of a child of a Papist by father and mother the Grandmother being a Protestant and desiring the child might be baptized Calvin inquires if she would ingage to the Church for the education of the child the child then might be baptized and had an interest in the Covenant by her right undertaking for its education though it had no intetest nor right by the immediate parents And Mr. Perkins and many others Castes of Conscience pag. 76. And Am. Cases of Consc says That infantes illegitimè nati excommunicatorum interventu sponsorum idoneorum possunt baptizari si ab aliis piis educatio eorum suscipiatur p. 232. though they look upon sureties as not of divine institution and only for a civil use testifying the abundant care of the Church of the education of those that were received by them and
the same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour Rom. 9. yet this Decree could not actually take place without sin had come between and now sin has interposed there are some that belong to the Election of Grace and they are chosen out by vocation which is nothing else but electio actuata election actuated and the eternal Decree of God doth exempt them from the common condition of the rest of the world as we see Rom. 9. there the Jews are cast off and they are all in one outward condition but the difference lies in this there is a remnant according to the Election of Grace and the Election does obtain when the rest are hardned and therefore we are said to be born of the will of God in opposition unto all things in nature whatsoever Rom. 11. Joh. 1.13 Rom. 8.29 for vocation is the first-born of Election Of his own will he begate us by the word of truth c. The generation of Christ was an act of his nature and therefore necessary but the generation of Saints is an act of the will of God and therefore free it 's wholly to the praise of the glory of his grace and this his will is manifested in this Eph. 1.11 That he did from all Eternity elect some and reject others according to the counsel of his own will Now that the Lord may make it manifest that it 's an act of free grace therefore he will sometimes reject the children of the Kingdom as the Jews are called men born in the Church Mat. 8. and unto whom the Kingdom of Christ did seem by a natural right to belong and to descend unto them and he will send forth and call men from the East and from the West to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God he will cast off the bidden guests and will send out to the high ways and hedges and compel men to come in that he may manifest that you are begotten of his own will for the praise of his grace 3 Because since the Fall the Lord has appointed another way to convey life unto his people and that is not by generation from the first Adam but by regeneration from a second Adam and therefore the Lord will surely honour his own way and he will not convey the grace of the Covenant from parents unto their posterity but from him only who is the second Adam and is therefore called the everlasting Father Esa 9.6 Esa 9.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint renders it that is as the Apostle says He hath subjected to him the world to come Heb. 2.5 so he is made the father of the world to come Heb. 2.5 and all the Saints that come thence shall acknowledge that they all hold of him as a father as it is said Psal 87.4 5. of the Ordinances of Sion Psal 87.4 5. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia this man was born there and of Zion it shall be said this and that man was born in her that is that what Nation or Kingdom soever any of the Saints were in they may for their first birth mention Egypt and Babylon but for their second their new birth they shall know and acknowledge that it was in Sion and by the mighty work of God in the Ordinances therein so I may say of the Lord Jesus Christ that whomsoever they may call father on earth whether within or without the Kingdom yet they shall all owne the Lord Christ as their Father in reference unto their eternal states and in reference unto the world to come and therefore he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non solùm Spiritus vivus but also vivificus not only a living Spirit but a quickning Spirit a Spirit that makes us alive also for Joh. 14.19 he says Because I live you shall live and the Apostle Paul saith The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. Bernard and Rev. 22.16 he is said to be the Root of David and he is therefore said to be the Fountain of the gardens Cant. 3.15 it is from hence that all flourishes therefore grace shall not be entailed upon posterity but as the Father quickens whom he will so also the Son shall have life in him and power of quickning whom he will Upon these grounds it is that the spiritual and the saving graces of the Covenant are not conveyed from parents unto their children by a lineal descent but the Covenant in reference to grace from the parents is wholly made void and as God many times has a seed of grace running through the loyns of the wicked so he does many times cast off the children of the Saints and as he said of Ismael But my covenant will I establish with Isaac Gen. 17.21 so God saith of Believers children that he will not establish his Covenant with them as to inward grace 2. Yet the Lord will continue the Covenant from parents to children by a kind of lineal descent in reference to the external priviledges of the Covenant and they shall be conveyed from parents unto the children who shall have a Covenant-right as the parents priviledge and the grounds of it are these 1 Because the Lord will have a visible Church out of the loyns of his own people therefore when he takes in their parents into a Church-covenant he takes in also their children they are the children of the kingdom because they are the children of the Covenant that God made with their parents He doth indeed take in as Proselytes some here and some there but the visible Church is chiefly and generally made up of such confederate parents and their children and to make a visible Church there is required outward ordinances and priviledges that there may be a difference put between them and the rest of the world Exod. 19.5 that they may be unto God a holy and a peculiar people and this may be where the graces of the Covenant are not dispensed yet the priviledges of the Covenant must It 's true there are tares among the wheat in the same field and there are goats feeding amongst the sheep in the same pasture it 's not grace as you heard makes a man a visible member of the Church visible for it cannot be seen it cannot properly come under any humane judgment but it 's grace makes a man a member of the invisible Church into which Christ only admits and that which Christ only judges and not man 2 The Covenant is entailed in reference to the priviledges thereof that the Lord might magnifie and exalt his love unto parents the more and that it might be a great inducement to come into Covenant with God because the promise shall be unto you and your children even unto them that are afar off or as many as the Lord shall call not only
