in it A Scholar saith Mr. Hudson that is admitted into a School is not admitted because he is doctus but ut sit doctus and if he will submit to the rules of the Schoole and apply himself to learne it is enough for his admission The like may be said of the Church-visible which is Christs School Vindicat. pag. 248. The door of the visible Church saith Master Baxter Saints Rest Part. 4. Sect. 3. is incomparably wider then the door of heaven and Christ is so tender so bountiful and forward to convey his grace and the Gospel so free an offer and invitation to all that surely Christ will keep no man off if they will come quite over in spirit to Christ they shall be welcome if they will come but onely to a visible profession he will not deny them admittance This seems to me to speak the mind of Jesus Christ for their admittance and that in foro Dei as well as in foro Ecclesiae they stand in covenant-relation and have title to Church-membership Thus the Reader may see my thoughts in this thing and though I doubt not but that some will question much that I have said yet now at last I hope my meaning may be understood CHAP. VII The Covenant of Grace calls for Conditions from Man A Third Proposition which I shall here lay down is that Gods covenant with man hath its restipulation from man when God engages to man to conferre happinesse upon him he requires conditions from him This I know hath strong opposition by men of two sorts and they of different stamps and for different ends The first deny all Gospel-conditions all covenant-termes on mans part to the end they may assert justification before and without Faith Salvation without Repentance and Obedience which though it be contradicted by abundant testimonies of Scripture placing unbeleeving impenitent and disobedient ones in hell under the wrath of God yea such unbeleeving impenitent ones that have laid highest claime to Christ Matth. 7. 23. yet it seems wholly to follow and necessarily to be evinced from this absolute unconditionate covenant If Christ have wholly finished not only the work of mans redemption but also of his salvation upon the crosse without farther work of application as one in a distinct Treatise hath made it his endeavour to prove then we may as he there doth decry both our faith in Christ and Christs intercession for us Herein one of late according to his wonted weaknesse is very industrious and whereas the Scripture tells us Christ dwells in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3. 17. he would prove that Christ enters into us without us dwells in the unbeleeving and in reference to this opinion of his he makes it his businesse as to deny Faith in reference to Justification so all Gospel-covenant-conditions All other covenants besides this were saith he upon a stipulation and the promise was altogether upon conditions on both sides But in this covenant of Grace viz. the new covenant it is far otherwise there is not any condition in this covenant I say the new covenant is without any condition whatsoever And he further tells his hearers that he is on a nice point Faith is not the condition of the covenant Others utterly distasting the aforenamed opinions of Justification without faith or salvation without obedience or repentance which seeme to be the natural issue and necessary consequents of an unconditional covenant yet with great resolution do affirme the covenant to be without conditions joyning in the premisses with these heterodox teachers but peremptorily denying the conclusion Against both of these that oppose it either more desperately or more innocently I affirm and might quote a cloud of witnesses that the covenant of grace hath its conditions which to me is clear First by the definition of a covenant given in by the Authour before named a few pages before his assertion before mentioned It is a mutual agreement between parties upon certaine Articles or Propositions on both sides so that each party is bound and tyed to perform his own conditions It is in the definition and of the essence of a covenant in general according to him to have conditions yet this covenant in particular with him is without condition Here is a species that partakes not of the nature of the genus a particular covenant that wants the essence of a covenant which is the same as though he should finde us a man that is no living creature a Vine or Fig-tree that is no plant a piece of scarlet of no colour such a thing is this unconditional covenant If the essence of a covenant require it then this covenant is not without it Secondly by the expresse Texts of Scripture which lay down conditions of the covenant either in expresse words or those that of necessity imply a condition See John 8. 51. Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death Who sees not there First a Priviledge granted by way of covenant Secondly the condition on which it is to be obtained John 8. 24. If ye beleeve not that I am he ye shall die in your sinnes Heb. 3. 6. Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firme unto the end Who knows not If to be a conditional particle All pardon and justification if Scripture may be heard is suspended on mens not beleeving John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Mar. 16. 16. He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved and he that beleeveth not shall be damned Thirdly by Analogy with the covenant of Works entred of God with Adam in innocency Gen. 2. 17. This on all hands that I know is granted to have been conditional and who sees not in the Texts mentioned conditions as expresse in the Gospel as not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and euil to man in Paradise either both or neither must be conditional Fourthly from the nature of conditions in covenants A condition in a covenant is somewhat agreed upon by the Parties in covenant upon performance of which the benefit of the covenant is obtained and upon the failing of it the whole benefit is lost and the penalty whatsoever it is incurred In covenants between equals either indent and article what those conditions shall be upon defaylance of which the benefit is lost and the penalty incurred In covenants between superiour and inferiour the superiour doth prescribe and the inferiour doth yeeld In all covenants there are such conditions that upon performance or failing of them the covenant doth stand or fall such there are in the Gospel-covenant There we are enjoyned to believe and repent upon obedience to and performance of these we reap the benefit of the covenant Upon failing in them the benefit is lost and the penalty incurred He that
not necessitated Upon these grounds it is that I finde no reason to widen the differences between these promises and priviledges in either covenants The identity of conditions in the covenant of Works and Grace on Gods part we have seen The great diversity in the conditions called for from man comes to be spoken to And in the first place this difference offers it self The conditions of the covenant of Works were in mans power being left to the freedom of his will he had abilities in himself without seeking out for further assistance then a meer general concurrence to perform them This ability in man to answer whatsoever was called for at his hands from God appears First in the integrity of his nature Being made like God his principles must needs carry him to a conformity with God and these principles were connatural to man in his first being and beginning Man being made of God to contemplate his glory and to enjoy communion with himself he made him not defective in any of those noble qualifications that serve for it or have a tendency to it Papists indeed will have this to be a supernaturall gift of grace and above the glory of mans first creation Bellarmine compares it to a bridle given to curb that lust which riseth against reason in us That rebellion of lusts in man they conceit would have been if man had not fallen which as it layes a high charge upon God in such an aspersion of his pure work drawn after such a patterne so it makes way for other opinions that the first motions without consent are no sins and that lust in the regenerate is not sin But as the bottom is rotten so also the building that is raised upon it is ruinous There was an happy agreement in man as well with himself as with his Creatour The fall brought in a necessity of support and supply of Grace Secondly this appears from the equity which must be granted to be in the command of God which requires that the work given in charge be not above his abilities that is charged with it The Arminian argument from a command to abilities to keep the command from a threat to conclude a power to keep off from the thing threatned is of force as long as the person under command keeps himself in the same station and strength as when the command was given But applying this to man in his fallen estate who had sinned away his abilities the strength of it is wholly lost The command of God retains its perfection when we are under the power of corruption The Law is nothing abated though we be weakened 3. It appears in the work it self which was charged upon man upon performance of which he was to expect happinesse There is no more explicitely mentioned then that negative precert Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die This all may yeeld might easily have been kept if the command had been heeded or the menace observed The Jews at their worst could observe the commands of non-licet meats and this was a command of like nature yet this was not all unto which man was tied Being made in the image of God he had clear light to discern good from evil and as all yet retaine darkly and obseurely so he had the Law written in his heart clearly Adultery Murder though no otherwise condemned then by that light which he had by creation in that estate had been sin The former positive Law was evil because forbidden take away the prohibition and there had been no sin in eating These are forbidden because evil The Law imprinted by creation being presupposed there needed no further Law to make them sinful They that never had the written Law are condemned for these practices by that Law which by nature is written in their hearts But against these there was in nature an Antipathy Mans pure nature had them in abhorrency As now there needs no Law more then nature doth suggest to forbid the eating of poyson feeding on dust or carrion So then there needed no more Law to condemne these practices so that obedience in that state was in mans power must necessarily be yeelded The conditions of the covenant of Grace are not performed but by special grace a power from God must concurre for their work in man Man hath no abilities in himself to answer what God requires and if he rise not up to the terms of this covenant till he raise himselfe he will for ever fall short of it As the covenant was vouchsafed of grace so grace must make us meet to partake of the benefits of it This appears 1. In the state and condition in which God findes man when he first enters covenant with him yea after covenant entred till a change be wrought and abilities conferred to answer that which God in covenant requires This state of man the Apostle expresses Ephes 2. 