as it is the misery of the Creatures to serve the lusts of men so it 's the curse upon the body to be an instrument to serve the lusts of the soul there is a fitness in it for the service of sin Rom. 6.13 They are weapons of unrighteousness As grace in the soul does fit the members that a man is prepared to every good work so does sin also prepare to every evil work The beam in the eye is but a part of the grown wood that is in the heart Davids's grace made his tongue as the pen of a ready writer and Doeg's sin made his tongue cut as a sharp razor There is a fitness in the members to evil there is a readiness and proneness in the members to sin as there is a backwardness in them to whatever is good Luk. 24.25 Slow of heart to believe and dull of hearing a heavy ear and a blindness So they are prone to evil the poison of asps is under their tongue they have it in a readiness and their feet are swift to shed blood very ready to be sent on such a message and imploy'd in such a business c. Moreover there is a greediness even in the members to sin 2 Pet. 2.14 They have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease to sin it was as a spring tide that over flowed all Act. 13.10 A facility to evil and they ran greedily after the error of Balaam Jude v. 11. They were as a swift dromedary c. All these expressing the readiness and greediness even of the body to be an instrument to the sin of the soul 3 There is an universal frustrating of all a mans labours Eccles 9.11 I saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong There is nothing that a man does shall prosper he shall reap no fruit of all his labour for he has but laboured for the wind Jer. 22.30 Write this man childless a man that shall not prosper in his days It 's the happiness of a godly man as in Joseph whatever he doth the Lord makes it to prosper But it 's the misery of a man under the curse that nothing he does shall prosper Psal 1. ult God turns their way upside down they hatch a Cockatrice egg and they weave a spiders web which never becomes a garment § 3. There is also a curse of God upon a man in reference to his name and reputation amongst men and that also in many Particulars 1 A man shall be famous for wickedness and for that get to himself a name which is a great curse upon a man Gen. 6.4 From those unlawful Marriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men there were born Giants which were in those days men of renown In sua truculentia celebres Par. it being an expression taken in the worse part for men notoriously wicked It 's an observation of Mr. Medes that from these Hell had its first and ancient name Prov. 21.16 The man that wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain in Câ—tu Gigantum in the congregation of Giants And Prov. 11.18 Her house inclines unto death and her paths ad Gigante to the Giants And so it had its name from these men that were the first eminent and famous inhabitants of it and yet in their life-time these were men of renown The same thing is too common in all ages men are famous as they do some eminent evil as Augustin says Pudet non esse impudentem it is a shame not to be impudent 2 When a man shall not have a name answerable to his desert Eccles 9.11 There shall not be favour to men of skill but folly is set in great dignity As Chap. 10.5 i. e. Men of weak abilities and low parts are advanced to great honour and rule in the Commonwealth and men of great ability and fit for publick Employment sit in a low place in a mean and obscure condition men of no note in the world those that no man look after servants are on horse-back men of servile parts and spirits that a man would look upon them as men ad mancipium nati born to vassalage and yet they are brought to great honour and Princes 〈◊〉 Princely spirits do lacky it on foot by them We read Eccles 9.14 There was a little 〈◊〉 and few men in it and there came a great King with an Army against it and besieg'd it but a poor wise man deliver'd it but he was rewarded with disgrace disrespect and forgetfulness no man regarded him Yea even the Saints of God of whom the world is not worthy yet they are counted the scum of all things and men do cast out their names as evil It was part of the sufferings of Christ the reproaches that he was loaden withal a part of the curse that he did undergo for us Psal 22.6 I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people all they that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip and shake the head c. They say He is a Traytor a Drunkard a Conjurer and one that did cast out Devils by the power of Satan a Blasphemer c. All this is indeed to the godly turn'd into a blessing and addes to their glory but yet it is in it self a â—urse as all other afflictions are and a part of this death which is the curse of the Covenant 3 When a man has gotten to himself a name and honour and repute it proves his snare and he is lifted up by it Pulchrum est digito monstrari and it shall be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demosthenes and then the man is so exalted in himself that the earth cannot bear him Nebuchadnezar was come to be one of the greatest Monarchs of the Earth Isa 14.13 Thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God c. and Ezech. 28.2 His heart was lifted up and he said I am a God and I sit in the seat of God yet thou art man and not God though thou set thy heart as the heart of God And Herod when the people exalted him in that blasphemous speech It 's the voice of God his heart was lifted up and the Angel smote him So I have read of a Doctor that read excellent Lectures concerning the two Natures of Christ and was much admired by his Auditors and then the blasphemy of his heart brake forth Quantum mihi debes Jesu c. How much dost thou owe unto me Jesus c. There is many a man whose head is very giddy by the wind of honour and he is as a Boat that is sunk by his own sail 4 When men have gotten great honour then shall they by some means or other blemish it and God will give them over to dishonourable lusts Eccles 10.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As a dead fly causes the
in point of Justification and Condemnation but in the two former as to Irritation and Coaction it is but liberty begun because sin in us is not perfectly destroyed therefore so far as there are remainders of sin in the Saints See Pareus in Rom. 7.5 they are lyable to an Irritation and a Coaction but yet in a far different manner from that which is in unregenerate men as will be shewed afterwards § 2. The Apostle having in the former Chapter spoken how sin entered into the world and death by sin and how righteousness and life entred by the Lord Jesus Christ that as sin reigned unto death so grace should reign through righteousness unto life eternal and shewing the fruits of this righteousness killing sin in us Therefore we are dead to sin and the old man is crucified and the body of sin is destroyed that we should not henceforth serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin for sin is a Lord and so long as the servant lives he is in subjection to his master but the servant being once dead is free from his master it 's a speech taken from all civil subjection which began with sin and ends with death Now sin is compared to a Master or a Lord to which a man is bound while he lives but being dead he is freed from the power and dominion of sin Rom. 6.11 12. Rom. 6.11 12 Therefore count your selves dead unto sin and let not sin reign in your mortal bodies any more Ver. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace Not under the Law as a Covenant and so irritating sin and exasperating it but under Grace that is subduing sin and hell Some refer these words to the dominion of sin and a mans freedom from that and some to the dominion of the Law and a mans deliverance from it as a Covenant but the main current of Interpreters make the Law the husband and the strength of sin to be by the Law unto condemnation and unto irritation as the Law does occasionally inflame the heart to evil and lust is enraged thereby and they say the Law is dead unto us as a Covenant it is a bond cancelled and taken out of the way Col. 2.14 and so we are dead to the Law by the body of Christ that is Christ as our surety having paid our debt satisfied the Law and received the discharge we are dead to the Law it has no more power to charge sin upon us See Ambros to Jerom. also Estius Calvin Par. c. nor to stir up sin within us they make the Law to be the husband the Soul the wife and the children to be the fruits of Sin which through the irritating power of the Law it does bring forth in us even all manner of concupiscence But other Interpreters as Beza Gomar and some others conceive that the husband is Sin the wife is every natural man that is in the flesh and the fruits are all sinful words and actions that do proceed from sin which are fruits unto death as the other husband is Christ the wife a Believing soul and the fruits all the fruits of Righteousness and Holiness which are called fruits unto God and therefore some have put them both together and so Reinolds in one place he calls Sin the husband Psal 130. the use of the Law p. 368. and in another place the Law the husband and the difference is not much whether we understand it of sin which takes occasion by the Law or of the Law as it does inflame and irritate sin for both of them may be truly said to be dead unto the Saints and they dead unto them though it seems by the ensuing Objections most probable that the Law is the husband Now the Apostle comes to answer a double Objection which ariseth hence For if sin take occasion by the Commandment and if it have a pollutive power by the Law and as he saith Verse the fifth The motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death then it seems there is a double evil that flows from the Law sin and death for by the Law the motions of sin work and by the Law men bring forth fruit unto death The words are an answer unto the first objection which lyes thus That which doth increase sin and sin works by it that is in it self sinful but the Law doth increase sin and sin works by the Law c. The Apostle answers it two ways 1 By Negation it doth not follow though the Law doth increase sin and sin works by the Law c. that the Law is therefore sinful Absit God forbid it is an abominable inference for the Law is holy and just and good and a beam of that infinite Holiness that is in God and by which Gods Holiness does shine forth upon us therefore the Law is not sinful for that which only does discover sin is not sin but it is the Law only that doth discover and forbid sin therefore c. 2 By a Translation of the guilt laying the blame upon corrupt nature and the sinfulness thereof which the Law doth forbid and discover for the Law entered that sin might abound and therefore of it self gives not occasion to sin Yet sin took occasion when none was given and did draw evil from that which is good in it self and suckt poyson from that which is holy For the Law is holy as well when it does by accident enrage sin as when by it self it discovers it Doct. Every man out of Christ is under a Covenant of works and under the irritating power of the Law The Law forbidding sin and discovering sin in him has no other fruits but to enrage it and increase it as Chrysostome says the flame of lust is increased thereby for without the law sin is dead that is ratione cognitionis it lyes dead man knows it not to be sin and comparativè ratione irritationis in point of irritation But the more clearly the law is discovered the more bitterly and violently does corruption work against it Whiles the law doth not come in a clear and convincing manner sin is quiet and a man does not sin with so much rage and violence against the law as he does after the discoveries thereof Sin was dead that is it did not put forth its utmost power to draw forth all manner of effects till the law came and by this means sin is made exceeding sinful as it is rendered by Erasmus sin is not only discovered but improved and so it is made exceeding sinful So that the fruits of the law to a man under the first Covenant is this Sin takes occcasion by the Commandment it does ripen his sins and improve them and it draws forth in him all manner of uncleanness 1 Cor. 15.56 The strength of sin is the law There is a
