a seal of the Covenant which he had broken and in flying unto the seal of this Covenant he might still seek righteousness and life thereby if not in a natural way as a Creature yet in a spiritual way as a Sacrament And he might think the same Covenant remained of which he did still enjoy the seal therefore to shew that there was no way to attain life by that Covenant broken God shuts him out from the seal of it also because he had appointed a way to life for man by Christ a far more glorious tree of life who is therefore said to be in the middle of the Paradise of God And this is a more glorious way for God because in it his justice shall be seen and satisfaction given and a safer way for man also wherefore seeing that to the first tree of life he had still access and the Lord perceiving in man this disposition to depend on it he not only forbids it but placeth an Angel with a sword drawn to keep him from it that he might have no hopes of life in this way either by it as a Creature or by it as a Sacrament Afterwards Cain was a son begotten in the image of his father he offered Sacrifices but it was not in faith or with an expectation to be accepted in the promised seed Heb. 11.4 and yet he expected to be accepted and when he saw he was not his pride was turned into rage and great discontent Gen. 4.5 and his countenance fell But upon what ground did Cain expect acceptance it was for the work done only and therefore all unregenerate men that come to God in a legal way Luther calls Cainistas Deo offerentes non personam sed opus personae Cainists offering to God not the person but the work of the person Which shewed plainly that he expected to have been accepted and rewarded for his work done alone according to the tenure of the first Covenant without a Mediator and therefore God speaks to him according to the rules of his own Covenant as Divines commonly observe If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted This being the great difference between the two Covenants in the first Covenant the person is accepted for the works but in the second the works are accepted for the persons sake And when the Lord took the people of Israel unto himself as a peculiar people of all the Nations of the Earth and entered into a Covenant with them though God did not intend to set up this Law alone as a rule by which any man since the fall should attain righteousness and life but as a Covenant of Grace with Evangelical offers of Grace to bring them to Christ and therefore gave it in the hand of a Mediator yet the Lord kept it in the form of a Covenant of Works that it might be the more effectual to drive men to Christ and so serve Gods ends But they stuck to the Law as a Covenant of Works even the generality of that people and did seek righteousness and life by the obedience of it and it grew even the common sense of the Nation as we see it in the young man Mat. 19.16 What shall I do to inherit Eternal life Eternal life he thought must be got in a way of doing and it was the error which prevailed amongst the Pharisees the most learned amongst the Jews Phil. 3.6 7. Paul counted his former legal righteousness gain to him pro merito that which should bring him in a great revenue of glory at last And it is recorded by the Apostle as the great sin of their Nation Rom. 10.4 to go about to establish their own righteousness and not submit to the righteousness of God not to look upon Christ as the end of the Law for righteousness unto every one that believes And when the partition-wall was broken down and God had lifted up Christ as an Ensign to the Nations the Law went forth of Zion and the waters issued out of the Sanctuary these were the first tares which the envious man did sow to put men upon setting up the Law as a Covenant and to seek life upon impossible conditions as by their perfect fulfilling of it and therefore they must do as the Pharisees did when they could not come up to the Law they must by their own interpretations as well as their traditions bring the Law down to them and enervate the Law And therefore the Apostle takes much pains to confute it and to perswade us against seeking righteousness and life by the works of the Law Rom. 3.4 Gal. 2.3 4. and Satan being beaten out of this then his next design is to seek to join both Covenants together and perswade men to seek righteousness and life by fulfilling the Law and believing in Christ also And so partly by our own obedience we shall be justified and accepted and wherein we come short Christs righteousness comes in to make it up We read in Act. 15.5 that there were some of the sect of the Pharisees that did believe and had received Christ as Mediator and acknowledged him that yet said It was needful and they ought in duty to be circumcised and to keep the Law of Moses Which Doctrine afterward the Apostles and the Church of Jerusalem disavow as a thing they had no warrant for to preach So in Act. 21.20 there were many thousands that believed and yet were leavened with this error they were all jealous of the Law which made the Apostle speak so exclusively as he does Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law And since the Primitive times we see what Doctrine has been found out by the Papists that good works do justifie a man in the sight of God and Christ has merited this that opera renatorum good works after conversion shall be the matter of their righteousness and Christ will supply what is wanting And hence it 's taught That they may fulfill the Law nay do more than the Law requires in works of Supererogation c. And others turn Faith into a work and say That it's faith that 's accepted of God as the matter of our righteousness instead of the righteousness of the Moral law and not the righteousness of Christ made ours by imputation And he that shall observe what confidence men do place in their works how they labour for life and rest in the duty done and expect acceptance for it and how they boast themselves of their own performances and how far most men are after a duty from a humble looking up to Christ for acceptance of it as if they had done nothing for a man should indeed work as if he expected to be accepted for his works and yet rest as perfectly in Christ for acceptation as if he had done nothing he shall see that it is a disposition that is deeply rooted in men to expect justification by their works § 2.
