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A27592 A conciliatory discourse upon Dr. Crisp's sermons on the observation of Mr. William's dissatisfactions in them : in which the unsearchable riches of Christ ... / by T. Beverley. Beverley, Thomas. 1692 (1692) Wing B2134; ESTC R34407 34,697 34

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or Scheme of a Conditionate Election and a Conditionate Covenant of Grace then an Inconditionate Election and a Conditional Covenant of Grace except we make the Series and Frame of the consequent Disposes of Election Conditions God puts upon himself for the making good his first Choice that is he chooses upon Condition he himself will in time give Faith Repentance Holiness which we know were both unreasonably derogatory from the Divine Glory and from that order in which Scripture gives us these Supreme Acts of Grace For Foreknowledge Predestination Election in Christ are the Fountain of Calling Justification Sanctification Glorification Rom. 8. 29. Whereas if Sanctification were the condition of Justification Glorification coming last must be the condition of all the rest As if the Sense were on condition God will Glorifie he will Sanctifie So Justification must be the condition of Calling and Calling of Election But how much more Beautiful and Orderly is the Scripture Chain Making all after Wise disposes flowing from the Independent First And so every where Scripture Discourses he hath chosen us that we should be Holy and without Blame before him in Love Ephes 1. As of God viz. by the Eternal Fountain of Grace and in his Electing Love are we in Christ who is of God 1. Cor. 1. 31. without any condition on our part made Wisdom in Calling Righteousness in Justification Holyness in Sanctification All these are brought into Glory in Redemption that none might Glory in his Presence but he that Glorieth might Glory only in the Lord. For if there were but one Thing suspended upon us as a Condition on our Part even that single thing would turn the Covenant of Grace into a Covenant of Works For it would be Work done by our selves and we might Glory we have done we have will'd we have run we have atchiev'd and attain'd what ever indeed that might be Duly demanded of us and is not required is Grace or whatever is given is Grace But what is required on our own Strength is Work and though it be said God assists by his Grace by his Spirit yet if there be 99 Parts given or assisted and but the 100th Part our Act that 100th Part is Work and all Grace is suspended on that For on the doing or not doing that All hangs And seeing thousands do not that 100th Part if we do it we have reason of Boasting that we were wiser we were better than they For how small how little soever that nice and curious Point be on which all the vast Globes of not only Eternity but Supreme Grace turns and wherein Divine Wisdom and Holyness placed all That is ours and we have done it And though in all else we are beholden to God to Christ to the Divine Spirit yet in that which is the last Hinge we are beholden to our selves Nay if all were first given and but our Perseverance only were the Condition on which all depended the same might be said of Perseverance that it turn'd the Covenant of Grace in that Part into a Covenant of Works And whereas many do not Persevere we have reason to Glory we Persevere and there is some thing we have not received And so the Vertical Point would be our selves and we might Glory in his Presence For that and not Christ would be the Corner Stone and to it we might cry Grace Grace And however there is so much to be ascrib'd to Grace and what would in common Speaking among Men be call'd the making of us and doing all for us Yet it is to be consider'd whether the Glory God will not give to another be not parted with and surrendred by him if the last Decisive Point Rest upon us which makes me Assured it cannot be so And so though I acknowledge with those who most acknowledge it the necessity of Faith Repentance Holyness and of our own Action therein yet in speaking of the Covenant as the Covenant of Grace and being an Ectype or Exemplification of Everlasting Grace I say These nor any Action of the Elect ought to be styled Conditions but Wise and Holy Dispositions of God the Author and Founder and of Christ the Mediator Surety and Testator And which he will most certainly see to that they shall most Infallibly take place in their just Series Succession and Order both of Nature and of Time And why should we be so afraid to speak of the Covenant of Grace as Inconditionate For what is there that we would single out as a condition that is not to be ascrib'd to Gods Immediate Gift Is it Faith Is it the Gift of God Ephes 2. 8. To you Is it given to believe Is it Repentance He hath made Christ a Prince to give it Acts 5. 31. If God peradventure will give Repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. Is it Holyness Christ is made so Sanctification to us that we cannot Boast Is it the Laws of God in our Hearts A new Heart a new Spirit a soft Heart his Fear within us that we may never depart from him One Heart and one Way to fear him forever to know him by his Spirit All these are assurd to be given even as Pardon in Sin and by as free a Gift All by a plain absolute Inconditionate Grant How many and great Scriptures run in this absolute Style and yet how expresly is all this call'd a Covenant Jer. 31. Heb. 8. Jer. 32. Ezek. 11. Chap. 36. But if it be said how then comes it to pass that the whole Strain and Stream of Scripture to which Preaching ought to be conform'd speaks of these Graces and all the Actions agreeable to them as Conditions of the Covenant of Grace There are three grand Accounts to be given of it I. It becomes the Wise and Holy Rector and Governor of the World and of his Rational Human Creation to treat and deal with and give them all Scope Room and Business and Advantage in and for Intellectual Action Men as Rational Creatures know not how to deal with one another or to move themselves but by the Activities of Understanding Conscience Will Affections So that they must lye still and not act at all or be moov'd only as Bruits or Machines or thus There is therefore the continual Rational Breathing and Motion of Doctrine Instruction Promise Threat Reproof Correction and all kind of Motion and Action suitable and agreeable to it All Scripture is therefore prepared and Profitable hereunto Besides the Commands and Precepts of Holyness being so abundant they shew the necessity of a continual Recourse to Christ for Strength Grace and Assistance for Righteousness from him and Pardon through him wherein we fall short Nothing mooves more to run to the Righteousness of Christ than the sight of Imperfect Grace and Action to which we are called if by our selves though under Divine Assistance from Christ II. Now under this Oeconomy and Dispensation of Things the Grace of God according to Election and according to the Mediation
