upon it to make it more clear and evident This is certain that whoever receives an estate by grant or Covenant from another he can have right to nothing more than what is therein by name expressed nor upon any other terms than those therein specified Nor any longer maintain his claim to it than those Conditions are done and performed by him So that if either he did not consent to and accept of the terms or not duely perform them when accepted he is no more de jure to be deemed the lawful possessor of it The case is thus here betwixt God and Man God makes a grant of pardon and acceptance and eternal life to sinners This grant is by Covenant This Covenant is with certain terms and conditions and these conditions they must be accepted and performed or else no right to any of the priviledges of this Covenant is conferred upon us For since we have here no right as was said but what is given us and since that right is expresly affixed to the personal performance of the conditions of the Covenant therein mentioned where there is no such performance there can be no right That this right is thus affixed to the personal performance of the Conditions of the Covenant is evident for we have no right but by promise 1 Joh. 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life And therefore Believers are by the Author to the Hebrews called the heirs of promise Heb. 6.17.11.9 The promise then only gives us right to life yea but the promise is only made to the personal performance of these duties Acts 3.19 Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the days of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Rom. 10.9 10. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe with thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Rom. 8.13 If ye through the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live Joh. 13.17 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And Matth. 7.21 not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven From all these Scriptures it evidently appears that the promise of mercy and pardon and life and blessedness the great benefits of the Covenant they are expresly made to the actual and personal performance of repentance and faith and sincere obedience which are the main duties and conditions of the same Covenant 'T is our personal performance therefore of the conditions of the Covenant that gives us a formal and personal right to the blessings of it and our non-performance only by which our right is forfeited T is that which gives us right Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City Blessed are they who They that have eat and drunk in his presence and wrought miracles in his name No but they that do his will but why blessed Because they have right not only the favour and priviledge but right to the tree of life But what gave them this right Their subscribing and sealing and promising obedience to Jesus Christ No but their performing Covenants their keeping of his Commandments Therefore blessed are they that they may have right And this right since 't is founded in Grace and not in merit it may be humbly pleaded by Believers when their right to the promise is called in question or any accusations from the old Law brought in against them Through Grace they have been inabled to believe and repent c. And therefore they are freed from the curse and from condemnation And therefore the promise of pardon and life is theirs But because few are so well satisfied concerning their own sincerity as to be thereby enabled to make this Plea therefore the promises that are more absolute in this case are to be pleaded by them For as some promises are made to Grace the conditions of which being performed are the foundation of our assurance So there are other promises of Grace which are the immediate foundation of our encouragement to Faith and Prayer However the doubting Souls cannot alway plead their right because they question their own performances yet the sincere performance of the condition for all that gives an undoubted right and laies a good foundation for a legal plea and by such as are satisfied concerning their own sincerity may be pleaded against accusations from the Law and Justice without either asserting merit or retrenching the free Grace of God Since this right as was said ariseth from the gracious will and favour of God and not from our own desert or the intrinsick value of the duties we perform As suppose one to found a School or Hospital and to endow it with rich revenews and priviledges but with this condition that they upon whom 't is setled shall once or twice every year pay by way of acknowledgment some few pence or half pence to one of his own name that the memory of his name might be preserved and they constantly be made to acknowledge from whom they received so liberal a donation In this case as his making this the condition upon which they hold it shall not render it to be no act of Charity or blot out his name from amongst their Benefactors So neither shall their pleading that this acknowledgment if called in question hath accordingly been made and the conditions of the grant been constantly performed the pleading this I say shall not be deemed