thereof thou shalt surely dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. Dying thou shalt dye THe next head in the body of our Religion which falls this Morning to be spoken to in Course is Gods Covenant made with Adam before the fall which we call a Covenant of Works and we ground our Discourse upon the Text read to you When God would communicate his goodnesse to the creatures he made the world out of nothing for his own glory but especially man after his Image this inferiour world he provided for mans house and habitation but he dresseth and trimmeth one part for him especially and calls it Paradise In the Paradise or pleasant Garden he was not to live idly but must dresse and keep it In the midst of all mans enjoyments which the Lord allows him with a liberal hand yet he lets him know withall he was under subjection though Lord of all and therefore gives him a command obsequii examen obedientiae quoddam rudimentum Calvin a test and tryal of his obedience to which God trains him up As Lords when they let out their Lands to Husbandmen reserve somewhat to themselves which the Tenants are not to meddle with that they may have some check upon them Muscul so God here That which the Lord commands Adam was no hard matter he grants him a vast latitude to eat of all freely Oecol only one sort excepted in which exception as God was not envious to him as the Envious One suggested so was not this Commandment grievous to him Object It may be objected from 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law is not made for a righteous man why then for Adam in his righteousnesse Resol Paul means good men do not so need the Law as bad men do for good Laws rose from evil manners yet in a sense the Law is given for righteous men not to justifie them for it finds them justified already and past the condemnation of the Law it finding them also sanctified Beza it treats them not as enemies but leads them and delights them consenting to it This serves to explode the errour of Antinomians and Libertines so then God to declare his Soveraignty and mans subjection gave Adam though innocent a Law Mark how God bound mans obedience with a double fence first he fenced him with a free indulgence to eat of all but one this was an Argument to his ingenuity secondly by a severe prohibition upon pain of death by the first the Lord wooes him by love by the second he frights him by the terrour of his justice and bids him touch it if he durst Observe among all the Trees of the Garden there are two here mentioned in a more peculiar manner the Tree of life and the Tree of knowledge which are called by Divines two Sacraments in a large sense in which sense also the Ark of Noah the fire which descended and burn't the Sacrifice Polanius the Baptisme of the Red Sea and Cloud the Manna the water out of the Rock the pouring out of the blood of the Sacrifices the Land of Canaan the Tabernacle Temple Ark of the Testimony the propitiatory the golden Candlestick the twelve stones taken out of Jordan with the pool of Bethesda all these I say in a large sense are Sacramental Symbols of the Covenant of Grace or extraordinary Sacraments but the Tree of knowledge and Tree of life are called Sacraments of the Covenant of works By these the Lord did signifie and seal to our first Parents that they should alwayes enjoy that happy state of life in which they were made upon condition of obedience to his Commandments i. e. in eating of the Tree of life and not eating of the Tree of knowledge For it was called the Tree of life not because of any native property and peculiar vertue it had in it self to convey life but Symbolically Morally and Sacramentally it was a sign and obsignation to them of life natural and spiritual to be continued to them as long as they continued in obedience unto God Aug. In like manner the Tree of knowledge of good and evil was spoken from the sad event and experience they had of it as Sampson had of God departed from him when he left his Nazaritish haire by Dalilah Now that a Covenant of Works lay in this Commandment is clear 1. Because that was the condition of mans standing and life as it is expresly declared 2. Because in the breach of that Commandment given him he lost all This obedience as it was Characteristical to Adams Covenant and Contradistinguished to the Covenant of Grace was perfect personal and perpetual In a sense though different from the other those three things are required in our obedience under the Covenant of Grace not in reference to the Covenant nor to justification neither is our personal righteousnesse perfect I mean legally yet is it perfect though not in us but in our surety neither was the Covenant made primarily with us but with him and with us in him and on his account even as God made the Covenant of Works primarily with Adam and with us in him as our head inclusively Now for our better opening this doctrine to you I shall propound and answer some questions 1. What is meant by Covenant 2. What ground we have to call it Adams Covenant or a Covenant of Works 3. Wherein doth the Nature and Tenour of it consist 4. Whether the Covenant of Works was revived and repeated to Israel 5. How long it lasted whither till now unto any Quest 1. What is meant by Covenant name and thing Answ The word in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berith which hath a threefold derivation very fit to be taken notice of for clearing of the nature of the Covenant 1. From Barah to choose because the persons are chosen between whom the Covenant or Agreement is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indeed Gods Covenant with man is not only with his elect and chosen ones but a fruit and effect of our election yea the Lord doth encline our wills to make choice of him and of his terms I have made a Covenant with my chosen so again Choose you whom ye will serve ye are witnesses against your selves this day Psal 89.3 Josh 24.15 22 that you have chosen the Lord. 2. Or else this word Berith Covenant may be taken from Barah to eat Illyricus because they were wont to eat together of the Sacrifice slain and provided at the making of the Covenant at which time they had a Feast hence the Apostle speaking of the Eucharist the signe and seal of the Covenant and which is a spiritual Food and Feast upon a Covenant account saith This Cup is the New Testament or New Covenant in my blood 1 Cor. 11.25 3. Or from Bathar to cut and divide asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by transposing a letter for so the sacrifice was divided and the Covenanting parties were to passe
between the parts Thus Abraham entred into Covenant with God and he took a Heifer Shee Goat Gen. 15. Ver. 9.10 and a Ramme and divided them in the midst and laid one piece against another Ver. 9.10 And behold a burning Lamp passed between those pieces Ver. 17.18 in that same day the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham This cutting of the sacrifice into pieces and passing thorow was a lively and dreadful signe that the party who should break Covenant should be cut asunder and into pieces as he well dâ—se ved and as he at least implicitely imprecated upon himself notable to this purpose is that in the Prophet Jeremy I will give the men that have transgressed my Covenant Jer. 34.18 19 20. which have not performed the words of the Covenant which they made before me when they cut the Calfe in twaine and passed between the parts thereof the Princes of Judah the Princes of Jerusalem the Eunuchs and the Priests and all the People of the Land which passed between the parts of the Calf I will even give them into the hand of their enemy into the hand of them that se k their life c. that is to be slain and cut in pieces by the Sword And herein I take the Emphasis of the expression to lie Lev. 26.25 I will bring a Sword upon you which shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant i. e. by cutting them asunder And this custome was conveyed to the Gentiles they went between the fire and carried a Sword in their hands and so took an oath Lib. 10. contra Jul. as Cyril proves out of Sophocles Thus Virgil speaking of Romulus and Tatius Aeneid 8. Hinc foedus à foedo animali foedè mactato Caesae jungebant foedera porcae They cut a Swine in sunder and made a League and to name no more Titus Livius speaking of the League between the Romans and Albans the Foecialis Herald or Minister of those Ceremonies cryed If the Romans shall falsifie by publick and wicked fraud in that day O Jupiter do thou so smite the Romans as I smite this Swine and so knock't the Swine on the head with a stone By all which it appears that Covenants have been ever held solemn and sacred things and that men by breaking of them deserved dreadful punishments In like manner there was the shedding dividing and sprinkling of blood at the making of Covenants and hence it was called the blood of the Covenant Exod. 24.6 7 8. Moses took half the blood and put it in Basons and half of the blood he sprinkled on the Altar and he took the book of the Covenant and read in the audienâ—e of the people and they said All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words Note He sprinkled the Altar instead of God who being incorporeal and a Spirit could not be sprinkled yet being a Covenant party would have the Altar sprinkled for him So much shall serve for the first Question setting forth in our Answer to it the name and nature of a Covenant in general the second Question follows Quest 2. What ground we have to speak of Gods Covenant with Adam and to call it a Covenant there being no mention of it here in the Text nor elsewhere in Scripture do we read of Gods Covenant with Adam Answ However the name be not here yet the thing is here and elsewhere comparing Scripture with Scripture it is a nice cavil in Socinians to call fot the word Satisfaction others for the word Sacrament others for the word Trinity others for the words Faith alone justifying others for the word Sabbath for Lords day c. and thence to conclude against Satisfaction Sacraments Trinity Justification by faith alone and Sabbath for want of expresse words when the things themselves are lively set down in other words so in this case of Gods Covenant with Adam we have 1. Gods Command which lays man under an obligation 2. We have Gods promise upon condition of obedience 3. We have Gods threatning upon his disobedience 4. We have their understanding it so as appears in Eves words to the Serpent 5. Chap. 3.3 We have the two Trees as signs and symbols of the Covenant 6. We have a second Covenant and a New Covenant therefore there was a first and Old Covenant a Covenant of Grace supposeth one of Works Object If any shall say by first and old Covenant was meant Gods Covenant with Israel and not with Adam and so by Covenant of Works the same is meant namely that which the Lord made at Mount Sinai Answ Hereunto I answer There is a repetition of the Covenant of Works with Adam in the Law of Moses Hebr. 8.7 8 9. Gal. 3.12 Rom. 10.5 as in that of the Apostle to the Galatians The Law is not of faith bâ—t the man that doth these things shall live in them so likewise to the Romans Moses dsscribes the righteousness which is of the Law that the man who doth these things shall live in them Thus it was with Adam principally and properly therefore he was under a Covenant of Works when God gave him that command in my Text. Quest. 3. Wherein then doth this Covenant of Works consist what is the nature tenour and end of it as such Answ 1. This Covenant required working on our part as the condition of it for justification and happinesse therefore called a Covenant of Works Gal. 3.12 thus before the man that doth these things shall live Working indeed is also required under grace now but 1. Not to Justification 2. Not from our own Power Ephes 2.8 Jam. 2.20 3. Not previous to faith which worketh by love and lives by working but man lives by faith 2. A second Characteristical signe of the Covenant of Works is this that in and under it man is left to stand upon his own legs and bottome to live upon his own stock and by his own industry he had a power to stand and not to have fallen this is meant when it is said God created man in his own Image Gen. 1.27 Eccles 7.29 And again This only have I found that God made man upright 3. In the first Covenant namely that of Works man had no need of a Mediatour God did then stipulate with Adam immediately for seeing as yet he had not made God his enemy by sin he needed no days-man to make friends hy intercession for him Gen. 1. ult After mans Creation God said He saw every thing which he had mude and behold it was very good and after the Covenant made in chap. 2. it s said They were naked and they were not ashamed i. e. they had not contracted guilt by committing of sinne from whence onely ariseth shame therefore under the Covenant
there needeth no Mediatour And hence Moses Law was not properly a Covenant of Works Gal. 3.19 because that Law was given in the hand of a Mediatour 4. The Covenant of Works once broken God abates nothing of his justice no not upon repentance but the soul that sinned dyed Mark our Text Thou shalt dye the death by which doubling of the words in the Hebrew Idiom of speech is meant Vehemency and Certainty Vatablus which was effected and so had continued inevitably without the help of another Covenant hinted in that first promise Gen. 3.15 For the first Covenant gives no relief to a poor sinner when he hath broken it but leaves him hopelesse and helplesse under a fearful expectation of wrath and fury indignation 5. The Lord in the Covenant of Works accepts the person for the Works sake that is he mainly looks at the work how adequate it is to the command and rule which he so exactly heeds that upon the least failer his justice breaks out in wrath neither can any personal excellency in the world salve the matter Deut. 27. ult Cursed is he that continueth not in all the words of the Law to do them and all the people shall say Amen a doleful Amen Jam. 2.10 and whosoever keeps the whole Law and offends in one point is guilty of all Note that whosoever God respects no mans person in that case 6. The Covenant of Works in performance of the condition leaves a man matter of boasting and glorying in himself and makes God a debtour to him Where is boasting it is excluded by what Law of works Rom. 3.27 Nay as if he had said the Covenant of Works affords matter of boasting to him that worketh to justification by his own personal power and righteousnesse Now to him that worketh is the reward reckoned not of grace Rom. 4.4 but of debt i. e. it obligeth God to pay it him as a due which is the language of Pharisees and Papists which were justly challenged and claimed 1. Were we indeed under a Covenant of Works and not of Grace 2. Were our works perfect 3. Did we not lye at Gods mercy for our guilt All which declare man impotent and grace necessary and withal Jews and Papists to be enemies to the Crosse of Christ and Covenant of Grace and under a Covenant of Works of which more anon 7. The Covenant of Works leaves a man still in doubt while resting in it in that state because it is a mutable state at best he had all in his own hands and then Satan cunningly rooked him of all God puts him into a good bottome and leaves him to be his own Pilot at Sea the Divel assaults him and sinks him and therefore the second Covenant takes all into Gods hands that it may continue safe under his Father by care and custoddy 1 Pet. 1.4 5. John 10.28 29. and so gives the soul good security against death and danger which Adam had not while he stood much lesse can any rich or honourable man in his fools Paradise here in this world say his Mountain is unmoveable his glory unchangeable seeing it passeth away as a Pageant 1 Cor. 7.31 if Adams Paradise was so mutable much more theirs if he stood not in his integrity how shall they stand in their iniquity 8. The Covenant of Works was made with all men in Adam who was made and stood as a publick person head and root in a common and comprehensive capacity I say it was made with him as such and with all in him Quo mansit remanente quo pereunte peribat he and all stood and fell together for even the Elect may say We are all by nature the children of wrath as well as others Rom. 3.19 and that of St. Paul We know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God But the Covenant of Grace is a discriminating thing it takes in some and leaves out others Christ is not a head in Covenant with all as Adam was but of his Elect only for we finde many in the world under the headship of Satan and Antichrist and old Adam who are out of Christ not only because unconverted as Saints themselves are before regeneration but out of Christ in the account of Gods Election Donation and Covenant who have none of his special love nor ever shall have Thus I have briefly opened the distinguishing Characters of the Covenant of Works which might have been more enlarged by those of the Covenant of Grace which is easily done by way of opposition and comparison one with the other and therefore and for brevities sake I omit it and come to the next question Quest 4. Whether this Covenant of Works made with Adam was revived and repeated to Israel in Moses time and if so in what sense and why Answ I answer affirmatively that in some sort the Covenant of Works was revived and repeated to them which appears from these grounds 1. They were tyed to Commandments under a curse Gal. 3.10 Deut. 28 1 2. ver 15.16 2. Blessing is promised to obedience they are both set down by Moses at large in Deuteronomy chap. 28. and elsewhere 3. It is expresly called a Covenant I mean the giving of the Law for obedience The Lord God made a Covenant with us in Horeb. Deut. 5.2 4. It is opposed to the Covenant of Grace as another Covenant upon this very distinguishing account of obedience and faith works and grace as you may see at large among other places in that of the Hebrews Hebr. 8.6 7 8 9 10 c. Now there are foure principal ends which the Lord had in so doing 1. That he might hereby make men know what sin is how prone we are to it and how averse and head-strong against all good this is done by a Law of Works Rom. 7.7 to the 13. ver This indeed is Gods clear glasse by which he discovers to us the moral and penal evil of sin so Rom. 3.20 2. That hereby the Lord might hold men in to obedience by a strong curb because we are so apt to break fence he hedgeth up our way with thornes Hos 2.5 6. 3. That God might stop every mouth and make all guilty before him Rom. 3.19 4. That men may hereby be lash't and driven to Christ as with a School-masters rod to see an absolute need of him and to make out hard after him Gal. 3.22 23 24. For men care not to run to a City of Refuge unlesse the avenger of blood follow behinde at their heels neither do the whole need or regard the Physician but the sick and wounded Yet notwithstanding all this they were not properly under a Covenant of Works neither was the law given to them as such a Covenant meerly 1. Because as the Law was to convince of sin so it
looking forward backward If we look forward Ver. 13. there is the blessed hope the full consummation whereof we receive at the glorius appearing of the g eat God the coming of Christ to judgment ver 13. Ver. 13. and there we have three grand Articles of faith asserted 1. Heaven 2. The day of judgment 3. The Godhead of Christ If we look backward we are obliged to obedience not only out of hope but from gratitude or the great benefit of redemption by Christ ver 14. and in that we have asserted 1. Christs willingnesse to dye for he gave himself Ver. 14. 2. The purpose or end of his death to redeem us from all iniquity 3. The foundation of an holy life in our regeneration And hath purified us unto himself 4. The nature of a Church to be a peculiar people 5. The necessity of good works in the last clause zealous of good works ver 14. So that in this short Map you have a compleat summary of all that fundamental doctrine which doth animate and quicken to the life of holinesse The next body of Divinity according to the exact method of the Palatine Catechisme is in chap. 3. ver 3.4 5 6 7 8. Chap. 3. where you have 1. Mans misery by nature ver 3. 2. His Redemption by Christ ver 4. set forth 1. By the spring or first moving cause the kindnesse and love of God ver 4. 2. The false cause removed not by works of righteousnesse which we have done ver 5. 3. By the effects justification justified by his grace ver 7. Sanctification Ver. 5. he hath washed us in the laver of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Ghost ver 5. Ver. 7. The consummation of all in glory heires according to the hope of eternal life ver 8. Ver. 8. 3. The thankful life in a fruitful course of holinesse and good works ver 8. Affirme constantly that they which believe in God may be careful to maintain good works Another systeme of practical divinity you have in the second Epistle of Saint Peter chap. 1. ver 5.6 7. Ver. 5. Adde to your faith vertue c. By vertue is meant the study of holinesse which there is set forth by its furniture and subjective parts or branches Ver. 5. 1. The furniture of vertue it is rooted in FAITH guided by KNOWLEDGE Ver. 6. armed on the Ver. 6. Right-hand by TEMPERANCE or an holy moderation in the pleasures and comforts of the world On the Left-hand by PATIENCE against the crosses and inconveniencies thereof 2. The branches or subjective parts of this vertue are Ver. 7. GODLINESSE a grace that guideth us in our immediate commerce with God BROTHERLY KINDNESSE a grace that directeth us in our duties to our fellow-Saints CHARITY helping us in the duties we owe to all men In many other places do the Apostles lay the Doctrine of God in one intire view before our eyes lest the minde should be distracted by various and dispersed explications or by dwelling too much upon one part we should neglect the other Second end of such Platforms to obviate errour A SECOND SORT OF MODULES Or A second end and design of such Modules is to obviate errors and to Antidote Christians against the poyson and infection of rotten pernicious principles for no sooner had the good Husbandman sowed his field with good seed but the envious man went out after him and began to scatter tares 2 Pet. 2.1 In opposition whereunto the Apostles in their several Epistles were careful to furnish the Churches with such Modules and Platforms of truth as might discover and confute those damnable heresies 2 Pet. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence the Apostle Saint Peter calls them PRESENT TRUTHS that is Principles of the Christian Faith most seasonable for those times wherein they were writ as every Church and age had its present errors and false doctrines whereby the false Apostles did labour to undermine the truth and to seduce the Professors of it so the Apostles in that zeal to the truth and compassion to the souls of men did bestir themselves to Countermine those Seducers and to stablish the Churches in the faith of Jesus Christ by collecting some special heads and points of Gospel Doctrine opposite to those errors and sending them to the several Churches where they had planted the Gospel These the Apostle calls the Present truth Thus Saint Paul among other places in his first Epistle to Timothy chap. 4. from the first verse to the ninth verse The Apostle Peter in his second Epistle chap. 2. throughout St. Jude spends his whole Epistle upon the same design But above all the Apostle Saint John is very large and distinct upon this account His first Epistle consists specially of a two-fold Module or Platform i. e. 1. A form or table of Gospel Principles Admodum artificiosa est hujus epistolae methodus nâ—m ad modum catenae Christiana fidei mysteria axiomata connectuntur c. Dicson 2. A form or table of Gospel-Evidences both of them in opposition to the false teachers of those times those Antichrists of whose numerous increase he gives them that solemn notice 1 Epistle 2. chap. 18. verse Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now are there MANY ANTICHRISTS To Antidote Christians against the plague of the false doctrines which such Sectarian Antichrists had disseminated doth the Apostle lay down 1. An 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or PATTERN of Gospel-principles Ex. gra 1. That God is a God of an infinite universal perfection and holinesse Chap. 1. ver 5. God is light and in him is no darkness at all This against them that most blasphemously asserted (a) The Carpocratians taught that men must sin and do the Divels will or else they could not enter into heaven Epiphanius Simon Magus and after him Florinus Blastus Apelles Hermogenes Valentiani Marcionitae c. Priscillianistae Deum affirmant mendacem Aug. de haerres c. 70. GOD TO BE THE AUTHOUR OF SIN c. against whom also Saint James contends Jam. 1. ver 13 14 15 16 17 18 2. That conformity to God is an inseparable concomitant of communion with God This against them that were not afraid to (b) Eo tempore fuerunt quà â—â—m diâ—imi societatem cum Deo propter peccata censebant The Gnosticks Ebionitae c. ambulantes in tenebris jactitabant se Deo placere falsitas doctrinae turpitudo morum tunc vigebat non solum in philosophorum scholiâ— sed apud haereticeos Cypr. affirm that justified persons being elected let them live never so impurely do remain in the favour of God c. as some amongst us and such as would be accounted Stars of the first Magnitude that a man might have as much communion with God in sinne as in the duties of Religion If any man say c. It
