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
Yet speaking in the Language of Eternity he calls them Vessels of Mercy Vessels unto Honour And indeed whatever is looked upon as only a Motion or Ordination of Time must needs arise from our selves For all Acts of Grace are Eternal in their Spring and Fountain Time therefore genders only to a Covenant of Works I know not therefore but why as the generality of Preachers enlarge most upon the one as to unconverted Elect There may not be some stirr'd up and enabled of God to triumph in the Savour of the Knowledg of Christ made known by them in the other while they Center upon the Eteral Election of God demonstrating it self in Calling Conversion Sanctification But they only can do this who have receiv'd it as a peculiar Talent But I doubt not the Spirit of it will within short time be pour'd out more abundantly and that it shall not turn to Licentiousness but overflow with Holyness and Purity as also Efficacy of Conversion The third Head I Transpose into the second Place as being more Congenial or of a kind with the first and will joyn the second with the fourth and those following to Head 8th Head 2. The laying the Sins of the Elect upon Christ is not their Discharge from their Sins This is oppos'd to what Dr. Crisp hath said All the Weight and all the Burden of Sin the very Sin it self is long ago laid upon Christ and that laying it on him is a full Discharge and Release to that c. The Conciliation To an Eternal Being there must needs be an Eternal Justification because there is no new thing to him The Apostle therefore makes the whole Chain of Salvation of an Eternal old Style whom he Foreknew he Called he Justified he Glorified Rom. 8. 30. All in the Time pass'd not in the Style of Time but of Eternity But when we speak in new Style Style of Time there is not an actual Discharge of Sin or a Justification of a Sinner by Election but according to the order of things fix'd by God in Time Even so if we consider Sins lay'd upon Christ even the Sins of all the Elect in the Fulness of Time as the Apostle styles it That Fulness of Time may be very well supposed to collect into it self all Time And as the Sins that were past were Recollected so the Sins to come were Forepriz'd into it And all this issues into the Fulness of Times that is of all Time in the Kingdom of Christ For as Christ dyed in the Fullness of Time so the Glory of his Redemption appears in the Fulness of Times Eph. 1. 10. of All Time when all Things in Heaven and Earth shall be Recapitulated in him which yet we know they are not The Offering of Christ therefore is an Offering once for all and it is one Offering that forever Perfects and Jesus Christ is Yesterday and to Day the same forever As then all Time is gather'd into that Fulness of Time So that Fulness of Time redounds upon all Time and Flows out upon it till it Flows into that Fulness of Times Now as the Lord of Time offered Himself in the Fulness of Time he expiated all Sins in that Fulness and what was expiated in the Fulness can never be charged in the Retail of Time for then it was not expiated Although therefore when we are spoken of and unto as not the Lords of Time but the Subjects of Time we are oblig'd to measure it out by Parts as being Inferiors to it and below the Hill to it we see the Approaches of its Events one after another only but the Lord Paramount of it being so high above it sees all at once we are Creatures but of the Parts of it so indeed we are not Discharged from Sin in the Discharge of Christ But from hence to conclude we are not in highest Sense Discharg'd but that if the Elect dye before Faith and Repentance they are lost for ever is to make supposition of Impossibilities it is to set Time the small outlet of Eternity to rise up and Encounter and lead Captive Eternity even the Eternity of Election and that the parts of Time may be set in Battel Array and subdue the Fulness of Time But this can by no serious Considerer be allow'd I find not then but as there is just Reason to represent to Men that till they find within themselves the Efficacies of the Death and Redemption of Christ by Faith and Repentance they stand in the sight of their own Consciences as Persons who have no Interest in that Death in that Redemption And that this is proper on one side representing God and Christ therein as the Rector and Governor of the World to move them to Repentance and it is that which Scripture does very largely and frequently insist upon So on the other side it is most true That the Foundation of God stands sure and cannot shake nor totter even under this very Seal single and alone That the Lord knows who are his and that his Election shall break out with all the mighty Effects he hath pitch'd upon as most suitable and Connatural to it So that it shall produce in all its own the Derivative Stamp Let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from all Iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. And that Christ is in all Senses the Certain and Infallible Sanctifier of his People by his Blood That he not only as a Judge and a Law-giver but as a Prince gives Repentance and Remission of Sins This may be as hopeful to move the Spirits of Men and be as gracious a Conveyance of the mighty Efficacy of the Divine Grace and Spirit For as these are rich Truths of Scripture so they have an admirable mooving Stroke upon the Hearts and Minds of Men And he that Ministers them is a Minister far more immediately of the Spirit that giveth Life of that without which the Evangelick Law is a Letter that kills Head 3 to Head 8. I put these Heads together because there cannot be any difference in the main Notions but only in the different ways of Expressions and what each part may think will most lively illustrate and make the deepest imprint of the great Scripture-truths upon the Heart I say there can be no difference in the main Truths between Persons sober and Reverent of God and of Christ for who can think the filth of Sin transacted on Christ in such a sense as that Christ should be defiled by it But now there must needs be a Moral Impurity in every Sin as it is a Recess from the Holiness of God from the Righteousness of the Divine Law there is a Dishonour a Blot a Stain and Blemish a Deformity a loss of Beauty and Honour and Happy Conformity to Goodness and Righteousness This is intended by Reatus Culpae another thing from the Reatus Poenae or a meer Obligation to Punishment I demand then What becomes of this Obliquity the Guilt of the very
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 Chrisâ— and perservering Enmity If it be said There must be Humiliation Wearinâ—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