as Assurance Yet these Thunders being scal'd now near again to be unseal'd It flatted again as now we see And this is the Reason the Discourses of Assurance as so essential to Faith are almost as Portentous as the Doctrin of the Kingdom of Christ in such a near appearing Glory and any Aspiring to it as presumptuous Head 10. Prevailing Enmity is no hindrance to our Interest in Christ Conciliation This may be apprehended three ways and be very great truth 1. The Elect Sinner in the midst of the most prevailing Enmity hath such Interest in Christ that his Rescue from Sin Hell and Death is so secur'd and deposited by the Divine Decree for him in Christ that the very height of Enmity shall not disinterest him but Christ will break through that Enmity and seize upon him even when it is most Boiling up and Raging Thus Paul Acts 9. being a chosen Vessel even while he had a Knife in his hand to murther Christ had yet such an Interest in Christ by that Electing Grace that his Conversion Faith Repentance and Apostleship lay treasur'd up in Christ and Christ had such an Interest in him That an Everlasting Arm was about him and he was Appreprehended by Chrst for that very Thing that in Due Time he might by Faith Apprehend Christ. And surely this is an Interest of no mean account 2. At the very height of Enmity the chiefest Sinner hath that Interest in Christ that he may come and apprehend Christ by Faith and receive all the Benefits of Christ and the very first of those Benefits shall be the Healing him of that Enmity He hath a Right to come If it be said Enmity and Coming connot consist it is true But his present Enmity does not disinterest him in a Right to come if he would But it hinders his being willing to come Yet in the moment the Grace of Christ Abounds to the Elect Person at the Appointed Time with Faith and Love which are in Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 1. 14. Present Enmity is no more hindrance to an Interest in Christ but that as in Paul it falls flat in what moment that Grace pleases 3. To win upon Sinners to come to Christ it may be said to them while in the Preaching of the Gospel there is a Probing or Endeavouring to Find out the Elect and Bring them to Christ It may be I say said to them Come though you have the highest Enmity That is no hindrance to your Interest in Christ supposed you come For in that very moment you turn to come to Christ your Enmity shall drop off from you It is a Hindrance to the present Application of Interest not to the Interest it self that is secur'd in Electing Grace and the Free Promises of the Gospel intended and design'd for all the Elect. And this the Gospel gives right to the Preachers of it to declare But the doubt whether this or that particular Person belongs to that Election while he is in Enmity and the certainty of Enmity ceasing in the very coming is as a drawn Sword between a claim of Interest in Chris● and perservering Enmity If it be said There must be Humiliation Wearin●ss Sight of Sin and Sorrow for it The Methods of Electing Grace that it hath prescribed to it self will take care for all and so that all such Affections and Acts shall be rais'd up excited and carried on in the Sinner himself and even by himself under the Efficacy of that Grace And thus understood as it must be except he that speaks so be a person void of all Holy Sense or so much as Sober and such Dr Crisp was not in the Judgment of Mr. Williams as appears in the last Lines of the Preface They must therefore be understood to be spoken by way of earnest perswasion to come to Christ and to Essay upon Men by proposing the Largest and Freest Terms So the Ministers of Christ as Fishers spread the Net to Catch Men As Scripture says he hath received Gifts for the Rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them Psal 68. 18. And as Abraham is said to Believe on Him that Justifies the Vngodly Why may not the most expatiating Expressions be used in so good a Sense and with so good a Design seeing Scripture hath us'd such And why may not as good an Effect be hop'd for from this way of Speaking seeing Scripture hath us'd it as from the severer ways Scripture hath also us'd according to the variety of Gifts and Motions of the same Spirit and both be blessed by God giving effect through Christ Head 11. The Elect are not united to Christ without Faith Upon Believing only we are related to Christ as all the Metaphors of Union import Conciliation The being chosen in Christ before the World began being predestinated to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself cannot be without Union The first Powers of Regeneration Conversion Softness of Heart Contriteness of Spirit Faith Repentance which the Apostle expresses by Wisdom or Calling in Christ Jesus cannot be without Union And yet it is true that setled Union of Communion or Union of Communion cannot be till Christ be received by the Faith of God's Elect nor can the Elect be at all known to themselves from the Non-Elect So that as there is need of all the Forcible and Right Words of Scripture to shew without Faith Repentance Holiness there can be no Union of Communion with Christ or of the Consolation arising from it even according to the Eternal Counsel of Him that worketh all Things after the Counsel of his own Will So on the other side there is Authority and Warrant to Declare that Inseparable Union between the Head of the Adoption and all that are Predestinated to the Adoption of Children in Him that it may be acknowledg'd to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace who hath laid his Foundation so sure And it may be also Declar'd by way of Invitation and Encouragement in coming to Christ that Sinners who look towards him may be begotten an effect wherein they are wholly passive to a living Hope through his Grace who does it of his own Will and yet by the Word of Truth in all parts of it as a subordinate Ministry and that they may be invited to look towards him and that they may be encourag'd to expect Grace from Christ for Union of Communion flowing from the Union of the Predestinated Adoption in Him at the just time appointed by God for it Head That of Justification before Faith hath been already spoken to but I will add something to it on the next Head Head 12. Repentance is necessary to Pardon Conciliation Seeing Justification and Pardon include necessarily the Removals of the Wrath and Displeasure of God in all the dreadful Effects of it and also connote as necessarily the Breaking out of his Favour in the most gracious Effects of it how Faith or Repentance can be perfectly or in full