righteousness and life 2 Men are naturally ignorant of the spiritual meaning of the Law Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the law once Here the Apostle speaks of a double state in which he was 1 In times past in the state of unregeneracy without the Law not in the letter for he was bred up at the feet of Gamaliel and one that knew the Scripture from a child but without the Law in the spiritual sence of it in its glory power latitude spirituality and holiness which are the wonders of the Law that men by nature have not eyes to see which David prays for Psal 119.18 and which unto men by nature are accounted strange things 2 But there is another state and that is when the Lord was merciful to Paul in his Conversion The commandment came i. e. in a lively vigorous and spiritual manner having a spirit of life accompanying it whereas before it was but a dead letter and it brought in such a light as did discover the secret thoughts and intents of his heart and laid the whole inward man open even the inward parts of the soul And whereas before he was alive in performances able as he conceived to perform all the righteousness of the Law without blemish and therefore full of self-justification and conceits of his own righteousness and high expectations of Salvation Now sin revived that is in the guilt of it in his Conscience and he begins to see his own misery and sinfulness and lost condition which before he thought was very good Now he saw all his own righteousness which before he so highly esteemed and so much set by to be nothing but dross and dung And natural Conscience looks upon obedience to the Law as consisting only in the outward act and if that be performed Conscience is satisfied if men pray and hear they are not solicitous for the acceptance of their persons before their services can be accepted nor for the light manner of performance and the curing of their inward man towards God therein which doth plainly shew that though they understand the Law in the letter and stick to it therein yet they are not acquainted with the spirituality of the Law 3. Men are ignorant of their miserable condition under the Law Gal. 3.10 as many as are under the Law are under the curse Gal. 4.21 You that desire to be under the law do you not hear the law that is hear it you do but you understand it not Si Deo obtulisset putamen nucis in fide opus bonum etiamsi adeó parvum adeò vile ut culmum tollere si verò desit fiducia opus bonum non est etiamsi omnes mortuos suscitet homo sese comburendum permittat Luth. neither consider that being sons of the bond-woman you are bond-men for your Covenant being broken genders unto bondage and there is a spirit of bondage that will follow upon this state of bondage and as bond-men you shall not abide in the house for you have no part or share in the inheritance because the inheritance is not by the law but of promise Men under this Covenant stand before God in their own names they bear their own sins and must be justified by their own righteousness for this Covenant admits no Mediator there is none to represent their persons or bear their sins or pay their debt or endure their curse but all must needs be done in their own persons if they do any duty they expect it should be accepted of God for the goodness of it and it is rejected of God for the failings of it because whatever is born of the flesh is flesh and in their Covenant God requires perfect obedience and will accept none other and yet there is not the meanest service of the Saints under the second Covenant performed in faith but it is accepted if they offer but a cup of cold water Now men perform duties because they are commanded and they think that they have done good service and look that they shall be accepted and rewarded but never consider that if their persons be not accepted their services cannot be but that their best services are sins in Gods account and rejected and that all the promises of pardon and grace repentance and acceptance upon repentance all these belong not unto them for their Covenant admits no such thing Some may see the defilement of their nature and their misery because of the image which they bear but very few are apprehensive of their misery by reason of the Covenant of bondage under which they stand 4 Men know not how to distinguish between the doing of duties and the right manner and method of doing them for all men are ready to look upon them as duties required by God and if so he will accept them because he has required them And therefore when Luther did bid men not only take heed of their sins but of their duties for these might destroy them as well as the other and called them base and beggarly elements and dung and dross presently they said he spoke against good works Now here men distinguish not of the doing and of the method in doing for the duties of the Law must be performed by the graces of the Gospel and in the way of the Gospel and therefore we say that believing must go before any other of the great works of God e're a soul can be accepted Luther de bonis operibus primi precepti and therefore Luther gives this rule Whatsoever a mans conscience and faith toward God is such are his works which flow from the same principle but where there is nothing of faith the edge is wanting to good works and the whole life erroneous and all goodness as nothing I say that good works are accepted if faith which gives a man an interest in Christ and a change of a mans Covenant goes before We should bring naked Christ and a naked soul stript of all things else together we would have you take Christ for your husband and duties for the servants of Christ While faith is to deal with Christ in the business of Justification and acceptative works should be shut out and there sponsus cum sponsa faith and Christ alone but if faith walk abroad in the world works must stand at the door and follow as the handmaid and the necessary consequents of faith Now men hearing that duties are commanded by God they are apt to conceive that they must be done and being done shall be accepted though it be not according to the method of the Gospel and that when we speak against resting in them as duties of the first Covenant we speak against good works whereas we would have them performed but by a man whose person is accepted his Covenant changed and that by the principles of the Gospel the faith of Christ in his heart and also unto the ends of the Gospel 2. They are ignorant of the righteousness of Christ as