Covenant only upon his account thou art by sin cut off from God the fountain of all blessings and thou must receive nothing from him immediately but in the hand of a Mediator It is as a King gives some great thing to a stranger at the request of a Favorite the man can only look upon himself as one that hath received his favour â—ut it is not for his own sake but for anothers my person is not accepted as in my self but in him nor my duties but as in him if God speak to us it is by him and if we speak to God it is by him so that we have nothing to do with God immediately nor receive any thing from him immediately but it is through the Angels hand the Angel of his presence and it belongs to us only by Union the debt iâ— paid in him and our duty performed in him Here is nothing but matter of self-denial and abasement for us and we have a continual need for there is a proneness in all men being brought unto God to be too forward to câ—me unto him in their own names and not to exercise thoughts of Faith upon their Priest by whom they have access to God as they should do and there is no way to keep the Soul humble more than this * Tota vita nostra tentatio est ab insidiante superbiâ nec ipsa tuta est victoria Ambros Ephes 7.3 12. 3 It is of great use for a man to know his place and station for his consolation 1 In this that it being the Covenant made with Christ a man comes under Christs Covenant which is a better Covenant than that which Adam had given him or of the Angels themselves he now stands under the same Covenant that Christ himself is under as Mediator 2 It is of great consolation in this that whatever is required in the Covenant he is the surety so that the Lord hath laid help upon one that is mighty and it is primarily required of him and of us in him as he hath undertaken for us therefore though we want ability yet there is strength in him and he is ingaged to dispense it there is no worthiness in us but there is enough in him and he is ingaged by Covenant to present it to his Father for all the duties of the Covenant are required first of him and all the promises of the Covenant are dispensed first unto him Vse 2 § 2. The second Use is of Exhortation If the Covenant of Grace be made with Christ then if you would have an interest in Christs Covenant you must become one with him Thou art bound unto God by a double bond of creation and stipulation and that Covenant under which thou art by nature makes thee one with the first Adam and that bond of the Covenant hath held the Devil in chains of darkness which none can loose but he that loosed the pains of death he can loose the chains of darkness the curse and bond of the Covenant and that is by a translation into a better Covenant which is only by Union And to allure you and speak to your hearts consider the glories of that Covenant that was made with Christ into which I desire you to be translated 1 In this Covenant the Lord shall be thy God as he is Christs God and thy Father as he is Christs Father 2 Thou shalt be freed from the dominion of the Law The law has dominion over a man whilst he lives but saith Paul I through the law am dead to the law all that is good in the Law thou shalt have but all that is evil and hurtful thou shalt be freed from 3 From the guilt and dominion of sin from the guilt of sin for here is a righteousness without works in this Covenant God justifies the ungodly and from the dominion of sin Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over thee 4 By this Covenant the Spirit is given in all the gifts and graces of it 2 Cor. 3.6 5 By this Covenant the Angels are your servants and all the creatures are yours 6 By this Covenant the World stands and the government of the World is changed Isa 49.8 He has committed all government to the son John 5.22 a Kingdom he hath received from his Father and there is yet a further addition to his dominion that he is to receive when all the persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down Dan. 7.14 and when the residue of the Gentiles shall come in Isa 66.19 Pul Lud and they that have not heard of his name shall come unto him for the coming in of the Jews shall be a new resurrection even life from the dead If this be so that the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ as the second Adam then there are not two Covenants one made with Christ and another with the Saints but as they make up one body with him so it is one and the same Covenant under which they both stand only in this Covenant Christ hath the preeminence he being the head and we the members and therefore it is made with him primarily and with us as in him so that without an interest in him we have no title to it 1. Consider that Christ is not alone in this Covenant it was not a Covenant made with him for himself but as a common person a representative head a second Adam that thereby he might become an everlasting Father to all the elect of God but the Covenant was made with him for your sake and that you might come under it as you were under the Covenant of the first Adam And therefore the Lord is said to give him as a Covenant to the Nations Isa 42.6 and chap. 49.8 The Covenant was not therefore made with him for himself Isa 42.6 and 49.8 but for our sake It 's questioned amongst Interpreters Why Christ is called the Covenant it self and not the person with whom it is made I find in Scripture that when the Lord would express any thing eminently he doth it in abstracto in the abstract Psal 12.2 that being put for the concrete with a commutation also of the subject the faithful fail it is fidelitates from the sons of men So Psal 68.19 He shall lead captivity captive that is a multitude captives And Ezek. 44.6 Thou shalt say unto the rebellion that is Jer. 50.31 to the rebellious house c. Pride is put for the person that was eminently proud So when the Lord would express the eminent and great hand that Christ hath in the Covenant of Grace he doth say he is the Covenant it self as he is said to be our righteousness our sanctification our reconciliation and our peace because these are gloriously wrought by him and he hath the chief and only hand in them and so he is here said to be the Covenant and that in two respects 1 Because the Covenant is made with him in himself and for his own sake
and that is semen ejus quaerens panem non derelictum not forsaken though begging of their bread the Jews in this misery that they are yet grow rich where-ever they come the temporal promise is fulfilled to them 4 The term righteous may be restrained to such as are eminently righteous as to works of mercy So it follows vers 26. He is ever merciful c. So among the Hebrews mercy towards the poor is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness § 2. There is also a Providence circa mala about evils for his Kingdom rules over all and this malum evil is either culpae of sin or poenae of punishment concerning both which the Soveraignty of God doth gloriously work though it be in a far different way First the Soveraignty of God in his providential Kingdom is conversant about the evils of sin they do all come under the government of God and that it is so will appear from Gen. 45.5 6 7. Gen. 45.5 6 7. it was the observation that Joseph had about that unnatural act of his brethren he looked upon a double hand in it one was theirs which he from a principle of meekness and forgiveness was ready to pass by and over-look and another was a special hand of providence in this sin of theirs and that he speaks of three times as being much affected with the Soveraignty of God ordering of that sin of theirs both in respect of him and themselves Ye sold me but God sent me in that sin of theirs there was an over-ruling hand of Soveraignty and that he tells them three times together That it was God sent him and that it was not they that sent him Ye sent me out of malice and God sent me out of mercy you to destroy me God to preserve both you and me you sent me that I should be a slave to man God that I might be a father to Pharaoh and a Ruler of all the land of Egypt We see what a glory here is over this sinful action in respect of Joseph Pharaoh Egypt and the whole family of Jacob and this was not a casual thing something that came to pass by accident or by chance but it was by counsel a Soveraignty that did with wisdom lay this as a design and plot before-hand Gen. 50.20 so Gen. 50.20 You thought evil but God meant it unto good the word in both places is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie a plotted thought done by counsel Psal 10.2 Let them be taken in their devices that they have imagined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is spoken there of plotted designed evil and so it was here the good was done by counsel and it was a thing that comes not to pass without foresight but God meant and plotted it for good and therefore we read Exod. 28.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opus ingeniosè inventum a work that is artificially done upon which many thoughts went before it was brought unto a ripeness and perfection and such was this work here also they plotted upon evil and the Lord plotted and designed this their evil unto good Esa 10.6 7. so Esa 10.6 7. the King of Babylon comes against Jerusalem and the Lord sends him not by any command for the work was displeasing unto him as done by them and for which he will visit them vers 12. but arcano imperio by a secret act of the Soveraignty of God so ordering things in providence that this should come to pass and therefore Ezech. 