either any detraction from the freeness of the gift or a pleading of your own desert only an humble asserting of their own right which was by grant conferred upon them But as our actual performance of the conditions of the Covenant gives us an undoubted right because founded upon the faithfulness of God to all the priviledges of the Covenant so consequently on the contrary the non-performance of them must needs null our right and cast us out of possession and actually expose us and make us liable to all that wrath and vengeance to all those woes and penalties that either this or the Old Covenant hath denounced For since it is attended with double guilt it shall also be rewarded with double punishment Heb. 10.29 Nor will it be sufficient in this case to plead that we have subscribed and sealed and promised performance to the Gospel Covenant no all this if it be not actually kept will serve for no other purpose but to witness our own unfaithfulness and to condemn us for being false to our own engagements You know what answer Christ returned to such as
give a Bill of divorce to many of the grand Articles of our Faith But whether it be not exprest by such terms and phrases as do necessarily signifie and import all that which is essential to and is commonly meant and understood by the word Covenant For the proof of which two things we learn from the Scriptures before mentioned that are naked and open to every observanâ— eye First That Jesus Christ engageth in the behalf of those whom the Father had given to him to take their Nature to bear their Infirmities to be wounded for their transgressions and make his Soul an Offering for their sins c. And on the other hand that the Father thereupon promiseth to him by way of reward that he should see of the fruit of his soul and be satisfied that he would divide him a portion with the great and the spoil with the strong and that he would exalt him and make him head over all Principalities and Power and give him a Name above every Name that every knee should bow and every tongue confess him to the glory of God the Father c. And as upon this consideration he was comfortably supported under and joyfully triumphed over all his sufferings Heb. 12.2 So likewise having perfectly accomplishâ—â— the work he undertook upon these terms he pleads it with his Father as the reason why he should be exalted and reassumed to Glory Joh. 17.4 5. And what can all this signifie less than what we commonly understand and express by the word Covenant And when the thing it self is so evidently declared in Scripture why should we scruple to call it by that name any more than we do to call that original sin which we derived from Adam or the Law given to him the natural Covenant or the union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the person of Christ the Hypostatical Union or the three Persons in the Godhead the Trinity or the Lords Supper a Sacrament c. which are words no where to be found in Scriprure Yet since the things themselves which arâ— signified by them may be found there 't is thought sufficient to justifie the use of them I have the rather insisted upon this Argument because the confounding of these two Covenants this I mean of Redemption with that of the Gospel and making them but one which as will afterwards be made more fully to appear are vastly different and consequently to be distinguisht hath been the fundamental cause of those several Controversies and Mistakes that have been concerning the Gospel Covenant PROPOS IV. Of Christ's actual Satisfaction by his Obedience and Sufferings JEsus Christ according to the tenour of this Eternal Covenant did in time assume the Humane Nature and therein as Man's Surety actually do and perform all that the Law of Righteousness required at the hands of the guilâ—y Creature and consequently all that was any way requisite either to the repairing of his Fathers Honour or effecting the Creatures Redemption and Happiness Psal 40.6 7 8. God had for some while taken his Sons word and saved souls upon his single promise of making satisfaction in their behalf and in the interim accepted of typical Sacrifices and Oâ—lations the blood of Bulls and Goats as daily memorials of what he expectâ—d from the hands of hâ—s own Son though not as things pleasing and accâ—ptâ—ble in themselves Yea but now God will no longer admit of these Shadows or be satisfied with Bonds or Promises but requires the actual payment of the Debt and therefore now Christ comes according to his engagement to discharge it Then said I that is Christ Lo I come in the Volume of thy Book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God! And for the full accomplishment of this great Undertaking he cloaths his Divinity with the Humane Nature A body hast thou prepared me for so the Author to the Hebrews chap. 10.5 renders those words of the Psalmist ver 6. Mine ears hast thou digged as was before observed or as the Apostle expresseth it Gal. 4.4 He was made of a Woman made under the Law Yea and being found in fashion as a Man and in the form of a Servant subject to the Law of a Creature he also humbled himself and became obedient saith the same Apostle Phil. 2.8 and that not only