shows us the reason of the thing also by setting down a Copy of this well-order'd Covenant which I shall Analyse in these seven several Heads that are so many Arguments to prove the Truth of this Doctrine Its 1. Divinity 2. Personality 3. Graciousness 4. Everlastingness 5. Order 6. Sureness 7. It s Perfection as to Salvation or Satisfaction Having shewn from each of these apart and much more from all put together with how much satisfaction every Covenanted Soul may dye whatever be the Imperfections or blasts upon the growth of their Grace or whatever be the disorder of the Affairs of their House whatever terrible use Satan may make of them or sorrow we may have from them yet we may safely lay down our Corps in the Dust and bid Farewell to Sun Moon and Stars to the Creatures below us and our Friends about us and say Welcome Fellowship of Angels Hail ever blessed Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier I come I come help me thorough this pain guide me thorough this dark Valley of Death dispell this only remaining Cloud between me and that Sun of Righteousness I shall conclude with some usefull Application having proved and explained this Truth 1. There is the Divinity of the Covenant the more of God that there is in any thing the more of Goodness there must be in it for there is none good but God God is 1. The Author of this Covenant he hath made The like expression we find Isa 55.3 Jer. 3.31 Man that was but of Yesterday could never make an Everlasting Covenant Angels that are charg'd with folly and are yet Students of its Mysteries 1 Pet. 1.12 could never bring things confounded by Sin into Order again this Politick Union is founded on the Personal Union of Immanuel Who could have contriv'd that Who could have contriv'd a Righteousness to answer the broken Law of the first Covenant There are two most comforting Thoughts arises from Gods being Author of the Covenant the Goodness of the end and wise contrivance of the Means 1. The Goodness of the End Persons that have any Grains of Honesty left when they enter a Confederacy with others design a mutual Advantage It is a meer Cheat to draw Persons into a Commerce or Policy they can get no good but hurt by But God can receive no Good Ps 16. Our goodness extends not to him and his Glory consists in giving that we may see there is such an inexhaustible Fountain of Goodness and Blessedness in him that when Sinners have receiv'd a full Salvation Guilt a compleat Pardon and all empty desire a full satisfaction measur'd out by Wisdom so that it may not satiate but still preserve so far the Desire as to delight in receiving all the advantage must be ours If any part of this Design should fail of making us compleatly happy it would reflect on Divine Alsufficiency it would eclipse his Glory We are made Sons by Covenant and will a Father see his Children starve while he possesses any thing 2. The wise Contrivance of the Means there is not one Article of the Covenant that we would desire left out or one Article we could desire added to it if our Understandings were come to a mature perfection to judge of such a Concern 1 Cor. 3.22 Death is ours we would rather want it but how shall we get to Heaven without Death for Flesh and Blood cannot enterit Or how shall this Earth be chang'd into a glorious Condition without Death There are many more Reasons we know not all things present are ours We would rather want many of our present Conditions and Circumstances Sickness Poverty c. but Rom. 8. all these work together for our good If this Covenant should any way fail or prove deficient we may bless God we had no hand in it or rather that all in it was Contrived by him all its Clauses Terms and Articles were settled and Authoritatively publish'd before we knew one Word of it if it come short of its End it will not be thorough our Default he knew what we were when he Contriv'd the Covenant for our Happiness he enter'd into Covenant with us as Sinners it will reflect on his Wisdom and Circumspection his Foresight or Prudence Obj. The first Covenant fail'd of its End and that was made by God Resp It 's positively false for it was Contriv'd and that Primitive Constitution of Man too as a Means to bring in the Covenant of Grace and the Happiness of Man thorough it Man's Blessedness was not the immediate End of that Covenant To say God is come short of his End frustrated and disappointed is to make him not God The learned Strangius says tho' Sin is no means of God's Glory Permission of sin was for that made way for Creatures being brought from a lower Condition and greater distance from God than meer nothing was by it the steps of nigh infinite successions and degrees of Happiness are increas'd Goodness blossoms into Grace and Mercy by making an Inhabitant of Hell whether by Act or Desert an Heir and Possessor of Heaven but it had remained a meer Goodness that it had made a Clod of Clay an Angel What a Manifestation of Infiniteness for Creatures to be always increasing but ever short of God's fulness Secondly The Divinity of the Covenant appears in God's being the Party as well as the Author Zach. 13 ch last Ver. I will say it is my People and they shall say the Lord is my God and that distinctly in all the Relatives of the Blessed Trinity We enter into Covenant