extrà which are terminated in the creatures and are meerly acts of will now faith is not only by this means to be exercised and taste the sweetness of the acts of will ad extrà but the acts of nature ad intrà for I have an interest in that Father as the Father that did from all Eternity beget the Son and I have an interest in that Son that was begotten by the Father so that those acts of nature that were of God before the world was they have all some respect unto me and I can taste a sweetness in them all that as I have not only an interest in the absolute perfections of God which are his Attributes but in the relative perfections of God also which respect the persons so I have not only an interest in and benefit by all the actings of the Atrributes of God but by the eternal actings of the persons also that we may see how high it reaches and that there is nothing in God but it is as truly for our good as it is for his own glory therefore we may rejoyce in them all 5 A mans faith should expect all the Attributes of God to be distinctly exercised for him by all the persons a man has an interest in them all in all the works that they do put forth for as they are three in their subsistence so they are but one in their Essence and therefore all the Attributes of God come in unto them all the Son thinks it no robbery to be equal with the Father Phil. 2.6 for he is found in the form of God that is in the nature of God subsisting in the nature or essence of God and therefore Divines do commonly when they prove the Deity of the Son and Spirit shew that the Attributes of God are in Scripture given unto them as Esa 9.6 Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father Prince of peace that 's given to the Son and to the Spirit is given Omnipotency Omnipresence and Omniscience c. Now when the Father comes to work he has the power of God the wisdom of God the holiness of God put forth for the accomplishment of his work and so have the Son and Spirit also and therefore we see that the Son could not miscarry in any thing that he did and though he dyed yet it was impossible that he should be held by death Acts 2. because he had the power of the Godhead to carry him through and so it is with the Persons in all their operations and undertakings for men in the work of our salvation and therefore it is good for a man not only to exercise faith upon the Attributes of the Divine Nature in common as they are infinite and absolute perfections but as those Attributes are to be found in each of the persons and to be exercised for us in all their appropriated actions and by this means the Attributes of the nature are made over not only by the Essence but also that they shall be all of them exercised by each person acting according to their own acts which they have undertaken and so we have an assurance of the acting of the Attributes for us in a threefold way and a threefold cord is not broken 6 As it is the recumbency of faith so it should be in the assurance of faith also it should distinctly close with them all in their witnessing as well as in their working 1 Joh. 5.6 7. 1 Joh. 5.6 7. There are three that bear record in heaven it is not only a testimony to the truth of the Gospel but it is a testimony also given unto the state of the Saints for they have the witness in themselves for it is that they may know that they have eternal life vers 13. which could not be unless the testimony were given in the heart and a mans state put out of controversie Now though they be one in Essence and though their testimony do agree in one yet they are three in their witness in the word and in the heart now under the Law in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established we receive the witness of man but the witness of God is greater the same God who hath but a few witnesses amongst men but two witnesses Rev. 11.3 yet he will not let a mans assurance go without a full testimony there shall be two classes of witnesses some on Earth and some in Heaven and they shall be three of each of them therefore as in acts of recumbency we are to close with the love of all the persons so in acts of assurance we are to close with the witness of all the persons and thus we see that there are distinct objects of faith upon which it is to work in them all 2. Now let us come to consider the acts of faith that are distinctly to be put forth upon them all as 1. There is to be a fiducial knowledge hereof that the persons are made over to us for as faith without works is dead so faith without knowledge is blind therefore faith is commonly set forth by knowledge in the Scripture Joh. 17. ult and Phil. 3.8 9. To know him and be found in him c. But it is not every knowledge but that which is described Col. 2.2 and Tit. 1.1 A knowledge of the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ a knowledge that draws an acknowledgment with it that carries the consent of the soul with it and he sits down under it and lies under the power thereof a sapida scientia a knowledge of a truth that lets in the savour of the goodness of it with the truth 2. The soul is distinctly to cast it self by distinct thoughts upon each of these persons as when a soul comes to Christ he sees his need of him that he is undone without him he sees the excellency that is in him and thereupon he doth leave himself with Christ and will