till then our iniquities are then perfectly blotted out when the time of refreshment shall come then a man shall be perfectly acquitted from all sin for ever and have an absolute sentence past upon him by God and in his own soul for ever As the Lord did give his Son by degrees and yet there is a further giving of him when he that is gone before shall come again and fetch you also there are degrees of giving of the Spirit and there is yet a further degree to come when the weak shall be as David so the Lord will be your God hereafter more eminently than he has been in giving you not only grace but glory Now as the Lord doth take up and possess the soul to himself as his habitation so he does more and more become a God to that soul who is never perfected till he come to glory till he enjoy him as he is Vse 1 § 4. 1. Look on the promises therefore as precious and store thy soul with them for they are all that you have to shew for an interest in God in this life that by which you hold your inheritance all is in promises the richest adornment and furniture that the soul can have in this life is grace and promises and therefore have thy inward man filled with them Vse 2 2. Upon all occasions stay thy sinking soul upon a promise for it 's as firm as the faithfulness of God and it 's grounded thereupon If there be any truth in the Covenant of Grace it lies in the promises of it on Gods part and we should observe the performance of promises as we do of prophecies Psal 144. as Austin says Ingrate Legis debitum cernis redditum non credis promissum Vngrateful wretch thou seest the debt of the Law paid and yet believest not the promise Vse 3 3. Look unto all the promises for their accomplishment The heirs of a promise have a great happiness that they have such an inheritance It 's â—er be as low as Hell with a promise Ego quidem sine Verbo ne in Paradiso optarim vivere at cum Verbo etiam in inferno vivere sacile est Luth. than with Adam in Paradise without it For it 's in the promises of the new Covenant in which the glory and the stability of the Covenant lies but if they be so sweet and precious in the contemplation and in the working of faith upon them while they are in hope only what must they needs be in the fruition The Wise man says The desire accompished is sweet unto the soul there is an unexpressible sweetness in it when the desire comes it's a tree of life it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vitarum of lives there are all lives in it and it sets a man as it were in Paradise again And this is one thing that will make Heaven the sweeter because it is a perfect accomplishing of all those promises with which the soul was feasted and entertained here with the hopes of in its pilgrimage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostom for Christ will be the sweeter when we come to Heaven because having not seen him yet we loved him here and we shall find him to be the same Christ in all things that before we heard him to be in the Gospel And so the society of the Saints Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the rest of the Saints in Heaven so much the more precious will they be by how much our hearts have been taken with any of them while they lived here and for this cause the promises may well be called precious 2 Pet. 1.4 2 Pet. 1.4 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies either precious or honourable to him that believes he is precious 1 Pet. 2. or an honour 1 as they are the price of his blood who was the Saviour of the World 2 as they are the evidences of our inheritance and all we have to shew for Heaven 3 as they are instruments of purification and sanctification 2 Cor. 7.1 2 Pet. 1.4 But 4 they are specially precious in this 1 that they are Gods part of the Covenant 2 this has been the happiness of the Saints and the contrary is noted as an imperfection in their condition here Heb. 11.13 These all dyed in faith not having received the promises it 's spoken of the ancient Saints of whom it 's said some of them attained promises and others of them received them not but only saw them afar off and saluted them c. and to attain promises is reckoned with stopping the mouths of lions and quenching the violence of fire and hereby there is more of God made known Exod. 6.3 By the name of Jehovah I was not known to them It 's spoken in reference unto the accomplishment of the promises and their attaining of them there is something further that God discovered and his name Jehovah further manifested to the Saints 3 specially in our times upon whom the ends or as some render it the perfections of the world are come for as the great harvest of the Church shall be in the latter days of the world so there shall be the great harvest both of prophecies and promises for the ancient Prophets did speak of good things to come but it was manifested unto them that they did not administer for themselves but for us 1 Pet. 1.12 they should be gathered to their Fathers and never live to see the good things that the Lord would do but should dye in the Wilderness as many of the ancient Saints of Israel did and never inherit the promised Land for all the things that the Lord hath spoken shall have their accomplishment at the sound of the seventh Trumpet shall the Mystery of God be finished Rev. 10.7 They are glorious things that the Lord has spoken of the latter days of the world and it 's a great unworthiness and lowness of spirit in Saints that they should be content and sit down satisfied whilst they go without any part of their inheritance and that they should think much of any thing they have attained si dicas sufficit c. It 's true that we are less than the least of all his mercies and we should think every one of them great to express our thankfulness but we should not think any of them great to nourish our slothfulness He that has an interest in the great God must strive to have his heart formed into a holy greatness of mind there is a lowness of spirit that does no ways become men that have high hopes and high expectations to be content to go without any thing that God has promised he has promised not only truth of grace but growth as the willows by the water-courses strength of grace strengthned with all might according to his glorious power comfort of grace as the Apostle has it to be filled with a spirit of consolation and to walk in the assurance
any one of them he may by consequence and by way of deduction conclude the Love of them all yet a man should expect to have it not only discursive but intuitive radio directo by a direct beam that a man may in Prayer from a principle of sealing cry to God Abba Father and may say I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine and so the Soul may walk in the Love of them all distinctly though not severally and the Soul is never able to triumph and make his boast of God till he has assurance of his interest in all the persons and in all these respects we see that the great grounds of a Christians comfort lye in his interest in the persons and therefore it 's no wonder if the great promises of the Covenant to a Christian be personal promises CHAP. II. The Covenant of Grace makes God to be our God SECT I. The Covenant of Grace makes God ours and the Benefits hereof § 1. LEt us come more particularly unto the words of the Promise in which the main of the Covenant lyes on Gods part for we have heard it 's unfolded in promises or to use the Apostles word established in Promises Hebr. 8.6 and these promises Musculus calls Caput foederis the Head of the Covenant the chief and the bottom promise on which the Covenant stands is this I will be thy God and Pareus calls it anima foederis the soul of the Covenant for it 's the principal promise of the Second Covenant as in our part of the Covenant there is one great Commandment Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart so there is in Gods part of the Covenant one great promise and that is that he will be our God and we shall be his people and therefore a great weight is to be laid upon it 1. For the opening of it we are to consider there are Two things to be distinctly considered in God 1. Essentia his Essence 2. Subsistentia his Subsistence 1. The Essence of God is but one pure and simple act of Being but yet cannot