with God as Father Christ says I go to your Father and my Father We enter Covenant with God as Son in all his Mediatorial Offices We enter into Covenant with the Holy Ghost in all his sanctifying and glorifying Influences We see David here set all the Blessed Trinity the God of Israel the Rock of Israel and the Spirit of the Lord before the Covenant as the Persons he did indent with And it is yet more distinctly set down in the Baptismal Form of the Covenant in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost This helps to remove some Difficulties about the Covenants Conditionality for the whole Law being in its Nature as unchangeable as the Relations between the Creator and Creature it stands still the Measure and Standard of Duties and Conditions of the Covenant of Grace but what Conditions the Father as Fountain of Authority requires the Son as Mediator Surety and Cautioner performs and what this Mediator as God's Vicegerent and Deputy requires the Spirit enables us to do whose Operations are both preventive and effectual so this Covenant of Grace is an absolute Disposition of Grace notwithstanding all the Laws and Duties of it for there are no preparative Duties required in order to the Spirits Influences nor may be no Persons in this World without some of his Beams and Rayes for as it is Christ's Merits that preserves this Earth from being a Hell so
holds in Speculatives the latter in Practicals There are three things in the Covenant whose Order is principally to be observed The Subjects the Matter the Ends. 1. As to the Subjects I shall but name them First God is concern'd about the Covenant before us he made it Secondly That the Order of the Trinity is observable in it 1. It flows from the Love of the Father and is contrived by his Wisdom 2. The Blessings of it purchased or way for the Execution of the Contrivance that it might consist with the Justice of Divine Government made by the Son 3. The Execution of it is by the Spirit Thirdly That Christ as our Mediator and Head was in Covenant for us before us as the first Adam was in the first Covenant before us so the second Adam was hence we receive all thorough him Eph. 1. He hath bless'd us with all spiritual Blessings in Christ Jesus He shall take of mine and give it unto you We eat his Flesh and drink his Blood we receive our Measures from that Immense fulness treasur'd up in him There was no new Covenant to intervene between the first Adam and his Seed in order to their partaking of the Priviledges promised to him or possess'd by him Fourthly Persons must first be in Covenant before they partake of its Priviledges Subjects must precede their Properties all the Promises of the Bible blotting out Sins and Iniquities cannot solidly comfort thee who art not in Covenant only thus far I may be in Covenant and then they are mine The Man must be first taken before any Right to what he has this is the one thing necessary to poor Sinners that they be in Covenant once Fifthly There is a great difference tho not in Right yet in Priority of Order as to Possession among the Subjects of this Covenant 1 Cor. 15.23 Every one in their own Order Isa 9. Of the Increase of his Government there will be no end and that Increase by Order There are Variety of Forms and Classes in Christs School the Lowest is in this World which is but a meer Initiation into it The greatest Blessings here bear the Nature of Titles or Earnests of the Future Eph. 1.17 tho so big as to enable us to live to maintain and propare us By vertue of this Order Sinlesness is as necessary a Condition of our entring Heaven as Faith is of our Pardon or Justification 2. There is the Order of the Matter of the Covenant which consists in the Promises and Precepts of it abstractly or in their mutual Aspect 1. Abstractly with respect to the Promises of the Covenant there is an Order among them there are some Promises whose fulfillment we may expect and do enjoy in this Life some not as that no Temptation shall befall us that shall totally conquer us in this Life but a perfection in Knowledge and Holiness a doing away of what is in part a being without Spot or wrinkle are Blessings proper to the future Life a being freed from all Suffering is proper to the other Life 1 Pet. 5.9 There is no Promise but what beiongs to the Covenant nor no Blessing but what comes thro' the Promises 2. There are some Promises absolute others conditional God gives a Stock before he requires any Improvement God required no Duty untill he had made a Creature and â—â—tted it with Faculties for performing of the Duties he required nor doth now the Covenant of Grace although the Law still keep up its Right and claim the exercise of Faith one of the first duties of the Covenant but the Gift of Faith is before it The Promise of the Redeeming Seed Gen. 3. was preventive of all Duties there was need of believing it in order to all saving Blessings by it Heb. 11. but the Nature of that Faith was such as no external Revelation or Motives could alone bring forth A clear Discovery ver 1. of invisible things realized to the Mind the Idea of them form'd in the Soul for Joh. 1. darkness could not comprehend the Light and the natural Man knoweth not the things of God 3. Legal Promises are before Evangelical Joh. 16. the Spirit