look out for salvation in no other there is an exclusive resolution against all other ways and a full determination to go this way only and if I perish here I will perish so when a soul sees all this and sees his need of the persons and the glory that is not only in Christ but in the Father and the Spirit and sees that without an interest in them he is undone for else there are no benefits by them thereupon he doth distinctly resign himself unto each of them for as all the promises of the Gospel being distinct objects of faith have not their due honour unless we exercise distinct acts of faith upon them so it is true also of all the persons much more because Christ is set forth as an object of faith therefore we rely upon him so we should upon the Father and Spirit also and therefore Christ looks upon it as a dishonour that being set forth to them they did not distinctly believe in him 3. Faith
MADAM Your Ladyships to honour and serve you in the Lord Theophilus Gale Newington March 26. 1678. A Summary of the Two Covenants THIS following Discourse of the two Covenants preached by that great Divine Mr. William Strong needs no Prologue to usher it into the World The Authors Character The Author was indeed as it is said of Augustin a Wonder of Nature for natural Parts and a Miracle of Grace for deep insight into the more profound Mysteries of the Gospel He had a Spirit capacious and prompt sublime and penetrant profound and clear a singular Sagacity to pry into the more difficult Texts of Scripture an incomparable Dexterity to discover the Secrets of corrupt Nature a Divine Sapience to explicate the Mysteries of Grace and an exact Prudence to distribute Evangelic Doctrines according to the capacity of his Auditors Are not the Ministers of Christ termed Stars in his right hand Rev. 1.20 Rev. 1.20 And was not this our Author one of the first magnitude O! what a glorious Star was he in the right hand of the Lord to reveal the resplendent light of the Gospel unto his Auditors What lights and heats of Divine Grace did he communicate unto others It 's prophesied of our Lord Hab. 3.4 Hab. 3.4 His brightness was as the light he had horns or rather beams coming out of his hand and there was the hiding of his power This brightness of Christs light must be understood of his Evangelic light whereby he as the Sun of Righteousness irradiates Evangelic Churches and by the Horns or rather Beams for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here must signifie coming out of his hand we must understand according to our Lords own interpretation Rev. 1.20 Evangelic discoveries by the Ministers of his Gospel those Stars in his right hand imployed by him for the irradiation and illumination of this inferior world and O! what an hidden power is conveyed together with this light And may we not conclude this our Author one of those Stars who diffused illustrious beams of Evangelic light from the right hand of Christ where was the hiding of his power And as he transcended the most of this Age in the Explication of Evangelic Verities so in his Intelligence and Explication of the two Covenants he seems much to excel himself this being the great study of his life and that whereon his mind was mostly intent And I can here truly apply that observation of the Queen of Sheba 1 King 10.7 touching the wisdom of Solomon to this our intelligent Author The Notices I received from his other Works gave me a great impression of his Divine Wisdom but what mine eyes have seen and my thoughts imbibed of his incomparable Intelligence from this his elaborate Discourse of the two Covenants assures me that not the half was told me by his Works formerly published He was indeed a Person intimely and familiarly acquainted with the deepest points in Theology but yet as to these that relate to the Covenant of Grace his Spirit seems to have been most deeply baptized and immersed into them which any judicious Reader may with facility perceive by a transient inspection into any part of the following Discourse Of what incomparable excellent Use this Discourse may be for the diffusing Evangelic Light and Truth no one can be ignorant The excellent use of this Discourse who is acquainted with the mind and intendment either of the Law or Gospel or sensible of those many dangerous errours which have of late sprung up from the ignorance of both How many have taken away the use of the Law thereby to advance as they conceit the Grace of the Gospel And have not too many on the other hand destroyed the Grace of the Gospel whiles they have endeavoured to exalt the letter of the Law as a Covenant Both these extremes our judicious Author has accurately obviated and avoided He has approved himself a good Advocate for the Law as it is a rule and instrument subservient to the Gospel but yet he gives the Gospel the principal place and preeminence as it is saiths magna Charta He has indeed exactly hit the difference between the two Covenants which argues his deep insight into both and surely they that rightly understand the Idea or Notion of the two Covenants attain thereby a clue of thread to lead them into the most intricate Mysteries of Evangelic Doctrines as on the contrary those who have not right sentiments of the two Covenants what hesitation and suspension if not errour and misapprehension do they fall under in the most momentous points of Religion Yea doth not the rectitude not only of our Faith but also of our Christian practice and conversation principally depend on the due notices of the two Covenants Are not these as the centre wherein all the lines of Divine Grace and humane Duty meet Are we not then greatly obliged to this our Author for his elaborate endeavours in this work He demonstrates 1 That God never did nor will deal with mankind meerly in a way of Dominion but also in a way of Covenant 2 That both Covenants are made with men not immediately but in and by some publick person 3 