9.1 they are called the visiters of the city men appointed by the dominion of God unto that office but yet the man had a thought of nothing less than to do Gods work in it or to submit unto his dominion or execute his counsel which unto them was secret he meaneth not so he thinks not so there are two words used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tacite secum cogitare he hath not such a thought that did ever enter into his heart he never had so much as the least secret imagination of any such thing and the other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie a devised designed and plotted thing it was a thing that he never consulted never designed in all that he doth to execute my displeasure against an hypocritical Nation but yet he shall do my work while he doth wholly intend his own and design that only and yet the work that shall be done upon Sion is the Lords work vers 12. and by these two Scriptures it will clearly appear that the Soveraignty of God is conversant about the sins of men things in themselves evil and forbidden of God and yet his Soveraignty reacheth unto them And this I shall branch into two heads 1 The Soveraignty of God over a mans own sins for the good of his people 2 Over other mens sins he doth so imploy his Soveraignty about the sins of men that they shall be ordered for the good of the Saints 1. The Soveraignty and Supremacy of God in reference unto the sins of his own people the Lord doth so rule and order all things thereby that their own sins shall in some kind work for their good that which in its own nature is only evil can by an almighty over-ruling hand turn into good which no man in the world is able to do they may make good use of things in themselves good but they are never able to bring good out of that which is per se malum of it self sinfull as sin is and this I shall demonstrate to you in four things 1 In respect of the being of sin 2 In respect of the rising of sin 3 In respect of the actings of sin 4 In respect of the raging of sin in an open violent scandalous way 1. It will appear in reference unto the being of sin in the Saints The Lord who has forbid all sin even in the Principles and being of it and has sent his Son to take away sin yet he has in his Soveraignty so ordered the condition of the Saints here that sin shall have a being in them and they shall never be perfectly freed from it so that it will be true of the best while they are here he that saith he has no sin deceiveth himself there will be reliquiae vetustatis as Austin calls it a Law in the members a body of death To be without sin here is given to us as praeceptum a precept in this life or else Original sin were no sin and the being of sin were against no Law of God the Law requires a holy Nature as well as holy Actions but in the life to come it shall be given to us as praemium a reward here as a Law and hereafter as a Reward And why has the Sovereignty of God so ordered it that those that shall be freed from sin perfectly in the Life to come and whom Christ shall present without spot or wrinkle or any such thing why will he suffer
of God is renewed None of us lives to himself Rom. 14.9 1 Cor. 10. ult nor dies to himself Whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die to the Lord c. But nature never aims at God in any thing makes him neither the end of his being nor of his working if he labour in his Calling and get an Estate he is laying up treasures for himself and is not rich towards God and in his Religious duties if he pray he howles for Corn and Wine If he fast Have you fasted to me says the Lord and when you did eat and drink did you not eat to your selves And when they preach it 's to themselves some preach Christ out of envy and to draw disciples after them Some self-end or other is the great wheel in all they do that acts them and carries them on and if they do reform with Jehu it 's upon a politick principle and not a pious not for God but for themselves and so dum obtemperant non obsequuntur whiles they obey they obey not and in all the duties of Religion Self is at the bottom Hos 10.11 They are as a heifer that loves to tread out the corn And if like the Pharisee they fast or give almes it is to be seen of men God is not in all their thoughts nor his glory in all their aim and they are said to serve other things as Mammon and serve divers lusts and pleasures Now what is service but to do anothers work and to do it to their ends to be wholly theirs therefore Christ is said to be God the Fathers servant because he did the work that God gave him to do and he aimed at Gods ends also he did not seek his own glory but the glory of him that sent him and Grace is in this respect in a special manner call'd self-denial Mat. 16.24 Let a man deny himself and Self in ends is hardest denied of any other This is great Babel that I have built for the honour of my Majesty And thus the soul is taken off from God it has no happiness in him as the chief Good they live not to him they act not for him as their utmost end he is neither the end of their being nor of their working 2. The Soul has lost his interest in God There were glorious relations between God and man by Covenant so that as God had an interest in man so had man also an interest in God Luk. 3. ult Adam was the son of God and had that interest in God that became that relation as a child has an interest in a father and he could truly call him his God and this is the glory of the second Covenant that our interest in God is restored and increased I will be their God and they shall be my people Jer. 31.33 And he that has an interest in another may claim him according to his relation as truly as if all were in his own power as the Wife has an interest in the Husband and she may expect that love care and protection and provision that that relation does intitle her to as truly as if it were in her own power and the Husband may expect from his Wife that love service and help that the relation calls for And it 's true of all other relations whatsoever when persons have a relation and an interest one in another and though the persons be of the highest rank as between a King and a Subject a Master and a Servant a Father and a Son yet the relation gives them a mutual interest one in another and so man had in God at the first he was his God and the Saints now call him in Christ the God of my mercy and the God of my life and so man had an interest in the Wisdom of God and in the Holiness of God and the Soveraignty of God over all the Creatures so far as might be for mans good as truly as for his own glory for that 's the nature of propriety Eph. 6.10 Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might I have no power may such a soul say but I am strong in the strength of God and wise by the wisdom of God all that is in God I have a claim to I have nothing of my own but all the Creatures of God are as mine and therefore as having nothing and yet possessing all things having nothing in my self and yet possessing all things in God as Rev. 21.6 He that overcomes shall inherit all things I will be his God And therefore after all Job's great losses the Fathers bring him in looking upon them all and saying I have lost nothing So long as the soul has an interest in God he can lose nothing he can want nothing But sin has broken all relations between you and God but barely that of a Creature thou art no more a Son and therefore the Jews Joh. 8. boasting that God was their father Christ tells them that there was no such relation between God and them but they descended from another stock of their father the Devil And for servants they serve not God but themselves their own bellies and therefore all this interest must be restored unto them in Christ I ascend to my father and your father my God and your God He is no way a God to us but as he is Christ's God else we have no interest in him and if we sin we can lay no claim to his Mercy to pardon or to his Wisdom to direct us or his Power to protect us or his Bounty to provide for us nay all the Attributes of God that work for the good of his people they all work against such a soul his Holiness is a terrour for he is of purer eyes than to behold evil his Wisdom is a terrour for he knows how to reserve the wicked to the day of judgment to be punished his Omniscience is against us for he will bring every work to judgment with every secret thing He does number our steps and does watch over our sins and the mercy of God thou hast no interest in thou shalt have judgment without mercy c. a man can claim nothing that is in God to be for him And though while men are at ease and enjoy the Creatures they find no want of this yet when they come to die and to be in a streight Act. 27. as Paul was when he said the Angel of the Lord stood by me whose I am and whom I serve and at the last day to look up to God and say I am thine save me Lord it will be more than for a man to have an interest and a title to all the Kingdoms of the Earth and other men that have slighted it they shall know what it is to lose their interest in God 3. The Soul has wholly lost the Image of God in which the glory of the soul did at first lie but it
is the act and the guilt the act with the pleasure of it is fading the pleasures of sin that are but for a season but there is an abiding guilt upon the spirit that is after a sort infinite being an offence against an infinite God a violation of an infinite Holiness and a contempt of infinite Majesty and Authority and it is also eternal and will remain upon the Creature for ever and nothing in the world but the Blood of Christ can take it away from the soul Gen. 4.7 being sprinkled upon the Conscience and this is the meaning of that Proverbial speech Gen. 4.7 Sin lies at the door it 's a speech taken from a dog or a fierce beast that lies at the door to watch and it teaches us three things 1 That though the act be past yet the guilt remains binding over the soul to punishment the sin lies there 2 That there is a time when sin in the guilt and punishment of it may lie still and be quiet and a man may ruffle it in the house within and never be troubled at that which lies at the door 3 Sin lying at the door will surely be awakened and it will be easily awakened Luther in loc ad fores somno minime aptus est locus ibi quiescit peccatum ubi diu quiescere non potest c. Sin lies asleep there where it can lie long asleep the door will surely open and the sin that seems sleepy now will awake and therefore it is a fearful thing talem habere janitorem to have such a porter Jer. 2.22 Though thou wash thy self with niter and fullers soap yet thy iniquity is markt before me it 's spoken of all the false glosses and pretences that men have to excuse themselves and to extenuate their sins There is a guilt upon the man before God Jer. 17.1 The iniquity of Judah is writ with a pen of iron c. It is to be referred both ad reatum culpam and it notes the indelible characters of it upon the soul that as the people of God have the Law of God writ upon their hearts so have ungodly men the guilt of sin and the law of sin their sin will find them out There are two things that men are terrified with Numb 32.23 and they look upon as enemies the word of God and the guilt of their own sins and therefore men do endeavour to fly from the one and to hide themselves from the other now the word follows them and will surely overtake them at last Zach. 1.6 and the guilt of sin that seeks the man and albeit he has many a hiding place yet sin both in the guilt and in the punishment of it also will at last find him out 3 Hence follows an evil Conscience Heb. 10.22 There are two things that make the Conscience evil it 's pollution by reason of the filth of sin and its accusation and condemnation by reason of the guilt of sin and though this indeed be mainly reserved to the last day Rom. 2.15 16. when the book of Conscience shall be opened and that faculty enlarged because then it is to give up its Viatory office and an account of the whole man that God has betrusted it with yet it doth in many men begin here according as the Lord is pleased to act it and doth bring into the soul an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.27 a receiving of judgment before-hand binding a man over unto wrath that the Creature is continually in expectation of it Heb. 2.15 Mat. 8. â—9 Art thou come to torment us before the time therefore an evil Conscience they have that tells them that there is a torment in a greater measure provided for them and that there is a time appointed when the extremity of this torment shall begin though as yet they knew the time was not come Hence comes that fear which does torment the soul 1 Joh. 4.18 that wrath will seize