be comprehended as such by a finite understanding because it 's infinite therefore it is set forth unto us by several Attributes which though in God they be all one yet they are diversify'd according to the different objects upon which they are set and about which they are conversant and the different acts that they do put forth unto the Creatures and so when the Lord doth promise to be our God he doth make over unto the Creature by promise an interest in all the Attributes of the Essence and Divine Nature 2. In this Divine Nature there are three distinct subsistences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word used by the Apostle Hebr. 1.3 and why we should be offended as some of late at the word Person by which it is expressed I know not but from the novelty and curiosity of this last Age There is in the God-head Father Son and Spirit and these Three are One. Joh. 5.7 Now when the Lord doth promise to be a God to his People he doth make over his whole self God in Essence according to all the Attributes of his Nature and God in Subsistence according unto all the persons or subsistences in the God-head and it is very necessary that as in point of obedience we take in the whole latitude and extent of the Law for the Commandment is exceeding broad so in point of Faith also that we take in the whole latitude and extent of the promises that as in the one our hearts and desires in obeying may answer God's in commanding so in the other our hearts and desires in believing may answer God's in promising 2. To be a God implies a sufficiency 1 It is a term of Sufficiency and so it is here Gen. 17.1 I am God all-sufficient he that is self-sufficient in himself is all-sufficient to his people What is there that can be necessary unto your happiness but it shall be had in me and therefore Psal 144. ult Blessed is the people whose God is Jehovah because in God there is an all-sufficiency that not only you shall have all happiness from him but you shall have all things in him so that as he is sufficient for himself of and from himself without going forth unto any other so shall you have all things in him immediately that you need look unto nothing else to make you happy for all the perfections of a God shall be yours 2 To be a God is a term of Soveraignty for he is the most high King of Kings and Lord of Lords Dan. 4.17 the most High rules in the Kingdoms of mortal men and he is God over all Rom. 9.5 blessed for evermore Therefore to be a mans God is to undertake the rule and government over him and to rule and govern all things for his good that they may be all unto him a blessing Eph. 1. v. ult that as Christ is made the head of all things for the Churches sake so will the Lord rule over all things for his peoples sake rule all as a God as truly for their good as for his own glory 3. It points also to the manner of the fulfilling of this promise it shall be as becomes a God and in the way of a God and so much also A Lapide hints upon the place Ero tuus tuorúmque Deus ut à vobis solus colar I will be the God of thee and thine that I may be worshipped by thee Now there are two ways by which a people employ their interest in God 1 by way of Communion they come unto God and they draw near to him which are terms of Communion 2 by way of Fruition their happiness is in him and he will be their portion and reward in the land of the living When the Lord casts off a people from being a Church to himself he will own them in ways of worship no more he doth express it so Hos 1.9 calls them Loammi they are not my people I will not be their God he does not say You shall not have the creatures to be yours as the fruits of my bounty you shall not have respite of torment as the fruits of my patience but yet when you have all things here below you shall not have me in them all in ways of communion here or of fruition hereafter Doctrine 2 The main intendment of God in the new Covenant is this That he may become the God of his people Every man that is brought into the new Covenant doth change his God Jer. 2.10 it 's said Pass over to the Isles of Chittim and send unto Kedar and see if there be such a thing has any nation changed their God It 's looked upon as a strange thing in the world and yet this is the condition of all those that come under the second Covenant and therefore as the great Commandment to a people
Idols of silver and gold unto the moles and to the bats It 's not honourable for the great God to put himself upon a people to be their God against their will and therefore there goes forth an illumination upon the hearts of his people by which they chuse him for their God and they will own no other and this mutual consent between God and them doth compleat their interest and propriety in him How did Dagon become the God of the Philistins and Apis the God of the Egyptians and Chemosh the God of the Ammonites it was because they chose them unto themselves to worship them and there is no means to set up a God over a people and to intitle them to him but by their own consent and so it is with the God of Israel it is because they yield themselves to give the hand to the Lord 2 Chron. 30.8 They gave themselves first to God says the Apostle Paul and then to us by the will of God 2 Cor. 8.5 And by this means it is that he that is taken into covenant with God doth change his God and take the Lord for his God The Lord doth make over himself unto him in the Covenant to be his God and he does consent to it and says This God shall be my God for ever and ever and I will have no other God but him Vse 1 § 2. First see here the miserable condition of all those that are out of covenant with God for they that are strangers to the Covenant of Promise Eph. 2.12 they are without God in the world and that will appear 1. in this it 's the greatest sin to live without God it 's against the great Commandment of the Law and against the grand promise of the Gospel the great Commandment of the Law is Thou shalt have Jehovah for thy God and thou shalt love the Lord thy God If he that loves his wife loves himself much more he that loves his God must love himself most for he is as the School-men speak intimior intimo nostro more intimate than our most intimate part he is nearer unto a man than a man is to himself and therefore conversion being a writing the Law in the heart this being the great Commandment this is specially written there to love the Lord our God with all our heart and the truth is upon this all the other Commandments do depend on this hang all the Law and the Prophets and therefore Austin well observes Qui non diligit Deum non diligit proximum quia non diligit seipsum He that loves not God loves not his neighbour because he loves not himself A man ought to love his neighbour as himself but he that loves not himself cannot love his neighbour and he that doth not love God neither doth he nor can he love himself he hates his own soul and as this command to love God is the greatest it is the grand promise of the Gospel that the Lord will be our God Now in a mans conversion as the precepts are written in the heart as soon as he is new-born to God as the rule of his obedience 2 Cor. 3.2 3. so also are all the promises written in his heart as the ground of his faith Ye are says the Apostle the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God in the fleshly tables of your heart And therefore as it is in vain for a man to speak of obedience unto lesser precepts if the great Commandments be wanting so it 's in vain to claim an interest in inferior promises if the great promise I will be thy God thou hast no part in 2. The baseness and unworthiness of a mans spirit is seen in nothing so much as in this that a man can