That it is Vnion with either of these publick persons that brings a man under their Covenant 4 That it is impossible for any man to be under both Covenants because the terms and conditions of the one destroy the terms of the other These with some other weighty Truths relating to the two Covenants in general he doth distinctly and fully explicate and demonstrate The Covenant of works and its curse Our Author begins his Discourse with the Covenant of Works and treats first of the Temporal Curse that attends the breach thereof and then of the Spiritual of which more fully in the Contents we shall only give some short and particular Reflections on and Notions of this first Covenant 1 The Covenant made with Adam was not particular with his person under a single capacity but with his nature as a common person or representative Head from whom all mankind were by natural generation to descend and herein the Covenant made with Adam differs from that made with the Angels which was particular and personal they being all created at once and existent when their Covenant was made Hence 2 In this first Covenant made with Adam all his posterity stand bound to God both naturally by virtue of their being created in him and voluntarily by virtue of his stipulation Whence 3 Every son of Adam falls under both the duties and curses of his Covenant for as the duties so the curses of Adams Covenant seized not meerly on Adams single person but on his nature and so on all mankind who are in him both legally and naturally Thence 4 No man can be freed from the curse of the Law that is not freed from it as a Covenant There is since Adams Fall an essential and inseparable connexion between
But here it may be men will wonder that time should be spent amongst us in beating men out of this being under the first Covenant and getting life upon impossible terms to undertake perfectly to keep the Law and to seek justification by works seeing we are neither Jews nor Papists We know we cannot fulfill the Law but that there is iniquity in our holy things and we are so far from resting in our duties that we acknowledge our righteousness is as filthy rags that if God should look upon them as they are he must needs abhor them and us for them and therefore surely there are none amongst us that do so all this labour might be spared for we are so far from desiring it that we disclaim it and abhor it But I answer to this Answer that a man ought to read in other mens practices his own inclination this was a desire in Adam 1 Cor. 15.49 and in his Posterity who do all bear the image of the earthly for as face answers to face in the water so sin is alike in all men and that man perfectly likes an example of sinning in others that does not reflect upon himself and see that there are seeds of it in him that doth not read his own nature in another mans life 2. If there be the seeds of it in thy own heart then though it never should break forth into act yet there is just cause that God should loath thee for it as we do Toads though they hurt us not And indeed the main part of our enmity against God and Gods against us lies in the contrariety of our nature to him Col. 1.21 we are naturally enemies to God in our minds and this is the top of all a godly mans humiliation this is but a part of all that evil treasure that is within Psal 51.7 and there is more in the Ware-house than in the Shop And that Christian is never kindly humbled for any sin if his humiliation ends in the sin it self and ascend not to the fountain that is within him that raging sea that always is casting out mire c. We know that in the Saints there is no lust perfectly mortified in this life Rom. 6.6 for sin dies a crucified death and therefore though in a Saint it be still upon the Cross and dying daily yet it shall never be perfectly destroyed till this corruptible shall put on incorruption The Saints have the seeds of this sin of trusting in themselves in them also and this lust will not lye idle in them the flesh will lust against the spirit Gal. 5.17 and it shews how prone the nature of man is to it and the actings of it because it has shewed it self so in all ages And therefore one being asked why Pelagianism did spring up in all ages answered Because there were Pelagianae fibrae in the hearts of all men So if this be asked you Why this lust of carnal confidence always breaks forth into sinful acts c. you may also answer There are fibrae of it in the heart of all men Therefore if God have kept this lust from acting in thee so much as it has done in others O be thankful for so great a mercy but be careful that thou say not that it is not in thee because God has restrained the lust from acting for then it may be just with God to give a man over to the power of it and he shall see by experience that it 's a mercy to have it restrained seeing he cannot be wholly freed from it in this life It 's a great evil when God preserves men from sin for them to think there is no such danger in it Take heed lest God let out such a lust upon thee that will make thee a mourner all thy days and remember how presumptuous Peter was against his denial of Christ yet how soon he was guilty of it And how apt are Christians for not prizing a preservation from gross sins to walk fearlesly and then God often leaves them to the power of lust and shews them the mercy of his former restraint Indeed all lusts in the heart of man do not act alike some lusts do work directly and press men to sin as that of Whoredom and Drunkenness a man has distinct thoughts about them but there are some that do work indirectly and in a secret way to guide men in their practise and yet never come into distinct thoughts but work as principles that lye low and a man acts in the power of them and yet observe them not as in a Watch every one may observe the wheels that move but every one does not observe the spring from whence their motion proceeds as a Scholar that speaks