upon a man wheresoever he is as it was with Cain Gen. 4.14 Every one that meets me will slay me he lookt upon himself as Luther saith Tanquam excommunicatus spiritualiter corporaliter regnum amiserat ecclesiam as one who was excommunicated both spiritually and corporally c. And therefore he that was put out of the protection of God could look for no safety amongst the Creatures hence a man walks in the horrour of the shadow of death Felix trembles and Herod fear'd it was John Baptist that he had slain that was risen again There is fear on every side if he walks by the way he looks vengeance should come upon him and he shall never again visit his habitation and if he abide in his house there is a curse entered into the stones and the timber of it when he lies down at night he says it may be this night God will take away my soul and he is scared with dreams and terrified with visions that he is not able to stand under the imaginations and thoughts of his own heart if he attend upon the Word there is a savour of death unto death he sees the grave open and this is to him a testimony of a further death 2 Cor. 2.16 And hence is that shame and confusion of face that is in men looking upon themselves they abhor their own image and are not able to endure their own stink seeing how their souls do breed worms as Herod's body did they see that they are the loathsomest Creatures alive and hence there is a loathing of themselves and it comes at last to a revenge as we see in Judas And the reflections and reproaches of a mans own spirit he cannot bear and he has these dreadful desperate thoughts I shall never find mercy my glass is run my hope is past surely there is no mercy for me if there were as many windows in Heaven as there be Stars as many doors as there be souls yet there would be no entrance for me And the soul sinks down under his own burden for ever and says My iniquity is heavier than I can bear And this is properly the death of the soul it is eternal desperation it 's hell it self I had time and means and offers and intreaties and works and motions of the Spirit of God but the Lord has now forsaken me and the night is come upon me there is as much hope of the Devils as of me And this is much strengthned by the threatning and the Curse of the Law giving a man his portion Hos 6.5 and so Ministers are said to judge men Ezech. 20. â— and to torment them Rev. 11.10 and to kill them which is all barely by the words suggesting to an evil Conscience and the Conscience assisting thereunto and there is answerable to the Curse of the first Covenant a work of the Spirit of God upon a mans soul which is called a spirit of bondage and a spirit of fear Rom. 8.15 2 Tim. 1.7
obedience the condition foederis praestiti Jer. 7.12 Jer. 11.5 They must obey that God may perform Esay 54.9 10. Jer. 32.40 and how many temporal afflictions were inflicted on them And so I may say to any soul that keeps Covenant with God thy sufferings will say to thee cavendae tempestates flenda naufragia Austin de Nat. Grat. cap. 35. And thus we should take heed of keeping the Covenant or else though the Lord continue faithful in reference to the promises of eternity because Christ is the surety yet in regard of temporal promises you may go without them and many of them never be performed unto you But you will say may a man that is in the Covenant of Grace break the Covenant may the Covenant of Grace be broken as the Covenant of Works was If it may not be broken to what end do you exhort us to keep it It 's true that the Covenant of Grace cannot be broken a man that is once in Covenant is ever in Covenant and the grounds of it are these 1. The Love of God that made the Covenant is an everlasting Love and therefore the Covenant it self is every where called an everlasting Covenant and the Lord saith If you can bring another flood upon the Earth and if you can stop the Sun in his course and change the Ordinances of Heaven then the Covenant might be broken that he had made with his people Therefore Rom. 8. the Apostle saies that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord for the Lord loves us with an everlasting Love 2. It is a Covenant made with the persons of men mens persons are first taken into Covenant and there is this difference between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works in the later Covenant the works were taken into Covenant first and then the person for the works sake and so long as their works continued holy so long their persons were to be accepted and find favour and honour with the Lord Gen. 4.7 If thou doest well there is an elevation and a lifting up of the face but if thou dost evil cursed is thy person for thy works sake and there is an ira redundans in personam wrath falling on the person that doth immediately follow thereupon but now in the Covenant of Grace it is quite contrary mens persons are first taken into Covenant and accepted and then their works for their persons sake the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering and therefore till the person be in Covenant the works are abominable before God Now the works of the Saints may not always be accepted of God he may be and is often displeased with the acts of his covenant-people but yet their persons alwayes find acceptance with him their persons are the same I will visit their offences with a rod and their sins with scourges but my loving kindness I will not take from their persons my Covenant I will not break Psal 89. there is an ira simplex simple anger that doth reach to the sin but not to the person he is never a child of wrath more after his person is taken into a state of adoption with the Lord. 3. Their union with Christ is that which puts them into the second Covenant Gal. 3.29 as this union gives them interest in Christs righteousness and Sonship so it doth first state them in the Covenant which is the ground of all the rest the intendment of God was that the union between Christ and them should be the means to convey all this to their souls all comes in by Union Now so long as the Union between Christ and a soul continues so long the Covenant cannot be broken but this Union is indissoluble sin cannot nay death cannot separate between God and a soul in Covenant with him and therefore as they live so they dye in the Lord and sleep in Jesus 4. The righteousness of this Covenant is an everlasting righteousness Dan. 9. The Lord hath finished transgression and made an end of sin in the great condemning power of it and brought in everlasting righteousness such as sin could never spend for he is the son of righteousness the Lord of righteousness and therefore his Covenant can never be broken seeing the righteousness of the Covenant can never be expended 5. Christ is the surety of this better Covenant and therefore though we pay not the debt that we owe he hath undertaken it and the Lord will expect all of him and thence he is said to lay help on one that is mighty Psal 89. he will take your words no more but Christ is able to pay it as he did the debt of the first Covenant so he is able to perform the duty of the second the Lord hath ingaged him in it and he expects all from him as from the surety of the Covenant which he hath undertaken 6. Lastly This Covenant can never be broken because there is an everlasting principle of Grace begun in the Soul that doth always lay hold of the Covenant and cleave to it and consent to it and work towards it for it is incorruptible and immortal seed and therefore Jer. 32.40 This is the Covenant I will make with you I will write my law in your heart c. that you shall never depart from me In a Married condition there may be many failings in a Wife or a Husband as neglect disobedience c. but the Marriage Covenant is never broken till she take another Husband and the Covenant of Grace is a Marriage Covenant Now though there be many errors and failings in a Wife yet unless thou chuse another Husband and subject thy self to another Lord the Covenant between God and thee is not broken It is a matter of wonderful consolation that the Covenant between us and the Lord is a Covenant of salt that the sins of the people of God though they be many yet they cannot break the Covenant How should the consideration of this rich Grace and Mercy make the Saints triumph over Death and Hell O death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory blessed be God we are more than Conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord. But yet you had need be exhorted not to break this Covenant 1. By reason of the falseness of our own hearts Jer. 2.24 for we are like a wild Asse in the wilderness that doth traverse her paths that no hedges or fetters can hold her in so much that the Lord speaks it with admiration How weak is thy heart Ezek. 16.30 That it 's not able to hold out against any temptation not able to bear any one affliction but immediately it 's ready to depart from God Gen. 49.4 unstable as water there is a treachery and a perfidiousness of spirit in the best of us and therefore we had need be often called upon Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall and let us take
surely then if the Childrens right come from the Parent it must be from the faith of the Parent which only gives himself a right thereunto Here are four things to be spoken of Answ 1 That it 's not the Grace and saving faith of the Parents that gives either them or their children right unto external Church-Priviledges 2 That it 's a visible Profession of faith that does it 3 Yet it is not a bare Profession and a bare living in a Christian Church that is sufficient either for the Person to claim a title or for the Church to admit of it 4 I will give an answer to the Objections that are before mention'd of the entrance into Abrahams Covenant and having a title to be call'd Abrahams Children 1. I say it is not Grace regenerating and sanctifying that gives a title either to the Parent or to his seed and that I shall prove by these particulars 1. If men that have no Grace that were never regenerated never new-born to God may have a Covenant-title then that which gives a man a title is not Grace but a man that has no Grace that was never born from above may have a true title therefore it 's not their Grace that gives them this title Here consider 1 That the Church of God is either Invisible or Visible the Invisible Church is the Church of the first-born Heb. 12.23 whose names are written in Heaven and consists only of regenerate and Believers in truth this is the body of Christ the Spouse of Christ and the fulness of him that filleth all in all But as for the Visible Church it is made up of visible Saints and it does enjoy visible Ordinances as we see in the Church of the Jews and in all the converted Churches of the Gentiles they did all imbody for the publick Worship of God 2 This visible Church has visible Members and visible Priviledges as the Church invisible has invisible members and invisible Priviledges Indeed it is unto these that all the spiritual Promises of the Covenant do belong and all the saving Graces of the Covenant are conferr'd but yet there are many visible Priviledges of the visible Church which none but the visible members according to the Rules of the Word are to partake of we have these summed up in eight particulars Rom. 9.4 5 6. These are the visible Priviledges of the visible Church 3 Unto these a man that has no saving Grace may have a right according to the Rules of the Word and being looked upon by the Word as a visible member of a Church he has by the same Rule a right to the visible Priviledges which belong unto a Church-member A man may be a true member of the visible Church without Grace for the Net gathers of every kind some good and some bad Matth. 