convinces of Sin before it convince of Righteousness though there be great difference between the degrees of Conviction and Humiliation some are under yet no man will ever fly to a Refuge that is not sensible of need no man will trust to anothers Righteousness that doth not despair of his own when the Law came sin revived and I dyed 4. The Promises about the Being and exercise of Grace are before the Knowledge of them An Act presupposes an Object there are many things in our Souls we are ignorant of or doubtful about Whether Freedom be an Attribute of the Will or rather of the Man How far it is active or passive Whether it can form an Idea never impress'd Whether it be capable of Traduction or another Soul may be propagated from it or created out of it And how long may we be ignorant of the Accesses and Recesses of the Spirit of God with which is his Language to it and what Influences speak a State past the danger of final Relapsing 5. The Promises that give a Capacity before them that fill and satisfie it It is not orderly acting to put an Estate in a Minors power one under Age. Our Lord took two of the most ripe and early Children that ever this World afforded and gave the World an Experiment of their Unfitness for enjoying the Comforts and ravishing Enjoyments of the other World Peter and Paul they were both confounded they knew not what they said nor what they heard 6. The Promises suited to our Need rather than Desire Our Desire is corrupted and feverish we often long for what would injure us but our Saviour minds our Salvation first this is all my Salvation and all my Desire 7. The Lord reserves to himself some Monuments of his former despotical Right a Sovereignty in the disposal of some Blessings in the Covenant as about all outward Blessings Plenty Peace Prosperity about the Time of effectual Calling into the Covenant about the continuance under Legal Frames or a spirit of Bondage there is a May be as to many Mercies in the Fifth Command Honour thy Father c. that thy days may be long God may give another Mercy for long Life If a man give a pound of Gold for Lead he breaks not Promise especially where more need of it The Second Part of the Matter of the Covenant is its Precepts and Commands There is a beautiful Order also observable among them 1. In a suitableness to our Condition He lays not heavy Burdens and galling Yoaks on the Necks of Children but the most easie and facile the Work and Employ of Angels who perpetually praise God is not charg'd on us or such Personal War with Devils the chaining and restraining of them We are not fit to be God's Instruments in the great Revolutions and Messages they
difference that was between him and any other Man in Matter of Religion It was the Awe of God upon Conscience that extorted the Truth out of it and I have heard Free-willers pray as inconsistently with their own Profession which made me have far more Charity to their Persons than their Principles But 2. Thy Condition is like the Lepers at the gate of Samaria thou art sure to starve if out of Covenant and art sure to sin against God out of Covenant in every thing thou dost but thou hast a May-be for it if thou fly to this Refuge and lay hold of the Covenant and dost not thou think that if God spoke immediately from Heaven to thee in a time of Plague Famine Sword or Sickness and say May be thou shalt be safe in such a Place that thou wouldst speedily fly to such an Asylum But we have more encouragement the King already holding out the Scepter and declaring his readiness to accept Imperfect Performance that we may approach with greater Courage than an Esther before her Ahasuerus Sixthly It is such an Encouragement at Death when all other Comforts prove as broken Cisterns without Water Thou hast made with me a Covenant is a Shete-Anchor of Hope and so much the more when they have had the Verdict of a Society of grave serious and experienc'd Christians that their Covenanting was not formal and hypocritical but sincere and accepted of God that the temper of Mind it was performed with could be the Effect of no less Author than the Spirit of God the Birth bespoke its Father to be Heavenly when each of that Company of sagacious Saints witness'd that it was on the same Bottom their Hopes were built and that their Souls were all in a like Condition in the same Bundle of Life and this not without a Minister of the Word holding that Glass before their Face wherein they might see their Language to be a Copy of that Original and that this Harvest was from the Seed of the Word This has prov'd to many the sweetest and strongest Cordial they had at Death and there is ground to judge the Consolation solid since Mat. 18. Christ has declar'd what they loose on Earth he would in Heaven what they agreed about to ask he would grant and such a Verdict is not pass'd without serious Prayer to God in the Name of Christ for a Judgment of Discerning in that present affair Is this the thing that discourages People from Joyning unto Churches of such a Constitution that becomes so much matter of Comfort and Encouragement at the hour of Death Who that are seriously concern'd about their own Salvation would want such an Ordinance of Tryal I think it is the Reverend Mr. Ba. who advises Persons to write the Condition of their