and writes Latin he does not think of the rules of Grammar every sentence he speaks and yet those rules have an influence into every word and his whole discourse is framed after those rules so there are some sins as Atheism c. a man it may be never says in actual thoughts that there is no God and yet this principle sways with a man and is at the bottom of every sin And so it is with this sin it may not come into actual thoughts that there is Eternal life to be had by our works and we will exclude the righteousness of Christ and yet it may have a very great influence upon the man in his whole course as being a fundamental and mother-sin 1 So far as any man does desire to establish his own righteousness so far he desires to be under a Covenant of Works for justification and life but this is the disposition of every man by nature therefore every man by nature desires to be under the first Covenant still this was the great fruit of it amongst the Jews Rom. 10.3 and the words are very significant Going about to establish their own righteousness i. e. seeking or studying for it as students use to do It signifies to labour for a thing with a mans utmost endeavour even with all his might as Mat. 6.32 After these things do the Gentiles seek and it answers to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.31 Rom. 9.31 They followed after the law of righteousness but they attained it not The law of righteousness is the righteousness of the Law that is justification by it for the righteousness of the Law to be fulfilled in them by their own personal obedience not by faith but by works this they followed after with all their might And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imbecillitatem propriae justitiae denotat denotes the imbecillity of their own righteousness that it could not stand alone but they must set it up and support it and make it stand by their own opinion and presumptions Now you see this all along how men expect acceptation with God for their services Isa 58.1 Wherefore have we fasted and thou regardest not Men do think to be heard for
their much speaking and stand upon their justification I fast twice in the week and pay tythe of all that I possess says the Pharisee The Apostle Rom. 9.31 says They followed after the righteousness of the Law by their own performance of the works of the Law And to this end because they could not rise up to the spirituality of the Law they did therefore bring down the Law by their interpretation unto their own obedience and all was to make their own righteousness available for justification Therefore Paul saith Concerning the righteousness of the Law blameless Phil. 3. The young man says All these have I kept from my youth Therefore the Papists teach That men may perfectly fulfill the Law Bellar. de Justific l. 2. c. 2 3. and do also some works of Supererogation over and above the Law that the formal cause of Justification is inherent righteousness though Christs righteousness is the meritorious cause Christ having merited that our righteousness may justifie c. And though not works by nature yet by Grace even Faith it self as a work is that which God accepts being performed by us instead of all the righteousness required in the Moral Law These and many more are the ways by which men seek to establish their own righteousness in matter of Justification 2 As for Salvation also All men would be working and doing something for Heaven Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life What shall we do to work the works of God Joh. 6. They were all upon a way of doing they did expect a reward for all They had a high esteem of their own services and therefore they did boast themselves and glory in them it 's the law of saith only excludes boasting Rom. 3.27 The Creature being sinful is lifted up by works proud of a little God knows And therefore Jehu says Come see my zeal for the Lord of hosts and there is nothing in the world that the pride of man will appear more in than in righteousness for pride is an overweening apprehension of a mans own excellency and the higher the excellency the greater the pride Rom. 7.9 I was alive says Paul without the Law alive in performances and alive in presumptions he thought he had done much for God and therefore his zeal did rise to a madness in persecuting of the Church It 's a hard matter for a man to be a painful Preacher a zealous professor a faithful Statesman or a man that has laid out himself for the publick any way but his heart will swell with privy pride therein yea even though he do profess to despise and to disesteem the praise of men § 3. But now more particularly so far as any man does not submit unto the righteousness and the grace of the second Covenant so far he manifests his desire to be still under the first Covenant but all men by nature refuse to submit to the righteousness and the offers of the second Covenant and therefore they desire to continue under the first The Scripture speaks of mens actions and dispositions many times interpretatively not as they are in the intention of the sinner but as they are in truth and in the interpretation of God Prov. 8. ult Men are said to love death all those that hate wisdom and despise Christ and live without him love death Now men will all say that they do hate death but yet in Gods interpretation they hating the only way and means to life they do all of them love death So we read in Ezech. 