1. Dead in trespasses and sins alive and in power for nothing at all but sinne This was the condition of Heathens never in covenant and so of the Jews who were a people in actual covenant and owned of God as his inheritance as God willing shall be shewn Their conversation was the same as the Apostle there confesseth Among whom we also had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others This in abundant other expressions in Scripture is discovered holding forth the same thing Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly That infant Ezek. 16. 4 5. had no more possibilities of life then is to be found even in the state of death Reas 2. It appears in that power which is exercised by God in the change of those in covenant with him whom he fits for himself for Eternity This power in Scripture is set out in several expressions First Creation Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works All ability to good is from the frame into which grace puts us As there is a power out of man which gives him Being So also there is an answerable power for his new Being He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not 1 John 5. 18. Secondly Quickning The dead have not power to raise themselves without a further power for their Resurrection Neither is it in the power of man Who is dead in trespasses and sinnes Eph. 2. 1. Thirdly Taking away the heart of stone and giving an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. To change the nature of things which is here done is the work of an Omnipotence which was Satans argument not denied by Christ If thou be the Son of God command these stones to be made bread Mat. 4. 3. Fourthly Causing
which is good and let your soul delight it self in fastnesse Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David verse 1 2 3. And yet we see upon what termes it is tendered That which keeps from us the mercies and brings upon us the curses of the covenant is upon covenant-condition to be shunned This is true of all covenants made where any good is hoped and evil feared That sinne against God keeps us from the mercies and brings upon us the curses of the covenant is clear in what hath been spoke What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou should'st take my covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hast instruction and castest my words behinde thee Psal 50. 16 17. A people that keep to their termes of covenant are in communion with God but sinne separates between a people and God that is the ground of quarrel Hos 4. 1. between earth and heaven Men entring and keeping covenant with God are of God and not of the Devil They are turned from the Devil to God from fellowship with Belial to fellowship with God But he that committeth sin is of the Devil 1 John 3. 8. Christ that carries on the covenant as you have heard will never cast off those that walk up to the termes of the covenant but he casts off with a dreadful sentence all those that work iniquity Mat. 7. 23. As for those Antinomian spirits and ranting wretches that do contend that sinne is no barre to their communion with God That God is as well pleased with man in the greatest heighth of sinne as the most holy duties That this doctrine charges a change upon God to be now pleased and presently in wrath and displeasure they do but deceive themselves and make it their work to deceive others They neither know sin nor the direful guilt of it nor yet God nor his direful displeasure against it The Apostle makes it his businesse to undeceive them as Ephes 5. 6. having reckoned up a catalogue of sins he thus speaks Be not deceived with vaine words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Neither is there any change according to this doctrine supposed in God The change is in them that covenant against it and walk in it Did they know the terrour of it they would tremble at the thought of running upon it and by heaping up sin to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgements of God Rom. 2. 5. They will finde this an aggregate of all miseries and let them take beed that they call not to the rocks and mountains to hide them from it The Positive part is to be followed as the Privative part to be shunned As Timothy must flee covetousnesse so he must follow after righteousnesse godlinesse faith love patience meeknesse 1 Tim. 6. 11. Faith in the former place as an instrument serviceable for our accesse to God makes up as we heard a condition of it self As a work or inherent grace it is here comprised in this covenant-condition together with others to hold up our communion with God As we must cease to do evil so we must learne to do well As we must put off the old man with his deeds so we must put on the new man It is not enough not to bring evil fruit wilde grapes but we must be fruitful in every good work God hath a quarrel with his people upon a charge of negatives as well as affirmatives omissions as well as commissions She obeyed not the voice she received not correction she trusted not in the Lord she drew not neer to her God Zeph. 3. 2. We must not alone be free from that charge of Christ upon the Jews of doing the work of the Devil John 8. 44. but we must abound in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. And this upon the penalty mentioned in the former branch Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen down and cast into the fire Matth. 3. 10. Upon these termes it is that we avoid the curse of the covenant Those on whom no condemnation is charged walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance Gal. 5. 21 22. Upon those termes salvation the mercy of the covenant is obtained Christ is the Authour of everlasting salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. When the Apostle makes light of outward priviledges he puts the whole stresse upon mans faith and obedience Gal. 5. 6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God 1. Cor. 7. 19. That which is so mightily available with God in covenant is the walking up to the terms and observance of the conditions of the covenant But faith and the keeping of the Commandments of God are as we see thus available and prevalent These two are distinguished but never severed That faith which looks at Christs blood as a Saviour accepts him as a Sovereign and the latter about which there is most dispute is an evidence to conclude the former Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments where knowledge is put for faith as appears in the context 1 Joh. 2. 3. These are heard of God in prayer Joh. 9. 32. If any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Whatsoever we aske we receive of him because we keep his Commandment and do those things that are pleasing in his sight 1 John 3. 22. These are sealed of God by his Spirit 1 John 3. 24. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us These great mercies are for men in covenant that keep covenant But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children To such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them Ps 103. 17 18. CHAP. XXIV Objections against the conditionality of Repentance answered HEre Objections must be removed Object First joyntly against faith and repentance some making challenge of both as no covenant-conditions So Mr. Baxters questionist How do you make faith and repentance to be conditions of the Covenant on our part seeing the bestowing of them is part of the condition on Gods part can they be our conditions and Gods too In case these two cannot stand together that they should be conditions both Gods and ours we may answer by way of retortion Answ and I am sure we have the better end of the staffe that
they are our conditions They are conditions on our part and therefore they cannot be Gods That they are ours is made known of God as by the beame of the Sun in his Word And I shall not stand to distinguish of an absolute and conditional covenant that so making the whole in the absolute covenant to be Gods and in the conditional covenant this part to be ours which I know not whether exactly understood the Scripture will beare but in plaine terms deny that they are Gods conditions and affirm them to be ours I know what God speaks in his Word concerning these works That he will write his Law in our hearts and put it into our inward parts That he will take away the heart of stone and give an heart of flesh which implies this work of which we speak I know likewise what in particular is affirmed of Christ that he is the authour and finisher of our faith Heb. 12. 2. that he gives repentance Acts 5. 31. that God grants to the Gentiles repentance to life Acts 11. 18. And I have not forgot what I have said before of the concurrence of grace in the performance of every Gospel-work Yet all this rises not up hither to make them formally Gods act not ours Whose acts they be his conditions they are this is evident But they are our acts We beleeve We repent It is not God that believes It is not God that repents That is an absurdity which Arminians have laboured to charge upon us to render that which we hold of the necessity of the concurrence of grace in these works odious But it is that which the Orthodox party have still disclaimed The Apostle calls upon the Philippians Phil. 2. 12. To work out their own salvation the work is their own as the salvation They are a Beleevers own act and not barely a spontaneous act on which he is carried as a Bird in preparing a nest for her young and Bees in preparing honey for their subsistence in which Phylosophy tells us that they aime at no end but they are voluntary actions of choice done out of choice aiming at salvation as his end The mercy in the Covenant being on these termes tendred With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse Rom. 10. 