as yet under no engagement to the contrary have annihilated the whole species for wherein can it seem hard that what was nothing but the last moment should the next moment be suffered to relapse into nothing again Let it also be considered that Adams own personal interest and a mighty natural affectton towards so vast a progeny might well be thought certainly to engage him to the uttermost care and circumspection on his own and their behalf It must also be remembred that all being now in perfect innocency no defect of reason no frowardnesse or perversenesse of will can be supposed in any to hinder their right judgement and choice of what might appear to be most for their own advantage and the glory of their Maker Can it now possibly be thought the case being thus stated that any man should rather chuse presently to lose his being and the pleasures and hopes of such a state than to have consented to such termes It cannot be thought For consider the utmost that might be objected and suppose one thus to reason the matter with himself Why 't is a mighty hazard forme to suspend my everlasting happinesse or misery upon the uncertain determinations of another mans mutable will shall I trust my eternal concernments to such a Peradventure and put my life and hopes into the hands of a fellow-creature It were obvious to him to answer himself I but he is my father he bears a natural affection to me his own concernment is included he hath power over his own will his obedience for us all will be no more difficult than each mans for himself there is nothing required of him but what his nature inclines him to and what his reason if he use it will guide him to comply with and though the hazard of an eternal misery be greatly tremendous yet are not the hopes of an everlasting blessednesse as greatly consolatory and encouraging and besides the hazard will be but for a time which if we passe safely we shall shortly receive a full and glorious confirmation and advancement Certainly no reasonable man all this considered though there had been no mention made of a means of recovery in case of falling the consideration whereof is yet also to be taken in by us would have refused to consent and then what reasonable man but will confesse this to be a meer cavil that we did not personally consent for if it be certain we should have consented and our own hearts tell us we should doth the power of a Creatour over his creatures signifie so little that he might not take this for an actual consent for is it not all one whether you did consent or certainly would have done it if you had been treated with Covenants betwixt Superiours and Inferiours differ much from those betwixt equals for they are Laws as well as Covenants and therefore do suppose consent the termes being in se reasonable as that which not only our interest but duty would oblige us to 'T is not the same thing to Covenant with the great God and with a fellow-creature Gods prescience of the event besides that no man knows what it is yet whatever it is 't is wholly immanent in himself as also his decrees therefore could have no influence into the event or be any cause of it all depended as hath been shewn on mans own will and therefore if God did fore-see that man would fall yet he knew also that if he would he might stand From both jointly 1. Were we once so happy and have we now undone our selves how acceptable should this render the means of our recovery to us That 't is a recovery we are to endeavour which implies the former truth that supposes us once happy who would not be taken with such an overture for the regaining of an happinesse which he hath lost and faln from 't is a double misery to become from an happy estate miserable 't is yet as a double happinesse to become happy from such misery and proportionably valuable should all meanes appeare to us that tend thereto Yea and 't is a recovery after self-destruction which asserts the former truth such a destruction as might reduce us to an utter despaire of remedies as rendering us incapable to help our selves or to expect help or pity from others O how welcome should the tydings of deliverance now be to us Rom. 3 24 c. 1 Cor. 1.30 31 Eph. 1.6 7. Tit. 2.11 14 how joyful an entertainment should our hearts give them upon both these accounts how greatly doth Scripture command the love and grace of Christ under the notion of Redeeming a word that doth not signifie deliverance from simple misery only but also connote a precedent better state as they expound it who take the phrase as Scripture uses it to allude to the buying out of Captives from their bondage And how should it ravish the heart of any man to have mercy and help offered him by another hand who hath perished by his own how taking should Gospel-grace be upon this account how should this consideration engage souls to value and embrace it 't is urged we see to that purpose Hosea 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help and verse 10. it follows I will be thy King where is any other that will save thee c. And chap. 14.1 O Israel return unto the Lord for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Now friends do but seriously consider this If you believe the truths you have heard how precious should Christ be to you how precious should the Gospel the Ordinances and Ministry of it be Do you complain that formerly you were not treated with by all these God now treats with you Now your own personal consent is called for not to any thing that hath the least of hazard in it but what shall make you certainly happy as miserable as you have made your selves and there 's nothing but your consent wanting the price of your Redemption is already paid 't is but taking Christ for your Saviour and your Lord and living a life of dependance and holinesse for a few dayes and you are as safe as if you were in glory will you now stick at this O do not destroy your selves a second time and make your selves doubly guilty of your own ruine 2. Was our state so good but mutable what cause have we to admire the grace of God through Christ that whom it recovers it confirmes It was a blessed state that by our own free will we fell from but how much better even upon this account is this which by Gods free grace we are invited and recalled to THE COVENANT OF WORKS GEN. 2.16 17. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every Tree of the Garden * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou mayst freely eat but of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest
shewed the expiation of sin and therefore their Sacrifices were killed and the blood shed and sprinkled Heb. 9.22 23. 2. The Covenant at Mount Sinai was not made with all without exception as Adams was but only with a select people even with Israel 3. Because the Lord still puts them in minde of his promise to Abraham which included Christ and faith in him Gal. 3.16 17. and was not null by the Law Quest 5. The last question is how long this Covenant lasted and whither any be under a Covenant of Works Answ Most strictly it was but to the giving of the first promise for then the Covenant of Grace began but was more largely and clearly revealed till the coming of Christ by the Law and the Prophets but was most perspicuously and fully by Christ himself in his doctrine and death and by the abundant pouring out of his Spirit Howbeit all along and to this day every natural man is under a Covenant of Works because out of Christ therefore under the Law and the curse of it for which cause the Covenant of Works is by some called the Covenant of nature Faedus naturae Again all they which look for righteousnesse and salvation by the power of their wills by the strength of nature and by performance of duties as Jews Turks Philosophers Papists Socinians Gal. 4.24 25. Pelagians these are all under a Covenant of Works they are not under grace they are of Hagar the Bond-woman of Mount Sinai which answers to Jerusalem which now is which is in bondage with her children as the Apostle speaks in his elegant Allegory I come now to draw some Corollaries from this doctrine of the Covenant of Works thus propounded in a practical way of application and that briefly Corol. 1. It serves for admiration to wonder with a holy astonishment at the Lords infinite condescending love in making a Covenant with poor man 1. Because it was a free act in him to do it he lay under no compulsion to it Rom. 9.15 16. nothing of merit or profit in a despicable worme appears as a motive to it it was a royal act of glorious grace from the King of heaven to vile creatures O wonderful 2. Because as it was free for him to do it so he bound his hands by it and as it were lost his freedome by it for his truth holds him fast to it Hebr. 6.18 by which its impossible for him to change O wonderful 3. He made the first offer he prevented us by his grace he loved us first 1 John 4.10 19. all this appeared in the first Covenant with us Bullinger de fâ—â—dere Dei unios aeterno in vouchsafing us to make any at all with him Ineffabilis misericordiae Divinae Argumentum quod ipsum numen ipse inquam Deus Aeternus faedus ipsum primus offert nullis ad hoc hominum meritis adactus sed merâ nativâ bonitate impulsus nec scio an humanum ingenium hoc mysterium vel plenè toncipere vel dignis laudibus evehere possit Unspeakable mercy that the eternal God should first offer to league with us moved to it by no merit in us but by his own native goodnesse only a mystery which the minde of man cannot conceive nor his tongue praise to the worth of it thus a grave Authour which will the more inhance the love of God if we 4. Consider that he makes Covenant upon Covenant after breaches and forfeitures renews them again and ratifies them stronger than ever as he did the new Covenant after the old was broken by our high and hainous provocation in the fall and which he doth to every elect soul in the Sacraments and after grosse and grievous Apostasies See Jerem. 3.1 Ezek. 16.60 61 62 63. Hos 2. O admire and adore this love Corol. 2. Seeing there are two Covenants on foot one of Works another of grace and very many yea the farre greatest part of the world are under a Covenant of Works which is a most sad and doleful estate because a state of wrath and death a most wretched and accursed condition O try under what Covenant thou art for if thou art in the state of sinful nature a sprowt of old Adam never yet cut off from his root of bitternesse nor graffed into Christ thou art undone to be under such a Covenant is to be an enemy to God and to be lyable to all his plagues O make haste then and flee as a Post and as the young Roe into Christs Armes For consider how thou canst stand before the Bar of God in thy sins in thy nakednesse Adam fled away from the presence of God afraid and ashamed hiding himself in the Thicket because he was naked but where wilt thou hide thy nakednesse in that dreadful day of the Lord there will be no shelter in that day for a sinner Corol. 3. Labour to understand and discern aright the nature tenour and termes of both Covenants 1. Because they are easiiy mistaken and many do mistake them Rom. 10.2 3. 2. Because the mistake is dangerous like a man in the dark as he travels findes two wayes one way is wrong Prov. 14.12 yet it seems as good and safe as the other he goes on in the wrong which leads him to a Rock where he falls down headlong and breaks his neck so many a poor soul imagines he is under a Covenant of Grace and in a safe way to heaven when alas he is yet under a Covenant of Works and in the high-way to hell Labour then to discern the difference search Scriptures and thy own heart go to the Lord by prayer Job 33.23 and to his M nisters that they may shew thee thy way lest thou go on to thy destruction And therefore Corol. 4. Improve the Covenant of works for the conviction of sin righteousness and judgement for till the Lord lets thee see what it is to be under such a state thou wilt never see the evil of it nor ever desire to change it Corol. 5. Renounce thy Covenants with sin Satan and creatures or else thou wilt never be admitted into Covenant with God if thou break not with them God will never close with thee if thou be a Covenant-servant to them thou art no Covenant-servant of the Lords for how canst thou serve those two Masters Matth. 6.24 1 Joh. 2.15 16. God and Mammon both which crave thy whole man and thy whole work and which are utterly inconsistent with each other Corol. 6. Labour to relieve thy self under thy greatest straits and sears by Covenant promises I mean the promises of the new Covenant which are called better promises Hebr. 8.6 10 11 12. Joh. 15. because absolute prâ—mises because they work that in us and for us which God requires of us when of our selves we can do nothing As the new Covenant is the best Covenant and the promises of it the best promises Isa 55.3 Acts
with the strong because he had poured out his soule unto death c. This very briefly to clear up the Coherence of the words I pass over the various readings of them and also what might be spoke for the explication of them that will come in afterwards because I hasten to that which is my businesse this morning namely the opening of the Covenant of Redemption You have heard of the misery of man by Nature of the inability of man to help himself in this lost condition c. I am now to speak something to his recovery or restauration or rather to that which indeed is the foundation of his recovery and that is the Covenant here called The Covenant of Redemption By which Covenant I mean that faederal transaction that was betwixt God the Father and the Son from everlasting about the Redemption of lost and fallen man Understand me here aright I am not to speak to the Covenant of grace but to the Covenant of Redemption We make a difference betwixt these two 'T is true the Covenant of Redemption is a Covenant of grace but 't is not strictly and properly that Covenant of grace which the Scripture holds out in opposition to the Covenant of works but rather the means to it or foundation of it Amongst other things wherein these two Covenants do differ this is one they differ in the faederati for in the Covenant of Redemption the faederati are God and Christ but in the Covenant of grace the confederates are God and Believers I lay down this as my judgement with much submission because I know herein I differ from some of great repute Masculus c. Dr. Preston Mr. Rutherford Assemblyes greater Catech. whom I very much honour in the Lord. The Lord Jesus I grant is the very kernel and marrow of the Covenant of grace the Mediator of this better Covenant Heb. 12.24 the surety of this Covenant Heb. 7.22 the Testator of this Covenant Hebr. 9.16 17. The Messenger of this Covenant Mal. 3.1 All this is very clear all that I say is this that Christ is not the perâ—ona foederata but believers The Covenant of Grace was not made with God and Christ as a common head but 't is made with God and believers and therefore whereas the promise is said to be made to the seed and that seed is Christ Gal. 3.16 you are to take Christ there not personally but mystically as you have it taken 1 Cor. 12.12 So also is Christ I only say this to clear up my way Bulkely on the Cov. pag. 28 c. Blâ—ke on the Cov. ch 6. p. 24. Baxter his Append to his Aphor p. 35 c. and therefore shall not lay down any Arguments for the confirmation of this opinion he that desires satisfaction in th is point let him peruse the Authours cited in the Margent To the Businesse in hand The Covenant of Redemption I say is that foederal transaction or mutual stipulation that was betwixt God and Christ in the great work of mans Redemption I call it a foederal transaction or mutual stipulation because therein lies the nature of a Covenant 't is as Civilians define it a mutual stipulation or agreement betwixt Party and Party upon such and such Termes with Reciprocal Obligations each of the other That the businesse of Mans Redemption was transacted betwixt the Father and the Son is very clear Zech. 6.13 The Counsel of peace shall be betwixt them both the Counsel of Reconciliation How man that is now an enemy to God may be reconciled to God and God to him for whatever the Socinians say the Reconciliation is not only on the sinners part but on Gods also this Counsel or Consultation shall be betwixt them both that is Father and Son I know some interpret it of Christs offices the Priestly and the Kingly office of Christ both conspire to make peace betwixt God and man but I rather take it in the other sense That this transaction betwixt these two glorious persons was also foederal or in the way of a Covenant and that too from everlasting is to me a very great truth though I am not ignorant that some learned men are not so well satisfied about it For the Explication and Confirmation of this great mystery I will lay down these seven Propositions Prop. 1 The first is this God the Father in ordâ—r to mans Redemption stands upon Satisfaction the sinner shall be justified but first God will be satisfied Man is now fallen from that happy state wherein at first God made him and by this fall he hath offered an affront to God and wronged God so far forth as he was capable of such a thing in this case therefore God will have satisfaction in the Reparation of his Honour in the Manifestation of his Truth in the Vindication of his Holinâ—sse and Justice 'T is true He being the Personal laesa he might freely have remitted the offence and done what he pleased but supposito decreto some go higher even to Gods nature which necessarily puts him upon the punishment of sin I say supposing Gods decree he having decreed thus and thus and also threatned thus and thus he will have satisfaction and therefore though he doth in Election give such and such freely unto Christ yet for the carrying on and execution of his purpose herein he stands upon terms for the satisfying of his justice which Attribute God will advance as well as his Mercy for all are alike dear to God he will have an offering for sin in an expiatory and propiatory way a price and ransome shall be paid him down Isa 33.10 â— Tim. 2.6 or the Captive shall never be released And in order unto this or for the manifestation of this you do not only read in Scripture of Election as to believers but also as to Christ whom God calls his Elect Isa 42.1 The Father chooses him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sets forth or â—ore-ordains him as 't is Rom. 3.25 To make satisfaction without which fallen man shall not be taken into his favour again who shall be redeemed and justified but in such a way that God may declare his righteousnesse The Apostle doubles his Expression as to this To declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins To declare I say his righteousnesse that he might be just and the justifier of hâ—m which belâ—eveth in Jesus Rom. 3.25 26. You will have this great truth more fully insisted upon by another in the carrying on of this exercise I will here say no more to it Prop. 2 Secondly The Father you see demands satisfaction well To this he annexes many excellent great and preciâ—us promises that if Christ would engage in this work and undertake thus to satisfie for he alone could do it he would do thus and thus for him as that he would fit him for the work own him and strengthen him in the work succeed and prosper him in the work and then
reward him for it And all this the Father makes good to Christ 1. He fits him for this work both in a large effusion of the graces and gifts of the Spirit upon him John 3.34 God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him And also in the preparing of a body for him Hebr. 10.5 2. He strengthens him and supports him in the work Isa 42.1 Behold my servant Christ is our Lord but in the work of Redemption he was the Fathers servant whom I uphold and therefore you finde when Christ was put upon the greatest tryals God gave in eminent succour to him as in the case of temptation Matth. 4.11 and in his agony in the Garden Luke 22.43 And there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven strengthning of him And certainly if Christ had not had support and strength from the Godhead he had never been able to have bore up under and carried thorough his terrible sharp work You finde him encouraging himself and acting faith upon this that God would own him and stand by him in this undertaking Isa 50.7 8 9. The Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded Therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed He is near that justifyeth me who will contend with me Psal 16.8 c. I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved c. 3. Further God the Father succeeds and prospers him in the work When thou shalt make â—his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand This was promised and also made good to Christ in the numerous body of believers past present and to come I might here enlarge upon a threefold gift which the Gospel holds forth There 's the Fathers gift the Sons gift and the Believers gift The Fathers gift lies in Election such and such individual persons he gives to Christ Thine they were and thou gavest them me John 17.6 We are a free gift to Christ in Elâ—ction as Christ is a free gift to us in Redemption The Sons gift lies in the giving of himself for us Who gave himselâ— for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity c. Tit. 2.14 And then there is the Believers gift and that is he gives up himself to Christ to be ruled by Christ disposed by Christ saved by Christ he gives up himself to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 The Father giving believers to Christ and promising that believers in time should also give themselves to him was a great encouragement to Christ to give himself for believers and if you read John 17. you shall see there that Christ when he had done his work takes much notice of the accomplishment of this promise to him in believers who are his seed owning of him and closing with him 4. Lastly God will and doth reward Christ upon his undertaking to redeem man he tells him he shall not lose by it His days shall be prolonged Isa 33.10 i. e. his Kingdome shall be set up in the world to endure for ever God would divide him a portion with the great and he should divide the spoile with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death Ver. 12. And many such promises you have made to Christ Accordingly God hath exalted him far above all principality and power Eph. 1.21 22. hath put all things under his feet made him to be head over all things to the Church given him a Name which is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bowe Phil. 2.9 and all because to give satisfaction to his Father he made himself of no reputation and became obedient unto death Ver. 7.8 even the death of the Cross And thus you see what the Father demands and what he doth indent and promise to his Son in case he will engage in this undertaking not as if the Son was unwilling so to do you must not so understand it but the work being of such a nature so hard so grievous it pleased the Father thus to Treat with him Prop. 3 In the third place The Lord Jesus Christ engages in the work accepts of the termes and conditions set before him and undertakes to satisfie his Fathers demands And in order to satisfaction which God stands upon as you have heard before Christ is willing to fulfill the whole Law which was the rule or measure or standard for this satisfaction God had been dishonoured by the violation of his Law and the disobedience and non-performance of it was that which kept God and the sinner at a distance and therefore he will only be satisfied and reconciled upon the fulfilling of it here is my Law saith God satisfie it and my justice is satisfied You must know this that though a sinner as to himself is justified upon the termes of the Covenant of grace yet as to his surety he is justified upon the Covenant of works for the surety must pay the whole debt and the Father will bate him nothing Object Where is then some will say the freenesse of grace in the justifying and acquitting of a sinner if God will be satisfied to the utmost what becomes of mercy if the surety pay the debt to the Creditor is it any great favour for the Creditor to let the debtor out of prison Sol. To this I answer Free grace is very well consistent with full satisfaction and notwithstanding the latter the former is very glorious partly because God himself found out this way of satisfaction partly because God accepts it for the good of the sinner as though he had made it in his own person That place of the Apostle is observable Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 Notwithstanding Redemption by Christ yet we are justified freely as freely as though Christ had done and suffered nothing at all But this is a digression I say the Father demanding the fulfilling of the Law Quod requiâ—it lex nempe tum plenam paenae reatibus nostris debitae luitioneÌ„ ut à condemnatione liberemur tum plenam legis praestationeÌ„ ut ad aeternam vitam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inveniamur ex illa promissione Hoc fac vives Beza Christ undertakes to do it and therefore he willingly puts himself under this Law When the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sonnes Gal. 4.4 5. And he submits not only to the duty of the Law but also to the penalty of the Law not only to do what the Law enjoynes but also to suffer what the Law threatens and the former he makes good by his active obedience the latter by his passive obedience To open this a