take any thing for a God The Lord doth justly deride his own people that they turned their glory into shame Jer. 2.11 12. they changed their glory for a thing of nought the word in the Hebrew is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To worship the true God is a mans glory and to have an interest in him he is said to be the glory of his people Israel Psal 62.7 nihilitates nothingnesses and the Heathen man could well scorn the Egyptians for that porrum caepe nesas violare frangere morsu Men commonly count it a great matter what servants they have and much more what yoke-fellow they take as the companion of their lives or what Prince they subject themselves unto but here is the baseness of the spirit of man that he cares not what God he hath but he is contented to worship the creatures which God has subjected to him as servants nay to honour the Devil as a God who is his enemy and cursed above all creatures and yet all men that have not the God of Heaven for their God they worship the God of this world the Prince of the air the Devil Therefore to be mistaken in a mans God and to joyn himself unto a strange God Hos 9.10 is the greatest reproach that can befal a man It 's said of Israel That they joyned themselves unto Baal-Peor and separated themselves unto that shame and they were abominable secundum amorem eorum according to their love that is as the Gods that they loved as God is called the fear of his people 3. It is more to lose God than to lose all blessings that come from God And therefore Hos 1.9 that 's made the top of the judgment Lo-ammi it 's more than Lo-ruhamah for to have God is more than to receive any mercy from God and therefore this is the true difference between an hypocrite and a gracious heart one is content with what comes from Gods hands the other can be satisfied with nothing but God Sicut mea tibi non placent nisi mecum sic tua non satiunt nisi tecum c. As my good works please not thee without my self so thy good things please not me without thy self Bern. Let a man tender to God thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oyl yet all this doth not please God unless we give our selves to the Lord and so it is with the Saints of God Should God bestow all the creatures upon them in Heaven and in Earth yet all this would never make them happy without God himself Now if the Lord should strip you naked of all the comforts of the creatures Luk. 16.25 as one day he will all ungodly men for it shall be said Son remember in thy life time thou hadst thy good things you should neither have bread to eat nor cloaths to warm you nor the Sun to give you life If the fig-tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vine you would think your selves miserable men to want all these Now the people of God can rejoyce in the want of these can rejoyce and triumph
Esau who did despise the birth-bright Heb. 12. and partly that the soul understanding it may receive satisfaction and see an all-sufficiency in it Aristotle for godliness hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-sufficience going with it as it is 1 Tim. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect good seems to be self-sufficient and for this cause the Apostle prays for a spirit of illumination Eph. 1.18 That the eyes of their understanding being opened they might know what is the hope of their calling and the riches of this inheritance which God has prepared for the Saints that God whose are all things and of whom are all things yet his portion is his people they are of all people his peculiar treasure and what a glorious inheritance the Lord has chosen to himself in them making up one glorious body with the Lord Jesus Christ Now if it be necessary the eyes of our understanding should be enlightned to know the glory of Gods inheritance in us how much more the glory of our inheritance in Gods attributes that the soul may be able to rejoyce in the goodness of the Lord and say Thou art my portion says my soul that as Calvin observes upon that place Zac. 9.12 Satis praesidii in uno Deo There 's safeguard enough in one God so it may be said of all things else there is wisdom enough and holiness enough and all to be had in him and it is enough if it be in him alone There is a threefold inheritance that Christ hath stated upon his people for Christ is heir of all things 1 by Nature and Generation 2 by Donation as he was man now the first belongs unto him alone and he cannot communicate it and the other he doth impart unto us as we are one body with him and as we partake with him in the same Sonship so we do also in his inheritance Eph. 1.14 and this inheritance of Christ the Saints have a treble benefit by 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is the Heir of all things we have by him an inheritance of creatures as Christ is God he comes not under an act of Gods will and therefore it 's spoken of him as he was Mediator 2 He has an inheritance of promises for they are all made first unto him Gal. 3.16 2 Cor. 1.20 to him were the promises made not of seeds as of many but as of one who is Christ and therefore it 's in him that all the promises are Yea and Amen as we were chosen in him he was first elected and we in him so the promises were first Yea and then Amen in him and by virtue of our union with him unto us 3 There is a higher inheritance and that is Psal 16.5 that the Lord is the portion of Christ The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup Psal 45.7 c. Answerable unto this is the inheritance that Christ has made over unto the Saints who as they are fellows with him in his Unction so they are Coheirs with him in his Inheritance Rom. 8.17 as they have an inheritance in creatures for all all things are yours whether life or death and also in promises 1 Cor. 3.22 which is beyond what they have in any of the creatures so they have an inheritance that is far beyond both these and that is in God himself Rev. 21.7 He shall inherit all things I will be his God Heb. 6.12 Now if we consider it we shall see that there are great riches in this to have all the attributes of God theirs is greater than to have all the creatures and the promises of God made over to them 1. The Attributes of God are nothing else but the transcendent perfections that are in God the Divine Nature shadowed forth to us according to the capacity of the creatures in which the Lord as in his back parts that is pro nostro modulo according to our capacity makes known himself unto us and causes his goodness to pass before us and if the Lord would take any soul of us as he did Moses and in this manner discover himself there is nothing in the world would affect the soul like unto it for if these be the perfections of God how infinitely must they needs exceed all things that are in the creatures for they are all in him after the manner of a God and therefore all the attributes may be predicated of God in abstracto he is Wisdom and Holiness and Mercy c. because they are all of them the Divine Nature all the excellencies that are in the creature are received from him and therefore surely there is infinite more in himself Thence the Saints have been more taken with the Divine Excellencies that are in the Nature of God immediately than in all the blessings and benefits that come from him 1 Sam. 2.2 as Hanna after the blessing she had received from him she admires his goodness and the excellency that is in him there is none holy as the Lord and who is a Rock save our God and if the Saints did not do so their love were not of a right kind Austin plus diligere attractum quà m sponsum meretricius amor to love the token more than the bridegroom is adulterous love 2. This is the foundation of all our interest and all the comfort of it either in creatures or in promises How comes it to pass that all things are yours and promises yours c. but because the Lord is our God and therefore it 's brought in as the foundation of all blessedness having spoken of all creature-comforts in the highest he adds this Psal 144. Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. There is a blessedness therein without the creatures and the only foundation of blessedness in the creatures lyes in this 1 In creatures consider this is the difference between the portions of godly men and wicked men they may both possess the same thing but with a different temper and the one has only a title unto creatures as a gift of God but the other as he has a title unto God the one has them by a single and the other by a double title and so a little that the righteous has is better than great riches of many wicked because he has all that he has conveyed unto him from his interest in God as the Original thereof 2 In promises it 's true that their inheritance in them is very glorious far beyond that of Adam in Paradise but yet the foundation of all the promises is an attribute and they must all lead the soul unto God and his interest in him that did promise for Faithful is he that has promised and he will also do it There is a promise of pardon of sin but still it is to be resolved into an attribute 1 Joh. 2.1 He is faithful
fasten upon yet there is an attribute left which will be tabula post naufragium now expect the goodness of God to appear for thy succour in his putting forth of an attribute for none of them shall fail in their season there are no graces in the Saints but there is a season for their working Phil. 4.10 Your care for me says the Apostle Phil. 4.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth reviviscere it doth flourish or wax green again so that graces have their opportunity of working there is a spring-time Now we do not say that a tree is dead that bears not fruit always but that which doth not bring forth in the Summer which is the season of fruit and therefore I cannot but look upon it as an act of Soveraignty that of Christ's cursing the fig-tree Mark 11.13 for the Text says The time of figs was not yet come Mark 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some say that the fig-tree in this country did bear fruit all the year but that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not bear for it is plain there was a season of the fruit of this Tree as well as of other trees Some say that the time of the ripening and the gathering of fruit was not yet but there might be expected green figs but there was no fruit nor hope of fruit for the Tree had leaves only Innuit Christum hoc facto altius quid significâsse ficum scil symbolum esse populi Judaici Kem. Christ hereby signified the Jewish Church from whom the Lord expected always fruit because the season of it was always and this was an act of absolute Soveraignty over the creature and he that created it might curse it at his pleasure but the Lord does never expect fruit but in the season of fruit at the season he sent to the Husband-men that they should give him of the fruit of his Vineyard Luk. 20.10 for that grace is not idle that doth not act at all times but Quae non operatur quando dabitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which doth not act when a season shall be offered So also there is a season an opportunity for the exercise of every attribute and as the Lord expects the one of us in its season so should we and we may with boldness and comfort expect the other from him in the season The Hebrews say In the mount will the Lord be seen If thou hast sinned at any time then expect that pardoning mercy shall be put forth say The Lord is the God of my mercy now pardon me according to the greatness of thy mercy And if thou be at any time assaulted with temptation expect that the Power of God shall be put forth for thee and that the Lord shall say My grace is sufficient for thee If thou be at any time perplexed with difficulties and thou knowest not what to do now look up unto infinite Wisdom The Lord knows how to deliver the just out of adversity though I know not which way to scape yet say deliverance shall come from some other hand as Mordecai said though I cannot see from whence it shall come and I cannot in my wisdom see a way of deliverance yet it shall come now is the season for such an attribute to shew forth it self and therefore now I can look for the acting of it with comfort as having an interest in it God is a help found in the time of need he is a help promised before Psal 46.1 but he is never found so to be before the season when the soul is in trouble then he puts forth himself and makes bare his arm and therefore as the Apostle says He is as having nothing 2 Cor. 6.10 and yet possessing all things So the Saints they have them not in possession but they have them in their right of inheritance and for their use as their occasions and necessity do require that if it were possible for them to stand in need of the service of the whole Creation all the creatures should work for them and wait upon them in their necessity and look what experiences the ancient Saints have had thereof they in the like cases and necessity may expect if it stand with Gods glory and their best good the Moon shall stand still and the Sun shall go back and the Lyons shall stop their mouths the fire shall cease to burn and be a defence the Ravens bring meat the Heavens shall rain bread the Rocks shall give water c. and whatsoever attributes the Lord has at any time exerted and put forth for the Saints in the season of their need that you may expect grounded upon the same Faithfulness the same Covenant and Oath that was performed unto them and it 's the highest priviledge and happiness of the Saints to have the Attributes of God lye as a rescue for them Zac. 1.8 as the Angels did behind the Myrtle-trees in the bottom when there can be an expectation from nothing else in the world as David speaks of his enemies Psal 6.2 5. They did imagine mischief and consulted how to cast him down from his excellency whom God had exalted but says he My soul wait thou on God only my expectation is from him alone He can now look up to God and expect salvation from him when he can see no hope any other way As we are not the fountain of our own grace but it is laid up in Christ 1 Joh. 5.11 and we can expect that all the grace that is in Christ shall be put forth answerably unto our necessity in the season of it and therefore our grace shall abound as our trials and occasions do increase for suitable unto them shall our supplies of the Spirit be Phil. 1.19 says the Apostle For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ So the fountain of all our happiness is not in our selves but in our God and all the attributes that are in him shall be managed and put forth for us as our necessity shall require according to the Love Wisdom and Faithfulness of a God so that if thou couldst stand in need of infinite wisdom and infinite power and grace and mercy all of them should be put forth and exercised for thee not only a conspiracy and combination of all the creatures but also of all the Attributes of God all of them shall work together for thy good 5. Is not this a mighty ground of assurance that all the creatures shall be given you and that the Lord here will deny you nothing that may be for your good He that gives the greater will he deny the lesser He that makes over all that is in himself will he deny any thing that is in any of his works Surely it was a good saying of Bernard for the things of this life Qui dabit regnum non dabit viaticum c.