Soul and desire some Ministers or understanding Christians Verdict of it But I think this Verdict is preferable on several Accompts 1. As much as the Verdict of many is before the Judgment of one or a Church before a single person's 2. As much as a Divine Ordinance that has such Promises of the Spirits Conduct Mat. 18. before a humane Help and Expedient That which indeed first recommended it to me was a Gentlewoman on her Death-bed who bewail'd David-like her want of growth much and had this complex Evidence alone left which she improved much more pathetically than I have here express'd it I have found it the Experience of three more since in the like condition tho not under such backsliding or desertion The Third Property is the Graciousness of the Covenant The word gracious is not in the Text nor is it any where in Scripture verbally the Epithet of this Covenant tho most usual among Divines and there is reason enough for it for a Covenant cannot be made between the Creator and Creature without a gracious condescendency and therefore some will not allow the Law of Works to bear the Name of a Covenant because there cannot be a Covenant and not of Grace Persons that have a Despotick Power as a Master over a Slave or a Father over a Child will not enter into Terms with them The end of a Covenant is to bring Persons under Obligation that are free and therefore Kings love not to hear of Covenant terms between them and their People Now Gods antecedent Right being Soveraign and absolutely founded on Creation it 's rather a giving away his Right than getting one Thy Maker is thy Husband contains a Miracle of Grace in it 2. It s being a Testament this famous Name gives Title to all the Bible the Old and New Testament This is the Nature of a Testament it can Convey nothing but what is good Priviledges but no Punishments All things that are Convey'd are Tokens Legacies Estate or Inheritance if any hard Condition be annexed the Person is not Obliged to accept so must be gracious by its being a Testament but how much more if we consider it as summ'd up by Christ from John 12. to 18. ch He leaves the Father our Tutor and Guardian the Holy Ghost Executor Heaven as an Inheritance Measures of Grace as Legacies Joy and Peace as Love-Tokens he leaves us under the Notion of Babes that cannot Forfeit their Estate without their Executor and Guardians consent which is impossible therefore in this sence true He that is born of God cannot sin 3. It 's gracious because so full of Promises Gal. 3.6.17 it 's call'd a Command and a Law too Ps 111.10 who hath commanded his Covenant for ever because all the Law that is holy just and good is still required in it being unchangeable in their Nature but now Grace shines in their being put in this Covenant where Grace is promised to enable and strengthen us to obey We are under all the Law Mat. 5. Christ came not to destroy it and our Condition enlarges the Duties of the Law mixes Humility with Sorrow Obedience with Repentance and so the new Discoveries of God by the Gospel enlarges the Objects of Faith Ye believe in God belive also in me And our Obligation is greater as a Married Woman is more obliged to Chastity than a Virgin and Moses's Nurse more obliged than another Nurse because also a Mother But there is so much Grace in the Promises that overballances all this 1. The mixing or joining of Christ's Works with ours the Covenant of Grace and Redemption together supply the Place of the broken Covenant of Works Hence our Imperfect Obedience if in Faith is accepted for perfect the Will for the Deed. Nathan says to David Because it was in thine Heart to build to me a House I will build to thee a sure House it admits of Repentance to supply the Place of Obedience it gives strength to Obey this Uniting of the Command and the Promise makes it appear Conditional but the Certainty and Ability to perform the Conditions both depending upon the Promises takes away the proper Nature of a Condition whose Properties
are 1. Potestative in the Person 's Power to perform them 2. Casualis the other Party being uncertain whether we would Perform them or not 3. Causalis in respect of Right being of some Valuable Considerations and leaves a bare Necessary Connexion or Ordered Covenant instead of a Conditional Covenant and the many Ifs used in Scripture to be the Ifs of Demonstration used by Civilians in Testaments or Logicians in Arguing not the If of a proper Condition tho' it 's usual among Divines and Protestants to use it for Priority of Order and that is not inconsistent with Graciousness But I need not squeeze this Covenant so to bring Graciousness out of it by such Inferences when Rom. 4.14 the Inheritance is said to be of Grace the Covenant call'd a Covenant of Peace and its Blessings sure Mercies when all the Covenantees are Sinners Rebels when the greatest of them are often Chosen and that like Manasse in the Heighth of their Iniquity and when all their Sins are forgiven at once when the first Condition or Duty of the Covenant is meer Faith a Receiving and when to do that is the Work of the Spirit both as to first and last of it Heb. 12. The Author and Finisher of our Faith Eph. 2.8 It is the Gift of God And so long as one Spark of Life remains in that Appetite fixed or determined on God