jure not imperiously and threateningly but magna comitate that God will deale with man as with his friend and though he may give what Laws he will yet he will give none but what are easie and yet make them more easie by bountifully rewarding an easie obedience this speaks wonderful condiscention 2. The second thing considerable in the Natural Covenant is mans duty which consisted in the knowledge and love of God whence would have proceeded piety to God justice and love to man this was mans natural duty for we must distinguish the duty from the Symbole of duty Natural duty consisteth in those things that are good in their own nature and not in those things that are only good because God commands them the Law about the forbidden fruit was only for the tryal of mans obedience for had not the divine command intervened it would have been as lawful for man to have eaten of that Tree as any other Tree in Paradise but 3. The last thing I shall mention concerning this Natural Covenant is the Promise of Reward now that consisted in a perpetual life flowing with all manner of good things agreeable to the soule and body of man in that perfect estate 2. The second Covenant was the Legal now the Legal Covenant is that whereby God did râ—quire of the people of Israel obedience to the Moral Ceremonial and Judicial Law and to that obedience he promised all sorts of blessings in the Land of Canaan and to the dis bedient he denounced most severe curses and death and all to this end that he might bring them to the future Messiah Here I shall propose the same considerations as in the former Covenant only something more Therefore consider 1. Gods condiscention is singularly observable that ever he would enter into another Covenant with man when the first was broken this Moses useth as a mighty Argument to perswade Israel to observe the Covenant Deut. 4. from the 32. to the 40. verse Ask now of the dayes that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon earth and ask from the one side of heaven unto thie other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard and live Or hath God assayed to go and take him a Nation from the midst of another Nation by temptations by signes and by wonders and by warre and by a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arme and by great terrours according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes c. thou shalt therefore keep his Statutes and his Commandments which I command thee this day that it may go well with thee and thy children after thee c. 2. Consider mans duty in the Legal Covenant and that is obedience to the moral Law to which was added the Ceremonial Law for a Rule and Direction in the worship of God and the Judicial Law which was their divine policy for the government of the State All these are comprehended in the ten Commandments but the more-particular their directions were the more plain was their duty and the truth is it was but need that they should have particular direction when their Legal Covenant neither admitted of faith in the Redeemer nor repentance of sin for pardon of sin and curse for sin are inconsistent Gal. 3.10 As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them As many as depend upon the works of the Law for Justification are under the curse and the Law discovered no other way of Justification but by Works 3. The third thing considerable in the Legal Covenant is the promise that God made to those that obeyed it and that was perpetual happiness in the Land of Canaan By the way to prevent mistakes I do not say neither will the Scripture at all warrant any such assertion as that the Fathers under the Old Testament had only temporal promises they had salvation promised them and pardon of sin promised them but thanks to the Gospel for those promises the Apostle tells us Gal. 3.17 The Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was foure hundred and thirty years after cannot disannull that it should make the promise of none effect the Morning Star of the Gospel Covenant that shone upon Abraham foure hundred and thirty years before the Legal Covenant was given did shine thorough that dark dispensation But to speak of the Legal promises as Lâ—gal so they are of temporal good things and they were made to works not to faith Rom. 4.4 To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt 4. The fourth thing considerable in this Covenant which had no place at all in the former is a Mediator Now the Mediator of the Covenant strictly legal was Moses for That needed only a meer man it not admitting of satisfaction nor reconciliation of mercy nor pardon Moses might serve as a Messenger to make known the minde of God unto the people Deut. 5.5 I stood bâ—tween the Lord and you at that time to shew you the Word of the Lord in the Natural Covenant communion with God was natural unto man and so there needed no Mediator In the Legal Covenant man was rather considered as what he should be than what he was and so a meer man was able in the name of the people to promise obedience and in the name of God to promise a reward and this Moses did you have both very plain in Deut. 5. The people do as it were say Go to God from us upon this Errand Ver. 27. Go thou nâ—ar and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it and God doth as it were say Go dismiss them with this blessing if they will be obedient Ver. 28.29 30. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when ye spake unto me I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee they have well said all that they have spoken O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments alwayes that it might be well with them and with their children for ever Go say to them Get you into your Tents again q. d. If they will keep their promise assure them I will keep mine and thus much concerning the Covenant strictly Legal 3. The third Covenant is the Gâ—spel-Covenant and here Beloved here is 2 Sam. 23.5 the Everlasting Covenâ—nt ordered in all things and sure This is all our salvation and all our desire Here is the
to be enlarged by another 5. The fifth thing to be considered in the Gospel-Covenant is the efficacy of it I did not so much as mention the efficacy of the former Covenants for there was never so much as any one made happy by them 't is sadly true that the threatnings of punishment for the neglect of duty took hold of them the threatnings seemed plainly to belong to the nature of those Covenants but in the Gospel Covenant 't is otherwise for it is said John 3.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abides which shews that the wrath was brought upon them by the violation of the former Covenant he speaks as of that which was upon them already But yet mistake not as if refusing the Gospel were no sin or not punished they sin more grievously that sin against Gospel love than they that sin only against Legal goodness but wrath doth not properly belong to the Essence of the Gospel Thus you have the first thing I undertook namely the nature of the Covenant positively considered the second is the comparative excellency of the New Covenant above others I will be brief in shewing its excellency above the Covenant of Works more large in shewing you how 't is better than the Old Covenant of Grace Only suppose to prevent mistakes that each Covenant is in its own kind most perfect and most accommodated to the state of the people and to the purposes for which they were instituted This premised First The New Covenant of Grace is better than the Covenant of Nature I forbear to speak of the agreement and diffâ—rence of them I shall speak only of the excellency of this better Covenant 1. The Covenant of Works was a Declaration of Gods Justice than which nothing can be more terrible to a guilty sinner but the Covenant of Grace is a Declaration of Gods mercy in Christ and let the overwhelmed conscience speak is not this better 2. The Foundation of the Covenant of Works was the Creation of man and the integrity of his nature the Foundation of the Covenant of Grace is mans Redemption by Jesus Christ 3. The Promise of the Covenant of Works was eternal life in Paradise the Promise of the New Covenant is eternal life in Heaven 4. The Covenant of Works had no Mediator no possibility of recovering the least slip the New Covenant is ratified in the blood of the Son of God 't is composed on purpose for our relief * Camero Thus the New Covenant is better than the Covenant of Works Secondly The gospel-Gospel-Covenant is better than the Old Covenant of Grace Beloved you may observe I do not say better than the Covenant strictly Legal but better than the whole Dispensation which the Jews and all other Believers lived under before Christs Incarnation better than the Old Doctrine of spiritual grace delivered by Moses and the Prophets openly promising Eternal life unto the Fathers and the Dull people of the Jews under the condition of perfect obedience to the Moral Law together with the intolerable burdens of Legal rights and yoke of most straight Mosaical policy but covertly under the condition of repentance and faith in the future Messiah prefigured in the shadowes and types of Ceremonies that by this forme of Divine worship and policy a stiffe-necked people might partly be tamed and partly be brought to Christ that lay hid under those Ceremonies So that in short you see the Old Testament or the Old Covenant for by a Metonymie they are chiefly one and the same thing and the Apostle plainly so expresseth himself 2 Cor. 3.14 Untill this day remaineth the same vaile untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament which vaile is done away in Christ and this contains these three things 1. The old kind of doctrine which was openly and principally Legal covertly and lesse principally Evangelical 2. The old way of worship and Legal Priest-hood 3. That Mosaical policy which was tyed to one people * Paraeus This Covenant was made by God to Adam presently after the fall G n. 3.15 afterward to Abraham and his posterity Gen. 17.1 2 7 8. The symbole of this Covenant was circumcision from verse 10. to the 14. I forbear further particularising to whom it was often renewed and confirmed whereupon it is called the Covenants Rom. 9.4 Ephes 2.12 Now the New Covenant of Reconciliation to God by Christ exhibited in the flesh is the better Covenant The Gospel is the Table of the New Testament longè divinioâ— quam smaragdina Hermetis far beyond the Emerauld Table of Hermes which the Chymists vainly boast to yield the Philosophers stone to enrich all persons and the Panacea that cures all diseases here 's the elect and precious stone 1 Pet. 2.6 * Crocii Syntag. But I will come to particulars only premising this Caution Caution Let not any thing I shall say be interpreted as if I put an hostile contrariety between the Old Covenant and the New in spiritual practice they yield spiritual help to each other Justin Martyr saith that grace is not according to the Law nor against the Law but above the Law therefore they are not adversa but diversa the Gospel in Scripture is called the Law Isa 2.3 only 't is the Law of faith Rom. 3.27 and the Law of the Spirit Rom. 8.2 therefore when we advance the Gospel Rom. 3.31 do we then make voide the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Gal. 3.21 Is the Law then against the promises of God God forbid for if there had been a Law given which could have given life vâ—rily righteousnesse should havâ— been by the law The believers in the Old Testament were saved by the free mercy of God in Christ Gerhar l. c. Heb. 9.15 He is the Mediator of the New Testament and by means of death for the Redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance And their Sacraments and ours Maccov l. c. sealed the same â—hing 1 Cor. 10.3 4. They did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. This premised I shall now shew you the excellency of the Gospel-Covenant 1. The Gospel-Covenant is a better Covenant than the Legal in respect of its Original and manner of patefaction 't is true they have both one principal efficient cause but the Law may in some sort be known by nature it was written in mans heart at the first and the character is not wholly worne out Rom. 2.15 The Gentiles shew the work of the Law written in their hearts but now the Gospel was immediately manifested from God to the Church alone Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Mat. 16.16 17. And Simon Peter answered
both meer supererogations of an infinitely glorious person And first for his active Riâ—hteousnesse iâ— stood in his obedience to the Ceremonial and Moral Laws 1. His obedience to the Ceremonial Law was a meer supererogation for the substance to comply with the shadows the Antitype to do homage to its owâ— types besides he submitted to those very Ordinances whose end and institution supposeth guilt and whâ—se Nature argues them designed only for the use of sinners what foreskin of impurity had he to be cut off in circumcâ—sion what filth to be washt awâ—y in baptism did the holy childe Jesus defile his mothers womb as common mortals do that are conceiv'd in sin and brought forth in iniquity And yet he was circumcised and baptized and his mother offered for her purification Luke 1.21 22. ch 3.21 No imaginable obligation lay on him to these submissions being to him meer ciphers wholly insignificant 2. His obedience to the Moral Law Although it must be granted that as man it was his duty Gal. 4.4 yet was it not his duty to become man True a creatures homage was due from him when a creature a servants work when in the form of a servant but the whole was free and arbitrary because his entring into that state was so for what but his own infinite love could ever move the eternal Word to pitch his Tent in our Nature what obligation lay on the Heir of all things to take the form of a servant who bound the eternal Son of God to become in the fulnesse of time the Son of man And as his active righteousnesse so secondly his passive too was a meer supererogation for his Almighty Fathers Holy All-seeing Eye could never espy the least iniquity in him to punish what had the Divine Justice to do with him for he was a sinlesse person he suffered not for himself Dan. 9.26 No for us 2 Cor. 5.21 And therefore since no obligation lay on him to do what he did or to suffer what he suffered he may impute the merit both of the one and the other to whomsoever and upon what termes soever he and his Father please But before I come to consider the termes upon which Christs satisfaction is applied I must answer some questions and clear the scruples in the way Object 1 1. What is become of the Law of that first Covenant made with Adam in Paradise Gen. 2.17 repeated again to the Jews Deut 27.26 The sum of which you have fully expressed Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth it shall dye I answer It is not executed nor abrogated but released or dispensed with First it is not fully executed for there is no condemnation to them that re in Christ Jesus c. Rom. 8.1 Secondly It â—s not abrogated for it is in part executed upon Believers they are liable to the first or natural death which is the wages of sin although the second death hath no power over them besides all manner of chastisements and afflictions Psal 89.30 31 32. And also that Law is totally executed upon finally impenitent unbelievers over whom not the first only but the second death also hath power 2 Thess 1.8 For he that believeth not is condemned already John 3.18 That is the Gospel finds him and every one in a state of condemnation but those who believe it proclaims deliverance to those who through unbelief reject it judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life see Acts 13.46 it leaves such as it found them viz. under the condemnation of the Old Covenant since they refuse the pardoning mercy of the New Thirdly I answer therefore positively that the first Covenant is released and dispensed with by super-inducing a New Covenant of Grace over it that whosoever closeth with and comes into the terms of the New should be exempted from the rigour and extremity i. e. from the eternal condemnation of the Old Joh. 3.16 It is not said He that believes shall not be sick shall not be afflicted shall not dye No but he shall not perish Thus you see the Covenant of Works as to its execution upon such as are in the Covenant of Grace is in the chief part restrained but yet in some part inflicted They never shall complain under the eternal and destructive yet they do complain under the temporal and corrective punishment of their sinnes Lam. 3.39 Yet more particularly for the clearer understanding of this we must consider that the first Covenant lays a double obligation on sinful man First In reference to what is past and here it requires satisfaction and reparation from us for our sin in breaking it And secondly In reference to the future after such satisfaction and amends made it requires perfect conformity still as at first absolute obedience to all Gods commands being the eternal debt of the reasonable creature to that God that made it in his own Image if therefore we could which hath already been proved to be impossible ever have satisfied Gods injur'd Law for our past breach the Law would still have come upon us for future exact conformity to pay the residue of that eternal debt and its language would be Sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee as a Felon though butn't in the hand is yet bound to live honestly for the future at his peril Now the New Covenant of Grace relieves us as to both these cases and dispences with the rigor of the Law As to the first It comforts us with the good news that the Son of God hath satisfied his Fathers Justice and if we believe but in him God will accept of us as if we had satisfied in our own persons The case the Law leaves us in is well expressed Isa 33.14 Hebr. 10.31 But the relief the Gospel brings us in St. Pauls language Rom. 8.33 34. You have both together excellently Ezek. 33.10 11. As to the second Obligation the New Covenant dispenseth with the rigor of that too for woe to a justified and pardoned person if he must lose all again upon the least defailance therefore the Gospel proclaims pardon of sin upon repentance and acceptance of sincere endeavours to obey him Gods language now is Sinners be but in good earnest do but love me heartily and my ways let me but see a childe-like ingenuity in you and I will put down your upright though imperfect performances in the book of my remembrance Mal. 3.16 and blot out your transgressions when repented of out of the book of my remembrance Mandata Dei tanquam facta reputantur Aug. Retr l. 1. quando quicquid non fit ignoscitur Thus doth the candor of the Gospel dispence with the rigor of the Law God deals not with us as an Aegyptian task-master but as a Father with his children whom he loves Christs yoke is easie his burden light Object 2 If any doubt how it stands with Gods veracity and immutability having once declared that the soul that sinneth shall dye to contradict it by declaring
His sin is entailed on all his seed 137 138. transmitted by imputation p. 139 and 140. made ours without any impeachment of Gods justice p. 141. by generation not imitation p. 142 143. hurt received by him must quicken the acceptance of the second Adam p. 145. his sin will not be our acquittance p. 148. Advantage great by systems and modules of Religion p. 16 17 18 19. Adoption its kinds p. 436. its name explained 437. Divine differs from humane Adoption p. 438. Adoption presupposeth Vocation Regeneration and Justification p. 438. it entitles to God Christ and Heaven ibid. Adoption the properties p. 439. and priviledges of it p. 440. Adoption is different from Regeneration yet not divided from it p. 446. Adoption an effect of faith p 469. Affections unruly cashier'd when we come to heaven p. 650. Angels their service to the Lord Jesus Christ p. 323 324. not confirmed not reconciled by Jesus Christ as Mediator p. 338 339. Antinomians refuted p. 423 424. Apparel of Saints in heaven p. 652. 653. Atheisme three sorts Vita pag. 51 52. Voto pag. 51 52. Judicio pag. 51 52. Assent to Gods being and bounty ground of Addresses to him p. 30. Assurance an effect of faith p. 472. B. Bars to communion with God three and how removed p. 272. Barring sinne imports punishment p. 346. Belief of Gods being the foundation of Religion p 30. fountain of obedience p. 54. Belief of Christ to be the Son of God is not easie p. 66. Believing sinner the subject of Gospel-repentance p. 489. Believers their dignity and duty pag. 433. Believers united to Christ. p. 278. Believers whom p. 379. Believers persons graces and duties relate to Christ. p. 395 396. Birth-right despised is dreadful p. 448. Blessedness of mans-natural rectitude p. 111. Blessed estate of the New Covenant p. 254 259. Blessed how said of the Saints p. 664 665. Bodies of Saints re-united to souls p. 657. Bodies of Saints and sinners differ at Resurrection p. 591 592. Body of man subject to Gods wrath p. 184. Body it s very self-same substance shall be raised p. 591 592 593. It s prime endowments at Resurrection p. 593 594. Bodily infirmities shaken off in heaven p. 651. Blood of sin to be shed for the blood of Christ p. 296. Bowing at the Name of Jesus what it means p. 321. by whom to be done p. 322 323. C. Cause encourageth to suffer p. 2 3. Captain encourageth contest ibid. Calling effectual p. 353. what it is and how wrought p. 357 358. Called who p. 359. few p. 360. by what ib. from what causes p. 361 362 363. by what means p. 365. to what end p. 366. when p. 367. Call is holy ib. heavenly p. 368. without noise p. 370. immutable p. 371. Care accompanieth true r pentance 541. Case of man fallen helpless by nature 207. Catechismes commended 21. Children of God by Regeneration and Adoption 435. Children of God their carriage directed 448 449 450. Christ is Lord how 330 331. a good Captaine 2 3. Christ is truly God 266 267. and truly man 268. God and man 269. Christ and promises not God the immediate object of saving faith 460. Christians changes three 557. Christian Religion reasonable 483. Come ye blessed what kinde of speech 666 667. Command to Adam and Covenant of works 122. Complaints against God charmed 267. Compassion to brethren sheweth a sense of our own natural weakness 215. Communion an evidence of union with Christ 385. Conditions in order to mans Redemption between God the Father and God the Son p. 222 223. Conquest of enemies an effect of Faith 470. Conscience proveth that there is a God 43 44. Conscience engendreth fear 46 47. Consent of Nations universal and perpetual proves that there is a God 48. Confession of sin a part of Repentance 509 510. How to be made 511 512 513 514. Conviction wherein it consists and how it acts 493 494. Contrition wherein it consists 496 497. Conversion its parts 502. Crown of Saints in heaven what 654. It s threefold wreath 655 656. Covenant what it means 123 124 235. Covenants in Scripture 235. Covenant Natural what it is 236. Legal what it is 237 238. Evangelical what it is 239. Covenant an act of condescention in God 130. Imports Gods promise and mans duty 239. Gods dealing with Adam in Paradise how and why called a Covenant 125. Covenant of Works wherein it consists p. 126 127. How and why given by Moses 128 129. Israel was not under it ibid. Men out of Christ yet under it 130. Covenant of Redemption what it is and between whom 216 217 218 219. It is to be particularly improved by Believers 230 231 232. It confirms the Covenant of Grace its blessings 228 229. Covenant what 233. Gospel Covenant the best of Covenants 235 239. Covenant of Works and Grace are to be differenced by men 131. Covenant of Redemption different from Covenant of Grace 218. Creation the work of God 31. Man created holy and mutable 105. Creatures execute Gods wrath on man 189. Themselves liable to Gods wrath 190. Creeds Apostles Athanasii Nicene c. justified 20. Curse of the Law due to man by nature 181. Cure of faln man Omnipotent 208. D Death of Christ its kinde manner and grounds p. 283. The Reasons thereof 290 291 292. Death of Christ a sacrifice and only so possible 342. Deserving cause of Christ his death 345. Death of Christ was in our place and stead 347. Diligence in duty and readinesse to dye for Christ but a reasonable recompence for his death for us 297 299. Christ dyed willingly obediently and humbly 287 288 289. Death of Christ a pregnant Argument to Repentance 528 529 530. Death destroyed by the death of Christ 303. Desire accompanieth Repentance 544. Dependence on God the duty of such as believe God is 60 61. Divel an enemy to Faith 481. Divels subject to Jesus Christ 326 327. Divel limited by Christ 328. Doctrine of Trinity to be prized 82. Dominion of Saints 442. E Elect dead in sin before called and poor in the world p. 359. Entrance of sin into the world what and how 136. Enemies of man foiled by the death of Christ 301. Entertainment of Christ 434. Epistle to the Romans a Module of Religion 8. to the Hebrews 9. to Galathians ibid. Ephesians 10. Timothy and Titus ibid. Errors are obviated by a Module of Religion 12 14. Errors about Repentance 55. Error in fundamentals inconsistent with Faith 480. Morning Exercise when it begun and how profitable it hath been 23 24. Duties towards it 25. Extremity of hell torments by their inflammation fire and preparation and association with Divels 628 629 630 631. Eternity the property of hell torments 632 633. Evidences of eternal life laid down in a Module 15. Exaltation of Christ opposed to his Humiliation 306 307. It s priority to his humiliation as a merit or meer antecedent discussed 308 309. it was exceeding high 311. Exaltation of Christ by three