The soul is to rest upon all the promises that in Scripture are made concerning these persons there are promises that have a peculiar respect unto them all 1 There are promises that specially concern the Father which though they be formally made unto the Son yet it is with special respect unto the Saints as the promise of giving Christ unto their souls and nourishment and life by him for he says Joh. 6.32 Moses gave you not the bread that came down from heaven my Father gives you the true bread promises of justification by him Esa 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many that is as much as to say as many as believe in him shall receive remission of sins and a promise of guidance Exod. 23.20 Behold I send my Angel before you They were in a strait for they were in the wilderness where there was no way now the Father doth promise the Son should undertake their guidance and it is not a promise that is peculiar unto those times only though there was something peculiar in it And there is a promise of gifts Acts 1.4 Wait for the promise of the Father The extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost that were to be poured out to fit men for office in those times it 's called the promise of the Father and the promise also of preservation and perseverance My Father that gave them me is greater than all Joh. 10.29 and no man can pluck them out of my Fathers hand 2 There are some promises that do more especially belong unto the Son as that of grace and a continual supply he shall go in and out and find pasture and says Christ I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly and a promise of a constant presence I will dwell in them and walk amongst them Joh. 10.9 10. what concord hath Christ with Belial I am with you to the end of the world that he will beautifie his Church and sanctifie it and cleanse it that he may present it unto himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 6.26 27. and that he will subdue our enemies Esay 63.3 4. I will take them in my arms and keep them from their enemies fury their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment for the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is come he shall be cloathed with a garment d pt in blood and his name shall be called the word of God Rev. 19.13 3 There are some promises that in a more special manner respect the holy Spirit he has promised them a spirit of sanctification and he will purge the filth of the daughter of Sion by a spirit of burning Esa 4.4 promises of direction The Spirit shall lead you into all truth Joh. 16.13 he shall undertake to be the guide of your way and you shall hear a voice crying behind you This is the way walk in it a spirit of liberty also you shall have 2 Cor. 3.17 for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and a spirit of victory Esa 59.19 when the enemy doth break in as a floud the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him so that they shall conquer not by might nor by power but by my Spirit Zac. 4 6. Now all these lead a man unto the person of the Spirit and his interest in him as so many lines into a centre for as all the promises do lead a man to union with Christ by which means he becomes an heir of promise so do all the promises lead a man to an interest in his person without which he can lay no claim unto the promise that is made by any of the persons for they are not universal and made unto all but as the promises of Christ belong unto those that are one with him so all the promises of the persons belong only unto those that have an interest in them and therefore we are to cast our selves upon the persons for the accomplishment of the promises 3 Faith is to rest upon the love of them all for though they are essentially one and therefore have but one will yet as they are personally distinguished so they are three and have distinct wills and distinct loves and therefore Christ distinguishes between his will and the Fathers will I am come not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me not my will but thy will be done essentially his will and the Fathers are one but they are personally distinguished so they have essentially one love but if we look upon them as persons so they have each of them his own proper and peculiar love He that loves me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him if any man love me my Father will love him Joh. 14.21 c. so that faith is not only to close with the love of God in general as it is an Attribute of the Divine Nature as his Wisdom and Holiness Mercy and Power are but faith is also to close with the love of each of the persons as they are relatively distinguished one from another the love of the Father and the love of the Son and Spirit and as it is the love of God essentially that is the ground of all that God has wrought for us it was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.4 and though Esau was Jacobs brother yet I loved Jacob Mal. 1.2 so it is the personal love of all the persons that is the ground of all those workings of the persons for us and therefore you are to take in that love also as an object of your faith 4 Faith should rest upon the appropriated acts of each of these persons and rely upon them for the performance of them We have formerly heard that each person hath undertaken some special and peculiar acts for mens salvation as 1 the work of Vocation Adoption Justification Preservation Glorification for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdom they are all of them undertaken by God the Father And 2 the work of Satisfaction Presentation Oblation Intercession Conquest Judgment all these the Son has undertaken 3 The work of Sanctification Direction Consolation Supplication they are all of them undertaken by the Spirit Now we are not only to rely upon the essential faithfulness of God for the performance of it Heb. 6.17 but upon the personal faithfulness of each of these undertakers for they are all of them ingaged in it and here is a farther and higher consideration to be taken in the acts of the persons and they are of two sorts 1 Acts ad intrà internal acts and they are acts of nature which are acts one towards another as the generation of the Father in respect of the Son and the procession of the Holy Ghost as from them both 2 There are acts ad
draws virtue from all the objects of it Esa 66.11 It will suck and be satisfied with the breasts of consolation It 's true that we are now in a state of childhood 1 Cor. 13.12 our manhood is to come but yet there are breasts of consolation agreeable unto our condition as Christ cannot be touched by faith but virtue comes out of him Luke 8.46 there is a power and efficacy that goes out of him there is life to be drawn from the living Father and from the Son and from the Spirit a man can exercise no act of faith upon any of the objects of faith but he can find there is an influence that it hath upon the man that believes as it is in all the acts of Christ Phil. 3.9 10. so it is in this much more how should a man rejoyce to see the influence of each person upon his soul 4. There is also an act of resignation for faith hath two hands one to receive and the other to return I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine says the believing soul Cant. 6.3 a man doth as well give up himself to God as he doth receive an interest in God David says as well Lord I am thy servant as O Lord thou art my God and therefore a man should give up himself to the praise and glory of Father Son and Spirit for to be baptized in the name of them all is for a man to give up himself unto the obedience of them all there is a judging and reasoning also in faith says the Apostle Because we thus judge 2 Cor. 5.13 14. if one dyed for all then were all dead if the Father Son and Spirit give up themselves to work for our good and we have an interest in them all how much more should we give up our selves to be to the praise and glory of them all and still keep up the eye of our faith open to see the Lord making himself over to us and the ear of faith open to hear and receive the testimony that is given and be not indulgent to the unbelief doubtings and the misgiving of your own spirits receive the witness of God within you and having received a testimony of thy interest then triumph in God for there is a triumph of faith Eph. 1.3 blessed be God the Father by Christ who was rich in love loved me and gave himself for me glory be to the Father Son and Spirit § ◠Be much in exercising distinct acts of communion with all the persons seeing there is a distinct interest in them all we should labour for a distinct fellowship with them all The ground of all unions and relations amongst all rational creatures is that they might have a fellowship one with another by their interest one in another for their interest must be improved and exercised modo rationali in a rational way It is true that there are relationes aequiparantiae as well as disquiparantiae between inferiour and superiour and between equals but yet the end is communion in them both therefore the man and wife are made one flesh and therefore friends do become one heart and soul therefore in the Church the members do become one body 1 Cor. 12.12 13. as the body hath many members even so is Christs body We are baptized into one body and all is that they might by mutual consent enjoy a communion of Saints amongst themselves and for this cause we become one body with the Angels Eph. 1.