10. The just lives by his faith Hab. 2. 4. They to turne to the Lord with all their heart Joel 2. 13. They obey from the heart the form of Doctrine whereunto they are delivered Rom. 6. 17. They do the will of God from the heart Ephes 6. 6. Faith and Repentance are mans work which man in covenant does respective to salvation in the covenant tendered Object not Gods But the Apostle some may say in the next words tells us that it is God that works the will and the deed vers 13. There he seems to take them from us and ascribe the formality of them to God In this co-operation of God whether they be formally our works or Gods let Esay determine Isa 26. 12. Thou hast wrought all our works in us When God hath wrought it the work is ours we have the reward of it and we shall beare our sinne in case it be neglected and let the Apostle explaine himselfe Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them God hath ordained good works as a Christians way and walk They are charged upon man as is plain in the context in order to salvation They are the way that we hold in our passage on to that salvation which God of grace vouchsafes and we are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus for these ends Our dexterity in holy duties is from the frame into which grace put us So still the work is ours though power for action is vouchsafed of God And the conditions are ours for discharge of which we have yet divine assistance That faith and repentance are our conditions and not Gods take these arguments 1. Those conditions that are not mentioned in the proper conditional covenant as from God but required of God from us are not Gods conditions but ours in that Covenant This is cleare Being there expresly required of us and not so much as mentioned as from God they cannot be his engagement but ours to performe But Faith and Repentance are not mentioned as from God in the proper conditional covenant but required of God from us Therefore Faith and Repentance are not Gods conditions in the proper conditionall Covenant but ours 2. The conditions of a covenant are his that performeth and not his that imposeth This proposition is cleare in reason and confessed by the adversary But we perform and God imposeth Faith and Repentance They are therefore our conditions and not Gods in this covenant 3. Covenant-conditions are theirs that are charg'd with falshood in case of failing in them and non-performance of them This is plaine in all covenants To make conditions and to faile in them is to be false to them But in case of failing in Faith and Repentance man is charged and not God God fails not but man deals falsly Therefore they are mans conditions and not Gods 4. Covenant-conditions are theirs who upon failing in them and not performance of them suffer as covenant-breakers This is clear Israel covenanted to dismisse their Hebrew servants and dismissed them not and Israel suffered for it Jer. 34. But upon failing in Faith and Repentance God suffers not so much as in his Name as a covenant-breaker He is not charged with mens unbelief and impenitence Men themselves suffer Therefore Faith and Repentance are mans conditions not Gods 2. There are objections peculiarly against repentance as it comprises the whole frame of obedience Object as before held forth to disable it from being any Gospel-condition By this means the covenant of Grace will be say some a covenant of works Repentance in this latitude to which we have spoken containes the whole of obedience and being made a condition of the Covenant of Grace Works are introduced and a Covenant of Works re-established As there was grace in the first covenant Answ as you have heard which we call a covenant of Works So works are not wholly excluded from this covenant which we call a covenant of Grace God still keeps up his Sovereignty as you have heard and how this can be done when he leaves man at that wilde freedome not so much as to call for homage from him cannot be conceived his rule even in this covenant is to reward men according to their works Behold I come quickly and my reward it with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. Works then are not excluded from this covenant yea Christ the Mediatour of the covenant aforehand tells us Except our righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven Matth. 5.
child-bearing The natural posterity which was the birth by Promise we only understand And so the Apostle explaines it Rom. 9. 7 8. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called That is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are counted for the seed Where children of God is taken in the same latitude as Adoption ver 4 comprizing all the visible body of the Jewes as it is also taken Deut. 14. 1. Only those that are borne by Promise are included and all the sonnes of Ishmael and Keturah though their parents were once in Covenant are by Gods special command shut out Neither are all these included for as God cast off Ishmael and his seed so he also cast out Esau and his posterity Therfore the Apostle having brought the former distinction of seeds rests not there but addes verse 10 11 12 13. And not only this but when Rebecca also had conceived by one even by our Father Isaac for the children being not yet borne neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to Election might stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated And therefore the denomination of the seed is in Jacob sirnamed Israel Therefore when the head or if you will the root of the covenant is mentioned in Scripture it is not barely Abraham but Abraham and Isaac to exclude all Abrahams seed of any other line not barely Abraham and Isaac but Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The natural seed of Jacob then not according to ours but Gods own limits is included in that covenant in the full latitude and extent of it Secondly we do not say that this covenant was entred with Abraham as a natural Father nor his seed comprehended as natural children we well know that quâ tale is omne then all natnral parents were in Covenant in that they had natural children and all natural children were in Covenant because they were the natural issue of their parents Abrahams Father was a natural father and Abraham was his natural son yet neither of them upon that account were in covenant we say it was entred with Abraham accepting the termes of it from God for himself and his natural issue all his natural issue not by God himself excluded were in covenant He that made the covenant according to his good pleasure might put limits to it Abraham may be considered 1. As a man the Son of Terah of the race of Adam 2. As accepting of Gods call and receiving his tender for him and his 3. As a faithful and an upright man regenerate and stedfast in covenant It is not as man that God enters covenant in this latitude for Abraham himself was not thus in covenant If he had been in covenant as a man then no man had been out of covenant Neither is it as an upright man before God and keeping covenant for those of his posterity whose hearts were not stedfast were in covenant and did hand it over to their seed But as a professour of the Faith accepting the covenant taking God for his God in contradistinction to false gods he accepted it for himself and for his seed his natural posterity And all that professe the faith hold in the like tenure are in covenant and have the covenant not vested in their own persons only but enlarged to posterity Thirdly we entitle the seed of Abraham as before to spiritual mercies and so the seed of all that hold in the tenure of Abraham to saving grace and life eternal not by an absolute conveyance infallibly to inherit we know though Israel be as the sand of the sea yet a remnant only shall be saved Rom. 9. 27. but upon Gods termes and conditions in the Gospel held out of God to his people Salvation is made over by vertue of covenant to all thus in covenant in that sense as Christ speaks John 4. 22. Salvation is of the Jews In that sense as Christ useth it of Zacheus family This day is salvation come this house Luke 19. 9. In that sense as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks of it where he sets out the danger of neglecting so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. In that sense as I conceive the Apostle speaks of it where he saith that upon the cal of the Jews All Israel shall be saved Rom. 11. 26 They shall enjoy those priviledges in which salvation upon Gods terms may be obtained and this is all that can by any means be squeezed out of their words that say the covenant of Grace was made of God with Abraham and his natural seed or with beleevers and their seed It is even irksome to read the large businesse that is made to find out our meaning about the covenant of God made with Abraham and his seed and we must per force confesse that we mean it of a covenant infallibly absolutely to conferre grace and consequently salvation To be so in Covenant as that a man cannot fall from it To this end words of mine are produced that I never uttered and several arguments produced against this supposed tenent and authorities multiplied out of Protestant Writers Beza Twisse Wallaeus The Annotations on the Bible Ames Paraeus Downham I am content that all these Worthies shall still stand up in their honour and that this shadow should fall with shame as well as I am that Bellarmine Stapleton a Lapide Becanus Estius should fall with it whose arguments in this controversie one after other have been brought against me To draw all up towards a conclusion All that is necessarily included in Gods entrance of covenant with a people engaging to be their God and taking them for his people is here by this grand Charter of Heaven made over to Abraham and his natural issue by Isaac and Jacob. All their posterity are branches of this root by nature simply considered and they are holy branches by vertue of this covenant which necessarily implies priviledge of Ordinances the fruition of Gods Oracles which are his covenant-draughts without which no people are in Covenant but all are strangers And this priviledge of Ordinances implies also all Priviledges leading to and accompanying salvation and salvation it self upon Gods terms in his word revealed and so before the disputation the Reader hath my supposition CHAP. XLVI Arguments concluding the natural issue of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to be taken into Covenant MY first Argument is taken from the addition annext to this covenant in the words immediately following The Lord having made a covenant in full words with Abraham and his seed he addes and I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and