13.47 and into this Society many are called that are not chosen there be foolish as well as wise Builders and Virgins unclean as well as clean Beasts branches in Christ as he spreads himself upon Earth into a visible Church that bear no fruit and yet are truly said to be members and grow as members of the Church and therefore the Jews are said to be broken off Rom. 11.19 that the Gentiles might be grafted in now what were the Gentiles grafted into not into the Church invisible for many of them have no saving Grace never were regenerated therefore they were grafted into Christ spreading himself into a visible Church upon Earth and what were the Jews cast off from not from being members of the Church Invisible for there the calling and election of God is without repentance he knows who are his and he never casts out whom he knows to be his All the Jews were call'd Loammi they are not my people Rom. 9.26 they were once owned by God as a peculiar people and as a holy Nation unto him but now he will be no more styled their God and as men may have a visible standing in the Church and a visible right of membership without Grace so a man may partake in and have a right to the visible priviledges of a member though he have no Grace Rom. 11.17 Thou being a wild Olive Tree wast grafted in amongst them and to what end were they ingrafted it was that they might with them partake of the root and fatness of the Olive-tree this root and fatness cannot be meant of saving grace for if they had partaken of them Pareus they had never been broken off therefore it 's meant of outward priviledges only therefore the Gentiles have their priviledges into which they are ingrafted that is installed as well as the Jews had and yet it 's not saving grace in them that entitles them unto this priviledge because he says Let them also take heed for all this lest they also be broken off as the Jews the natural branches were 2. These external priviledges are such as belong to the visible Church into which men must admit and they cannot judge of the truth of grace and regeneration by an infallible judgment and therefore there must be some visible signs which as rules they are to act by in things of so high a nature As the Church is distinguished into visible and invisible so there is a double power of the Keys answerable 1 The Lord Christ has a Key of Royalty Rev. 3.7 as you have heard the Key of David which I conceive to have respect to the Church only and he admits into the Church invisible and it 's by vocation and union with Christ which is the end or terminus of vocation 2 There is a Key of charity as some call it though improperly yet true in this respect because it 's only the judgment of charity that they can proceed by and not of infallibility and this is an act belonging properly to Church-officers Mat. 6.19 by virtue of an institution of Christ unto that end and they that are imployed in this work cannot judge infallibly of the truth of grace in any they admit Though it 's true that the tree is much known by the fruit yet we find that Peter did baptize Simon Magus and the Church admitted Ananias and Saphira and those mentioned in 1 Joh. 2.19 they were admitted amongst them though afterwards they appeared not to be of them and that which was said of Israel is true still of the visible Church They are not all Israel that are of Israel The Church invisible has no Officer but Christ alone and he admits by a judgment of infallibility but the visible Church has visible Officers who are to proceed by a known rule and Baptism being the ordinance of admission is by them to be administred to persons as visible and not as invisible members of the Church all these therefore that are to be admitted by them must be admitted by a known rule which they can judge of which is not truth of grace for that they cannot know it
till then our iniquities are then perfectly blotted out when the time of refreshment shall come then a man shall be perfectly acquitted from all sin for ever and have an absolute sentence past upon him by God and in his own soul for ever As the Lord did give his Son by degrees and yet there is a further giving of him when he that is gone before shall come again and fetch you also there are degrees of giving of the Spirit and there is yet a further degree to come when the weak shall be as David so the Lord will be your God hereafter more eminently than he has been in giving you not only grace but glory Now as the Lord doth take up and possess the soul to himself as his habitation so he does more and more become a God to that soul who is never perfected till he come to glory till he enjoy him as he is Vse 1 § 4. 1. Look on the promises therefore as precious and store thy soul with them for they are all that you have to shew for an interest in God in this life that by which you hold your inheritance all is in promises the richest adornment and furniture that the soul can have in this life is grace and promises and therefore have thy inward man filled with them Vse 2 2. Upon all occasions stay thy sinking soul upon a promise for it 's as firm as the faithfulness of God and it 's grounded thereupon If there be any truth in the Covenant of Grace it lies in the promises of it on Gods part and we should observe the performance of promises as we do of prophecies Psal 144. as Austin says Ingrate Legis debitum cernis redditum non credis promissum Vngrateful wretch thou seest the debt of the Law paid and yet believest not the promise Vse 3 3. Look unto all the promises for their accomplishment The heirs of a promise have a great happiness that they have such an inheritance It 's â—er be as low as Hell with a promise Ego quidem sine Verbo ne in Paradiso optarim vivere at cum Verbo etiam in inferno vivere sacile est Luth. than with Adam in Paradise without it For it 's in the promises of the new Covenant in which the glory and the stability of the Covenant lies but if they be so sweet and precious in the contemplation and in the working of faith upon them while they are in hope only what must they needs be in the fruition The Wise man says The desire accompished is sweet unto the soul there is an unexpressible sweetness in it when the desire comes it's a tree of life it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vitarum of lives there are all lives in it and it sets a man as it were in Paradise again And this is one thing that will make Heaven the sweeter because it is a perfect accomplishing of all those promises with which the soul was feasted and entertained here with the hopes of in its pilgrimage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostom for Christ will be the sweeter when we come to Heaven because having not seen him yet we loved him here and we shall find him to be the same Christ in all things that before we heard him to be in the Gospel And so the society of the Saints Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the rest of the Saints in Heaven so much the more precious will they be by how much our hearts have been taken with any of them while they lived here and for this cause the promises may well be called precious 2 Pet. 1.4 2 Pet. 1.4 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies either precious or honourable to him that believes he is precious 1 Pet. 2. or an honour 1 as they are the price of his blood who was the Saviour of the World 2 as they are the evidences of our inheritance and all we have to shew for Heaven 3 as they are instruments of purification and sanctification 2 Cor. 7.1 2 Pet. 1.4 But 4 they are specially precious in this 1 that they are Gods part of the Covenant 2 this has been the happiness of the Saints and the contrary is noted as an imperfection in their condition here Heb. 11.13 These all dyed in faith not having received the promises it 's spoken of the ancient Saints of whom it 's said some of them attained promises and others of them received them not but only saw them afar off and saluted them c. and to attain promises is reckoned with stopping the mouths of lions and quenching the violence of fire and hereby there is more of God made known Exod. 6.3 By the name of Jehovah I was not known to them It 's spoken in reference unto the accomplishment of the promises and their attaining of them there is something further that God discovered and his name Jehovah further manifested to the Saints 3 specially in our times upon whom the ends or as some render it the perfections of the world are come for as the great harvest of the Church shall be in the latter days of the world so there shall be the great harvest both of prophecies and promises for the ancient Prophets did speak of good things to come but it was manifested unto them that they did not administer for themselves but for us 1 Pet. 1.12 they should be gathered to their Fathers and never live to see the good things that the Lord would do but should dye in the Wilderness as many of the ancient Saints of Israel did and never inherit the promised Land for all the things that the Lord hath spoken shall have their accomplishment at the sound of the seventh Trumpet shall the Mystery of God be finished Rev. 10.7 They are glorious things that the Lord has spoken of the latter days of the world and it 's a great unworthiness and lowness of spirit in Saints that they should be content and sit down satisfied whilst they go without any part of their inheritance and that they should think much of any thing they have attained si dicas sufficit c. It 's true that we are less than the least of all his mercies and we should think every one of them great to express our thankfulness but we should not think any of them great to nourish our slothfulness He that has an interest in the great God must strive to have his heart formed into a holy greatness of mind there is a lowness of spirit that does no ways become men that have high hopes and high expectations to be content to go without any thing that God has promised he has promised not only truth of grace but growth as the willows by the water-courses strength of grace strengthned with all might according to his glorious power comfort of grace as the Apostle has it to be filled with a spirit of consolation and to walk in the assurance