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might gather them all together under one head so that the Saints and the Angels do make but one glorious Church and therefore it is Bernards apprehension That God did elect as many men as should supply the places of the Angels that fell and they should be in Christ taken up into the same body with them in glory and therefore we are said to come to the innumerable company of Angels Heb. 12.23 and all that we might enjoy a communion with them and so much the words ascending and descending imply Joh. 1. ult and this is the end of our interest in Christ the Mediator and we are married to him that we might have fellowship with him and by this means we rise to an higher interest and that is in the Father Son and Spirit and this also is that we might have a distinct communion with them all § 4. Here we will consider 1 That there is a distinct Communion with them all that a Believer may and ought to have with all the persons grounded upon his interest in them all 2 Wherein this Communion doth consist and what are the actings of it 3 Give you some arguments that may perswade the people of God to be much in the improvement thereof that as you have a fellowship with Christ and with the Saints and you look upon that as sweet so you would not neglect this which is the highest fellowship that you do attain by faith and is the end of all your union and communion whatsoever 1. That there is a distinct fellowship and communion to be had with all the persons That will clearly appear from 1 Joh. 1.3 Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ so that we have not only a communion with Christ the Mediator but through him with the Father and 2 Cor. 13.14 we do read of a fellowship with the Spirit also which must be mutual he hath a fellowship with us and we with him we are said to have access unto the Father which are terms of communion and that distinct communion which we have with all the persons Heb. 12.22 as well as they one with the other and therefore 't is said Heb. 12.22 Ye are come unto mount Sion c. Now to come unto the three persons notes 1 faith in them and so we come unto Christ Come unto me all ye that labour Mat. 11.29 that is that believe in him 2 It notes a communion with them and so we have access by him Ad gratiam ad gloriam Patris and thus we are said to come unto God by him Heb. 7. and no man comes unto the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 for he is the Mediator of Communion as well as of Reconciliation and we have as much need of him for the one as for the other If we look upon God and man as enemies then there needs a Mediator that may be as a days-man to lay hold upon both but being reconciled and made friends he having made us near by the blood of his Cross yet we cannot come unto God but by him it is he that gives us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 3.12 Here to come to them is to be taken into favour and fellowship with them all as appears in these particulars 1 We are come unto mount Sion the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem that is the Church of Christ under the New Testament called therefore
great evil but with the immediate works and gifts of the Spirit of God is a far greater provocation 4 That which you place your sufficiency so much in remember you cannot act without Divine aid a man that has received gifts cannot exercise and use those gifts that he has received The Apostle doth distinguish between all these three there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gifts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Offices and there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Effects or Operations of the same graces now as the Spirit doth appoint every man his office and gives unto every man his gift so he doth give unto every man a success as it pleaseth him and therefore though Paul may plant and Apollo water yet it is God that gives the increase and the success is not always answerable unto the labour that is bestowed even in the best we see it in Christ himself he did spend his whole life and his very radical moisture in labour Esa 49.4 as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie and yet he doth himself complain That he had laboured in vain and spent his strength for nought c. So when the Prophets had received a Spirit of Prophecy and the Apostles a gift of Miracles yet notwithstanding they could not act it when they would but when the Spirit of the Lord came upon them as it was with Samson and therefore it 's a kind of a Proverb that Luther has in Gen. 4.4 Spiritus Sanctus non semper tangit cor Prophetarum The Spirit doth not always touch the Prophets heart so the Apostles had a gift of healing but they could not heal when they would and therefore when Epaphroditus had been sick and was nigh death also Paul who had the gift of healing for when they brought from him but handkerchiefs and aprons the diseases departed from them yet he cannot now heal him who was so dear to him and whose ministery was so useful it 's not in a mans power therefore to act his own gifts he cannot use his own abilities at his own pleasure as there is an ability in a man to gather and know much of God by his works that are in the world yet it is according as God did point and direct his understanding or else he could never do it Rom. 1.19 it is manifest in the creation of the world for God has shewed it unto them and to know what seed to sow and with what instruments to thresh and when the ground is fit for seed and when it is sufficiently plowed c. It is God that doth instruct him to discretion Esa 28.26 The men of might cannot find their hands they were men of strength and they were skilful in war but they could not use it at such a time they could not find their hands it is unto them as if they had no strength as if they had had no skill for they have no use of them therefore remember this when you place your sufficiency so much in these things 5 As they that have these gifts cannot act them of themselves without Gods assistance so neither can they give success to them or make them in any measure effectual the best men have but their measure Rom. 12.4 God has not given all gifts to one man and therefore the greatest and the best and most eminent member of the body shall have need of the gifts of the meanest there is a supply of every joynt unto the edifying of the body there is something in the meanest Saint that thou maist despise as weak-gifted yet it is wanting in thee and thou canst not give success to thy greatest endeavours but he that gives the gift must give the blessing mundus non potest esse sine personarum discrimine Luther there must be Princes and Rulers and Governors sed dona non sequuntur illas differentias c. and so it is here the effect doth not always follow the abilities but a man of lesser gifts shall bring forth more fruit to God than he that thinks himself most sufficient For the Lord resists the proud and gives grace to the humble he will give the success there where he may have the glory and many times a man of great ability is laid aside though he labours yet he brings nothing to pass and a man of lesser parts is blessed exceedingly and the reason is the one is too great in his own eyes or in the eyes of others and therefore the Lord cannot use him non patitur in regno suo superbiam God cannot bear pride in his Kingdom 6 When we place our sufficiency