this covenant between God and his people which is to be spoken to elsewhere As the being of a covenant is thus plentifully proved by Scripture-testimony so we might as amply prove it by arguments drawn from thence The Churches of Christ are espoused unto Christ Hos 2. 19 20. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. 2 Cor. 11. 2. I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you to Christ and Spouses are in covenant with their Bridegroom The Churches of Christ are married to Christ Isa 54. 5. Thy Maker is thine Husband the Lord of hosts is his Name and thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called And wives are in covenant with their husbands Their sinnes against God are branded with the names of Adulteries Whoredomes and these are not barely dis-obedience of a Command or neglect of a favour but breaches of covenant The Churches of Christ are servants of Christ Levit. 25. houshold servants Ephes 2. 19. and servants are their Masters by covenant Their sinnes in this relation are not barely obstinacy stubbornness or ingratitude but they are charged with treachery falsehood dealing falsely in covenant and their hearts being not stedfast in covenant It is above me to conceive how man can be a covenant-breaker not alone respective to man but God as he is frequently charged when there hath past no covenant between God and him They may question whether there were ever any such thing as a covenant in the world that deny this to be a covenant in the proper nature of it some objections raised in their due place will be answered CHAP. IV. The Covenant of Grace is between God and man and not between God and Christ. HAving asserted a covenant in the proper nature of it it is necessary before I proceed further on to give differences between this covenant of Works and the covenant of Grace to speak something by way of Explication covenant being taken in so various and ambiguous senses or at least so many senses put upon it which I take to be a misunderstanding of the Scripture-covenant I shall lay down certaine Explicatory Propositions for clearing of the thing in question And the leading on shall be this The Covenant of grace is between God and man between God and those of fallen mankinde that he pleases to take into covenant God and man are the two parties in the covenant It is not made between God and Christ. This is so plain that a man might think there needed no words about it but that there are some that will have man to be no party in it and that it is entred onely with Christ on behalf of those that God hath chosen in Christ to himself To this I shall speak first by way of concession yeelding to them of this opinion these three things that follow 1. That there is such a covenant of which they speak which was entred between God and Christ containing the transactions which passe between the Father and the Sonne the tenor of which covenant we find laid down by the Prophet Esay 53. 10 c. and commented upon by the Apostle Phil. 2. 6. There we see first the work that Christ by covenant was to undergo To make his soul an offering for sinne that is as elsewhere is exprest to give his life a ransome for many and as he covenanted so he did He became obedient to death even the death of the crosse Phil. 2. 8. and that upon account of this covenant entred Christ himself speaking to it and of his work in it saith John 10. 18. This Commandment have I received of my Father Secondly the reward that he was to receive which is laid down by the Prophet in many words 1. He shall see his seed ver 10. As Isaac being received from the dead in a figure saw a seed had an innumerable posterity so the Lord Christ who was received from the dead in truth hath his seed in like manner beleevers innumerable which are called his seed in resemblance to the seed of man 2. He shall prolong his dayes not the dayes of his seed as some would have it making this one with the former and rendring the words videbit semen longaevum being delivered from death he shall live and reign eternally Revel 1. 18. 3. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand he shall irresistibly do whatsoever is the Fathers pleasure to be done in the work of mans salvation 4. He shall see the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied upon this work done he fully enjoys the whole of all his desires 5. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoile with the strong He obtains a perfect victory hath a plenary and full conquest over every adversary 2. We yeeld that the whole of these covenant-transactions between God and Christ was on our behalf Making his soul an offering for sinne he offers it for those that are fallen by iniquity All is as is there said for the justification of many Whatsoeve it is that upon the work done redounds to himself yet the reason of undertaking was for us Vnto us he was borne unto us he was given He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities he was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification He endured the mulct and we reap the benefit 3. We confesse that it is the work of Christ that we enjoy a being in covenant as it is his gift that we enjoy the blessing of Ordinances But when all these are yeelded the truth must be asserted that there is a covenant to which Scripture constantly speaks which is entred of God with man and not with Christ which me thinks with much ease might be made to appear 1. There are frequent testimonies of Gods entry of covenant with his people 1. With the leading persons in the covenant which stand as the root of many thousand branches which are their off-spring in covenant He entred covenant with Abraham Gen. 15. 18. Gen. 17. 2. The like he enters with Isaac Gen. 26. 3. with Jacob Gen. 35. 11. and therefore he is so frequently called the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And the covenant of God is alike known by the name of the covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. 2. He enters covenant with the whole body of the people of Israel Deut. 5. 1 2. Hear O Israel the statutes and judgements which I speak in your ears this day that ye may learn them and keep them and do them The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb the Lord made not this covenant with our fathers but with us even us who are all of us alive
he 1 There is a passive receiving of Christ You will say saith my Authour what is passive receiving of Christ I answer saith he A passive receiving of Christ is just such a receiving of him as when a froward Patient takes a purge or some bitter physick he shuts his teeth against it but the Physician forceth his mouth open and poures it downe his throat and so it works against his will by the ever-ruling power of one over him that knows it is good for him Thus I say there is a passive recipiency or receiving of Christ which is the first receiving of him when Christ comes by the gift of the Father to a person whilest he is in the stubornesse of his own heart 2 There is an active receiving of him c. This distinction carries a full contradiction in it self There cannot be in the same subject a meere passive and active recipie cy of the same thing as appeares in the similitude brought to illustrate it This froward Patient that hath a medicine forced into him in which he is meerly passive cannot again afterward receive that medicine If Christ be thâ—s forced and enters against our will then we cannot actively at any time after receive him And could it be reconciled unto it self yet it stands in full opposition to Scripture Christ stands at the door and knocks Reâ— 3. 20. He waites till his locks are wet with the dew of the night as Cant. 5. 2. But he makes no forcible entry we read of Gods power in changing the will that it freely accepts but not forcing gifts of grace upon any against their wills Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power Psal 110. 3. He works a will Philip. 2. 13. Christ dwells in none that rise in hostility against him and the positioâ— which the distinction is brought to assert That unbelief is no bar hindring one from having Christ is no better If unbeliefe be no barre to our receiving of Christ then it is no barre to salvation where the Saviour enters he brings salvation He that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5. 12. But we finde it evidently a barre to salvation according to Scripture Joh. 3. 36. He that beleeveth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him He that beleeveth not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. Yea according to the Author himself There is no person under heaven shall be saved saith he till he have beleeved which is a truth according to Scripture They could not enter into the rest of Canaan that did lie in their unbelief Neither can they enter into the rest of heaven Heb. 4. 1. Then Christ dwells not in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3. 17. But also in a state of unbelief Then God is not a justifier of those that beleeve in Jesus as Rom. 3. 26. but equally justifies men without Faith in Jesus Then Christ is not set out a propitiation through Faith in his blood but without any Faith in it Then they that beleeve are not only justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses but they that beleeve not And God gave his Sonne that he that beleeves not on him should have everlasting life This doctrine layes all the honour of Faith in the dust Then Habakkuk might have spared this speech that the just shall live by Faith Habbakuk 2. 