in some more signal and momentous instances of Obedience but even to the least tittle and Iota commanded by the Law Math. 5.17 18. He fulfilled all Righteousness and he tells you it behovâ—d him so to do Mat. 3.5 Nor yet did he only thus render himself subject to the Commands of the Law and pay a perfect active obedience to them but he also undertook and suffered the most rigorous penalties that were therein threatned against sinners He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with our griefs He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him Esa 53.3 4 5. He was in all things tempted or afflicted even as we are tempted sin only excepted Heb. 4.15 He loved us and gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2.8 He was made sin for us who knew no sin c. 2 Cor. 4.18 19. Yea a Curse that we might be blessed Gal. 3.13 And all this that he might ransom our souls Math. 20.28 and propitiate God to sinners 1 Joh. 2.2 and vindicate his Fathers Authority Law and Justice his Truth and Holiness that he might consistent with his honour pardon the guilty Creature and reaccept him into favour Rom. 3.25 26. And thus Jesus Christ by his active and passive Obedience which here are not to be separate or distinguished since both were paid solely upon the sinners account finished the whole work which his Father gave him to do in order to Man's recovery Joh. 17.4 and so being made perfect through sufferings he became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Heb. 5.9 PROPOS V. Of the application of Christ's Merits to sinners THE saving fruits and benefits intended to sinners by the Obedience and Sufferings of Jesus Christ they do not actually and of necessity become theirs immediately upon the Satisfaction thereby given and the Purchase made in their behalf But before they can be admitted to any actual interest in or reap any comfortable advantage from either there is yet somewhat further on their part to be done and performed by them The Merits of Christ in dying for sinners do not necessarily save any but only as God the Father Son and Spirit shall think meet to communicate and dispense with the issues of them to the Vessels of Mercy For all that properly results from the satisfaction of Christ is only this that the grand obstacle which stood in the way of Mercy and obstructed its communications to
Covenant with God which is given as a constitutive Character of a Saint Psal 50.5 Gather my Saints together unto me saith God there But who are they Why those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice Upon which account 't is also by the Prophet called their Covenant Ezek. 16.61 Then shalt thou remember thy ways and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy Sisters thine elder and thine younger and I will give them unto thee for Daughters but not by thy Covenant 3. As the Covenant is expresly said to be made with Believers so 't is frequently spoken of in Scripture as their proper act to stipulate with God therein and by their own consent to engage themselves to him Hence they are said to make Covenant with God 2 Kings 23.3 and to enter into Covenant Deut. 29.10 11 12. and join themselves to the Lord by Covenant Jer. 50.5 and subscribe with the hand to the Lord Isa 44.5 And give themselves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 and to avouch the Lord to be their God and to walk in his ways Deut. 26.16 17. And what can all this signifie less than their actual consent and agreement to the Covenant But there are yet two expressions more in Scripture that deserve more particularly to be taken notice of as speaking more fully to this purpose The first you have Psal 50.5 the place before mentioned Gather my Saints together unto me that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice That have made so we render it but according to the original it is that have cut a Covenant with me which phrase upon the like account is also used by the Prophets A mode of speech taken as before was observed from the usual manner of making and confirming Covenant which was by cutting and dividing the Beast then offered in Sacrifice and passing mutually betwixt the parts of it whereby they did in effect say Let it be done to me as to this Sacrifice if I shall presume to violate this Covenant to which Christ seems to allude Mat. 24.51 The Lord of that Servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in â—n hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with the Hypocrite c. Thus are God and Believers mutually engaged to each other They make a Covenant by Sacrifice and thereâ—n they interchangeably set to their Seals as God seals to them Eph. 1.13 so they also â—eal to God Joh. 3.33 The other place we have Ezek. 20.37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod and â— will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant See here 's a Covenant with a Bond and Obligation annexed to it and into this Bond every Soul must enter that covenants with God and their entrance it must be by passing under the Rod which is a manifest allusion to what we find commanded in the Levitical Law as to the manner of tything their Flocks and Herds Levit. 