it 's a strange expression that of the Apostle Hebr. 6.13 because he could swear by no greater he sware by himself to show how willing the Lord is to give an assurance unto the Heirs of Promise that if there had been a greater or any thing that could have given them more assurance they should have been sure of it but because there was none greater therefore he did swear by Himself Nos miseros qui nec juranti Deo credimus 2. The Covenant made with Christ was confirmed by an Oath and upon that the assurance of it is mainly put for upon him the Promises do mainly depend all the Promises are in him Yea and Amen and upon that it 's put Tit. 1.2 the promise of Eternal Life 2 Cor. 1.20 which God that cannot lie has promised before the world began To whom was this Promise made before the world began a purpose might be in his own breast but a promise must be to another and God cannot lye unto Christ he will not surely deceive him the Son has been faithful to him in all the parts of the Covenant and therefore surely the Lord will be faithful unto Christ The Covenanr is confirmed by a double Oath one to us Hebr. 6.17 Psal 110.4 and the other to Christ the Lord has sworn and he will not repent He was not made a Priest without an Oath therefore the New Covenant is call'd the Word of the Oath Heb. 7.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Promises are primarily made to Christ and are his inheritance and secondarily ours only by vertue of our Union with him 3. The Intercession of Christ Christ in Heaven stands besides the Golden Altar Revel 8.3 4. he is gone to Heaven to make intercession and what is the subject of the intercession of Christ in Glory it's only the promises of the Covenant that yet remain unfulfilled and it 's these that he doth plead before the Throne of Grace and the Lord Christ has a promise to be heard Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I 'le give thee the Heathen for an inheritance and he prays with assurance of audience John 11.42 I know that thou hearest me always When Christ was upon Earth before our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was paid the Lord did trust Christ upon his bare word yet then he did accomplish many promises unto him at his request for Christs intercession begun from the Beginning ever since the Fall when his Priest-hood did first begin for he was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Revel 13.8 how much more shall we be saved by his life how much more will the Lord accomplish it on his part now all that is due on Christs part is fulfilled now he is gone to Heaven and sits down at the right hand of God and does only expect the accomplishment of those things which are the price of his own blood we know that blood has a crying nature and if it did cry so loud when it was but in the promise much more will it do now it is blood shed and set as a seal to the promise 4. The experiences of all the Saints and thy own experiments the Saints all of them have known the Lord by his name Jehovah they all of them have by faith and patience inherited the promises but in a special manner a mans own experience from which he may argue God that delivered me from out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Bear will also deliver me from this Goliah 2. Tim. 4.17 c. and God has delivered me and he will deliver me from every evil work A man should treasure up every experiment as an assurance of the same faithfulness in the same extremity and thereby set to his seal that God is true A great part of the Communion of Saints should be in this in imparting their experiments one to another and thereby honour the faithfulness of God and as it is our duty here on earth and our comfort so it shall be a great part of a mans happiness in Heaven when a man shall tell stories of Gods mercies and faithfulness unto all Eternity But says the Soul I may stay long for this promise to be accomplished for God has set no time in his Word when it shall be and therefore the Saints have waited till their eyes have failed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.37 till the promise have come to the birth the Apostle says it 's not long 't is but a little while Oh therefore set faith on work and that looks as God looks to whom a thousand years are as but one day that which seems long to sense is but short unto faith consider much the waiting and all the long-suffering of God for thee before thou didst take hold of his grace in Christ Jesus and shall not we wait upon a great God that could have been and was happy without us and needed none of our services we that are but as a worm and unprofitable to him in whatever we can do But there are three things that a Soul may know by that the accomplishment of the promise is at hand 1. When the extremity increases for the time of the promise is near when the tasks are doubled for his name will always be known to be a God seen in the Mount when all is desperate and you know not what to do then look for God to come in to your help 2. When God does raise up in the soul an earnest expectation of the mercy and a man begins to set himself to seek the Lord with more earnestness for it then it 's a sign it is near at hand When Christ was to come in the flesh there were those that waited for the consolation of Israel and had special expectations raised up in them for his coming And so it was with Daniel Dan. 9.1 when he understood by books the time of Jerusalems Captivity drew to an end then he sets himself to prayer for those expectations and enlargements of the heart are from God and shall be answered 3. When in the middle of all a mans seeking his heart is brought into a quiet and an humble frame and he is contented to submit to the will of God when a mans heart is brought to a holy indifference to be contented with God alone as David was never nearer the Kingdom Bernard than when his heart was as a weaned child Vis me constituere ovium pastorem aut regem populorum ecce paratum est cor meum When the soul is in such a frame he may expect the promise shall not be long delayed to him SECT II. The personal Promises of the Covenant and of the three Persons in the Trinity Doctrine § 1. THE great promises of the Covenant on Gods part are personal promises I will be thy God There is objectum fidei duplex a twofold object of faith Persons and Things and answerable to these the promises are
fasten upon yet there is an attribute left which will be tabula post naufragium now expect the goodness of God to appear for thy succour in his putting forth of an attribute for none of them shall fail in their season there are no graces in the Saints but there is a season for their working Phil. 4.10 Your care for me says the Apostle Phil. 4.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth reviviscere it doth flourish or wax green again so that graces have their opportunity of working there is a spring-time Now we do not say that a tree is dead that bears not fruit always but that which doth not bring forth in the Summer which is the season of fruit and therefore I cannot but look upon it as an act of Soveraignty that of Christ's cursing the fig-tree Mark 11.13 for the Text says The time of figs was not yet come Mark 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some say that the fig-tree in this country did bear fruit all the year but that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not bear for it is plain there was a season of the fruit of this Tree as well as of other trees Some say that the time of the ripening and the gathering of fruit was not yet but there might be expected green figs but there was no fruit nor hope of fruit for the Tree had leaves only Innuit Christum hoc facto altius quid significâsse ficum scil symbolum esse populi Judaici Kem. Christ hereby signified the Jewish Church from whom the Lord expected always fruit because the season of it was always and this was an act of absolute Soveraignty over the creature and he that created it might curse it at his pleasure but the Lord does never expect fruit but in the season of fruit at the season he sent to the Husband-men that they should give him of the fruit of his Vineyard Luk. 20.10 for that grace is not idle that doth not act at all times but Quae non operatur quando dabitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which doth not act when a season shall be offered So also there is a season an opportunity for the exercise of every attribute and as the Lord expects the one of us in its season so should we and we may with boldness and comfort expect the other from him in the season The Hebrews say In the mount will the Lord be seen If thou hast sinned at any time then expect that pardoning mercy shall be put forth say The Lord is the God of my mercy now pardon me according to the greatness of thy mercy And if thou be at any time assaulted with temptation expect that the Power of God shall be put forth for thee and that the Lord shall say My grace is sufficient for thee If thou be at any time perplexed with difficulties and thou knowest not what to do now look up unto infinite Wisdom The Lord knows how to deliver the just out of adversity though I know not which way to scape yet say deliverance shall come from some other hand as Mordecai said though I cannot see from whence it shall come and I cannot in my wisdom see a way of deliverance yet it shall come now is the season for such an attribute to shew forth it self and therefore now I can look for the acting of it with comfort as having an interest in it God is a help found in the time of need he is a help promised before Psal 46.1 but he is never found so to be before the season when the soul is in trouble then he puts forth himself and makes bare his arm and therefore as the Apostle says He is as having nothing 2 Cor. 6.10 and yet possessing all things So the Saints they have them not in possession but they have them in their right of inheritance and for their use as their occasions and necessity do require that if it were possible for them to stand in need of the service of the whole Creation all the creatures should work for them and wait upon them in their necessity and look what experiences the ancient Saints have had thereof they in the like cases and necessity may expect if it stand with Gods glory and their best good the Moon shall stand still and the Sun shall go back and the Lyons shall stop their mouths the fire shall cease to burn and be a defence the Ravens bring meat the Heavens shall rain bread the Rocks shall give water c. and whatsoever attributes the Lord has at any time exerted and put forth for the Saints in the season of their need that you may expect grounded upon the same Faithfulness the same Covenant and Oath that was performed unto them and it 's the highest priviledge and happiness of the Saints to have the Attributes of God lye as a rescue for them Zac. 1.8 as the Angels did behind the Myrtle-trees in the bottom when there can be an expectation from nothing else in the world as David speaks of his enemies Psal 6.2 5. They did imagine mischief and consulted how to cast him down from his excellency whom God had exalted but says he My soul wait thou on God only my expectation is from him alone He can now look up to God and expect salvation from him when he can see no hope any other way As we are not the fountain of our own grace but it is laid up in Christ 1 Joh. 5.11 and we can expect that all the grace that is in Christ shall be put forth answerably unto our necessity in the season of it and therefore our grace shall abound as our trials and occasions do increase for suitable unto them shall our supplies of the Spirit be Phil. 1.19 says the Apostle For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ So the fountain of all our happiness is not in our selves but in our God and all the attributes that are in him shall be managed and put forth for us as our necessity shall require according to the Love Wisdom and Faithfulness of a God so that if thou couldst stand in need of infinite wisdom and infinite power and grace and mercy all of them should be put forth and exercised for thee not only a conspiracy and combination of all the creatures but also of all the Attributes of God all of them shall work together for thy good 5. Is not this a mighty ground of assurance that all the creatures shall be given you and that the Lord here will deny you nothing that may be for your good He that gives the greater will he deny the lesser He that makes over all that is in himself will he deny any thing that is in any of his works Surely it was a good saying of Bernard for the things of this life Qui dabit regnum non dabit viaticum c.