4. and Paul might have found another way of life in the flesh than by Faith in the Son of God Secondly Object It is said that the justification of a sinner was with God from eternity It was in his purpose before all time to discharge his Elect and to lay nothing to their charge So then this is as election it selfe unconditional To which I answer Answ That this ovethrows the redemption wrought by Christ and the price paid by his sufferings as well as the necessity of Faith What need Christ to be at all that pains to undergo all those sorrows as to be a man of sorrows to do that which from all eternity was done Then as Paul sayes in another case Christ is dead in vain This some have seene yet rather than leave their opinion have chosen to swallow it down and the absurdity with it and do maintaine that Christ did not purchase procure or work any love from God for man but only published and declared that he was from eternity beloved A fit conclusion drawn from such premisses Then Christ was no Authour of eternal salvation as Heb. 5 9. but only the publisher He was a messenger from God in the dayes of his flesh but no Saviour of man He did not redeeme us with a price but only made known that we were so farre in the love of God from eternity that no redemption needs Secondly I say Gods purpose of a thing doth no put it in being He takes his own way to bring about in time that which he purposed before all time All that is done even every work under the Sunne was alike from eternity in the purpose of God Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Acts 15. 18. So the house that was built this day was built from eternity The childe that was born this day was borne from eternity We may as well say that the Elect were glorified from eternity so that they need to look after no other glorification as to say they are justified from eternity All the works of God were in his purpose from ever who sees all things at once and not as we can comprehend them in their respective succession But we enquire after things as they are in themselves and not as they are in Gods purpose Thirdly Object Some say justification can be no other than an act of God from eternity being an immanent act and not a transient Transient acts are in time done in the juncture of time when God pleases to do them but immanent acts of God are from eternity Answ To which I first answer that it is not without danger for us to bring the actions of God under our examination and then to fix School-notions upon them according to which they must be bounded When as Master Burges well observes we are here in meere darknesse and not able to comprehend how God is said to act or work Treatise of Justification page 166. How much more safe were it for us to learne à posteriore from the mouth of God in Scriptures what his actions are and the order how he works than à priâ—re to conclude that they are thus and thus and therefore thus of necessity he must work Yet if we may be so bold as to look into this act of his and take it into consideration according to this notion we may farre rather conclude that justification is an action transient not immanent An immanent action as the Schooles tell us is terminated within the subject and works no real nor evident
continued That such a one is established appears First By the work that they have to do given them in commission by Christ Jesus Matth. 28. 19 20. Go Disciple all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Here is commission given for the dispensation of the Word and Sacraments That of the Word is either for laying the first foundation or for the superstruction either for their work of planting preaching where Christ was never known by name or else for watering to carry on that happy beginning Their first work in laying the first foundation is given in charge in these words Disciple all Nations which was not the work of one age Though Egesippus as he is quoted by Doctor Andrews Preface to the Decalogue page 7. saith That there was no known Common-wealth in any part of the world inhabited but within fourty years after Christs passion received a great shaking off of Heathenish Religion yet the whole work after so many Centuries of yeeres is not yet done Those that are learned in Geography say that there is not above the nineteenth part of the inhabited world that beares the name of Christian and a great part of those so over-runne with Barbarisme that they have little more than a name that they live when yet we beleeve the work shall be more universal that as God was once knowne in Jury his Name great in Israel So it shall be from the rising of the Sunne to the going down thereof Mal. 1. 11. And that the Kingdomes of the world shall become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ Revel 11. 15. Their work of superstruction or building up of Disciples is given them in charge in these words teaching them to observe all whatsoever I have commanded you As long as homage is due to Christ so long a Ministery is to be continued to call for it and give directions in it which we finde farther held out Ephes 4. 11 13 14 15. There is an enumeration of Ministerial functions extraordinary and ordinary as there is an appointment of Apostles Prophets Evangelists So also of Pastors and Teachers their work is there pointed out for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ as also their duration and continuance till we all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. When in the world all are Saints and no imperfection can be found in these Saints nor any thing wanting in the Mystical body of Christ when there is not an errour to be found either in judgement or practice nor a seducer or false teacher feared then and not before a Ministery may be spared This will not be as long as there is a Devil in Hell and a man with corruption upon earth There is not a man that opposeth a Ministery but the being of that man is an unanswerable argument for the establishment of it Their work for dispensation of the Sacraments is given in charge explicitely in those words Baptizing them c. as implicitely in that charge Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded This of Baptisme answers in duration to that other Sacrament of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 26. As oft as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup you shew forth the Lords death till he come Secondly It appears in the promise of Christ Jesus annext by way of encouragement in this work verse 20. Lo I am with you alwayes even unto the end of the world This is we see to the uttermost extent of time alwayes even all dayes to the worlds end And howsoever some quarrel may be raised about the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saeculi being taken in so various an acception in the holy Scriptures yet the subject matter whereon it is spoken is a work of more lasting as hath been observed than one age together with the phrase annext The consummation or finishing plainly signifies that this promise is for perpetuity till Christs coming at the end of ages That which puts a period to the Lords Supper must alone put a period to this work And for any to make a promise to a dying man ready to yeeld up the ghost for help for many years who is but to live few yeares were a strange promise And to settle a function of the Ministery with a promise of assistance through all ages when it must be extinct in that age were as strange a promise A promise to a Non-entity or meere Chimara Ministers then are in the Church as Starres not as Meteors they grow as Plants not as Mushromes their duration is not for a yeare for an age but through all ages Thirdly this appeares by the Apostles care for a succession Being not suffered to continue by reason of death they took care for others to fill up their places in the Churches which they had planted Therefore Paul called not by man but by a vision and voice from heaven gives order for a Ministerial call by Ordination Giving charge to Titus Tit. 1. 5. to ordaine Elders in every City and this by laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4. 14. to whom the care of Church-inspection was by him committed Acts 20. 17. compared with verse 28. And Paul and Barnabas in their journal Acts 14. 23. Ordained Elders in every Church and recommended them to God with prayer and fasting of which more afterwards Fourthly this appears in the setled Pastors which were found in constituted established Churches Epaphroditus in Philippi Philip. 2. 25. Archippus in Colesses Col. 4. 17. Those of Ephesus which gave the Apostles meeting at Miletum Acts 20. 17. John who lived longest of the Apostles and wrote his Revelation towards the ending of his dayes in the Issle of Pathmos Rev. 1. 9. in his banishment there for the testimony of Jesus Christ writes several Epistles to the Angels of the several respective Churches in Asia which Angels were to be his survivors and are not denied by any to be Ministers of those several City-churches there mentioned Whether these Churches were such as have been called Diocesan Presbyterial or Congregational is not here to be questioned but that they were Ministers appointed over their several charges is out of question Fifthly This appeares by the charge given for respect and esteeme to be given to those who thus stood up in succession in such established Churches 1 Thes 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteeme them very highly in love for their works sake Phil. 2 29. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladnesse and hold such in reputation Obey them that have the rule over you