27.32 And concerning the tythe of the Herd or of the Flock even of whatsoever passeth under the Rod thâ— tenth shall be holy unto the Lord c. The Jews were a carnal and selfish People that were ready to put off God with the worst the halâ— the blind and lame and to keep the best to themselves as God complains of them by his Prophet Mal. 1.13 14. and therefore God would not leave it to their choice what should be his but appoints that every tenth as it came in order out of the Fold and so passed under the Shepherds Rod or Staff by which he numbred them as they came out should be set apart for himself This whether it were good or bad God would have it it must not be changed ver 33. And thus must every Soul that becomes holy and consecrated to the Lord pass into the Bond of the Covenant They must all come under the Rod that is they must come one by one and every one for himself engage to be the Lords And that which renders this place with that also of the Psalmist the more considerable is this that they are both spoken with reference to Gospel-times as might were it needful be sufficiently evidenced from the context of both those Scriptures But besides the Testimony of Scripture even that of Reason it self might be sufficient to evince the necessity of our stipulating with God in the New Covenant as they did in the Old For who can possibly imagine that God should oblige himself to the Creature and in the interim leave the Creature at liberty without being engaged to himself What God bound by Covenant to pardon our sins and heal our backslidings and take us into the relation of Friends and Children and make daily Provisions for us To spread our Table and fill our Cup and take the care of and protect us and after all receive us unto Glory And yet we not bound to repent of our sins And believe in him and love him and live in obedience to his Laws and Government Who can entertain such unworthy thoughts of God that believes him to be infinitely wise and holy One that hath made all things for himself Prov. 16.4 and hath also sworn that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to the Lord Isa 45.23 4. The Nature and Design of those two great Gospel Ordinances Baptism and the Lords Supper which Jesus Christ hath instituted in his Church do necessarily suppose this That these are Seals and Seals of the New Covenant and mutual Seals appointed not only as Badges of our profession but Bonds and Obligations by which we formally engage our selves to God as he to us are things avowed by all But who now are the persons here sealing Christ or Believers 'T is they that are baptized and they that eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of Christ and consequently they and not Christ that are the Parties engaged in this Covenant For what hath any man to do to seal to any Covenant wherein he is not a person concerned First for Baptism Do we not therein personally every one for himself promise to forsake our sins and deny our selves and quit our carnal and worldly interests and renounce the works of the Flesh and of the Devil Do we not solemnly dedicate and give up our selves to Father Son and Holy Ghost in whose Names we are baptized Do we not there professedly own God as our Creator and Father to love him and to live in a dutiful and obediential observance of him And to accept of Jesus Christ as our Mediator and Redeemer in all his Offices to submit to his Doctrine Laws and Discipline And to receive the sacred Spirit as our Guide to be led and governed by him in all the actions of our lives This Profession grown persons were ever required to make upon their first admission into Churchâ—Society And though for Children this be done by their Sureties yet 't is no less obliging
trembling Phil. 2.12 He then will work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure ver 13. Must we be stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 holding fast our confidence firm to the end Heb. 3.6 being faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and not drawing back lest his soul should have no pleasure in us Heb. 10.38 He therefore hath promised that he will establish us 2 Thes 3.3 and make us fruitful Joh. 15.2 and perfect his own good work in us untill the day of the Lord Jesus Phil. 1.6 and keep us by his power 1 Pet. 1. that we may not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 10.28 From first to last you see we are indebted to Divine Grace for what we do All our works if good are begun and carried on and perfâ—cted by the assistance of the Sacred Spirit And therefore when we have done all we cannot plead desert or merit from any of our actions but still are bound to make Paul's humble acknowledgment 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God I am that I am And not I that laboured so abundantly but the grace of God that was with me Not I that repented and believed and became obedient and holy and fruitful in every good word and work continuing stedfast and unmoveable to the end Not I that did this by vertue of my own natural abilities no but by the aid and assistance of Divine Grace not by might nor by power from nature and reason but by the spirit of the Lord. And in this sense I suppose we are to