in them that will provoke the Lord to take them away from us there are two things that provoke God exceedingly one is being weary of our work as it was in Moses and the other is when we do exalt our selves in our work and put an excellency upon our selves for our own actings therefore says the Lord From him that hath not shall be taken away he will put thee out of thy stewardship if thou waste his goods to maintain thy own pride and there is nothing in the world doth blast the parts of men more and provoke God to take them away in judgment and the man dies besotted he withers in all the greenness that did appear so fresh in him Joh. 15.6 he doth in this saith Luther as Vespasian when he saw there was no way to take men off from seeking wealth In Gen. 4.4 aequo animo patiebatur eos ditari with a patient mind suffer men to be rich but he said Divites spongiam esse there would come a pressing time when men that gathered so much for themselves should go empty away remember this ye that forget the Lord and place a sufficiency in any gift that God has given you the Lord will certainly deprive thee of it and thy folly shall be made manifest 2. When men do place not only sufficiency in their gifts but in grace received which a man also is very apt to do and let me tell you it is the highest spiritual pride in the world and is an abuse of the highest gift and grace of God 1 Consider it is quite contrary to the nature of grace which is to live in another and to fetch all from another and therefore it is an unnatural sin 2 No man can act his own grace Deus agit immediaté 3 Grace is but a creature and may decay in the degrees of it and it doth oftentimes I and in the essence it would also if it were not preserved by an almighty power Rev. 2.4 for it is not in its own nature immortal seed 4 It doth make grace an Idol and so it provokes the Spirit to withdraw from his own graces so that he shall delight to see the ruine of his own workmanship Object But you 'l say Do not we read in Prov. 14.14 That a good man is satisfied from himself and that there is a sufficiency
their life to the destroyers the Lord hath caused light to shine out of darkness and hath made their light to break forth out of obscurity and when they have walked in the shadow of death a light hath risen upon them as the Martyr that was in prison in his own spirit till he came into prison and the prison was that which the Lord made use of for his enlargement Schola crucis lucis fenestra and so we read of another Martyr who upon this ground did wonderfully bless God that he came into prison that thereby he became acquainted with that Angel of God John Bradford The providence of God is as wonderful in the consolations as in the conversion of his people for it is a creating of the fruit of the lips peace Esa 57.19 and that is ex nihilo 6. In temptations when the lust hath been high and the temptation impetuous and the man about to yield the Lord hath sometimes appeared and struck the lust as it were from Heaven immediately and said Stay thy hand and the lust hath vanished for the fashion of the world passeth away and the lust thereof that a mans heart hath been dead unto that which before it was with the greatest violence set upon the Lord hath hedged up a mans way with thorns so that he could not sin with security as other men do Hos 2.6 7. but still when he would have sinned there were stumbling-blocks in his way and some providences that did concur to cross him in a way of sinning and some to pull him out of the fire when he was falling in as the instance of Vzthazares the Persian and the story of Ambrose of a young man that met with his mistress with whom he had formerly had dalliances and when she met him again the Lord struck his lust so that when she said Ego sum I am she he answered Ego non sum I am not he 2. There is a special Providence over godly men for the good of others that are good in their present and in after-generations 1. There is a strange Providence in improving their parts Moses being to be a man of great imployment for the good of the people of God he must be learned in all the learning of the Egyptians and so the parts of Austin and his learning and so of Luther how strangely did God make use of for the good of his people and Luk. 11.22 't is said he takes from him all the armour wherein he trusted c. that learning and those abilities and improvements the Lord doth imploy for the good of his people and he hath strange ways of improving of those that he doth intend to imploy and men see not the reason of it till afterward 2. In drawing out of their graces as in Joseph by the temptation of his mistress and the persecution that he met with his bow abode in strength and his arm was made strong and so it was with Job that we might hear of his patience and what end the Lord made with him and we know how strangely the Lord did order things that the height of Luthers spirit did rise by the opposition that was against him that he that at first would have accepted of easie terms afterwards resolved that nothing but the utter overthrow of Popery should satisfie him Efficiam ut Anathema sit esse papista◠3. Thereby there is a Providence that doth turn them to the good of his people that are to succeed partly for admonition that they may be warnings unto them Remember Lots wife remember Peter and David and Solomon that you may take heed to avoid the same snares in which they were taken and partly for their consolation that God might shew in them a pattern of all long-suffering unto them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting as Beza said when one derided him for his wanton Poems in his youth Hic homo invidet mihi gratiam Christi c. 4. Their sufferings so it was with Joseph Gen. 50.20 Ye intended evil but the Lord turned it unto good to save much people alive it was your good that God intended in my affliction and so Johns banishment into Patmos it was that he might receive the Book of the Revelations which hath been the great stay of the hearts and faith of the people of God ever since and though it may be obscure yet Conrad Graserus speaks of it by his own experience Me non ex ullius libri canonici lectione ad instructionem consolationem plùs proficere pag. 2. I have not profited more by any book c. 5. Their labours As 't is said that Moses wrote the Book of Job for the consolation of the people of God when they were in Egypt and of what use hath that been in general to the Church of God ever since so many of the pains of the people of God in writing the lives of the godly and the Sermons and sayings of the Ministers of God and their own observations of the signs of the times and whatever they have of that kind been put upon in particular cases providence hath so over-ruled things that they have been as a standing benefit unto the Church of God in after-ages and they have lived when the men have died There are many defences of the people of God and Apologies that they have been put upon in all ages when men of corrupt minds have aspersed the writings and persons of those that have been eminent in their places for asserting the Truths of God and witnessing against the corruptions of the times c. 6. Not only their labours have been very useful in all ages but also their Examples of well-doing Povidence doth put the Saints upon many things and conditions that they may leave their example as monuments in the ages to come as the Apostle saies Phil. 1.14 By my bonds many of the brethren wax confident are much more bold to speak the truth without fear 1 Tim. 4.12 Be thou an example of the believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith and in purity they must be exemplary in every generation that they may leave their footsteps behind them that the people of God may walk after them and go forth by the footsteps of the stock in after-ages and that they may be so the Lord doth in his providence so order things that they shall have occasion to shew themselves examples in all things so that there is an over-ruling providence by virtue of the interest of the Saints in the Soveraignty of God that orders all things towards good men for their own good and all providences over them for the good of his people in the present and in after-ages that so a good man may be every way a common good 7. They have great advantages by the prayers of the Saints for even the wicked of the age yea and of after-ages do attain benefits by their prayers much more