letter of the Text then I shall hearken to him in the meane time all indifferent men may well challenge their reason that heed him A second Text holding out the covenant in its ancient latitude we have from our Saviour Christ Matth. 20. 16. and 22. 14. Many are called but few chosen The close of two several Parables The one of the labourers hired into the Vineyard where some claimed a more large pay upon merit The other of the Parable of the Wedding-feast where one intruded without a Wedding garment whence our Saviour inferres Many are called are of the number of guests at the wedding feast are of the labourers in the Vineyard but few are chosen from whence I thus argue If there be a call from God in the times of the New Testament in a farre greater latitude than the grace of Election that of many called few only are elected then the covenant in New Testament-times is not to be restrained to the elect and regenerate but containes all that professedly accept the termes of the covenant and visibly appear a people of God This is evident seeing the call is into covenant all at the Feast were called ones all the hired labourers were covenant-servants To conceive men to be called of God and not to be in covenant with God is a full contradiction The call hath its terminus à quo and its terminus ad quem a state which upon call they leave and a new state on which they enter They are upon this call in a nearer relation to God than the rest of the world otherwise they were the same as ever and not called at all they are not in so neare a relation as men borne of the Spirit so they were elected They have a call by the Word and ministerial outward Ordinances to which they yeeld a professed subjection They have not attained the inward working of the Spirit to a real Sanctification Now for the Assumption that there is a call in New Testament-times in this latitude in a far greater latitude than the grace of Election our Saviour evidently shews in the Text quoted There are those at the feast that are not accepted There are those that are taken into the Vineyard that at the evening of the day do displease there are those therefore that are called into covenant with God and yet are rejected of God a full and a clear Text for covenant-holinesse This is farther evident in those Parables of our Saviour Christ of the field with Wheat and Tares Matth. 13. 24 25. of the draw-net with fishes good and bad Matth. 13. 47. of the floore with chaffe and Wheat Matth. 3. 12. of the great house where there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earth and stone some to honour and some to dishonour 2 Tim. 2. 20. In which parables by the floore the field expressely compared to the Kingdome of Heaven and the great house the Church is understood which stands in covenant-relation to God and containes those that are in covenant with God A man in the Kingdome of Heaven is a man in covenant with God unlesse he stood in a covenant-relation he could have no standing there and the comparison were very strangely drawn if this Kingdome thus set out had all that were good none bad in it But of this more when I shall speake to some Corolaries that follow from this Assertion Another Scripture in which the covenant in the ancient latitude is held out is Rom. 11. thoroughout a great part of the chapter There is as all know a large discourse of the Apostasie of the Jews and the call of the Gentiles of the rejection and breaking off of the one and the taking in and ingraffing of the other which I shall presently have a further occasion to open when I shall speak to another pretended difference between the covenant as it stood then and as it stands now In the meane time this is clear into the same Church-state and covenant-latitude from which the Jews fell Gentiles were taken in and do still continue This cannot be denied we being graffed in their stead come in upon like termes as they left They fell from a visible Church state and that latitude of covenant which did receive regenerate and unregenerate justified and unjustified That covenant-latitude then still remaines in the Churches of the Gentiles in Gospel-times Nothing here that I can see can with any colour be objected unlesse any will say that the invisible Church is there spoken to and not the visible that the Jews fell from the invisible body and that the Gentiles in their call are generally taken in into the same fellowship Which as I think few will affirme so I shall have presently occasion to examine If any shall further say that they have this title in Foro Ecclesiae and not in Foro Dei as to men they have so far right that Ministers may not refuse them or in their administrations deny them admittance but in the sight of God who knows their unregenerate unjustified condition they have no title at all I shall refer them to the whole tenor of that chapter where they shall see this engraffing of theirs ascribed to the power of God that it is done by the election of God and mentioned as his gift and choice mercy to that people All of which speak the mind of God in it and his approbation of it This is farther clear in that Text of the Apostle Heb. 10 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Sonne of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace Where we see those that are sanctified with the blood of the covenant do tread under foot the Son of God and count his blood an unholy thing have an esteeme of it as that which is common and never devoted at all to God These must needs be granted to be wicked ye cannot be denied to be in covenant being sanctified with the blood of the Covenant There is indeed a threefold interpretation of this Text One of the Arminians and those of that party enemies to perseverance in Grace and they understand by sanctification in this place an internal change and renovation of the soul from whence by Apostasie such persons fall They that will embrace this tenent may indeed say that in the state of sanctification they were in covenant but falling from sanctification they fall from covenant But this is not affirmed by those with whom I have to deale and therefore I shall not lanch out into this controversie Two other interpretations are given by those that are adversaries to this way and make it their work to vindicate this text from these mens glosses The first refers sanctification not to those delinquents that tread under foot
with Christians and so of necessity there must be two distinct Gospels If that spoken of by Jeremy be a covenant properly so called holding out the whole nature of the Gospel-covenant and that New distinct from the former then the old covenant must needs in the whole nature of it be a distinct covenant likewise In what sense Jeremy is to be understood according to the genuine meaning of the Text I have endeavoured to clear as in my answer page 105. 106 107. So also chap. 26. of this Treatise and whether I have answered the objection which some divine that I cannot without enervating the Argument for effectual grace and perseverance in it I must appeal to the impartial Reader I am sure none can build effectual grace and perseverance on that Text making it a distinct Covenant from the first without the overthrow of effectual grace and perseverance in Old Testament-times CHAP. XL. Professed believers are under a Covenant of Grace and not a Covenant of Works IT necessarily follows by way of Corollary from that which hath been delivered that no professed believer that is a member of the Church visible is under a Covenant of Works but eo nomine that he professedly gives his name to Christ he is under a Covenant of grace That a man cannnot be under two Covenants respective to the same thing I suppose is agreed upon on all hands A man that holds by one title if he accept a second makes void the first whether his former title were better or worse whether it tends to his prejudice or benefit thus to make change of it As it is with covenants among men so it is in the Covenant between God and man If the New Covenant make void the Old where both Old and New are substantially the same and the difference only circumstantial as the Apostle sheweth that it does Heb. 8. 13. much more then in those covenants which are essentially differing as are the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of grace Some that would limit the Covenant only to the regenerate and men of justifying faith as to the just latitude of it make use of this Maxime that the same man cannot be under two Covenants which is indeed a right way of arguing from principles granted on both parts Now they assume that all unregenerate and persons not justified are under a Covenant of Works This they take for granted when it rests to be proved and so conclude that these are under no Covenant of Grace but a Covenant of Works I assume on the other hand that so many of them as are Christians though not Regenerati but Regenerandi as Pareus speaks are under a Covenant of Grace and therefore they are not under a Covenant of Works Here to avoid mistakes some things are to be premised 1. That many of them have not any explicit knowledge of either Covenant either that under which originally they were or that under which through grace they are They are the people of God and therefore under a saving Covenant with God though not emproved for salvation that perish for lack of knowledge Hos 4. 6. all that bear the name of believers in primitive times were not got up in knowledge to the first principles 2. As to their present qualification and condition they are in no better an estate than if the obligation of the Covenant of Works were still upon them A man dealing falsely in the Covenant of grace is in as sad a condition as he that is under that hopelesse and destructive Covenant of Works yea his condition admits of many sad aggravations in that treachery is above rebellion and perfidiousnesse exceeds bare disobedience They were a people in Covenant that God owned as his to whom he said Ezek. 16. 48. As I live saith the Lord God Sodom thy sister hath not done she nor her daughters as thou hast done thou and thy daughters Blessednesse is no where in Scripture said to be on the head of all those that are in covenant unlesse it be meant comparatively or respectively only but on such as keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them Psal 103. 18. And if all that were in covenant did keep covenant there would not be so much complaint as there is in Scripture of breach of covenant nor could men be under that charge that their hearts are not stedfast in covenant 3. They are yet in a more desirable estate and in fairer way towards happinesse than those that are as the Apostle speaks strangers from the covenant of promise Eph. 2. 12. As the Jewes were a people nigh to the Lord Psal 148. 14. So they are Eph. 2. 13. Salvation is of these though they be not as yet by a thorough work of grace in a saving state There are of these that shall be saved Acts 2. 47. and so there is not for ought that Scripture speaks among those that are without covenant such are in Scripture-language without God without hope Eph. 2. 12. under the wrath and indignation of God Jerem. 10. 25. Psal 79. 6. When the Apostle therefore had spoken much against the Jew outwardly and the circumcision of the flesh that is men circumcised in flesh and not in heart Rom. 2. upon the question put yet concludes that these Jewes have This circumcision hath much profit every way much advantage and the advantage is as he expresses it especially the Oracles of God which are the covenant-draughts and if they were utterly out of covenant I would desire any to shew where the advantage lies That they are in covenant with God and in a covenant of grace appears therefore 1. In that they have the Oracles of God To them that is to the Jew outwardly these Oracles were committed as the Apostle tells us Rom. 3. 1. They were committed to them as their inheritance Deut. 33. 4. They were possest of them in order to everlasting life John 5. 39. And these Oracles being Covenant-tables Covenant-draughts the professed believer that by favour from God stands possest of them is in Covenant with God 2. They have the seals of the covenant Covenant and right to the seale where seals are appointed cannot be severed as shall be shewen They are in covenant as Abraham was and they have the seales of the covenant as Abraham and his seed had Those were circumcised and these are baptised and that it may appear that they had not this honour barely from man without approbation from God as some seem to hint in their distinction of Forum Dei and Forum Ecclesiae as though the Church received them when in the sight of God they had no right to be received we finde 1. That the Spirit of God in the Scripture still calls them in way of honour by the name of circumcision and men may but God will not thus give an equivocal or nick-name to them As they were circumcised in the flesh so it was the minde of God that they should beare in