our right in the Covenant stands I believe Lord help my Vnbelief Faith as a Grain of Mustard-seed And tho' it shou'd lose sight of many of its Objects it ought to be receiving and trusting God for the Vnbelief of Man will not render the Faith of God of none effect We may sing Grace Grace to every Article of this Covenant and what can support a Man in sight of Death if Grace will not A Man cannot discern himself in a Covenant of Grace and not see God on a Throne of Grace and when a Soul apprehends God as gracious it apprehends him as 1. Good for that is the ground-work 2. As Love for that 's the Spring 3. As Merciful for the Object 's miserable 4. As Sovereign Free and Absolute in dispensing of Blessings and Benefits for to shew Grace is absolute Monarchy Hence all the Acts of Government are for Exalting this Throne to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace Eph. 1. I see my Guilt but I see Pardoning Grace I feel sin but I feel restraining and renewing Grace I see Death but I see over-ordering Grace This supports the Soul The Fourth Property is the Everlastingness of the Covenant Thou hast made with me an Everlasting Covenant Psal 103.17 The Mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting Isa 55.3 The sure Mercies of David are called an Everlasting Covenant The Covenant of Works was before the Covenant of Grace in Time and in Order of Execution as all Means are before their End but the Covenant of Grace was before it in Divine Intention Grace could not have been so branched forth in Mercy and Forgiveness if the former had not been both made and broken On this Account this Covenant of Grace was from Everlasting being founded on Everlasting Love With an Everlasting Love have I loved thee therefore with Loving-kindness will I draw thee It is founded on the everlasting Thoughts that did emanate from that Love Psal 40.5 The thoughts that were ever of Old they are more than can be numbred and on the everlasting Purposes that those Thoughts did result in 2 Tim. 1.9 According to his Grace and Purpose which was given us in Christ before the World began And as it was from Everlasting so it is unto Everlasting A Person once brought into it shall always remain in it Psal 89.33 If they break my Statutes c. then will I visit their Transgressions with the Rod c. nevertheless my Loving-kindness will I not utterly take from them There is a threefold ground of this Perseverance 1. Because of God's engaging his own Fidelity he will not suffer his faithfulness to fail the Unbelief of Men will not render the Faith of God of none effect 2. His Promise unto Christ Once have I sworn to David that his Seed should endure for ever 3. The Promise of persevering and securing Grace he will put his Fear in their Hearts that they shall not depart from him The Confederating Parties the Ever-living God and Immortal Souls are Everlasting and this Relation between them shall never be altered this is the Reason of Christ's proving of Abraham Isaac and Jacob's being yet alive Matth. 22.32 from God's being their Covenanted God I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Psal 24.7 The Faculties of our Soul under the Figure of Doors or Gates are called everlasting for they are so many Capacities or Desires for seeking after receiving and enjoying of that King of Glory Hence is that explicatory Verse 5 6. This is the Generation of them that seek him that receive the Blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his Salvation There is an everlasting God and an everlasting Soul an everlasting Appetite and an everlasting Satisfying that the Commerce among the Inhabitants of the holy Hill of the Lord consists in and this Covenant of Grace contains the Municipal Laws of that Traffick This is another Pillar that renders the Covenant of such a supporting Nature especially at Death for that cannot break an everlasting Tye tho we dye to this World and all the Relations founded by other Covenants whether Marriage Peace War Friendship Death is the Death of all of them but it makes not the least breach upon this Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life shall be able to separate us from the Love of God We are still alive to God and must receive the Promises suitable to that separate State between Soul and Body and must perform the Duties proper to it whereof we know nothing so much as the God in that Covenant Relation we go to which contains Comfort enough against the loss of all the Relatives we part with The Fifth Property is its Harmonious Order and the greatest Controversies among Protestants are about this the different Methods and Systems of Divinity are so many different Orders they conceive divine Wisdom to have fram'd the Covenant in And no wonder we mistake in attempting to fathom the depth of divine Mysteries untill the Eyes of our Understanding be enlightned with Vision and we admitted to read the Divine Records in their Original in Heaven We but know in part and no man that knows but a part of a Book only can give a true Analysis of it for every new Notion that we attain alters somewhat of our former Method This Order is called the Form of sound Words the Form of Godliness Order is a Disposition of things according to their natural or useful Priority or Posteriority the former