8.5 They did these abominations that I might go far from my sanctuary It was not their intention in so doing actually and formaliter but interpretative it was because they had set up an image of jealousie in the Sanctuary which would provoke God to remove and yet if they had been asked they would all have said they would by no means have the glory of the Lord to remove So men do not actually desire to be under the first Covenant but yet so long as they reject the offers and the grace of the second so long in Gods interpretation they do desire to be under the Law still and their rejection of the better Covenant offered argues they like and love that under which they are and reject the righteousness of God which is the same which is called the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of faith as the Apostle says Phil. 3.9 Not having my own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is of God by faith And it 's called the righteousness of God partly because it is found out by God and by God only imputed and therefore is only an act of free grace whereby God will make a sinner righteous before him Rom. 1.17 and partly because Christ offered himself by the eternal spirit without spot to God which is his own Divine nature and so unto all the actions and the sufferings of his Humanity the Godhead gave an efficacy and an excellency even from his person they being all the actions and sufferings of him that was both God and Man And unto this righteousness men through the pride and unbelief of their spirits and contrariety to the Gospel will not submit They have not subjected themselves unto the righteousness of God 1. All a man's sins do stand out and will not submit to the righteousness of God for whoever imbraces the offer of the second Covenant and the grace thereof must take Christ for Sanctification 1 Cor. 1. as well as for Justification for he is made both and he came with water and blood to answer those ways of legal purification and so he must come into every soul but above all sins a mans darling his right hand and his right eye must be parted with and therefore Christ says Joh. 5.44 How can you believe that seek honour one of another The power of any lust in the soul will keep it from believing and accepting of the grace and mercy that 's offered in the second Covenant And so through the power and dominion of sin men cannot submit to the righteousness of God And how miserably is many a man held in captivity this way we all see they are by the snares of darkness led captive by Satan at his will 2. All the gifts and abilities that are in a man are against it for faith is the highest self-denial 2 Cor. 8.2 and gifts do puff up and therefore not many wise are called The wisdom of this world is enmity against God and all their parts and learning their wisdom whether it be natural or acquired doth make them but the stronger enemies and set them the farther off from Christ Hab. 2.4 now this stands in the most direct opposition to faith for that soul that is lifted up his heart is not upright in him In troublesome times to have a mans heart born up by a fleshly prop
former husband lives unto them and the hand-writing stands in force against them here is the benefit by Christ a man may be translated out of it and so there may be a change of a mans Covenant not by a change of the Covenant it self but by a change of the man and his deliverance out of it Now so long as a man continues under this Covenant 1 It promises no life but upon condition of perfect and personal obedience it calls upon thee To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy strength the strength that I gave thee at first and the man that doth them shall live by them There is commutatio personae a commutation of the person by the Covenant of Grace but this Covenant saith not that the obedience of another shall be accounted his unto justification and life and so Justification is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impossible by the righteousness of the Law for by the Law no man can be justified and in this it is weak through the flesh so that whilest a man continues untranslated he can never be justified by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ which can profit him nothing because in the sense of the Law it is not his own righteousness 2 It is a Covenant without a Mediator Christ indeed is a Mediator but it is of the new Covenant the first Covenant was faedus amicitiae a Covenant of friendship made with man in innocency where there was no disagreement and Gal. 3.20 A Mediator is not a Mediator of one c. So that so long as a man is under the first Covenant what benefits so ever there are to be had by the Mediation of Christ he must go without them either in reference to the presentation of his person or to the acceptation of his services for in the Covenant under which he stands a Mediator can have no place 3 In this Covenant there is no promise of pardon but If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted but if thou dost evil sin lyes at the door and there is a curse upon every transgression every sin thou committest every disobedience has a just recompence of reward so that as long as a man does continue under this Covenant he must bear his own sin and there is no hope of pardon for him because under this Covenant God has promised no pardon The aim of God was the glory of his Justice and therefore the Lord deals with men as in Courts of Justice if there be a Capital crime committed the Judge does not examine whether the man be penitent or no and if he do repent then there is a pardon for him but whether the offence be committed or no guilty or not guilty and so Justice does all without respect unto a mans after-repentance If thou hast sinned the first Covenant says thou art a child of death and when a man says I have sinned it is the Covenant of Grace only that says the Lord has put away thy sin but under this Covenant there is no pardon to be expected 4 This Covenant promises no Grace for it was made with man in his primitive condition when he had Grace answerable unto all the duties that the Lord required of him he had a power to perform all duties and to resist all temptations and this is supposed in every duty that is required and in every sin that is forbidden so that all the promises of Grace and strength that are in the second Covenant a man can never have benefit by for they belong not unto