their flesh this signe and seale of the Covenant 2. Upon it they had many and great priviledges yea all Church priviledges followed upon this leading priviledge though otherwise strangers to the Common-weale of Israel now they were look't upon as of Israel 3. Answering unto and in sincerity making good that unto which they do actually engage the whole blessing of the Covenant is theirs They that undertake the termes on which covenant-salvation according to the Gospel is had are actually vested in a a saving covenant but they undertake the termes on which covenant-salvation according to the Gospel is had they are therefore in a saving covenant 4. In case unbelief and impenitence in them be not only Law-transgressions but also Gospel-sins and breaches of a Gospel-covenant then these professed believers are under a Gospel-covenant This is evident They sin not against the Gospel that are not under the Gospel they break not covenant that were never in covenant but their unbelief and impenitence are above Law-transgressions they are Gospel-sins and breaches of covenant as I think need not to be proved and therefore it is plain that they are in covenant Upon this account I confesse I have often marvelled why many eminent and godly Divines do earnestly perswade their people to whom they speak to enter covenant with God giving directions what way they are to take to come into covenant with him telling them that it is of great concernment to them to know under what covenant they are whether under a covenant of Works or a covenant of grace when the same men expressely say that we all entred covenant in baptisme and that unbelief and impenitence at least if not every sin is a breach of our baptism vow and covenant Might not any think that these did perswade to be baptised and that they tell their people that it is of great concernment to know what covenant it is that baptisme seales whether it seales the covenant of Works or the covenant of Grace If we enter in covenant in our baptisme as they truly say that we did as to the Jus in re then how comes it to passe that any that are baptised are out of it and being already actually in it how are they perswaded to enter into it These perswasions therefore and motives to enter covenant I think should be to presse men on to keep covenant and so the directions which they lay down are indeed of divine and excellent use And when they say it so much concernes men to know what covenant they are under I conceive it should rather be to let them know of how great concernment it is to them to see that they have their interest in the mercies of the covenant through grace answering to the termes of it and requisites in it and so the entring of covenant which is done as these say in baptisme and keeping of covenaut or obtaining the mercies of the covenant would not be confounded but distinguished Their labours would likewise be of excellent use which otherwise scarce suit either with their own words or the Scriptures It may be objected that in case they are from under the covenant of Works and under the covenant of Grace then they are exempted from the curse and acquitted from the condemnation which is annext to that covenant which cannot be affirmed of any meer Professour of Christianity in unbelief and impenitence and enough is spoken in this Treatise it self against it To this I answer 1. The curse may follow upon the transgression of the Law as a Law without consideration of any covenant at all whether of Works or Grace and it is not interest in Covenant but interest in Christ which these supposedly such have not that frees from condemnation 2. What if it be yielded that they beare no more than the penalty annext to the breach of the Covenant of grace If the Gospel be consulted that is sufficiently sad and heavy If they be put to beare that nothing more needs to be added to the burden and indeed with submission to better judgments not resolvedly determining any thing it is my thoughts that professed Christians in unbelief and impenitence suffer not upon account of the penalty annext to the breach of the covenant of Works but upon account of the penalty annext to the breach of the covenant of Grace and let not any here object that the transgression of the Law shall not then be laid to their charge for the Gospel bindes us to the obedience of the Law though not in exact perfection yet in sincerity and truth And this I suppose receives strength from that of the Apostle 2 Thes 1 7 8. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which character therof not knowing God Interpreters saith Dr. Slater upon the words generally take to be a description of the Gentiles who though they know God by his Works yet they know him not by his Word and to this he subscribes The other character of not obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ is as he saith a circumscription of Christians according to Interpreters Gospel-disobedience is then their guilt and upon account of this they suffer Had they believed and yielded sincere obedience which they professed and to which they engaged themselves they had not perished and the want of this appears to be their destruction CHAP. XLI Interest in a Church-state is of equal latitude with the Covenant THen it follows by way of necessary corollary that Church-membership interest in a Church-state is of equal latitude not only the elect and regenerate but all in covenant as before spoken to have their right stand entitled to Church-priviledges And here lest I should be mistaken let me explaine my selfe that my meaning is not ipso facto because in covenant with God and called by his name to entitle them to the Church invisible and so to suppose them lively members living in grace by influence of the Spirit from Christ This would clearly enough contradict that which before I have spoken and were indeed a contradiction in the adject I mean it of a visible Church-state and interest in visible priviledges If any quarrel at the distinction as some have done on either hand endeavouring to take off both members The Church of Rome not admitting any Church invisible and others not brooking any Church but such as consists of invisible members as may appear in their definitions of a particular Church putting in those clauses that belong only to the Church invisible I shall refer them to Doctor John Reynolds in his second Thesis fully bottoming it on that Text Mat. 22. 14. Many are called but few chosen which yet must be confest with judicious Master Hudson that it is not a division into two distinct Churches or species of Churches but a distribution of the subject by the adjuncts
before Antichrist was raised to his height and strength in his delusions and Antichrist still holds them of all sorts and sizes Either of both of these mayâ—e Negative or Positive Negative are such where the doctrine of faith is not laid Positive where it is mis-laid where edifying doctrines are not preached and where they are mis-preacht both tend to the Churches danger a house never compleat or built up entire but defective in several parts little differs from that which is ruinous The Apostle who is worthily stiled a wise Master-builder 1 Cor. 3. 10. makes known the whole counsel of God Acts 20. 27. and builds not up defective Churches 5. All errors being against Christ who is the foundation to bear up and carrie on the whole work accordingly as they dash upon Christ and obscure his glory whether more or lesse the estimate of the danger is to be taken These are either such that render Christ in an uncapacity to be our Mediatour and Saviour or such that are inconsistent in whole or in part with his Mediatourship of the former kinde are those that are against his person 1. Those that impugne the Godhead of Christ such that though they give him the glory to be above Angels yet will make him no more than a creature a God in title and place as are Magistrates not in nature or power An opinion that involves the Apostolick Church and all Churches in succession in idolatry giving the honour of God the worship due to God unto him who by nature is no God A doctrine that will make Christ an impotent and not an omnipotent head too weak for his work to govern the world and bring under his enemies 2. Those that deny his manhood as having not taken our flesh and so no suitable head but a phantastick or seeming body Those that are against his Mediatourship are either such that obscure or some way eclipse it as every errour doth that is any way considerable or such that raze if not utterly overthrow it in some of the necessary parts of it his Kingdome Priesthood or Prophetical Office These are overthrown either directly in termes of full opposition or else by consequence and this such that is either immediate and evident the truth being confest these cannot be denied or else the consequence more remote and not so easily discerned These things being premised we must bring it home to our purpose 1. Where fundamental truths are not only questioned doubted and disputed but abjured and denyed errours directly or by immedate clear consequence introduced so that the truth cannot be known but the errour must be seen and this declared by publick confession and generally held Christians are to be gone here are not sufficient edifying truths nor yet antidotes to preserve from danger when they would have healed Babylon and she would not be healed then it is time to forsake If any man come unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed 2 John 10. saith John much lesse then may we hold such communion with them It is said of Mice that when the house through ruines is falling they will be gone shall nature teach them to provide for their safety and shall nothing teach Christians to see to their own salvation When Jerusalem was to be destroyed according to Christs prediction and not one stone to be left upon another a voice is said to be heard crying Get out to Pella Foundation-breaches seen and suffered are as this voice to be gone such a Jerusalems walls are falling There is a flight too soon when care might keep up the buildings when with the poore man we may save and deliver the City Eccles 9. 