understand that saying of some Divines that God stands engaged for both parts of the Covenant Engaged first by promise to justifie and save sinners if they repent and believe c. and next also to give repentance and faith by assisting them thereunto that they may be justified and have eternal life And so it may be no contradiction to say that the same thing may be both a benefit and a condition of the same Covenant As he that in the same Indentures wherein he binds his Tenant to repairs may also promise to furnish him with Brick and Morter and other materials for the work Thus faith and repentance are here commanded in the Covenant of Grace and so they become conditions on our own part to be performed But withal strength and assistance is promised enabling us to repent and believe and so they become benefits on Gods part to be given and on ours to be received But still it is to be remembred that Gods promise doth not null our duty nor his assistance supersede our endeavours but necessarily suppose and more strongly enforce them For as we can do nothing without God so he will do nothing for us without our selves 'T is he saith the Apostle that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure in the place before mentioned Phil. 2.13 What then Must we therefore sit still and do nothing Only take our ease and stretch our selves upon beds of Ivory and dream our selves into Abrahams Bosom No we must therefore so the Apostle in the same place argues work about our own Salvation with fear and trembling As 't is still the Tenants duty to repair the ruines of his house though his Landlord hath and indeed therefore the rather because he hath been so kind as to promise sufficient supplies for the building Thus much I thought necessary to add upon this argument that I might vindicate the conditionality of the Covenant from such exceptions as have been made against it and evidence the amicable agreement there is betwixt this doctrine and that of free Grace and sufficiency of Christs righteousness and satisfaction And would Men but be perswaded to lay aside their prejudices and to weigh things in an even ballance Would they as now instructed rightly state their notions of Christs righteousness and free Grace according to the rules and measures of the Gospel and not by the imaginary and unwarrantable sentiments of the carnal and uncatechised world Would they duly distinguish betwixt the causes and conditions of their Salvation which are vastly different and ought not therefore to be confounded that Jesus Christ may still be owned as the sole cause and Author of it and faith and repentance c. only as the necessary means without which it cannot be had Would they observe the order in which the several conditions of the Covenant are to be applied first faith and repentance for the obtaining of pardon and then holiness and obedience for the compleating and continuing our right to eternal life according to the order in which they are dispenced to sinners Would they also duly inform themselves in the nature of true happiness and what a near alliance holiness and obedience have to it that formally consisting in our likeness and conformity to God and these being that whereby we become actually like and conformable to him Would they in the last place to all add the assistance that God by his holy Spirit affords us for the performance of all these duties he requires of us Nothing being done in our own but all by his strength and agency Would Men I say thus distinctly weigh and consider things before they pass sentence upon the Doctrine herein delivered their objections against it would I am confident soon be answered and their scruples removed and their judgments convinced that there is nothing said that doth in the least either contradict or prejudice the Doctrine of Gospel free Grace or derogate from the sufficiency of Christs righteousness Nothing that doth as some have said speak the language of Bellarmine or Socinus or any way favour the opinions of any other who are justly censured as enemies to the Grace of God in Christ Jesus It is true the Church of Rome pretends much to good works and cries them up as the Ephesians sometimes did their great Goddess Diana and muchwhat upon the same design But alas what are those works they so zealously contend for A little bodily exercise and superstitious will-worship Masses and Dirges and Pilgrimages and Ave-Marys and abstinences and whippings and the like But for that which the Apostle calls the power of godliness and life of God that is little preached and less practised by them And yet these works as inconsiderable as they are they call by the name of satisfactions and make them both the matter of their justification before God and the meritorious cause of their own Salvation For according to their Doctors we are justified by works confession charity giving of alms c. as well as by faith in Jesus Christ and may be saved yea and by I know not what redundancy of desert in our good works help to save others too by our own merits The improvement say they of our own natural abilities deserves Grace ex congruâ— and the improvement of Grace so gained merits glory ex condigno This in short is the