of since the Gospel was restored and all other helps both in publick and private should be cut off which God forbid yet this one Book next to your Bible would be a stock of Divinity which might furnish you with the knowledge of the Essentials of Religion and be like Manna to you in the Wildernesse till you come to Canaan To that end therefore that which I would with greatest seriousnesse urge upon you is to get the substance and power of the truths contained in them into your hearts and so to inculcate them especially the general heads of them upon your children and servants that they may be trained up in the knowledge of these vital principles which are of such use for the begetting and increasing of the life and power of godlinesse It will be sad if what was chiefly intended for your use should finde least fruit amongst you and that which is a common good should be not a Monument only but the aggravation of your unfruitfulnesse But I hope better things of you my dearly Beloved and things which accompany salvation though I thus speak The good Lord who hath put this price into your hand give you an heart to prize it and to improve it that you may not receive this grace of God in vain In this hope I commend you to God and to the Word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified I am Yours in the service of the Gospel THOMAS CASE The Preface to the Reader NOt to increase the number of Books already grown into a burden and more apt to distract minds with their variety than to edifie them with their Contents but for a publick testimony to the truth of the Gospel and to inform the ignorant doth this Piece crowd into the World Had many of the Brethren adhered to their own private inclination and first aime in this work these Sermons had only been published by word of mouth to the Auditory that then attended on them To write to the World is apprehended by them as a thing very distinct from preaching to a company of a few broken-hearted Christians who were willing to take this help along with them in their way to heaven and to need more exactnesse of care and preparation But upon the strong importunity of the Auditors some of them persons of great worth and honour carrying with it the face of a Call from God as valid as that which first invited them to the work they were contented against their own private inclination to yield to this way of publication for the profit of others but with these CAUTIONS First That it be signified that it was not intended to make up a Map or Compleat Body of Divine Truths but only to handle some more necessary points till Providence shall give opportunity to consider the rest Secondly That it was not designed to discusse these points in a Polemical but positive way and sutable to a popular Auditory Thirdly That it be understood that the Brethren that preached were not acquainted with one anothers studies but did every one expresse his own sense in the point recommended to him Fourthly That this be not interpreted to be the work of the whole Body of the London-Ministers but of some of them which they represent with the more tenderness Partly that the other very Reverend Brethren who were not employed in this Turn and Course of the Morning Exercise may not be charged with their weaknesses Partly because they have not without some regret observed that the larger English Annotations in which but some few only of the late Assembly together with some others had an hand are generally ascribed to the whole Assembly and usually carry the name of the Assemblies Annotations as if done by the joynt advice of that grave and learned convention Fifthly That since the preaching of these Sermons there hath been no general review but every one took care of transcribing his own Discourse and sending me the Copy accordingly I sent it to the Presse Sixthly That if any of these points seem not to be discussed according to the full latitude and worthiness of the subject it be remembred that each Exercise was to be punctually confined within the straits of an houre in which time there was no room for larger excursions Under the severity of these terms my Brethren have consented that I should if I saw fit expose their labours to publick view which I do with all chearfulnesse Partly that the world may be conscious to our Unity soundnesse in the faith and sobriety af judgement And partly expecting from thence I will say it notwithstanding the restraints their modesty hath laid upon me no small increase and return of fruit The Lord by his good Spirit guide you into all truth Yours in our Lord Jesus THOMAS CASE The particular heads in Divinity discussed in these several Sermons are these SErm I. Introduct Methodical systems of the special points of Christian Religion useful and profitable for Ministers and people Page 1. Serm. II. That there is a God p. 29. Serm. III. The Trinity proved by Scripture p. 65. Serm. IV. The Divine Authority of the Scriptures p. 85. Serm. V. Man created in an holy but mutable state p. 105. Serm. VI. The Covenant of Works p. 120. Serm. VII The fall of man or peccatum originale originans p. 134. Serm. VIII Original sin inhering or peccatum originale originatum p. 149. Serm. IX The misery of mans estate by nature p. 173. Serm. X. Mans impotency to help himself out of misery p. 202. Serm. XI The Covenant of Redemption p. 216. Serm. XII The Covenant of Grace p. 233. Serm. XIII The Mediator of the Covenant described in his Person Natures and Offices p. 261. Serm. XIV Christs Humiliation p. 258. alias 278. Serm. XV. Christs state of Exaltation p. 305. Serm. XVI The Satisfaction of Christ p. 337. Serm. XVII Of Effectual Calling p. 353. Serm. XVIII The true Believers union with Christ p. 377. Serm. XIX The nature of Justification p. 403. Serm. XX. The Believers Dignity and Duty or High Birth and Honourable Employment p. 433. Serm. XXI Saving Faith p. 455. Serm. XXII Repentance not to be repented p. 485. Serm. XXIII Of Holinesse its nature and necessity p. 554. Serm. XXIV Of the Resurrection p. 577. Serm. XXV The Day of Judgement asserted p. 605. Serm. XXVI Of Hell p. 621. Serm. XXVII Of Heaven p. 647. Serm. XXVIII The Conclusion p. 677. The INTRODUCTION 2 TIM 1.13 Hold fast the forme of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus IT was the Character which our Lord gave of Iohn the Baptist He was a burning and a shining light Such should every Minister of the Gospel be shining with light and burning with zeal Joh. 5.25 he should have an head full of truth that he may disseminate and scatter beams of
should be rewardable and punishable accordingly in a state that should be everlasting and unchangeable The liberty therefore of the Viators and the Comprehensors Gibieuf well distinguishes into inchoata or consummabilis Gibieuf de libertate Dei creatur ae and perfecta or consummata the former such as Adams was at his Creation the latter such as is the state of Angels and Saints in glory and as his would have been had he held out and persisted innocent through the intended time of tryal It was therefore no strange thing that man should be created defectible 't was as little strange that a defectible creature should deficere For the manner of that defection whether errour of the understanding preceded or inconsideration only and a neglect of its office with the great difficulties some imagine herein I wave discourse about them judging that advice good and sober for to consider how sinne may be gotten out of the world then how it came in Though 't is most probable there was in the instant of temptation a meere suspension of the understandings act not as previous to the sinne but as a part of it and thereupon a sudden precipitation of will Estius in scil as Estius doth well determine 6. Man being created mutable as to his holinesse must needs be so as to his happinesse too And that both upon a legal account for the Law had determined that if he did sinne he must dye and also upon a natural for it was not possible that his soul being once depraved by sinne the powers of it vitiated their order each to other and towards their objects broken and interrupted there should remaine a disposition and aptitude to converse with the highest good The Use follows which shall be only in certain practical Inferences that will issue from these truths partly considered singly and severally partly together and in conjunction From the first 1. Did God create man upright as hath been shewn then how little reason had man to sinne how little reason had he to desert God to be weary of his first estate Could Gods making him his making him upright be a reason why he should sinne against him was his directing his heart and the natural course of his affections towards himself a reason why he should forsake him what was there in his state that should make it grievous to him was his duty too much for him God made him upright so that every part of it was connatural to him was his priviledge too little he knew and loved and enjoyed the highest and infinite good O think then how unreasonable and disingenuous a thing sin was that a creature that was nothing but a few houres ago now a reasonable being capable of God! yet sin Urge your hearts with this we are too apt to think our selves unconcerned in Adams sin we look upon our selves too abstractly we should remember we are Members of a Community and it should be grievous to us to think that our species hath dealt so unkindly and unworthily with God and besides do not we sinne daily after the similitude of Adams transgression and is not sin as unreasonable and unjust a thing as ever 2. Was our primitive state so good and happy how justly may we reflect and look back towards our first state how fitly might we take up Jobs words Job 29.2 4 5 14 20. O that I were as in months past As in the dayes of my youth When the Almighty was yet with me When I put on righteousnesse and it cloathed me When my glory was fresh in me c. With what sadnesse may we call to minde the things that are past and the beginnings of Ancient time when there was no stain upon our natures no cloud upon our minds no pollution upon our hearts when with pure and undefiled souls we could embrace and rest and rejoyce in the eternal and incomprehensible good when we remember these things do not our bowels turn are not our souls poured out within us From the second 1. Did man so voluntarily ruine himself how unlikely is he now to be his own saviour he that was a self-destroyer from the beginning that ruined himself as soon as God had made him is he likely now to save himself is it easier for him to recover his station than to have kept it or hath he improved himself by sinning and gain'd strength by his fall for a more difficult undertaking is he grown better natur'd towards himself and his God than he was at first 2. How little reason hath he to blame God though he finally perish what would he have had God to have done more to prevent it he gave his Law to direct him his threatning to warn him his promise for his encouragement was evidently implyed his nature was sufficiently disposed to improve and comport with all these yet he sins is God to be charg'd with this sins upon no necessity with no pretence but that he must be seeking out inventions trying experiments assaying to better his state as plainly despising the Law suspecting the truth envying the greatnesse asserting and aspiring to the Soveraignty and Godhead of his Maker Had we any of us a minde to contend with God about this matter how would we order our cause how would we state our quarrel if we complain that we should be condemn'd and ruin'd all in one man that is to complain that we are Adams children A childe might as well complain that he is the sonne of a Beggar or a Traytor and charge it as injustice upon the Prince or Law of the Land that he is not born to a Patrimony this is a misery to him but no man will say it is a wrong And can it be said we are wrong'd by the common Ruler of the world that we do not inherit from our father the righteousnesse and felicity we had wilfully lost long before we were his children If we think it hard we should be tyed to termes we never consented to Might not an heire as well quarrel with the Magistrate that he suffers him to become liable to his fathers debts and to lie in prison if he have not to pay But besides who can imagine but we should have consented had all man-kind been at that time existent in innocency together i. e. Let the case be stated thus suppose Adam our common Parent to have had all his children together with him before the Lord while the Covenant of Works was not as yet made and while as yet God was not under any engagment to the children of men Let it be supposed that he did propound it to the whole race of man-kind together that he would capitulate with their common Parent on their behalf according to the termes of that first Covenant if he stood they should stand if he fall they must all fall with him Let it be considered that if this had not been consented to God might without the least colour of exception being
Demon. 1 1. Ratione faederis by the reason of the Covenant of Works which God made with Adam we were in him all of us legally when God first made a Covenant with man it was not with Adam ratione individui as an individual person sed ratione â—aturae as he bore our nature with him as the representative of man-kind God makes his Covenant with Christ as Head and Mediatour of his Church with Abraham as the father of the faithful with Adam as the stock of man-kind Isa 53.11 Psal 40.8 we were in him parties in the Covenant and had interest in the mercy which should accompany the keeping of it and were liable to the curse which should follow the breach of it Now Adam violating the Covenant the guilt of that violation descends upon all his posterity Rom. 5.19 Constituti sunt peccatores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chry. they were constituted sinners It is to be noted that God never makes a Covenant with a single person personally and individually that all others are unconcerned in it but with whomsoever God enters into Covenant that person is a representative of others and is to be looked upon as a publick person otherwise God should make as many Covenants as there are persons which is the greatest absurdity to assert and so in Covenanting with Adam he looked on him as the stock and root of mankind Arg. 2 2. Ratione Collationis The Apostle in two places makes a remarkable comparison between Adam and Christ the first and second Adam comparing the good of the last with the evil of the first the grace of the one with the sin of the other the life conveyed by the one with the death transmitted by the other Rom. 5.12 c. 1 Cor. 15.45 c. Now the righteousnesse of Christ redounds to believers to justification so the sin of Adam redounds to his posterity to condemnation by Adam we are cast by Christ we are cleared by Adam guilty by Christ innocent the comparison would else be wholly insignificant as by Christ we are made really righteous so by Adam we are made really sinners we are Princes in Christ Prisoners in Adam Crowned in Christ cursed in Adam this is is one great drift of the comparison Particle 2 2. The sin of Adam is derived to us not only by way of imputation but by way of inhaesion we receive from offending Adam Adamus genus nostrum tabificavit Aug. vitiositatem libidinem morbidum affectum a vitiosity lusting and a contagious distemper we receive not only a defect of holiness but deordination pravity evil disposition propension to mischief Ephes 4.22 John 3.6 Jam. 3.15 Col. 3.5 aversion to all good this sometimes the Scripture calls the Old man the flesh divelish wisdome the hell that sets the whole course of nature on fire earthly members And that Adams sin is propagated to us by way of inhaesion is likewise demonstrable by a double evidence Arg. 1 1. From the confession of some of the best of Gods Saints Psal 51.5 The soul of David was no sooner united to his body than sin was united to both he had not only a Crown of gold but grace he was not only a King after mans desire but a Saint after Gods heart 1 Sam. 13.24 yet this sinful leprosie he drew from Adam this Original staine clave to him he was a sinner in the womb though a Prince in the Throne and a Saint in the Sanctuary And so Paul that excellent Apostle how doth he moan this inward spot which he drew from Adam how doth he complain of indwelling sin Rom. 7.17 of an evil within him verse 19. of a law of his members verse 23. These groans of such eminent Saints are too pregnant an argument that the sin of Adam transmitted to us doth not only cast guilt on our persons but filth on our natures lay a charge to us but throw a stain upon us Arg. 2 2. As Christ doth not only vouchsafe believers imputed but infused righteousnesse the merit of his obedience but the graces of his Spirit to justifie but to renew and sanctifie us 1 Cor. 1.30 so the first Adam not only conveighs guilt to condemn but filth to defile us else the work of sanctification would be wholly unnecessary and the comparison between the first and second Adam would be maimed and imperfect Christ makes us heavenly as well as pronounceth us heavenly and Adam makes us earthly as well as leaves us to the punishment of those that are so The full comparison between the first and second Adam speaks this clearly Adam had sin to defile Rev. 1.5 Christus valnera sanarit quae Adamus portavit Cypr. and therefore Christ had blood to wash Here may that observable passage of Austin come in Vidi ego zelantem puerum c. I have seen saith Augustin a child with his eye full of envy venting his malice c. Whence comes this incurvation and waywardness of nature but from Adam happily the parents of this child were true and eminent believers so that there must be a tabes a disaffectednesse transmitted from Adam to his posterity against the opinion of Peter Lumbard and the Schoolmen 2. The second thing to be opened for the dispatching of the doctrinal part of the Text it is this To vindicate the righteousnesse of God in this transmission and conveyance And the justice of God is most glorious in this propagation of Adams sinne and this may be cleared in a double Demonstration Demon. 1 Adams sin is ours as well as his as a Learned man most elegantly Si quis peste laborans alios inficiat hi moriuntur Pet. Martyr dicitur illorum quisque non alienâ sed sua peste mortuus esse Now there is a double Argument to prove Adâ—ms sin ours 1. Else God did punish us for anothers sin that fault which is not our own which is against divine justice God doth not usually strike the son for the fathers crime and make the son feel the bruise of the fathers fall that the father should merit the stroak and the posterity feel it this is against his own protestation Ezek. 18.2 2. The Antithesis between Christ and Adam would not hold if Adams was not to be reputed ours for as the righteousnesse of Christ ita communicatur membris ut quisque fidelis dicere possit illam esse suam c. as Bucan well observes is so communicated to us that every believer may say This righteousnesse is mine so the iniquity of Adam is so communicated to all his posterity that every child of Adam may sadly say This iniquity is mine and I am righteously punished for it And now therefore I say if Adams sin be ours in the guilt and stain of it let us acknowledge Gods justice in the transmission of it Demon. 2 2. Had Adam stood we expected the entaile of perfection and happinesse that the Crown should have descended to us as his issue
the whole earth mans baser part the body but his celestial part his heaven-born soul is contaminated by it the sun moon and stars in it are turn'd into blood 2. This Original sin is diffused derived and communicated 2. Diffusive whereas actual sins are not Personal faults of Parents are not imputed to Children and defile not their Children unlesse imitated or unbewail'd Childrens teeth are not set on edge by the sowre grapes their Parents thus eat but Original sin being the sin of the nature of the Parent becomes the sin of the Child and will be entailed further to the last man upon earth for Children have the nature but not the person of their Parents An Objection answered And let it not seem strange that God should suffer this original sin to be so vastly diffusive that he should not exempt his own people wholly from it There is the same reason that corruption should remaine amongst them which there was for the abode of the Canaanites amongst the Israel of God of old It tryes them and brings them often to Bochim and makes their life a vall y of teares and whilst they go on their wâ—y weeping and crying unto God by reason of it they beare precious fruit for God does make good come unto believers out of this great evil making it an Antidote against carnal confidence and self-love a meanes to exercise their faith and a sure evidence of his own power and presence in the keeping of them Besides it is farre better for us by this occasion to be under the second Adam then ever it could have been being under the first The first Adam was a head of clay of the earth earthly The second Adam is a head of gold 1 Cor. 15.47 The Lord from heaven Though we were made holy in the first Adam yet having a mutable will we might under him perish everlastingly but they that are in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life a glory beyond what we could have had if we had continued in innocency for under that first Covenant we could have expected only a reward answerable to our own works but under the second we hope for glory in some measure proportionable to Christs merits Though we know not what that glory is yet this we know that when he appeares we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.2 And in the mean while as the Israelites who were before but Brick-burners and potters by reason of the Canaanites amongst them learn'd the art of warre and became Renowned soldiers so the true Israel of God by this meanes put on their whole spiritual Armour and dayly fight the good fight of faith and become more than Conquerors to conquer a lust being more glorious than to conquer a Kingdome through Christ that strengthens them when these Philistines are upon them as upon Sampson then the Spirit of the Lord comes upon them 〈◊〉 and what lust is able to stand before his Spirit Josh 10 24 25 As Joshuah took the five Kings and shut them up in the Cave at Makkedah till the Battel was over and then slew them So the Lord is pleased to shut up and restrain the corruption of his people in the Cave of their body untill their warfare be finished but then he brings them out and slays them they shall then never see these enemies more And therefore holy Paul who cryes out Rom. 7.24 25. Who shall deliver me addes presently I thank God c. as if he had breathed the same breath out in praise which he had taken in in prayer for deliverance so soon does God answer prayer made against this sin according to his will And thus we have seen something towards the explaining of this difficult matter Application The nature of this undertaking being more to informe your judgments than to deal with your affections I shall the rather hope to be excus'd if I be not proportionably so large in the Application which I am now come unto and shall lay down what I intend to speak to under these two heads 1. Of Instruction 2. Of Exhortation to inform your judgment and to quicken your practice 1. If we all have corruption thus by nature inherent in us 1. Use of Instruction it may silence all complaints against God for exposing of us to such wants and miseries at our very entrance into the world and so all along during our continuance in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence come evils was a question which did much puzzle the Philosophers of old here we are resolved of it The evil of sin and sorrow comâ—s from this root No wonder now that our children are more miserable than the young ones of Beasts or Birds because they are more siâ—ful 2. Hence it follows that in the very best there is a mixture borh in their principles and actions There was two in Rebecca's womb there are two in their hearts the Old mâ—n and the New man nature aâ—d grace flesh and Spirit Hence that striving that â—ombate betwixt them daily The unregenerate person this sin reigns in his body is as a Temple and his soul as a Shrine for this his Diana This keeps the house and all things are in peace In the glorified Saint this sin is wholly done away this unclean thing does not go with him into the new Jerusalem Only the gracious person is the field in whom the flesh warreth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh He is like the Moon which hath its spots when it receives the fullest influence from the Sun sin in him will not dye willingly but as a dying man multiplies his stroaks at his enemy though they are comparatively but weak ones 2. Use of Exhortation For Exhortation let me recommend these following Duties 1. To a right knowledge of this sin 1. Get a right knowledge of thy self according to this doctrine it is folly in men to have travel'd much abroad and to be strangers in their own Countrey It will be found the greatest folly for thee to be never so knowing in other things if thou beest a stranger to thine own heart and dost not know that it is desperately wicked The very Heathens apprehended this precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self to be of such consequence as to grace it the more they said it came down from heaven I am sure it is Gods message unto you from this truth this day Know your selves unlesse you know your selves thus lost Christs coming will be in vain unto you John 3.4 10. for he came only for the lost sheep Nicodemus had never doubted so much of Regeneration and a new birth had he understood the defilement of his first birth I am afraid there are many Masters in Israel that are ignorant of this still or else they would labour not only to reforme their lives but especially to get new hearts also thou canst not kill one lust unlesse thou layest the Axe