and they are cast out as a branch and wither but during the time of their continuance in this kingdom till he has cast them out for their rebellion there is a government that the Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth exercise towards them and over them for the good of his Saints And this will appear by the expressions that we meet with in Scripture 1 They are his servants Joh. 8.35 the Church is compared to a house a family as it 's called the family of God and the house of God and of this family Christ is the Master now there is a special imployment that he has for every one of his servants and they are under his special command and dominion it is true this family is made up of servants and of sons and the servants may have a greater rule in the house than the sons but yet both under the authority of the housholder only he rules over the one as a Master and over the other as a Father but both are in subjection Cant. 6.8 there are in the Church sixty Queens and fourscore Concubines and Virgins without number some are truly married unto Christ and have a true right and authority in the family by their marriage-union with the King for the woman shines by the beams of her husband but there are Concubines that came in only for lusts sake and that did bear fruit but it was never from a marriage state and there were Virgins that were companions only that were not married neither did they in a manner bear fruit but were for attendants only and the King has a special rule and dominion over all these c. 2 The Church visible is compared to a great House 2. Tim. 2.20 some expound it de mundo but contextus nos ducit ut de Ecclesia intelligamus non de extraneis disputat Apostolus sed de ipsa familia Dei Calv. there is not a vessel but it has its use though all have not the same use nor of the like honour yet all are for use and all are for the Masters use so that there is a special dominion that is exercised over them all as well the vessels of wood and stone as those that are of gold to imploy them where he will and as he will in what service he pleases for it is his will that makes their use to differ it is for the Saints sake that he makes use of them so that all Gods dispensations towards unregenerate men in the Church is for their sakes all the husbandry that is exercised about the unfruitful branches is for the sake of those that have a blessing in them for the wicked shall have no benefit by it in the great day of the Lord the greater rule the Lord has exercised towards men the greater will their abhorring be the nearer they have been to him the further off shall they be from him the higher they have been exalted to heaven the deeper shall they be cast down to hell Mat. 11.23 there is utter darkness for the children of the kingdom Mat. 8.12 And this we may reduce unto four Heads 1 their graces 2 their gifts 3 their services 4 their sins and in all these the dominion of Christ over them is for the good of the Saints 1. Their graces are ruled by Christ for the Saints there are common graces which the Lord doth give unto unregenerate men in the Church common illuminations by which they see much glory and beauty in spiritual things and yet had never their eyes anointed with eye-salve and there are many common works upon the wills of men letting in a taste of the goodness of spiritual things so that the heart is much taken with them and makes out after them and there are many tendencies to the new birth Hos 13.13 we see them set forth to us Heb. 6.3 4. which is meant of the common graces of the Spirit of Christ under the Gospel which he works upon the souls and consciences of unregenerate men which are only from the Spirit assisting and not from the Spirit informing which flow not from union but from conviction and therefore from which in time they will surely fall away there is a great beauty that the Spirit of God in such common works doth put forth upon the souls of unregenerate men though it be but as the Sun shining upon a mud-wall or as a curious robe put upon a dead carkass it cannot keep it from stinking because there is not a principle of life in it 1 Hereby the Lord restrains their spirits There is a restraint without by a power that is upon the Devil by which he is restrained from doing the mischief he would else do but there is a restraint within upon the lusts of men and that is by some special works of the Spirit of God upon them Exod. 34.24 No man shall desire thy land c. and the Spirit restraining is for the Saints sake as well as the Spirit renewing Psal 76 10. The wrath of man shall praise thee Psal 76.10 and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accinges thou shalt gird up sometimes the Lord lets mens lusts loose and sometimes he does gird them up as he doth the Sea in a girdle of sand or else the Saints of God who are always as sheep amongst wolves would surely be devoured by them for their soul is amongst lyons Now they are common works that do exceedingly restrain the sins and the rage of unregenerate men and bind up their spirits both in reference unto persecution and the wrongs done by them as also in reference to corruption and the evil example given by them also 2 Hereby the Lord doth fit them for service for even the vessels of dishonour are for service in the house also though they be but of wood and stone c. Now though gifts do immediately qualifie them yet they are common works that do make them to exercise those gifts and are unto them as oyl to the wheels in the use of them as a temporary Believer he may be an eminent Professor and the house that such a one builds is far more glorious in outward shew than that of a Saint for they are both called builders Mat. 7.7 and many men do service for God but they are cold in it because they are acted only from without Rom. 16.18 whose God is their belly Non ità glacies frigus sicut Elcius alii sed ego rem seriam agebam ut quòd diem extremum horribiliter timui c. Luth. and this will make a man seem to act from an inward principle as if he had received life from the Spirit and were made alive from the dead and thereby even ungodly men do many times give a great testimony unto the principles and the practices of the Saints that they acknowledge them and seal unto them and yet nevertheless there is in them a principle to hate them
of God is exalted in their hearts so much the more which might have suffered them for ever to have walked in the errour of the wicked and to have gone in the same way with them Psal 69.27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity that is as the Saints go from one degree of grace to another they go from glory to glory from strength to strength so let these go from one sin to another God lets them do it till they have filled up their measure and then le ts go judgment after it upon them by giving them over unto it that so they may fill up their measure for there is a measure of sin as well as of grace Joel 3.13 Put in thy sickle and reap for the harvest is ripe the press is full there is a measure of iniquity and then they do come up in remembrance before God the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full A dismal judgment it is that a man should live for no other end but to fill up iniquity 3 Hereby the Saints are daily admonished what they are in their own nature if the Lord leave the best men to themselves and kept it not under the restraint of grace 2 Tim. 2.19 they seeing others Apostasie fear themselves and Christ speaking of him that was to betray him all the Disciples began to fear lest it should be themselves this sin is in my nature say they and therefore it is meer mercy that I am not so wicked as Cain and Judas I am as like to commit it as they if the Lord should leave me to my self that gratia subsequens the Rock that followed them preserves his people from the sin that is in their natures and they reflect upon that when they see others fall into sin considering themselves lest they also be tempted Gal. 6.1 4 Hereby they are minded of the ends that sin brings men to that they may fear them As the ends of godly men are to be observed whose faith follow knowing the end of their conversation so we are called upon in Scripture to consider the ends of the wicked Prov. 23.21 Drunkenness will cloath a man with rags who hath redness of eyes and wounds without cause Prov. 6.26 By the means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread and a dart striking through his liver and he gets a wound and dishonour that shall never be wiped off Prov. 21.16 The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in coetu gigantum in the congregation of the Giants they being the first sort of sinners that ever went into Hell and so did give the first denomination unto the place of the damned 5 By this the Saints are put upon many duties towards them which will abound unto their account and 1 to pity their souls and to wait for them with patience Tit. 3.2 3. Shewing all meekness towards all men for we our selves were such Rom. 11.31 says the Apostle That through your mercy they also may obtain mercy 2 Despair not of them because the Lord shewed mercy to you therefore wait if at any time God will give them repentance 1 Tim. 1.16 He shewed in me a pattern to them that should hereafter believe in him c. we have in our selves an instance 3 We are to undervalue the persons of thes◠men how great soever Prov. 29.27 The wicked is an abomination to the just Psal 15.4 Dan. Dan. 4.17 4.17 they are the basest of men be they never so great 4 As the people of God fear the ends of the wicked so they hate their ways He walks not in the counsel of the ungodly Psal 1.1 he stands not in the way of sinners when sinners entice him he consents not Gen. 49.6 My soul come not thou into their secrets unto their assembly my honour be not thou united Psal 141.4 let me not eat of their dainties and also Psal 26.9 Gather not my soul with sinners nor my life with bloody men there is a bundle of the living there is a being gathered unto ones fathers and people wicked men are so and godly men are so they both have their people let me not be gathered with them that are ungodly O Lord. 2. Now more particularly the Saints are by Providence gainers by the plots of wicked men and their counsels by their attempts against them and by their executions and in all these the secret providence of God over them is manifested First by their plots and counsels a great part of the evil of wicked men lies in their plots devices and machinations Psal 35.20 They devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land they never know what they are doing or meditating on their thoughts are a continual forge of evil the Devils anvil always at work against the people of God Jer. 18.18 Jer. 18.18 Let us devise devices against Jeremiah it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a cunning plot and a curious work c. and the Saints fear their plots commonly more than their power as they fear the Devil more as a Serpent than as a Lyon and yet by their plots they travail with mischief devise evil continually Prov. 6.14 and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies fodit he hath a Mine within Prov. 6.14 and is always digging out mischief as a godly man hath a fountain that is always issuing good there is a good treasure and an evil treasure and the Holy Ghost speaks much of the plottings of wicked men against the Saints which never come unto any thing they weave a spiders web which never becomes a garment and by these plots the Saints are gainers 1 They see the Lord restraining their very plots that they do not always rise none of them shall desire thy land they shall not see their own advantages and they shall grope at noon day Job 5.14 it is spoken of their counsels he disappoints the counsels of the crafty and that is by snarling their thoughts confounding their plots that they do not see their own way they want no will to effect their mischievous devices but yet they cannot tell what way to take against the people of God therein the Lord is seen 2 He clogs them their hands cannot perform their enterprise they cannot bring their wicked devices to pass always when they should come to execution when the children are come unto the birth there is no strength to bring them forth for the Lord doth blow upon them and they wither as the grass upon the house top and they bear no fruit 3 They end in their own destruction Esa 59.5 They hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders web c. a serpent a viper eats out the bowels of the mother they themselves are stung with them unto death they are taken in their own craft the wicked is insnared in the work of his own