15. They that preached Christ in those Churches of Galatia and preached down Circumcision and other points of Judaisme pleased the Apostle better then they that without such endeavour should desert it so those that had preached the resurrection in Corinth had better pleased then those that had left the place for their sakes that denyed it A Church may not onely degenerate but apostatize may not onely languish but lose her vital spirits may not onely displease her Bridegroom but suffer a divorce perhaps keep the title of a wife and indeed be a strumpet and want all evidence of relation to the Bridegroome 2. In the case of pollutions of a more inferior alloy a Christian may be necessitated to leave 1. When the food of life knowledge in the word or means to compasse it cannot be had In such a case it must be sought They must resolve with the Lepers 2 King 7. 3. not to sit still and die When the Priests and Levites left their suburbs and pessessions under Jeroboams government being cast out of their employment and the lowest of the people men of self-consecration set up in their stead after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers 2. Châ—â—n 11. 16. Being without a teaching Priest they were as the Prophet tells Asa 2 Chron. 15. 3. without the Law and without God and there was no staying there 2. When a man by compulsion is necessitated to give approbation to such pollutions in any such way that speaks his compliance whether it be by the civil power through unsufferable fines â—ulcts imprisonments unavoidable or peril of life Or by the Ecclesiastical power in excommunications when men are driven out or necessitated for soul-subsistence to go out there is full liberty and warranty to leave But when Ordinances in a saving way may be enjoyed with liberty and safety no Laws being enacted for their so heavy persecution or through indulgence or connivence not put into execution there the Churches good calls for good mens stay not their secession or separation There was not a little leaven in the Churches doctrine in Christs time errour was advanced into Moses chaire yet Christ himself with many other that waited for redemption in Jerusalem held communion as Church-members All was not right in every Church of the Saints to whom Christ wrote Revel 2. 3. and to whom Paul sent Epistles yet as they retained still the honour of Churches and the happinesse of Christs presence so we hear nothing of separation enjâ—â—ned or practised The condition of Beleevers in the Synagogue of Rome was otherwise The key of knowledge is there taken away the people not allowed to read it in private or to heare it in publick but kept reserved in an unknown language neither could they without capital danger keep themselves from compliances in their sinne so that reformed Churches did not in any unwarrantable way of Schisme leave but rather were left They forsook not the Church but the botches and corruptions in it though we were never forbidden to partake of their truths yet we are forbidden to partake of their sins lest we partake
birth legitimate not spurious renders the reasoning here in this place 1. Childish 2. Incongruous 3. Untrue 1. Weak and childish to tell the Corinthians if their marriage-society were adulterous then their children were bastards if their marriage were nul children were illegitimate This is too low a way of reasoning und unworthy of the Apostle such that every childe well knew before the Apostle told them In that great contest about the marriage of Henry the eighth with the relict of his brother Arthur in which the judgement of so many Universities was desired if one had argued that in case this marrige be a nullity then the Princesse is not legitimate But the Princesse is legitimate Ergo the marriage is no nullity he would have been looked upon as a strange disputant 2. Incongruous To bring phrases fully answering the Church-state and condition of either parents beleeving unbeleeving which in the Scripture is holy and uncleane and yet to understand them of holinesse and uncleannesse of another kinde of legitimation and bastardy if they may be as I think they never were so called is meerly incongruous That these words fully answer the Church-state of parents and the Church-state and condition which the children derive from them is plaine in that parallel text Gal. 2. 15. Jews by nature that is holy by birth from beleeving parents not sinners of the Gentiles not uncleane by birth from unbeleeving ancestors So Master Cartwright on these words in his answer to the Rhemists If you will know what this holinesse of children new-born is the Apostle telleth you it is through the Covenant to be a Jew by nature or birth and if you will farther understand what this uncleannesse of children is the Apostle in the same place telleth you it is not to be sinners by nature as those which are born of the Heathen I well know and acquainted the Reader p. 2. of my Birth-priviledge that the Apostles scope Gal. 2. 15. is another viz. to prove that Jews and Gentiles have both one and the same justification not by works of the Law but by Faith but falling upon the mention of the Jewe and Gentile he gives them characters as Master Cartwright well observes fully parallel to that which is here delivered 3. The argument thus understood is untrue The stresse is wholly laid on the beleeving party as to the holinesse of the issue twice over The unbeleever is meerly passive in it when the childe hath legitimation equally from both Against the former interpretation and for mine which Chamier affirmes to be Calvini omnium nostrorum take these arguments 1. That holinesse which necessarily follows to the issue from the sanctification of an unbeleeving by a beleeving yoke-fellow is Covenant holinesse and not legitimation But the holinesse in this place of the Apostle necessarily follows to the issue from the sanctification of an unbeleever by a beleever Ergo it is Covenant-holinesse not legitimation 2. That which is derived from the eminency of one parent above another and not equally from both is not legitimation But this holinesse is derived from the eminence of one parent viz. the beleeving parent above the other Ergo it is not legitimation 3. The result or fruit which follows from a beleevers faith is not legitimation But the holinesse in the Text is a result of the faith of the beleeving yoke-fellow The minor is evident seeing faith is twice hinted at in the beleever I know that there is one that denies that the unbeleeving husband or wise is here said to be sanctified in the beleeving It is saith he in the husband not in the beleeving husband in the wife not in the beleeving wife that is not in the Text. The marriage is between a beleever and an unbeleever the unbeleever is sanctified whether husband or wife by their yoke-fellow but not as is said by their beleeving yoke-fellow the Reader that puts off his reason may matter such denials To evince sense of bastardy and legitimation from those words of the Text unclean and holy the Apostles argument is put by one into this forme If the unbeleeving husband were not sanctified by the wife then were your children uncleane But they are not uncleane but holy Ergo the unbeleeving husband is sanctified by the wife And this sequel as is said were not true if this proposition were not true All the children of those parents where one is not sanctified to the other are unclean The Proposition is of an unbelieving husband and a wife and yet the Proposition must be of all parents that will prove it as he that wiâ—â— prove If an Englishman be noble he is honourable must prove it by this universal or general All Noble men are honourable and not put in all Englishmen Noble for then he antecedent and the conclusion would be all one whereas the Proposition proving must be larger then the Proposition proved else we might conclude ex meris particularibus To say if the unbeleeving husband were not sanctified by the wife your children were unclean is all one with this All the children of the unbeleeving husband not sanctified to the wife are uncleane This of it selfe is not such that many words should need to be spent about it But seeing that a learned hand layes so much and so great stress upon it It may not be slightly passed over and who sees not here a wilde parallel well worthy of such a monstrous assertion The proposition is of two standing in full disparity and an instance is given in a single person where there is no disparity at all and by two adjuncts which are Synonyma I desire to know how this sequel may be proved If a wife of an ignoble birth be not made Noble by her husband her issue is ignoble must it be proved by this Proposition The issue of every wife not made noble by her husband is ignoble or will it serve The issue of every ignoble wife not made noble by her husband is ignoble If a poore man take a wife and is not enricht by her he still remaines in a poore condition shall this be made good by a proposition That all men taking wives and not enricht by them are in a poore condition or will it serve that every poor man taking a wife and not enricht by her is in a poore condition are these true or are they false propositions Yea what is affirmed in his own instance to prove that if an Englishman be noble he is honourable it is sufficient to prove it by this Proposition All Englishmen noble are honourable will not hold Let any one tell me how he will make good this Proposition If a Dutchman be borne of a Duke he is a Duke if he be borne of an Earle he is an Earle must it be All men born of Dukes are Dukes of Earles are Earles This with us in England is false but of all Dutch men thus borne it is truth But the