little further Christ here doth two things First He undertakes to performe the whole moral Law and therefore when he comes into the world his eye was upon this Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousnesse Mat. 3.15 I am not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill Mat. 5.17 And all this Christ did for our good that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.4 a very convincing place for the imputation of Christs active obedience Secondly Whereas a special Law was laid upon him as he was our Meditour he is willing also to obey that in order to our redemption That Christ should die was no part of the moral law but it was a positive special law laid upon Christ well he makes it good I lay down my life this Commandment have I received of my Fathâ—r Joh. 10.18 Christ as Mediator had a command from his Father to die and he observes it And to be short whatever the Father put him upon in his whole Mediatory work he did it all so he tells us I have finished the work which thou gavest me to dâ— Joh. 17.4 Prop. 4 Fourthly In this faederal transaction betwixt the Father and the Son both parties were free here was no necessity co-action or any thing of this Nature but both were free The Father was free in his demands of satisfaction he might have let man alone in his state of guilt and wrath he might have suffered all man-kind to have perished and to be thrown into hell he had been infinitely happy in himself though there had been no such thing as Redemption by Christ 'T is true without this God had not had satisfaction to his justice for if Adam and his posterity had burned in hell to all eternity all would have been nothing in a way of satisfaction but there had not been the least diminution of his essential glory and blessednesse in himself The Son is free too on his part he freely consents to the terms of this Covenant and in the fulnesse of time freely engages in the making of them good Heb. 10.5 Lo I come to do thy Will O God Psal 40.8 I delight to do thy Will O God yea thy Law is within my heart Ver. 6. And therefore he sayes there Mine ears hast thou bored As the servant in the Law when he was willing to stay with his Master Exod. 21.6 and to do his work hâ—s eare was bored so 't was with Christ he was willing to serve his Father in this businesse the greatest that ever was carried on in the world and therefore sayes he Mine eares hast thou bored Christ was free in all his obedience and if it had not been free and voluntary it would not have been satisfactory or meritorious whatever he did or suffered it was from love not necessity This truth is so evident from the whole current of the Gospel that I need not enlarge upon it Prop. 5 Fifthly Th se two persons in this blessed Covenant they do mutually tâ—ust each other I say they do mutually trust each other for their respective making good the termes of this Covenant the Father trusts the Son and the Son trusts the Father the Father trusts the Son for the making of his soul an offering for sin the Son trusts the Father for the seeing of his â—eed To bring thâ—s assertion down to time in the times of the Old Testament the Father trusts the Son in the times of the New Testament the Son trusts the Father Before the coming of Christ the Father takes up the Patriarchs and others to heaven upon assurance of this that Christ in the fulnesse of time would take our nature upon him and therein make full satisfaction Christ having promised to do thus the Father takes his word and so takes up old Testament-believers to glory Since the coming of Christ the Son now trusts his Father for he hath offered up himself paid down the full ransome and yet he doth not reap the full benefit of it many believers being not yet glorified but he trusts his Father that one by one they all shall be so in due time This may seem to be but a notion I confesse we have no place of Scripture positively asserting this but the nature of the thing demonstrates it for there being some distance of time in what was to be done by both persons there must be a mutual trusting each of the other Prop. 6 In the sixth place These two persons all along in their proper and peculiar transactions they deal each with the other as under a Covenant and they hold each other to the termes of the Covenant that was betwixt them Not that there 's any question of their breaking of it but thus we may with an humble reverence conceive of it The Father holds the Son to the engagement on his part he will not spare him or bate him any thing satisfaction he will have to the utmost though it cost his life and blood Rom. 8 32. And therefore you may observe the prayer of Christ John 12.27 Father save me from this houre he seems to check or recall himself but for this cause came I unto this houre this is but that which I engaged to go through and therefore I must do it And his Father answers him there accordingly Ver. 28. Father glorifie thy Name still Christs eye was upon that his Fathers glory well saith the Father I have both glorified it and will glorifie it againe He speaks thus not only upon the accompt of his Soveraignty but of the Covenant also that I am speaking to The Son also stands upon the termes of this Covenant and therefore having performed the conditions on his part he now makes his claime both for himself and his members that the Father will make good the conditions on his part Father sayes he John 17.4 5. I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was And for his members he speaks more in the language of a Covenant Verse 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory c. I will not only I pray or beseech but I will I ask this as my right by vertue of the Covenant betwixt us I having done thus and thus 't is but my due for though glory is a gift to us 't is a debt to Christ and so I claime it that those whom thou hast given me may be with me in glory Prop. 7 I 'le adde but one thing more and then I have done with the Explicatory part This federal transaction betwixt the Father and the Son it was from all eternity Here lies the difficulty and this is that which stumbles some I 'le speak but a word to it I say this Covenant
of Redemption it was from all eternity it was not made when Christ was just coming into the world but from everlasting Two Scriptures seem to hold out this 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Here is the purpose of God here is grace given in Jesus Christ how in the Covenant betwixt the Father and him when was this given before the world began h. e. from all eternity So Tit. 1.2 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lâ—e promised before the world began How was this life promised before the world begun but in this everlasting Covenant wherein the Father promised unto Christ eternal life for all his seed I have been speaking to you of a very great mystery of which the Scripture speaks but little signanter we have not the termes but we have the sense and substance of this Covenant of Redemption there laid down If in any assertion I have seemed too bold I am very ready to take shame for iâ— I am sorry my work did lie in such an untrodden path wherein I have but very few to give me any direction I will shut up all with a little Application And first Application I would from hence stir you up to an high admiration of the great and infinite love of God of God the Father of God the Son what manner of love hath the God of Grace revealed in this Covenant Love that for the freenesse of it and greatnesse of it we should admire in this life as we shall admire it in the life to come Both persons have discovered unconceivable love in this transaction Oh let both of them be admired with the highest admiration 1. Admire the love of the Father we are more apprehensive of the love of the Son than we are of the love of the Father I would not speak any thing to diminish the love of the Son God forbid Oh 't was wonderful superlative love only I would heighten your apprehensions of the Fathers love in the great work of our Redemption Redemption was not only brought about by Christ but the Father had a great hand in it therefore 't is said The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand And I have found a ransome God so loved the world Isa 53.10 Job 33.24 John 3.16 that he gave his only begotten Son c. I might instance in several particulars to set out the Fathers love in our Redemption but take only that which I have been upon That the thoughts of God should be upon poor lost man so as to finde out a way for his recovery that he should call his Son and say Come let us consult together I speak after the manner of men Is there no way to be found that man may yet live he is now obnoxious to me and I might throw him into hell but may not I be satisfied and he saved too I am not willing he should utterly perish I say that God should thus set his thoughts on work for wretched man and treat with his Son and strike up a Covenant with his Son and therein lay such a foundation for mans recovery let Angels and men and all creatures adore this love and oh that you would return love for love return your drop for Gods Ocean We must honour the Son as we honour the Father John 5.23 and we must love the Father as we love the Son 2. And then admire the love of the Son too he is willing to engage in this Covenant he knew the termes of it what the Redemption of man would cost him even his life and precious blood yet for all this he willingly and freely binds himself to redeem poor sinners whatever it cost him O the heights depths breadths of this love Ephes 3.18 Blessed Jesus that ever thou shouldst consent to lay down thy life for me to wash away my sins in thine own blood 1 John 3.16 Rev. 1.5 to give thy soul as an offering for sin upon this encouragement and motive that thou mightest sâ—e such a poor worme as I brought in to God that thou shouldst set thy self as a Skreen betwixt Gods wrath and my poor soul and do and suffer ten thousand times more than what tongue can expresse or heart conceive What shall I what can I say to all this but fall down and wonder at that Love which can never be Fathomed So much for the first thing Vse 2 Secondly This Covenant of Redemption may be improved for the encouraging and strengthning of faith Faith sometimes is ready to question the blessings of the Covenant of Grace and the Continuance or Perpetuity of the Covenant of Grace that 's the great Foundation of Faith and when it staggers about that 't is very sad with the soul Now I 'le lay down two things for the help of Faith 1. The blessings of the Covenant are sure 2. The Covenant of Grace it self is sure First The blessings of the Covenant are sure They are called the sure mercies of David Isa 55.3 Isaiah 55.3 They are sure for Continuance and they are sure for Performance 1. For Continuance common mercies are dying perishing uncertain things but Covenant mercies are stable durable lasting things A great estate may come to nothing Prov. 23.5 Riches are uncertain things Imaginaria in saeculo nihil veri Tertul. 1 Tim. 6.17 And so in all worldly comforts they are but a fashion matters of fancy rather than of reality and they passe away 1 Cor. 7.31 But now grace pardon of sin adoption c. these are blessings that abide for ever Rom. 11.29 2. They are sure also for performance I mean whatever blessing God hath put into this Covenant as 't is full of blessings all shall certainly be made good to believers otherwise God would not be faithful to his Covenant which certainly he will be Men may be false in their Covenants to God but God will certainly be true in his Covenant to men Heaven and Earth shall passe away rather than there shall be the least entrenchment upon Gods truth in the not performing of his Covenant Secondly The Covenant of Grace is sure in it self a Covâ—nant firme unalterable never to be broken 't is called an everlasting Covenant Gen. 17.7 Hebr. 13.20 a Covenant that shall stand fast Psal 89.28 a Covenant ordered in all things and sure 2 Sam. 23.5 The Covenant of Grace is so firmly ratified that there can be no nulling of it 1. God hath ratified it by his Oath Gen. 22.16 Hebr. 6.13 Si non credimus Deo promittenti at credamus Deo juranti Hierom Amant Scripturae pro pacto ponere Testamentum Aug. 14 15 16 17 18. His promise is enough but surely hâ—s oath must put all out of question there 's no room for unbelief now God hath sworn
1 John 5.4 as well as a Saviour a Faith that is for obedience as well as priviledge Oh you that have this Faith go away in peace be of good comfort This everlasting Covenant betwixt the Father and the Son is yours your good was promoted and secured in this Treaty and foederal Engagement How much doth this Covenant speak for the benefit of believers if you be such 't is all yours By it you are already brought into a state of Grace by it you shall hereafter be brought into a state of glory Upon this Covenant Christ now sees you as his seed upon this Covenant you shall hereafter see him as your Saviour face to face unto Eternity To this Father to this Son with the Holy Spirit be glory for evermore THE COVENANT OF GRACE Heb. 8.6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the Mediatour of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises THE general design of this Epistle is my special design in this Text viz. to demonstrate to you that you live under the best of gracious dispensations that Jesus Christ our deservedly adored Mediator of the New Covenant hath obtained a more excellent Ministry and by the faithful discharge of that Ministry more excellent benefits than either Moses the Messenger-Mediator or the Levitical Priests the Stationary-Mediators of the Old Covenant But now now is not here a note of time but of opposition as in Rom. 7.17 now then i. e. after the Law received so Grotius or if you will have it to note the time 't is the time of the Gospel this last time Hath he obtained not by usurpation but by election he hath of divine grace freely received * Anselm A more excellent ministry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Minister is he that doth something at the command of another Heb. 1.7 and so 't is said of Magistrates Rom. 13.6 they are Gods Ministers but 't is chiefly spoken of the Priests Nehemiah 10.39 The Priests that minister because they offer those things that God requires they are said to minister Exodus 28.35 43. Christs ministry is more excellent thatn the Levitical he executes it partly on earth and partly in heaven but he amplifies the excellency chiefly from the excellency of the Covenant * Paraeus and therefore it follows By how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant If you take the old Covenant for the whole dispensation under the old Testament as well Gospel-promises as those things which are more strictly legal then we may truly say he old and new Covenant are for substance the same and therefore the Comparison relates rather to the form than to the matter of the Covenant * Calvin The Covenant of grace is dispensed with more latitude clearnesse and power of the Holy Ghost * Dâ—odate and therefore it may be called a better Covenant Which was established upon better promises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys He names that which may most affect them with joy in saying it is established upon better promises All Coveâ—ants consist in promises The Covenants of Kings and Princes amongst themselves consist in promises of either not hurting or helping one another the Covenants of Princes and people consist in promises the Prince promises justice clemency and defence the people promise love obedience and gratitude so in the Covenant of grace the first and chief part whereof is I will be thy God and of thy seed and we promise faith obedience and worship the promises of the Old Covenant run more upon temporal good things the promises of the New Covenant are chiefly remission of sins sanctification by the Spirit c. and the Covenant is said to be established the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. Legislatum Law and Covenant are joyned together in Scripture They kept not the Covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Psal 78.10 The New Covenant containeth certain precepts which every one must obey that will obtaine the promise Thus you have the meaning of the words The Observation I shall commend to you is this The Gospel Covenant or the new Covenant is the best Covenant that ever God made with man I will not stay you long in the general notion of a Covenant the word sometimes signifies an absolute promise of God without any restipulation as Gods engagement to Noah Gen. 9.11 And I will establish my Covenant with you neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth Whatever mans carriage shall be God promises that he will no more drown the world So the promise of perseverance Heb. 8.10 This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people Our perseverance doth not leane upon imperfect grace but upon divine favour but I wave this and shall speak of Covenants as they note the free promise of God with restipulation of our duty * Camero A Covenant is amicus status interfaederatos so Martin a friendly state between Allies 'pray ' consider the several Covenants the Scripture mentions and they are three namely the Natural Legal and Gospel Covenant the Natural commonly called the Covenant of Works that flourished till the first sin the Legal Covenant that flourished till the Ascention of Christ and the pouring out of the holy Ghost upon the Apostles though it began to languish from Johns preaching and began to grow old throuhout the course of Christs Miniâ—try the Gosp l Covenant that flourisheth from Christ till the end of the world I shall speak but little of the first something more of the second but dwell upon the last 1. The Natural Covenant is that whereby God by the right of Creation doth require a perfect obedience of all man-kind and promiseth a most blessed life in Paradise to those that obey him and threateneth eternal death to those that disobey him that it may appeare to all how he loves righteousnesse and holinesse how he hates impiety and wickednesse In this Covenant I shall consider but these three things 1. Gods condiscention that he would enter into Covenant with man God was at liberty whether he would create man or not and when God had made this glorious Fabrick there could be no engagement upon him besides his own goodnesse to keep it from ruine Matth. 20.15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own but man having an understanding and will to comprehend and observe the Laws given him had a natural obligation to duty which can no way be dissolved there is no power in heaven or earth can disoblige man from loving and obeying God Now that God will deale with man not summo
and said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God and Jesus answered and said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven It so farre transcends the capacity of humane reason that reason cannot so much as approve of it Gerhard Alting when it was revealed without inward illumination and perswasion of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 2.9 10 14 15. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned but he that is spiritual judgeth all things and hereupon it is called the Nâ—w Covenant not in respect of the time that it had no being before the incarnation of Christ but in respect of the knowledge of it the knowledge of the Legal Covenant was born with us and it was fore-known to nature but the Gospel-Covenant was whoâ—ly new revealed from the bosome of the Father it was administred by new Officers confirmed by new Sacraments let into the hearts of people by new pourings out of the Spirit therefore the Apostle prayes Ephes 1.17 18. * Maccovius That the God of oâ—r Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdome and revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints God would never have instituted the Legal Covenant but for the Gospels sake Galat. 3.24 Wherâ—fore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ The Law was a sharp School-master by meanes whereof the refractory and contumacious minds of the Jewish people might be tamed for Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to evâ—ry one that believeth 2. The gospel-Gospel-Covenant is better than the Legal in respect of the manner of it the Law was a Doctrine of works commanding and prescribing what we should be and what we should do Gal. 3.12 And the Law is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them But now the Gospel requires faith in Christ for righteousnesse and salvation Rom. 3.21 But now the righteousnesse of God without the Law is manifested therefore saith Augustine faith obtaines what the Law commands we have no help from the Law * Gerhard the condition of the Law is simply impossible it finds us sinners and leaves no place for repentance * Camero and notwithstanding the sprinkling of Gospel that there was with the Law yet it was but obscure And that shall be the next particular 3. The Gospel-Covenant is better than the Legal in respect of the manner of holding forth Christ in it though the Gospel is one and the same whereby all Saints are saved in all times for there was not one way of salvation then and another since Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sinnes Yet the Doctrine of the Gospel was more obscure in the Old Testament Umbratili per se inefficaci ceremoniarum observatione c. Amyrald partly through Prophesies of things a great way off and partly through types Christ was wrapt up in shadowes and figures in the Gospel the body of those shadowes and the truth of those types is exhibited the Land of Canaan was a type of heaven Israel according to the flesh was a type of Israel according to the Spirit the spirit of bondage of the spirit of Adoption the blood of the Sacrifices of the blood of Christ the glory of divine grace was reserved for Christs coming they had at most but starre-light before Christs coming * When Christ first came it was but day-break with them Christ was at first but as a morning starre 2 Pet. 1.19 though soon after he was as the sun in the firmament Mal. 4.2 The Apostle saith Heb. 10.1 The Law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things and in this respect it was that the Apostle saith the Gospel was promised to the Fathers but perform'd to us Rom. 1.1 2. It was hid to them and revealed to us Rom. 16.25 26. and not only by fulfilling of Prophesies which we may see by the comparing of Scripture but by the Spirit Ephes 3.5 The mystery of Christ in other ages was not made known unto the Sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit They had but a poor discovery of Christ but we have the riches of this mystery made known unto us Col. 1.26 27 * Alting The old Covenant leads to Christ but 'tis a great way about the Gospel Covenant goeth directly to him their Ceremonies were numerous bâ—rdensome and obscure those things that represent Christ to us are few easie and cleare * Synops pur Theol. 4. The Gospel-Covenant is the better Covenant in respect of the form of it the promises are better promises the promises of the Law are conditional and require perfect obedience Lev. 18.5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgements which if a man do he shall live in them the condition you see is impossible Beloved 'pray ' mistake not there is expresse mention of eternal life in the Old Testament Isa 45.17 Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlâ—sting life and some to shame and everlasting contemp and that the Law cannot save us that is accidental in respect of our dâ—filement with sin and our weaknesse that we cannot fulfill the condition Rom. 7.12 The law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good and it is the Word of life Acts 7.38 Who received the lively Oracles to give unto us and the Apostle brings in Abraham and David for examples of Justification by faith Rom. 4.6 13. but yet their promises were chiefly temporal we have the promise of temporal good things in the New Testament as well as they in the Old only with the exception of the Cross Mark 19.29 30. Verily I say unto you There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or fathers or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions that was the exception with persecution