whereas men would turn away their eyes from their sins the Spirit of God does hold them upon it and set them in order before them and whereas men would have slight apprehensions of sin and wrath the Spirit of God does give a man great apprehensions and dreadful thoughts of them and as in Heaven the spirit of Adoption shall be in perfection so in Hell the spirit of bondage shall be in perfection also 4. God gives a man up unto the power of sin and the dominion of it that a man is not his own but yields up himself and his members instruments to unrighteousness Rom. 6.18 He gives over himself to obey sin and the lusts thereof man sells himself to sin sinfully and God sells him judicially c. That as a godly man is not his own so neither is a wicked man For his servant a man is to whom he obeys whether it be of sin unto death Rom. 6.16 or of obedience unto righteousness and therefore they are the servants of sin Now sin has a double power 1 of a Lord as it reigns over men which unto godly men is taken away 2 As a Huâ—band Rom. 6.14 that 's a power of love that it can command and a man has an inward affection to obey it as it is said of Ahab he did sell himself to work wickedness Rom. 7.3 and then God sells a man to wickedness and the man is become wholly the servant and the creature of such a lust Every man by nature indeed does sin freely but some men are left to a judiciary freedom in sinning that as they cannot restrain themselves so God will not restrain them from sinning but they shall pour out themselves to all iniquity with greediness Jude v. 11. they shall be as wicked as they will that so they may fill up their measure of sinning as Christ said of the Pharisees Fill up the measures of your fathers it 's spoken by way of wrath and vengeance the Lord did give them up to the power of sin to the uttermost Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still This permission is the highest and forest affliction And there the Church leaves them that are obstinately ignorant and resist instruction 1 Cor. 14.38 He that is ignorant let him be ignorant Now for a man to be thus given up by God and his Church is a most desperate condition As it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God so it 's a fearful thing to be given up to his own hearts lust To be given up to sin is a just punishment of sin for the ways of sin as well as the wages of sin is death It 's a dreadful thing for the Lord to say of a people appointed to wrath Jer. 15.2 Let them go forth such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for the famine to the famine but it is more dreadful for God judicially to say let them go forth such as are for drunkenness unto drunkenness and such as are for uncleanness unto uncleanness as much as sin is a greater evil than affliction and as much as it is better to suffer than to sin 5. God gives a man up to the power of Satan and his own will 2 Tim. 2.26 The Devil is compared to a hunter and men are by him taken alive as we do beasts in a snare and then carried whither the hunter will though God be not the author of sin yet he is the orderer of it as well as of suffering and as he sets bounds unto Satan in our affliction as Job 1.12 All that he has is in thy hand only upon himself lay not thy hand so he does in our temptations also He will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able 1 Cor. 10.13 Satan would indeed tempt you above what you are able but God will not suffer you so to be tempted It 's a fearful thing for God to give a man either in his body or estate over to the will of the Devil as we see in Job how sad was it with him in that regard but much more for God to give over a mans spirit to Satan to carry a man unto what sins he will then I am sure he will be boundless in his sinning as well as in his suffering It 's an observation of Damascene that it 's only by sin that Satan has access to the spirits of men and therefore he did tempt Adam and Christ himself by outward objects only presented to the senses which is a great argument that he could not have access to their spirits Joh. 14.30 The Prince of this world says Christ comes and has nothing in me The more Satan has in a man the more immediate access he has to him and the greater power over him therefore the less of Satan there is in a man surely the less power he has over him But besides the possession and dominion that sin has given him there is a delivering a man unto Satan a kind of spiritual excommunication by God himself as Christ by a sop gave Satan full possession of Judas Joh. 13.27 and though before the sop he had it may be some reluctancy to that damned business yet after it Satan had full power over him and he goes on with a resolution and an impudent boldness and says Whom I kiss he it is for he was delivered over to the will of Satan to carry him unto what sin he would And so we may observe of the false Prophets in Ahab's time and them also that are mentioned in 2 Thes 2.12 and such men as Tertullian observes he raises to a higher degree of wickedness the Devil vouchsafed them greater and fuller power he speaks it of Marcion Valentinus and other Hereticks Satan brings them to those sins against God that he himself cannot commit 6. All Providences and Ordinances and Operations of the Spirit become a curse to them and a snare to their souls Prosperity makes them full and deny the Lord and poverty makes them steal and take the name of God in vain Prov. 30.8 If a man be raised from a low estate as Saul and Hazael it is in wrath and if he be preserved in a common judgment it is in wrath as God raised up Pharaoh That he might shew his power on him and send all his Plagues upon his heart and if there be a Prophet sent to Jeroboam a judgment lights on him in his way back because he was disobedient to the word of the Lord 1 King 13.33 yet thereupon Jeroboam turns not from his abomination Every act of Providence is to them for evil and a snare to their souls and all the Ordinances that they do enjoy do but ripen their sins Amos 8.7 there is a fullness of curse as well as of blessing in the Gospel and it 's a favour of death as well
as of life and all the works of illumination humiliation seeming conversion and reformation do make them but the stronger enemies to God when they fall from them all they do but prepare a habitation for seven worse spirits for the dog to return to his vomit again as we read such a story of one Eustathius who was first an Arian and then afterwards was converted and subscribed the Articles of the Council of Nice and was a man imployed by the Church and endured a great Persecution with Basil and divers other godly men and yet afterward he turned again into the former Doctrine of Arianisme and never returned And so we read of Alexander in Act. 19.33 and afterwards of his Apostacy and these works do qualifie men for the sin against the Holy Ghost and make them more conformable to the Devil than otherwise they would be 7. There is a giving a man up to Spiritual judgments which are of all plagues the greatest Exod. 9.14 As spiritual sins are the greatest sins so are spiritual judgments the greatest plagues and there is no plague like that of the heart 1 King 8.38 and we have so much the more cause to observe them because God did formerly under the Old Testament punish with outward and temporal punishments but those that live under the Gospel are specially punished with Spiritual judgments as the mercies of the Gospel are more spiritual so are the punishments also and they are 1 a hard heart which implys three things 1 Insensibleness of sin and judgment 2 Taking no impression either from the Word or Spirit and the touches of both 3 Inflexible as an Adamant that you cannot bow nor break it and that heart that is a flint to God is wax to Satan no command nor judgment of God will break it for it 's possest with an iron sinew bray a fool in a mortar yet his folly will not depart 2 There is a spirit of slumber that a man is sensible of nothing no danger can wake him for sleep is the binding up of all the spiritual senses Their eyes are closed and they cannot see their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot hearken let them be smitten and they cannot feel it and nothing does awaken them neither the loudest cry of the Word nor the judgments of God a deep sleep is upon them and they fear no evil 3 A seared Conscience 1 Tim. 4.2 the word signifies to sear with a hot iron and to make insensible to have no feeling or else to cut off by searing so that men walk as if they had no Consciences left 4 An injudicious mind God gives them over to a reprobate mind Rom. 1.28 an injudicious mind is taken with envy error with every vanity and is able to judge aright of nothing 5 Vile affections the basest and most dishonourable lusts even sins that are below a man as brute beasts therein to corrupt themselves and that makes them hateful and abominable to all the world 6 A final impenitency a heart that cannot repent Heb. 6.4 and it 's impossible for them to be renewed again by repentance § 4. Having spoken of Temporal death and Spiritual death we should now come to consider Eternal death which as it is said of the Glory of the Saints Neither eye has seen nor ear has heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive c. it is as true of this Eternal death no ear has heard what it is it is called perdition and destruction the second death And as Heaven is set out by some resemblances of the glory of the things in this life so is Hell in respect of the miseries of this life but all these are but shadows of the one and of the other Psal 90.11 Who knows the power of thy wrath as is thy fear so is thy wrath that is the wrath of God in the dreadful effects of it is such that it passes knowledg and it passes fear The heart of man is able to conceive vast fears as it has vast desires but whatever we can fear there is something in the wrath of God answerable to all But having spoke of this more largely elsewhere I shall but touch upon it at present In this death there is something essential which befalls all that suffer these torments and is inseparable from it as they do fall upon such a subject the essential part of this death the Scripture makes to be of two parts there is punishment of Loss and punishment of Sense There is a loss and a separation of a man from all good things whatsoever there is no man but has some good thing in possession and he has something of which hope gives him a reversion but in this death he shall be separated from them both and this is the privative part This poena damni punishment of loss is double as Durandus has observed pag. 210. either in amissione boni habiti vel nondum habiti in the amission of some good possessed or hoped for Now by this death men shall be shut out from both First they shall be shut out of the presence vision and fruition of God for ever there shall pass upon him an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Divines did anciently call it an eternal excommunication or a non-communion as their spiritual death did consist in an estrangement from God in holiness so their eternal death shall consist in an eternal separation from God in happiness They shall be punished with eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes 1.9 and this was the great torment that Christ does complain of Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and yet it was only substractio visionis a substraction of vision And this is the great affliction of his people here on earth if the Lord hide his face David says Hide not thy face from me lest I be like to them that go down into the pit and yet this is but a hiding of his face as an Eclipse of the Sun for a day he will but hide his face for a little moment but he will have mercy on thee with everlasting loving kindness how much more when God shall cast a man off in wrath for ever and never have an eye upon him more and therefore the Fathers do generally say that the greatest torment of Hell is this of Loss Absentia Dei quoad visionem omnia alia tormenta superat Augustine and Chrysostom in Mat. 7. Mille Gehennae paenas and there is nothing so dreadful as to be separated from God and to be hated by him CHAP. II. How and why men naturally desire to be under the Law Galat. 4. 21 Tell me you that desire to be under the Law do you not hear the Law SECT I. How men naturally desire to be under the Law § 1. THis Text tells us how men are naturally affected with the Covenant under which they stand They still desire to be under it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