We have three notable advantages in our temporal promises beyond what they had in theirs 1. The Old Covenant had special promises of temporal good things in the Land of Canaan for the preserving of their Mosaical policy untill the time of the Messiah to be born of that people promises of long life c. The New Covenant hath promises of all good things necessary without any such clog All good works shall be rewarded and he promiseth to give a present temporal reward in part of payment Eph. 6.8 Whatsoever good thing any man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free and which is more 1 Tim. 4.8 Godlinesse is profitable unto all having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 2. The temporal good things promised in the Old Testament were symbolical they prefigured spiritual benefits by Christ we have them without any such adjoyned significations Col. 2.17 They had a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ They had a more sparing taste of heavenly good things in earthly benefits we have a more streight and direct way unto eternal life 3. Promises of temporal good things were in the Old Covenant more frequent in the New Covenant more rare and this I name as their excellency because they are thrown in as meer additions to spiritual promises * Alting Ma. 16.33 Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you this for temporal promises And for spiritual promises which are the best of the Gospel-Covenant not only the conditions of those promises are more easie for whereas it was Do this and live Gal. 3.15 now it is Believe and thou shalt not come into condemnation * Camero Joh. 3.18 but the condition is also promised Jer. 31.34 I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt which my Câ—venant they brake although I was an Husband unto them saith the Lord but this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall know me from the least of thâ—m unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sinnes no more Gods hearty good will is herein manifested Jer. 32.41 I will rejoyce over them to do them good and I will plant them in this land assuredlâ— with my whole heart and with my whole soul If you say these are Old-Testament promises and belonged to them to whom they were spoken and were not only Prophetical so as to concern another people * Calv. Instit I grant it Rom. 3.19 We know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law But they had not that efficacy of the Spirit to make these promises so effectual as was Prophesied and promised for the times of the Gospel * Synop. pu th Joel 2.28 And it shall come to passe afterwards mark that afterwards I will poure out my Spirit upon all flesh c. The measure of the Spirit which they did receive tended mostly to bondage Gal. 4.24 25. but the Spirit is to us a Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 And therefore the Gospel is specially called the Word of Gods grace Acts 20.32 as if all the grace that God had formerly expressed had been nothing in comparison of this Rom. 6.14 Ye are not under the Law but under grace Law and grace are opposed as condemnation and mercy thus the Gospel is the better Covenant in respect of the promises of it 5. The Gospel is the better Covenant in respect of the effects of it the Old Covenant shews us sin doth accuse us and declares us guilty before the judgement of God Rom. 3.19 20. That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sinne It subjects us under the curse and condemneth sinners for the transgressing of Gods commands Deut. 27.26 Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them and all the people shall say Amen So Gal. 3.10 it is the ministry of death 2 Cor. 3.6 7. but now the Gospel that proclaims pardon of sin and lifts up with quickening consolation Isa 61.1 2. in the Law God is considered as reproving sin and approving righteousnesse in the Gospel as remitting sin and repairing righteousnesse and therefore the Word of the Gospel is called good seed Mat. 13.3 The seed of Regeneration 1 Pet. 1.23 The Word of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 19. The Ministration of the Spirit Gal. 3.2 The Word of faith Rom. 10.8 The Word of life Phil. 2.16 The power of God Rom. 1.16 That whereby the righteousnesse of God is manifest Rom. 3.21 The destruction of unbelievers is not the end of the Gospel but that is through their own fault Polan Syntag. eventus adventitius an accidental event God abundantly declares in the Gospel that he delights not in the death of sinners but in the saving translation of them by faith and repentance from the power of darknesse into the Kingdome of his dear Son The best effect of the Legal Covenant is the bringing man into the Gospel-Covenant and 'pray ' observe how when it is most effectual it turns over the sinner to the Better Covenant 1. It discovers sin to us Rom. 7.7 I had not known sin but by the Law but wherefore is it that we know sin at all that we might be compelled to seek reparation in the Gospel-Covenant Gal. 3.21 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe 2. The Old Covenant restrains sin there is a natural stupidnesse in mens consciences but then when the dreadful threatnings of the Law still sound in their ears man is somewhat affrighted and hath some reluctancy though afterwards the Law of the minde is led captive by the Law of the members and man forbears sin as having a bridle put upon him Ringente interim intus tumultuante appetitu corrupto though he be restrained from sin yet it is but a kinde of coactior it ends best when it ends in a spontaneous and voluntary inclination of the minde to forsake sin and hate it and that is the work of the Gospâ—l-Covenant 3. The Old Covenant works fear
you they have no such thought nor any cause for any such thought through grace they abhorre these sins and wonder that any are so besotted as to quarrel with a Minister for speaking against them You see then 't is your consciences that reproach you and not the Ministers of the Gospel 2. Here 's matter of Admiration Admiration of Gods rich Grace and unparallel'd Providence to us that God should cast our Lots in to such places and times wherein we enjoy the best of the best gracious Dispensations Acts 17.26 God hath made of one blood all Nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation God hath been pleased so to dispose of Christs little flock that there shall be some in all times of the world and in all places of the world where he makes known his Name to be the salt of the Earth But now for us to be so disposed of that among the several thousand years of the worlds continuance and among the innumerable millions of places of the worlds Inhabitants that we should be brought forth in such a nick of time and in such a spiritual Paradise of place that there 's none in the world to equal it Sirs what doth this call for what shall we render to the Lord for this I know not what to call it 't is such unspeakable love Beloved I must both give and take time to answer this question And O that you and I may give a sutable answer to it I know not at present what to say to it unlesse we could as overcome by it faint away in a love-sickness into the bosome of our dearest Jesus that Cant. 2.4 5 6. seeing he hath brought us where we may not only taste a draught out of a Bottle but are brought to the great Vessels of spiritual comforts where we may not only enjoy Christ a little but even to spiritual extasie O that we now as sinking down in a Swoun and as unable to stand under the thoughts of such love might be even strowed and boulstered up with the comfortable doctrines of the Gospel-Covenant and all through impatience of love The love of God to such inconsiderable persons should carry the soul out of it self to do more than languish with desire after more extasying communications so that none but Christ with his right hand of Divinity and left hand of Humanity may be acceptable to us to embrace us O Christians I should be glad to send you all home heart-sick of love to Christ But 3. By way of Inference Everyone of you that is not in the Gospel-Covenant is in a dreadful state 't is your own wilfulnesse you will not believe the Gospel Though 't is through Divine Grace that persons do close with the Gospel yet it is your own sin you do not close with it for you are willing to be strangers to it you are willing to enjoy your lusts which you must part with if you embrace it You may observe the dreadful estate of persons out of Covenant in these three particulars 1. The sin against the Gospel-Covenant is most dreadful This sin hath the guilt of all other sins in it John 15.22 If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin but now they have no cloke for their sin Sodom and Gomorrah Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdome of heaven before those that refuse the Gospel God the Father invites men to the Marriage Supper nay you are wooed and entreated to be Christs Bride You make light of it you have the profits and the pleasures of the world to take up your thoughts you will not be perswaded to believe that Christ is better than your lusts you will not be beat out of it but that a bag of gold is better than a Crown of glory but that a filthy lust is better than communion with God but that the Divels slave and fool is better than to be Gods Childe and Darling Is this your choice Then consider 2. The penalty for the contempt of this Gospel-Covenant is most dreadful John 3.19 This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknesse rather than light this brings persons under the very utmost of the wrath of God 1 Thess 2.16 when the Jews sinned against the Legal Dispensation then Dan. 9.12 Daniel complains Under the whole heavens hath not been done as hath bâ—en done upon Jeâ—usalem but what now will become of those that refuse the Gospel Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God Can any thing be worse than to dye without mercy yes saith the Apostle what 's that nay he leaves it to your consideration as being unpossible to be expressed To poure contempt and scorne upon the pretious blood of Christ wherewith the Covenant betwixt God and his people was made and ratified to offer a spiteful affront unto the Spirit of God by contemning and opposing his gracious motions O what remains for such persons but a dreadful expectation of Gods terrible Judgment But there 's a third thing that I would have you consider which is sensibly more dreadful than either of these 3. The sentence against Gospel-Covenant breaking is most irreversible and peremptory mercy and grace and patience and compassion when these are abused all these become the sinners enemy for that which is ordained a life to prove death unto them oh this is dreadful for the blood of Christ to cry to heaven against sinners this is dreadful this made Christ to weep over Jerusalem Luke 19.40.41 These persons passe judgment upon themselves though not with their lips yet with their lives they pronounce themselves unworthy to be saved Acts 13.46 O Sirs I beseech you consider though persons brake the Covenant of Works there was salvation to be had by another Covenant but if this be violated there is no other Covenant to relieve this The Gospel-Covenant is our Refuge when the other Covenant pursues us Hebr. 6.18 Contemptuous carriage against Grace is beyond all help I beseech you therefore take heed of sinning against Gospel-light and Gospel-love O you will have that sting of conscience that no other sinners in the world have that have not refused a Redeemer Beloved I would I could say with due meltings of heart it grieves me for you to think how many hundreds in this Congregation are yet without Christ being Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world Ephes 2.12 O Sirs do you know what you do when you cocker your lusts in despight of Christ Can you hear Sermons and go on in sin You do well to hear but you make a desperate adventure to do what you know discovenants you from God and hazards your eternal separation from God Beloved I
must be plain with you I beseech you consider how Jews and Pagans and Divels will rise up in judgment against you 1. The Jew may say I had a Legal yoke upon me which neither I nor my Fathers were able to bear Christ invited me only into his Garden of Nuts where I might sooner break my teeth with the hard Shell of Ceremonies than get to the little more than bitter Kenel of Gospel promises you have those promises in abundance with more ease Cant. 6.11 q. d. Their Nuts were ripe but their Pomegranates full of sweet Kernels of Gospel-grace were not then budded The Jew may complain that in the best of their Sacrifices the smoak fill'd their Temple smoak only to provoke them to weep for a clearer manifestation 2 Cor. 3.14 Those of the Jews that were most enraged against Christ yet had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 The Jew may say Though we could but groap after Christ your eyes are dazled with his glory We had but the Old Edition of the Covenant of Grace in a Character very darkly intelligible you have the Last Edition with a Commentary of our Reâ—ection and the Worlds Recep ion and the Spirits Effusion you have all that heart can wish Oh had we but one of your days of the Son of man we would not have sinned against so great salvation Sirs what do you think your consciences will be forced to reply O true true must the Gospel-sinner say I have known own'd and professed Christ and have been angry with Ministers and Friends when they did but question my being in Covenant but I have not in any measure walked worthy of the Gospel But I passe by the Jew let 's hear what the Pagan hath to say against you 2. I perish Eternally may the poor Pagan say without all possibility of Reconciliation and have only sinned against the Covenant of Works having never heard of a Gospel-Covenant nor of Reconciliation by a Mediatour Alas should I have improved my Naturals to the highest Reconciliation by Christ could never have entred into my head Oh had I heard but one Sermon had Christ but once broke in upon my soul to convince me of my undone condition and to have shewen a righteousnesse unto me but woe is me I never had so much as one offer of Grace But so have I must you say that refuse the Gospel I have or might have heard thousands of Sermons I could scarce escape hearing one or other shewing me the danger of my sin and my necessity of Christ but notwithstanding all I heard I wilfully resolved I would have nothing to do with him I could not indure to hear strictnesse prest upon me it was all the hell I had upon earth that I could not sin in quiet 3. Nay may the Divel himself say 't is true I was ever since my fall maliciously set against God But alas so soon as ever I first sinned God kick't me out of heaven and told me he would never have mercy on me And ' though I liv'd in the time of all manner of gracious Dispensations I saw Sacrifices offered and Christ in the flesh and the Gospel preached yet how could this choose but enrage me the more to have God as it were say Look here Satan I have provided a remedy for sin but none for thine this set me upon revenge against God so far as I could reach him But alas alas had God ever entred into any Covenant with me at all had God put me upon any terms though never so hard for the obtaining of mercy had Christ been but once offered to me what do you think would I have done would I have hearkened to any thing you could say to Refuse Christ and Salvation Could you or all the Angels in heaven have kept me from minding Christ But Woe to me may the Gospel-sinner say I have as good a Remnant of the Covenant of Works in my nature as the Pagans have I have all the discoveries of God in the Legal Covenant that the Jews ever had I am under a Better Dispensation than the Divels were under before their Fall The Gospel of Grace is urged upon me And therefore O poor Jew whatever may be said against thy breach of Covenant there 's a thousand fold more to be said against mine O poor Pagan whatever is to be said against thy breach of Covenant there 's ten thousand fold more against mine O wretched Divels whatever may be said against your sinnes there 's infinitely more to be said against mine I am the most Foolish Mad Wilful Rebel that ever waged war with the grace of God Sirs Is all this nothing to you Can you hear these things quietly I know you dare not think them over again and sin at the same rate as before if you think your souls any thing worth or heaven and glory any thing worth now offer up your selves to Christ in the Gospel-Covenant Thus much for the first Inference That their estate is dreadful that are not in the Gospel-Covenant The second Inference is this That their estate is comfortable that are in the Gospel-Covenant I will only instance in two things 1. The weakest and poorest faith and service is accepted through Christ in the Gospel-Covenant The Covenant of Grace is made to poor weak sinful fraile man through a Mediator God doth not expect that we should be perfect here Poor Christians have more ado to pardon themselves than to have God to pardon them They quarrel more with themselves for want of holinesse than God quarrels with them for it Beloved here are some comfortable Riddles of Grace for you to resolve The Covenant is meerly of Grace Grace runs through all the veins and arteries of it all the life blood and spirit of the Covenant are Grace Grace through Jesus Christ. And yet Beloved though it be wholly of Grace it is of Debt by being a Covenant God is pleased to enter into Bond to make good his Deed of Gift What God doth for the heires of promise it is no more than what is debt to Christ and what through him he is graciously engaged for us O the comfort of being in Covenant with God! you will say so indeed if you adde 2. This Gospel-Covenant is so made that it can never be disanul'd Alas we do not know where nor how to make a Covenant sure in the world he that is my friend to day may be my enemy to morrow his Bond may be good to day and may be to morrow insoluble There are ways more than we know of to evade the strictest Covenant to disanull the strongest Oath but now God hath sworn by himself Hebr. 6.13 that he will certainly blesse those whom he takes into Covenant with him God hath sworn by his holinesse Psal 89.34 35. As if he should say Let me not be accounted a holy God if I break Covenant with any of my people Nay he
verse Having in the 19. verse asserted Christs fitness for that work it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell c. Besides that infinite fulness which he had as God by natural and necessary generation there was another unmeasured fulness depending upon Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and good pleasure and thereby imparted unto Christ Now he comes to shew his work described First By its nature To reconcile to himself to make peace Secondly By its instrument that is the blood of the Cross by him Thirdly The object of it which are All things whether they be things in earth or things in heaven By which learned Davenant understands the Angels spoken of as the things in heaven and so many others supposing that the Elect Angels werâ— confirmed in their estate by Christ But with submission to better judgements I conceive 1. that there is not sufficient evidence in Scripture to shew that the holy Angels had their confirmation from Christ nor doth it seem to be necessary forasmuch as it is commonly acknowledged that Adam who was under the same Covenant with the Angels if he had continued in the observation of Gods precepts for so long time as God judged meet he should have been confirmed by vertue of the Covenant of Works some other way And therefore it was rather to be thought that the Angels have their confirmatiom from Christ as God and Head over all things than as Mediatour The actions of Christ as Mediatour supposing a breach according to that place Gal. 3.20 A Mâ—diatour is not a Mediatour of one i. e. of two parties which are one politically i. e. which are agreed in one but of parties at variance 2. Howsoever if the Angels had been confirmed by Christ yet surely they were not reconciled by Christ for Reconciliation implies a former enmity as these things in heaven are said to be And therefore I rather understand it of departed Saints Patriarchs Prophets c. who as they went to Heaven not to any Limbus so this expression is used to insinuate that they were saved by the grace of Jesus Christ even as we as it is Acts 15.11 and that the blood of Jesus Christ did expiate not only those sins which were committed after his death but those also which were long since past Rom. 3.25 as Sol nondum conspictus illuminat orbem The light and influence of the Sun is dispersed among us before the body of the Sun doth appear above our Horizon So then here you have mans Reconciliation Justification and Salvation described together with the procuring cause of it set forth 1. More generally By him 2. More specially By the blood of his Cross by the shedding of his blood for us by his death and passion compleated on the Cross The doctrine I intend to handle is this That the death of Jesus Christ is the procuring cause of mans justification and salvation Amongst all those heresies which God hath suffered to spring among us that they that are approved may be manifest none are more dangerous than those which concern the person and office of Christ of those many streams of errour which run into the dead Sea of Socinianism these are two They deny the Godhead and the satisfaction of Christ and so indeed subvert the whole Fabrick of the Gospel This latter I shall here endeavour to discuss and shall proceed in this Method 1. I shall explain it 2. Assert 3. Defend 4. Apply it 1. For the Explication of this great Gospel-mystery which truly if it fall we are without hope and so of all creatures most miserable I shall lay down these steps First God made the world and man in it for his own service and glory And this end he cannot be disappointed in but must have it one way or other Secondly Man by sin thwharted Gods end and cast dirt upon his glory and so doth every sinner Every sin is a reflection upon Gods Name a blot in Gods Government of the world so that some make it a pretence for their Atheism saying That if there were a God he would not suffer sin to be in the world Thirdly God is inclined by his Nature and obliged by his interest to hate sin and punish the sinner and so to recover his glory 1. I say God is inclined by his nature to hate and punish sin I do not positively conclude that he is absolutely obliged I shall not here meddle with that nice question Whether God was so far obliged to punish it by his nature that he could not pardon sin without satisfaction but this is manifest look upon man as a sinner and so Gods Nature must needs be opposite unto him The Scripture describes God in such manner not only in regard of his Will but also in respect of his Nature Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity c. Exod. 34.6 where the nature of the Divine Majesty is represented among other parts of the description this is one He will by no meanes clear the guilty Psalme 11.5 The wicked his soul hateth and the reason is added from Gods Nature ver 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse his countenance doth behold the upright And it may further appear that here punishment of sin is not an act of Gods Will but of his Nature Because the Actions of Gods Will are only known by Revelation not by reason or the light of Nature but that God should and would punish sin this was known by natures light to such as were unacquainted with Revelation-light Hence came the Conclusion Acts 28.4 This man is a Murderer whom though he hath escaped the Sea yet Vengeance suffereth him not to live Vengeance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a supposed Goddesse but indeed nothing else but Divine Justice 2. God is obliged by his interest to punish him as he is the Ruler of the world By sin there comes a double mischief 1. God is wronged 2. The world is wronged by a bad example and hardned in sin so that if God might pardon sin as it is a wrong to himself yet he is in a manner obliged to punish it to right the wronged world and to make such sinners patterns of severity that the world may not make them examples of ungodlinesse even as King James might pardon the Powder-Traytors so far forth as his Person was concerned but if you look on it as a wrong to the whole Nation to the Protestant Religion so he was obliged to punish them to make them warnings to others in the like cases so that you see mans punishment was necessary for Gods glory and the Worlds good Fourthly The punishment to be inflicted must be sutable to sins Nature and Gods Majesty and therefore an infinite punishment for this is justice to observe an exact proportion between sin and punishment Fifthly The only way whereby this punishment might be suffered and yet man saved was by the incarnation and
made righteous in Law Righteousnesse is a conformity to the Law he that fulfills the Law is righteous in the eye of that Law he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within the protection of it as he that transgresseth the Law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty in the eye of the Law and without the protection of it Now the Law of the New Covenant runs thus He that believeth shall not perish so that a Believer keeps and fulfills this Law and therefore faith is imputed to him for righteousnesse Rom. 4.22 23 24. because faith is the keeping of the New Covenant which therefore is called the Law of faith Rom. 3.27 in opposition to the Old Covenant called there by the Apostle the Law of Works As therefore innocency or perfect obedience would have justified Adam had he stood by vertue of the Law of Works or Old Covenant whose tenor is Obey and live for then he had fulfilled that Law and as his Disobedience actually condemned him by vertue of the same Law Disobey and dye for it Gen. 2.17 So now believing in Christ justifyeth by vertue of the Law of faith for it is the keeping and fulfilling of the Gospel-Covenant whose tenor is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And again unbelief actually condemneth by vertue of the same Law He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God Joh. 3.18 That is because the unbeliever is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the protection of the Gospel or Law of faith he cometh not up to its righteousnesse he is condemned already as a sinner by the Law of Works and yet once more with a witnesse condemned as an unbeliever as a monster that hath twice been accessory to his own murder first in wounding himself and secondly in refusing to be healed The Law of works includes us all under sin we are all dead our case was desperate but God who is rich in mercy through his great love wherewith he hath loved us Ephes 2.4 John 3.16 his immense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when we were dead in sins and trespasses hath sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And this is that Law according to which he will judge the world according to my Gospel saith Paul Rom. 2.27 Every Believer therefore though he wants the righteousnesse of the Law of Works viz. innocency yet he shall not be condemned because he hath the righteousnesse of the Gospel viz. faith which is the New Law in force according to which God now dealeth with us and shall judge the world at the last day And here it will be richly worth our very heedful Observation that although a Believer hath not the righteousnesse of the Law of Works iâ—herent in himself for if he had he were not a sinner but should be justified by that Law yet by faith he lays hold upon Christs satisfaction which in the very eye of the Law of Works is an unexceptionably perfect an infinitely glorious righteousnesse So that faith justifieth us even at the Bar of the Law of Works Ratione objecti as it lays hold on Christs satisfaction which is our Legal righteousnesse it justifieth us at the Bar of the Gospel or Law of faith formaliter ratione sui as it is Covenant-keeping or a fulfilling of the Gospel Law For he that keeps a Law is righteous where that Law is Judge the Law-Maker by his very making of the Law makes him righteous and the Judge that pronounceth according to the Law for a Judge is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will infalâ—ibly pronounce him so But that with all requisite distinctnesse we may apprehend this great affair let us take a view of some of the most considerable and important causes which concur to the producing this excellent effect the discharge and justification of a sinner and state their several interests and concernments in their respective influences upon and contributions towards it 1. How free grace justifieth And first The free grace of God is the first wheel that sets all the rest in motion It s contribution is that of a proegumenal cause or internal motive disposing God to send his Son John 3.16 That sinners believing might be justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 For Christ dyed not to render God good he was so eternally but that with the honour of his justice he might exert and display his goodnesse which contriv'd and made it self this way to break forth into the world 2. How Christs satisfaction Secondly Christs satisfaction is doubly concern'd in our Justification 1. In respect of God as a procatartick cause of infinite merit and impetrative power for the sake of which God is reconciling himself unto the world in Christ not imputing their trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5.19 2. In respect of the Law of Works Christs satisfaction justifieth us formally as our proper Legal righteousnesse I call it our righteousness because it becomes imputed to us upon our believing faith being our Gospel title by pleading which we lay claim to all the benefits accruing from the merit of Christs performance to aâ—l effects uses and purposes as if it had been personally our own I call it our Legal righteousnesse because thereby the Law of God owns it self fully apaid and acquiesceth in it as in full reparations and amends made unto it for the injury and dishonour received by the sin of man We must plead this against all the challenges and accusations of the Law Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is Christ that dyed c. Rom. 8.33 And thus our Legal righteousnesse required in the first Covenant that of Works is wholly without us in our Redeemer yet imputed upon our account Thirdly The Gospel justifieth quâ Lex lata 3. How the Gospel as it is the Law of faith for the very tenor of the Gospel-Covenant is Believe and thou shalt be saved Fourthly Faith justifieth vi Legis latae 4. How faith as it is our Evangelical righteousnesse or our keeping the Gospel-Law for that Law suspends justification upon believing Faith pretends to no merit or vertue of its own but professedly avows its dependance upon the merit of Christs satisfaction as our Legal righteousnesse on which it layeth hold nor can it shew any other title to be it self our Evangelical righteousnesse but only Gods sanction who chose this act of believing to the honour of being the justifying act because it so highly honoureth Christ So that as a most judicious pen expresseth it the act of believing is as the silver but Gods Authority in the Gospel-sanction is the Kings Coyne or Image stamp't upon it which gives it all its value as to justification Without this stamp it could never have been currant and if God had set this stamp on
of a reason God sends his Gospel proclaiming Acts 3.19 Repent ye and be converted that your sinnes may be blotted out His Ministers proclaiming We then are Embassadors of Christ 2 Cor. 5. as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God Why dost thou hate thy soul and say I will not why wilt thou not Is it because it doth not concern thee or because eternal life and death are trifles small little things not worth thy considering or doth any body hinder thee No no our Saviour gives the true account Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Let me entreat this small request of thee for Gods sake for thine own take the next opportunity and spend half an houre alone let thy spirit accomplish a diligent search pursue this inquiry to some issue am I justified or no if not what will become of me if it should happen sometimes such things fall out that I should dye now presently I cannot promise my self that I shall see to morrow morning Thus go on and bring it to something before thou leavest give not over till thou art not only clearly convinced of but heartily affected with thy guilt not only to see but feel thy self to be the man who art undone without an interest in this justification Be in good earnest thou canst not mock thy God and is there any wisdome in mocking and cheating thy own soul What thou dost do it heartily as unto the Lord as for thy life as one that would not rue thy self-deceiving folly when it cannot be recalled and if thou art hearty and serious in these reflexions 1. Thou wilt deeply humble thy self before the Majesty of the Judge of all the earth with that self-abhorrence and confusion that becomes one who feels himself even himself being Judge most righteously condemned 2. Thou wilt sollicite and assail the Throne of Grace with all redoubled favours and holy passionate importunities of prayer and supplication giving God no rest till he hath given thee his Spirit according to his own promise Luke 11.13 Ezek. 36.26 27. To help thee to performe the conditions of the Gospel-Covenant plead his own promise with him Wrestle with him for a broken and clean heart for faith for repentance unto life for these are not of thy self they are the gift of God let him not go till he hath blessed thee with these blessings in Christ Jesus This will confound every sinner at the day of Judgment that when he might have had grace yea the Spirit of grace for asking he either asked not or if he did it was so coldly as if he were contented enough to go without Now if thou art in good earnest God is I assure thee in full as good earnest as thou he is ready to meet thee Try but once whether it be in vain to seek him all that ever tryed found it good to draw near to God and found him easie to be entreated he useth not to send the hungry empty away He that commands us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling he it is that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. Secondly To them that are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Let me beseech them 1. To walk worthy of God who hath called them to his Kingdome and Glory to adorn their holy profession take the Exhortation in Pauls words Col. 2.6 As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him Receive not this grace of God in vain the interest of your comfort obligeth you hereunto hereby you will know that you know him that you are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 that there is no cond mnation to you if you walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and herein will your Father be glorified John 15.6 if ye bring forth much fruit 2. To live up to the comfort of their state 1 John 3.1 Ye are already the sons of God it doth not yet appear what you shall be Who shall lay any thing to your charge it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed c. Rom. 8.33 Go eat thy bread with joy and put on thy white rayment God now hath accepted thy works Eccles 9.7 8. I conclude this particular and the whole discourse with the happy effects and fruits of Justification which every Believer hath as good a right and title to as the Gospel it self the Word of the God of truth can give him as I finde those sweet effects and consequences set down in my Text and the words next following it 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 2. By whom also we have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God 3. And not only so but we glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience 4. And patience experience and experience hope 5. And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us Wherefore the righteous shall be glad in the Lord and all the upright in heart shall glory Psal 64.10 THE BELIEVERS DIGNITY and DVTY LAID OPEN In the High-Birth wherewith he is PRIVILEDGED And the honourable Employment to which He is called John 1.12 13. But as many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God IN this Chapter Christ the principal Subject of the Gospel is admirably and Seraphically described 1. By his Divintiy as co-eternal and co-essential with the Father verse 1. 2. 2. By his discovery or manifestation 1. In the work of Creation ver 3. 10. 2. In the work of common providence ver 4.5 9. 3. In the work of gracious providence he being in the world and coming to his Church as our Immanuel God incarnate ver 11. 14. 3. By his entertainment which was 1. Passive his entertainment was poor the world knew him not ver 10. He was as a Prince disguised in a strange Country the Church sleighted and rejected him as Rebels do their natural Prince ver 11. And such entertainment Christ meets with at this day in his Truths Ordinances Graces Ministers and his poor members c. Object Was not Christ entertained by them what else means their harbouring him at Capèrnaum their flocking after him admiring of him seeking to make him a King c. Answ True they entertain'd him for a while civilly and formally upon self-interest but not spiritually by saving Faith Love and Obedience John 6.26 Matthew 11.21 23. Quest 1. Did Christ find no entertainment at all Answ This rejecting of Christ was not universal some did
our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit and perfect holinesse in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 The whole work of the Gospel is to carry on and compleat Repentance this is the profit to be reaped by every Ordinance the Word preached perswades Repentance thâ— Sacraments received stir up and seal Repentance the communion of the Saints carrieth on the work of Repentance Exhorting one another daily lest any be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin Hebr. 3.13 The Gospel is the great Charter of our priviledges purchased by Jesus Christ and they all run into this Repentance this is the benefit by Christs death Resurrection and Ascension this is the fruit of the Spirit of Adoption Zech. 12.10 it is a Spirit of prayer and mourning over him whom we have pierced in brief Repentance is the contract of the Covenant of Grace the Law cannot give it and the light of nature cannot give it only the Gospel can effect it the Covenant of Grace confers on us an accesse to and communion with God as our God not as we are innocent for we are guilty of the breach of the first Covenant but as we are penitent sorrowful for and turned from the evil of our ways so that in this respect we must needs conclude Repentance is a grace of great necessity we reap no benefit enjoy no priviledge of the Gospel but by Repentance the mystery of Redemption Christs Incarnation Death Resurrection Ascension and Exaltation and all the Ministrations of the Gospel are in vain to the impenitent 3. Most pregnant Arguments perswading to Repentance are proposed in and by the Gospel this is light so powerfully convincing that all others which past before it is but darknesse in comparison of it whether it be the light of nature making known sin as it is specifical and particular contrary to certain standing dictates not in its contrariety to the image and holinesse of God and that without any clear and certain way of escape and Repentance or the light of the Law which layeth men under full plain and clear conviction even unto self-condemnation but coucheth the pardon and possiibility of Redemption under such dark figures and expressions that with much difficulty it may direct and provoke Repentance but in the Gospel the Sun of r ghteousnesse shines brightly unto conviction and self-condemnation nay unto speedy and chearful conversion There is no Argument in Nature or in the Law to enforce Repentance but it is urged in the Gospel I and much more doth Nature stir up Repentance by sins inconveniency to mans state or the Law by sins incongruity to the holy just and good command of God the Gospel doth the same nay and further addeth its inconsistency with that estate intâ— which we are resolved by the Redemption of Jesus Christ and so it presenteth us with two most pregnant Powerfully Convinc ng and Perswasive Arguments unto Repentance such which no Professed Religion in the World it self excepted doth propound and they are these 1. The death of Jesus Christ. 2. The day of Judgment The first Argument propounded in the Gospel to perswade Repentance is The death of the Lord Jesus Christ This is an Argument potent in operation to every true believer faith doth no sooner touch the hem of its garment but it cureth like the bones of Elisha quickens the dead man that is but let down into this Grave and pregnant in perswasion to every rational soul that is but candid and ingenuous It is storied of Antonius the Senator of Rome that he intending to provoke the people to râ—venge the death of Caesar slain at the Senate by Brutus and Cassius brought out his bloody Robe and cryed out Here is the bloody Robe of your Quondam Emperour Thus the Gospel presents to our faith a crucified Christ and slain Saviour slain for and by our sins that we may look on him whom we have piâ—rced and mourn over him that we may see him whom our lusts have slain and be revenged on them by Repentance The contemplations of a crucified Christ cannot but constrain Repentance Mount Calvary is a place of heart-melting to every ingenuous soul that makes it his walk for that it presents unto his observation a man nay more than a man a God under the most grievous sufferings not for his own but the sins of others exposed unto that sad estate not by any constraint or necessity but his own choice pity and compassion in whom we reads these three heart-moving Repentance-provoking considerations viz. 1. The great severity of offended justice and fury provoked by his iniquity Here he seeth the vilenesse of his sin and fiercenesse of Gods anger who would not nay in justice could not spare man without satisfaction he had said it and now seeth it executed In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Here is furious justice which falls fearfully on a Surety a Mediator and fierce fury that favours not a Son an only begott n Son Surely sin is hainous greatly provoking to God that his displeasure thus rageth It is sure a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who makes the Son of his love thus roare out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh Impiety horrid Impiety that cannot be expiated by any thing but the very heart-blood of God! O fury fearful fury that forsakes a Son only become a Surety for sinners what pensive thoughts must needs arise in the serious observer of this sad spectacle especially when he proceeds to the next consideration which is this 2. Great love and pity of a Saviour who willingly endureth these sad sufferings out of choice not constraint for the sins of others not of himself Oh unconceivable love ineffable pity that we sinned and he thus suffered he left glory to be exposed to shame he undertakes an Atonement and Reconciliation between God and man and endure h infinite fury to effect it no guile was ever found in his mouth whose soul undergoeth this grief the debt was ours and he payeth the utmost Mite for us All we went astray and on him was laid the punishment of us all Isa 53.3 4. he is wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our sins and that whil'st we were sinners that slighted and rejected him Greater love can no man shew than to dye for his friend but behold here is matchlesse love whil'st we were yet enemies Christ gave himself for us These Torments we must have endured to Eternity if they had not been inflicted on him 3. We here see the gracious acceptance we have with God the great liberty of accesse to God which is to us afforded the wrath of God thus poured forth on his Son is pacified towards sinners and the Covenant of Works being thus accomplished is abolished and man that was at distance from God draweth nigh unto him for this crucified Christ was thus lifted up that he might draw all men unto himself
is Almighty and he must do it because he hath promised it This is Pauls Argument to King Agrippa Vers 6. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our Fathers c. And this is Christs Argument by which he proveth the Resurrection against the Sadduces Matht 22.32 I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Objection This Argument of Christ proves onely the Immortality of the Soul but not the Resurrection of the Body Answer It proves also the Resurr ction of the body because God is the God of Abraham Isaa and Jacob not onely the God of one part of Abraham but of whole Abraham not onely the God of his soul but of his body And therefore whole Abraham must live for ever for Gods Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob is an everlasting Covenant 2. From the justice of God God cannot but raise the dead because he is a just God and must reward every man according to his works Now in this life men are not rewarded the Righteous in this life are oftentimes persecuted and the wicked are in prosperity And therefore there must come a rewarding time and if so then first there must be a Resurrection For dead men cannot be rewarded Objection Is it not enough that our Souls be rewarded Answer No For our bodies are partakers in good and evil actions with the soul and therefore it is just that they should be Partakers also in rewards and punishments Shall God require services of the body and shall he not reward those services Do not the Saints of God beat down their bodies and bring them into subjection Do they not fast often and mortifie their earthly members and suffer Martyrdome with their bodies And therefore God cannot but raise their bodies to the Resurrection of Life and raise the same bodies for it cannot stand with Gods justice that one body should serve him and another be rewarded or that one body should sin and another body be punished A just Judge will not suffer one man to fight and get the victory and another to be crowned The same body that sinneth must dye and the same body that conquers must be crowned What justice can there be for God to cast a body that never sined into Hell and that never was in Adam 3. From the end of Christs coming in the flesh which was to destroy all the Enemies of our Salvation Now the last Enemy which must be destroyed is death 1 Cor. 15.26 and death cannot be uttetly and totally destroyed unless there be a Resurrection of the dead 4. From the Resurrection of Christ This is Saint Pauls great Argument 1 Cor. 15.12 c. If Christ be risen how â—ay some that there shall be no resurrection of the dead For Christ rose as a Publique Person and as the Head of his Church And if the Head be risen all the members must also rise and therefore he is called the First-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 and the First-born of every creature And if the First-fruits be lifted up out of the grave the whole lump will certianly follow Hence also it is that Christ is called the Second Adam 1 Cor 15.21.22 and Paul argueth stroâ—gly That as by man came death so by man also came the resurrection of the dead and as in Adam all dye so in Christ shall all be made alive But now in the first Adam all dye not onely spiritually but corâ—orally and therefore in the second Adam all must be corporally made to live And live again in the same bodies for Christ rose with the same body that he dyed with And therefore he rose with his scars and wounds and he convinced his Disciples that the body he rose with was a tâ—uâ— body and not a Spirit For a Spirit hath not flesh and bones saith Christ as ye see me have Luke 24.39 Objection Doth not the Apostle say in that very Chapter 1 Cor. 15 44. That the bodies of men shall be spiritual bodies at the Resurrection And therefore they cannot be the same bodies 1 Cor. 15.50 Doth not the same Apostle also say That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Hence the Socinians and divers others gather That the bodies of men shall not have flesh and blood and eyes and heads and feet at the Resurrection but shall be airy and spiritual bodies Answer There is a vast difference between mutation and perdition The same bodies shall be raised for substance but marvellously altered in regard of qualifications and endowments as you shall hear in the next particular Non aliud corpus sed aliter We read Exod. 4.6 7. That M ses put his hand into his bosom and when he took it out it was leprous as snow and again he put his hand in his bosom and pluckt it out and it was turned again as his other flesh Here was the same hand when belepred and when whole A Beggar when he puts off his rags and puts on the apparel of a King is the same man though outwardly altered or changed So shall it be at the Resurrection the bodies shall be the same for sâ—bstance though altered wonderfully as to their Qualifications and Endowments And as for that saying of the Apostle That flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God the meaning is not That the substance of flesh anâ— blood shall never enter into Heaven for Christ in his Humane Nature is now in Heaven but that flesh as it is corrupted and sinful cloathed with infirmities and subject to mortality and death flesh and blood as it is in this transitory estate liable to corruption should not enter into Heaven and therefore it followeth in the Text Neither shall corruption inherit incorruption 1 Cor. 15.50 5. I might argue lastly from the Immortality of the S ul For the soul was made by God to dwell in the body and though it can subsist of it self without the body yet it still retains appetitum unionis a desire of re-union with the body and therefore is in an imperfect estate and not compleatly happy till it be re-united to the body And therefore that the souls of the godly may be compleatly happy and of the wicked compleatly miserable there must of necessity be a Resurrection of the body that so soul and body may be re-united and partake togâ—ther either of compleat happiness or compleat unhappiness Adde to this what is said by Durand that great Schoolman That when a man dyeth not onely the soul of that man continueth alive but some substantial part of that mans body and God also the great Creator and first cause of all things And why should any man think it incredible for God to re-collect the parts of the matter of any mans body which are perished and to re-unite the same body to the same soul again
been said in order to this morning Exercise As you have heard so you have seen Application to the morning exercise this Moneth now elapsed hath brought to your view an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Model of sound words you have had as it were the Summe and Substance of the Gospel preached over in your hearing I know it falls far short both in respect of Matter and Method of a perfect body of Divinity an exact and full delineation of all the chief Heads and Principles of Religion But considering the smallness of the Circle of this monethly course in which this Model was drawn I dare take the boldness to say there hath as much of the Marrow and Spirits of Divinity been drawn forth in these few Morning Lectures as can be rationally expected from men of such various Studies and assidnous labours in the Ministerial work Former ages have rarely heard so much Divinity preacht over in many years as hath been read in your ears in twenty six dayes These few Sermons have digested more of the Doctrine of faith than some large volumes not of a mean consideration now extant in the Church of God Truely every single Sermon hath been a little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within itself Each Subject in this morning Exercise hath been handled in so ample a manner and with so much judgement acuteness and perspicuity that it may well passe for a little Treatise of Divinity wherein many profound Mysteries have been discust and stated not with more judgment in the Doctrine than with life and vigor in the Vse and Application The Preachers have sought to find out acceptable words Eccles 12. and that which was spoken was upright even words of truth Insomuch that a man that had never heard of a Gospel before this moneths conduct had been sufficient not only to have left him without excuse but with the wise mens STAR to have led him to Christ The more I dread to think what a tremendous account you have to make who after twenty twirty fourty years Revelation of the Gospel have the addition of this moneth of Sabbaths also to reckon for in that day when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire c. if while in this Mirror 2 Thes 1.8 beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord you are not changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. I shall not undertake as * Morning Exercise May 1654. formerly to extract the Summe and Substance of what you have heard I have some hope to be saved that labour upon a better account I shall recount to you the Heads only and Points of Christian Doctrine which have been handled in this Monethly Exercise that now in the close of all you may behold as in a Map or Table the Method and Connexion which they hold amongst themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Summary repetition of the Heads of Divinity preacht upon in this Course The first Divine after the preparatory Sermon that preached to you began with that which is the first and chief object of Knowledge and Faith that α and ω in Divinity Subject 1 THERE IS A GOD Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that GOD is c. Hereupon because if there be a God then he is to be worshipped and if to be worshipped then there must be a Rule of that worship and if a Rule it must be of Gods own appointment therefore Subject 2 The Second dayes work was against all other Books and Writings in the world to Evince this Truth the SCRIPTVRES CONTAINED IN THE BOOKS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT are THE WORD OF GOD 2 Tim. 3.16 All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God By these Scriptures that great Mysterious Doctrine of the Trinity which the light of nature can no more discover than deny was asserted and opened as far as so profound a Mystery can well admit and so The third mornings work was to shew Subject 3 THAT IN THE GODHEAD THERE IS A TRINITY OF PERSONS IN VNâ—TY OF ESSENCE GOD THE FATHER GOD THE SON AND GOD THE HOLY GHOST God blessed for ever 1 Joh. 5.7 There are three that bear Record in Heaven the FAHER the WORD and the HOLY GHOST and these three are ONE Subject 4 The Creation of Man in a perfect but mutable Estate by the joynt Power and Wisdom of these three glorious Persons was the Fourth Subject opened from that Text Eccles 7.29 God made man upright but they have sought out many inventions Man thus Created God entred into a Covenant with him and so the COVENANT OF WORKS which God made with Adam and all his posterity succeeded in order to be the Subject matter of the Subject 5 Fifth morning Lecture the Text was Gen. 12.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die This Covenant no sooner made almost then broken the work of him that preacht the Subject 6 Sixth Sermon was THE FALL OF ADAM and therein more specially of PECCATVM ORIGINALE ORIGINANS or ORIGINAL SIN IN THE FIRST SPRING and fountain of it the Scripture Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world c. The Fruit and sad effect whereof being the losse of Gods image and the total depravation and corruption of mans nature Subject 7 The seventh thing that fell naturally to be handled was Peccatum originale originatum or Original corruption in the STREAM and DERIVATION OF IT TO POSTERITY from Psal 1.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me This is the Source of all that evil that hath invaded all Mankind that therefore which naturally succeeded in the Subject 8 Eighth course of this morning Exercise was MANS LIABLENESS TO THE CURSE or the MISERY OF MANS ESTATE BY NATVRE Deut. 27.1 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all the things of the Law to do them or Ephes 2.3 By nature the children of wrath Subject 9 Ninthly Mans impotency to help himself out of this miserable estate was the next sad Prospect presented to your view by that Reverend Brother that preached the ninth course and he took his rise from Rom. 5.6 When we were without strength Christ died for the ungodly That the doctrine of mans impotency when it had laid him in the dust might not leave him there the Subject 10 Tenth Preacher discoursed to you of the COVENANT OF REDEMPTION consisting of the transaction between God and Christ from all Eternity from that Text Isa 53.10 He shall see the travel of his soule and be satisfied In the eleventh place THE COVENANT OF GRACE REVEALED IN THE GOSPEL came next to be unfolded as being if I may so say the Counterpart of the Covenant of Redemption which the Preacher to whom the Subject 11 Eleventh course fell opened to you out of Heb. 8.6 Jesus Christ hath obtained a more excellent Ministry by how much also he is the Mediatour
glory of God be it spoken since this Exercise was first set up such a moneth hath not been known in this City A word of Exhortation What now remaineth men and brethren but that the Ministers of the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hieros praef Cat. Nostrum est dicere vestrum vero agere Dei autem perficere Gospel having done their work in holding out unto you a Form or Model of sound words you stir up your selves in the strength of Jesus Christ to do yours and what is that but that which is commended here to Timothy That you hold fast the form of sound words which you have received of them They have held it forth it concerns you to hold it fast First see therefore that you hold it fast in your understandings My brethren in this Moneths Exercise you have had many of the chief Heads and Points of the Christian Faith unvailed to you * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem ut supra Non existimes institutiones istas homiliis esse similes c. Sed haec quae per ordinem tradimus documenta c. not only as so many single truths and several precious Jewels to lie by you but that to which possibly most of you have been strangers hitherto as far as the design could well suffer Methodized as it were into a Chaine of Pearls to weare about necks truths fitly joyned together and compacted into a body by that which every joynt supplyeth Now your duty is to wear this Chain or Bracelet carefully that it may not be broken Your labour must be to imprint this Method of truth in your mindes and judgements by vertue whereof you may be able to know them in their Series and Connexion and when you hear any of these Points handled in Sermons you may be able to know one truth from another where they are to be fixed in the Orb of Divinity and so to refer them to their own proper place and station which will prove to be a greater advantage to your proficiency in the knowledge of Christ then you can easily believe It is observable Rom. 8.28 when the Holy Ghost having hinted effectual calling as the ground of that blessed truth that all things work for good to those that love God yet he mentions it again in the very next verse and why but to shew us what place it obtains in the golden chain of salvation how it takes its room between Predestination and Justification Whom he did predestinate them also he CALLED and whom he CALLED them he justified of so great moment it is not onely to know Gospel-truths but how to posture them in their proper rank and file where every truth is to stand This advantage in a great measure you have had by this Moneths Exercise see that you improve it to the clearing of your understandings in the Method of Gospel Doctrines Secondly Hold them fast in yor Memory Truely the Order of this Moneths Exercise if you be not wanting to your selves will not contribute lesse strength to your memories than light to your understandings The truths themselves have been a Treasure given you by your heavenly Father and the Method will serve you for a sack or purse to keep them in and truely it would be a labour neither unprofitable nor uncomely to take so much paines your selves and to teach your Families to do so too scil to Conne this Model without book and the Lord teach you to get them by heart You may once a week or so revolve them thus in your minds I. There is a God II. The Scriptures are the Word of God III. In the God-head there be three Persons or Subsistencies Father Son and Holy Ghost God blessed for ever IV. God Created man in a perfect but in a mutable estate V. The Covenant of works God made with man in his innocency VI. Original sin in the first spring of it in Adams first transgression VII Original corruption derived from thence into mans nature VIII Mans liablenesse to the curse or the misery of mans state by nature IX Mans impotency to help himself out of this estate X. The Covenant of Redemption or the transaction between God and Christ from all Eternity about mans salvation XI The Covenant of Grace revealed in the Gospel XII Christ the only Mediatour between God and man considered in his Person Natures and Offices XIII Christs state of Humiliation XIV Christs state of Exaltation XV. Christs satisfaction to Divine Justice XVI Effectual calling XVII Vnion with â—hrist XVIII Justification by Christs Righteousnesse XIX Son-ship to God consisting in Adopition Regeneration XX. Saving Faith XXI Repentance XXII Holinesse XXIII The Resurrection XXIV The last Judgement XXV Hell XXVI Heaven Christians this and other such like Catalogues or Formes of the Articles of Christian Faith imprinted upon your memories will be of great benefit and service to you Do ye serve your memories and your memories will serve you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hieros praef Catechis labour to get them so imprinted upon your memories that they may never be blotted out Thirdly Hold fast yea hold forth these precious Truths delivered to you in your lives and conversations Christians let it be your care and behold it shall be your * Deut. 4.6 wisdom in the eyes of all the beholders to live this morning Exercise the glory whereof hath filled this Assemblie for a moneth together To engage and quicken you herein let me mind you of one rare advantage this Model carrieth with it above most of the acute and learned Treatises of Schoolmen or solid Tractates of Catechetical Divines who have taken great paines in opening and stating the Principles of Christian Religion The Reverend Divines who have travelled in this service of your Faith have in their several Sermons with singular skill and piety brought down Principles unto practice and improved all their Doctrines to Vse and Application wherein they have shewed themselves Workmen that need not be ashamed wise Builders that know how to handle the Trowel as well as the Sword and that made it their design to build up their hearers in holinesse as well as in knowledge The School and the Pulpit met together the Doctor and the Pastor have kissed each other Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci. They have not discust the Doctrines of Faith in a jejune frigid speculative way only but what they cleared to the judgment they wrought it home upon the heart and affections with such warmth and sweetnesse as that the hearers seem'd for the present to be carried into the mountain of transfiguration where they cryed out with Peter It is good for us to be here So that although their Sermons were very large yet the greatest part of their Auditories thought they had done too soon and went away praising God that had given such gifts unto men Oh let it be your care dearly Beloved that as this Model hath been
delivered unto you so you may be delivered into it Rom. 6.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Form of doctrine into which ye were delivered Efficacius vitae quam lnguae testimonium Ber. Confession Bernard What a sore judgement will abide such as suffer all these morning influences to passe away as water over a swans back that come the same from these morning visions they came to them How shall we escapt if we neglect so great salvation Hold it forth I say Christians in your lives the Conversation is a better testimony to the truth then the confession I have met with a general vote in the Auditory that attended this morning Ordinance that these Sermons might be Printed that so what hath once past upon your ears might be exposed to your eye whereby you might stay and fix upon it with the more deliberation Whether I may prevail with the Brethren or no for their second travel in this Service I know not There is one way left you wherein you may gratifie your own desires and Print these Sermons without their leave though I am confident not without their consent and that is PRINT THEM IN YOVR LIVES AND CONVERSATIONS Live this morning Exercise in the sight of the world that men may take notice you have been with Jesus You have been called up with Moses into the Mount to talk with God Now you come down oh that your faces might shine that you would commend this morning Exercise by an holy life that you may be manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by VS 2 Cor. 3.3 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Matth. 5.16 To that end Take along with you these two great helps in the Text FAITH LOVE Hold fast the form of sound words in FAITH and LOVE I know some Expositors interpret these as the two great COMPREHENSIVE HEADS of sound words or Gospel-Doctrine in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith and Love Faith towards God and Love towards men Faith the summe of the first Table and Love of the second or Faith in Christ and Love to Christ or Faith as comprehending the Credenda things to be believed Love as comprehending the Facienda things to be done But I am sure it is not against the Analoge of Faith or the Context to improve these two as Mediums to serve this command of holding fast sound Doctrine And so in the entrance it was propounded as the fourth Doctrine scil Faith and Love are as it were the two hands whereby we hold-fast the Form of sound words 1. Faith First then Christians look to your Faith that is an hold-fast grace which will secure your standing in Christ As unbelief is the root of Apostacy and falling back from the Doctrine of the Gospel Heb. 3.12 So Faith is the spring of Perseverance 1 Pet. 1.5 Kept by the power of God through faith to salvation Faith keeps the Believer and God keeps his faith Now faith keeps the believer close to his Principles upon a two-fold accompt Faith realizeth Gospel-truth 1. Because faith is the grace which doth REALIZE all the Truths of the Gospel unto the soul Evangelical Truths to a man that hath not faith are but so many prettie Notions which are pleasing to the fancy but have no influence upon the Conscience they may serve a man for discourse but he cannot live upon them suffering Truths in particular are pleasing in the Speculation in times of prosperity but when the hour of temptation cometh they afford the soul no strength to carry it through sufferings and to make a man go forth unto Christ without the Camp bearing his reproach Heb. 13.13 But of Faith saith the Aposte it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen faith makes all Divine Objects although very Spiritual and subtile in their own nature faith makes them I say so many realities so many solid and substantial verities it gives them a being not in themselves but unto the believer and of invisible it makes them visible as it is said of Moses he saw him that was invisible How by faith verse 23.24 that which was invisible to the eye of nature was visible to the eye of faith Faith brings the object and the faculty together Heb. 11.27 Hence now men yet in their unregeneracy though haply illuminated to a high degree of Gospel-Notion in time of tribulation will fall away and walk no more with Jesus because through the want of Faith Divine Truth had no rooting in their hearts all their knowledge is but a powerlesse notion floating in the brain and can give no reality or subsistence to Gospel-verities Knowledge gives lustre but Faith gives being knowledg doth irradiate but Faith doth realize knowledge holds ou◠light but faith adds life and power It is Faith my Brethren whereby you stand 2 Tim. 1.12 Faith is that whereby a man can live upon the truth and die for the truth I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Look to your Faith Christians For again Faith fetcheth strength from Christ Secondly Faith will help you to fetch strength from Jesus Christ to do to suffer to live to die for Jesus Christ and the truths which he hath purchased and ratified by his own blood Phil. 4 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Faith invests the soul into a kind of Omnipotency I can do all things Other mens impossibilities are faiths triumph Faith is an omnipotent grace because it sets a work an Omnipotent God In the Lord I have righteousness and strength is the boast of faith Isa 45.24 Righteousnesse for Justification and strength for Sanctification and for carrying on all the duties of the holy life this is insinuated in my Text Hold fast c. in FAITH which is in CHRIST JESVS So that if it were demanded How shall we hold fast the answ is by Faith how doth faith hold fast in Christ Jesus scil as it is acted by and as it acts upon Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a Fountain of strength Psal 71.16 and that strength is drawn out by faith hence Davids Resolve I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy Righteousnesse even of thine onely 2. Love The second grace which you must look to is LOVE Love is another hold-fast grace I held him and would not let him go said the Spouse of her Beloved Cant. 4.3 I tell you sirs Love will hold fast the truth when Learning will let it go the reason is because Learning lieth but in the head but Love resteth in the heart and causeth the heart to rest in the thing or person beloved I cannot dispute for
steps 312 313 314. F Faith commended p. 455 456. Faith distinguished into its kinds 456 457. Faith defined 449. By its genus and subject 460. causes 461 462 463 464 465 466 467. Effects 468 469 470 471 472 473 474. properties 475 476 477 478. and opposites 479. 480 481. Faith if saving receiveth whole Christ on judgement and choice 475. Faith groweth and persevereth and purifieth 477 478 479. Faith and salvation how connexed 473 474. Faith strengthned by the Covenant of Redemption 228. Faith how it justifieth 421. Faith greatly opposed 480. Faith goeth before Repentance in order of nature as its cause 490. Faith in its essential acts without its reflexions is the cause of Repentance 491. Faith of Scriptures authorities to be strengthened 103 104. False Repentance seven kinds viz. Popish 515. Pagan 516. Profane ibid. Legal 517. Slaves ibid. Sullen p. 518. Quakers Repentance ibid. 519. Fall of man was from his own mutable self-determining will 111. Federal transaction did pass between God the Father and Son and that from all eternity 219 226. Fear of God the duty of such who believe God is 58 59. Fear accompanieth true Repentance 542. Filiation to God is by Adoption and Regeneration 447. Filial priviledges Believers comforts 451 452 453. Flesh an enemy to Faith 480. Flesh crucified by union with Christ 391 392. Forme of sound words to be held fast 670. By Magistrates how 674 675 676 677. By Ministers how 678 679. By the People how 680 681. Freedome of God Father and Son in transacting the Covenant for mans Redemption 224. Free-grace the ground of Adoption and Regeneration 477. Fruitfulnesse a note of union with Christ 392 393. G God is p. 30 31. Gods being is evident in nature 31. 48. and Scripture 48 49. Gods being consistent with the adversity of the just and prosperity of the wicked and evidenced by them 45 50 51. God is the only efficient of Faith 461 462. God could not be the original of sin 111. Gods glory the ground of Adoption and Regeneration 447. God as Judge justifieth how and when 122. God the object of beatifical vision 654 655. Gospel a good cause 3. Gospel-means to work Faith 465. and call loudly to Repentance 525. Gospel how it justifieth 421. Gospel-Covenant better than the Legal 245 246 247 248. Gosepl-Manner of propounding Repentance is by way of duty and priviledge 426 Gospel-Arguments perswading Repentance most pregnant and moving 527 528. Gospel-Helps to Repentance most powerful and operative p. 533. Grace of God magnified by mans fall 213 214. First cause impulsive of justification 420. Graces are the fruits of the Spirit 390. Grudge not the prosperity of the wicked 645. H Of Hell 621. the wicked turned into it 623. its name explained ibid. nature described 624. its pain ibid. The Properties of its punishment Extremity 628 629. Eternity 628 629. Hell discerned by the Heathen 635. Hell proved by Equity 636 637 638 639 640 641. Merit 636 637 638 639 640 641. No Bar or hinderance 636 637 638 639 640 641. Heresie an hindrance to Faith 480. Heresies and Errors disbanded when we come to heaven 649. Hearing must be fixt and constant 22. So it will help Repentance p. 545. Heart the subject of Faith 459. and seat of Holinesse 558. Heaven 647. it is a Kidgdome how 649. Hindrances to the understanding Scripture what they are and how removed 100 101. Holding fast what it meaneth 5. Holinesse 554. a state trade habit and disposition 555. Holinesse defined 556. Holinesse the designe of God in all his acts 559 560. Holinesse constitutes a Christian or Saint 561 562. Holinesse spreads over the whole man 558. Holinesse changeth a man 557. Holinesse necessary unto communion with God 563. Holinesse its properties 567. Companions peace righteousnesse unblameablenesse 268. its opposites filthinesse of flesh of spirit over-reaching and hypocrisie 569 570. Holinesse of the Publisher proveth the Scripture to be the Word of God 94. And so doth the holy matter pressed in it 91 92. and its holy Arguments 93. Humility the effect of sensible impotency p. 214. Humiliation of Christ 278. three steps of it 280 281. the manner of it 287. Humanity of Christ a miracle of humiliation 280. Humility must go before honour 333. I Ignorance inconsistent to Faith 479. dangerous 483. Impotency of man since the fall very great 202 203. Impossible to recover of himself 204. Impotent in respect of the Law 205. Of the Gospel 206. 207. Impotency determined in Scripture ibid. Impotency no bar to the demand of duty direction of means or infliction of punishment 210 211 212 213. Impotency is to be seen and known 214. Infants distempers and death an effect and evidence of original sin 143. So is their aptitude to evil and backwardness to good 144. Inheritance of Saints hath no corruption succession or division p. 441. Inheritance why heaven so called 661. Inherited by Adoption 662 663. Donation 662 663. Redemption 662 663. Inspiration what it imports 87. Inventions and many inventions what they signifie 106. Indignation accompanieth Repentance 442. Judgements of God prevented 521 522. and removed by Repentance 523 524. Last Judgement provokes holiness 563. and perswades to Repentance 531 532 533 Judge whom 608. Manner of his coming 610. Last Judgement its day 605. It is particular and general 606. why it must be and when 607. its method and order 609. Justice of God satisfied by the death of Christ 301. Justification its nature opened 402 c. Differeth from Sanctification ib. Justified implies guilt plea and acquittance p. 403. Justified persons are acquitted on their plea. 419. Justification its causes Gods free grace 421 422. Christs satisfaction 421 422. The Gospel 421 422. Faith 421 422. God Law-giver 421 422. God Judge 421 422. Works 421 422. Spirit 421 422. Justification by what plea procured 406. Justification not from Eternity 423. Justification procured by Christs death 341. is evident by the Possibility 342 343 344. Necessity 342 343 344. Nature 342 343 344. Cause 342 343 344. Vicegerency 342 343 344. Peculiarity to this end 342 343 344. Justification doth manifest the wisdome holinesse and mercy of God 428. Justification the priviledge of the Gospel-Covenant 140. Justification the ground of comfort p. 429. to be sought by sinners 430. prized by Saints 432. K Kingly Office of Christ what it is and how executed 255 256. Kingly Office the Saints priviledge by Adoption 441. L Law Regulans 110. Law Regulata 110. Law of God the rule of rectitude ib. Law given Adam in Creation was partly natural partly positive 108. Law requireth duty exacts penalty terrifieth and stupifieth 204 205. Law general and special obeyed by Jesus Christ 223 224. Law fulfilled in Christ his death 301. Law given in Paradise was not executed or abrogated but released and dispensed with p. 413 414 415. Light burning and shining 1. Likenesse of sinful flesh what it means and how Christ was found in it 281 282. Likenesse to God