the Covenant under which he stands unless he be translated 5 It is a Covenant that every sin breaks and being once broken it can never be made up again So the Apostle tells us Rom. 5.16 By one offence guilt came upon all to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences to justification Adam's sin was but one offence and yet it brake his Covenant and brought guilt and death upon all his posterity and that for ever and his Covenant could bring death but never justification and life any more so that no man that has once sinned could ever live by that Covenant any more but it is not so in the Covenant of Grace because it brings in an everlasting righteousness that sin can never spend and therefore though there be many offences yet the Covenant is not broken but that justification and life may be had therein and the more sin abounds the grace of the Covenant abounds much more as sin takes occasion by the law so grace takes occasion by sin under the Gospel 6 It is a Covenant that can never quiet and settle the Conscience but let a man walk never so exactly and take never so much care to do his duty in all things and let him live the holiest life that ever any man did upon earth that was a sinner and he will be always in a doubt and full of jealousie of God whether he will accept him or no as it was with the young man in the Gospel he had lived a very exact life according to the rules of a Pharisaical righteousness for he could say All these things have I kept from my youth and yet he was not quiet Gehennam horribiliter timuit he came and kneeled down to Christ and said What must I do to inherit eternal life what lack I yet And so Luther said he did endeavour in all things to walk according to his Conscience and yet he says I feared Hell terribly c. And this is the difference that the Apostle makes Rom. 10.5 8 he prefers the righteousness of faith before that of works upon this ground because that of works is full of scruples and doubtful enquiries Who shall ascend up to Heaven Doubting is the fruit of the Covenant of works and therefore Bellarmine must come to his Tutissimum for unto men since the fall the fruits of the first Covenant are only doubting and anxiety but faith tells a man Christ has descended into the deep to make satisfaction there and he is ascended up on high into Heaven there to prepare a place and there is nothing wanting for a mans salvation that Christ has not done which frees a mans Conscience from those inward perplexities which the Covenant of works leaves a man intangled in This is the first ground of the necessity of being translated out of this Covenant for so long as a man is under it this is his misery if he look for life it must be by his own righteousness as without a Mediator and if he sin there is no pardon for him and if he be to do duty there is no grace if the Covenant be once broken it is broken for ever never made up again for the least offence and a mans Conscience can never be satisfied and quieted till he does anchor upon Christ Jesus who is the rock of ages § 2. If God will deal with man in a Covenant-way he must be
in whom all happiness â—es whose very Presence makes Heaven should be made a curse that he who only hath Immortality should give himself unto death that the Incomprehensible should be comprehenâ—ed and Eternity have a beginning and the Ancient of days become a child who can â—ut admire that such things as these should be united and all to make a righteous and a holy God and a sinful creature to become one again So for the Distinctions to see God in Christ dividing between the guilt and stain of sin the guilt Christ will take upon himself by Imputation but he will not take the stain of sin to distinguish between the sin and the sinner that the sin shall be damned and the sinner saved God will take sin off the sinner that there should be a change of the person but not of the righteousness that the guilt of all sin should be taken away perfectly at once but the stain of it blotted out by degrees A mans Covenant is at once renewed and his image but in part so for God to distinguish between the Law as a rule and the Law as a Covenant and the Lord will utterly abolish it in the one respect but not in the other In all this is seen the Majesty and Wisdom of God therefore as our Divines use to say If there had been a Council called of Men and Angels after the Fall how a way might be found out to answer the different demands of the Attributes of God Mercy inclining to spare the Creature as miserable and Justice requiring vengeance upon the Creature as sinful how Mercy and Justice may be satisfied and God and Man be reconciled how God satisfied and the sinner saved how the sin may go to Hell and the sinner to Heaven how the Curse of the Law may be executed and yet the Grace of the Gospel exercised towards man all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth could not have found out a way so I may say in this particular the Creature must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own rule a rule it must have to walk by which must be the manifestation of Gods will or else what it does can never be accepted Tert. for Deo serviendum est non ex arbitrio sed ex imperio And this is the Eternal rule that God will have his Creatures to walk by as answering his holy nature and can be no other and therefore if we walk not after Gods rule Gods curse must follow us Now take away and abolish the Law as a Covenant and so the curse will be thereby removed and now for God to do this and yet to continue the Law as a rule to take that away that was against a man and yet to continue that which was for him it was that which all the wisdom of the Creatures could never have found out a way to accomplish that the Law as a Covenant might be abolished and yet as a rule continued for ever CHAP. VIII To all that are in Christ the first Covenant is made subservient to the second Gal. 3.17 18 19 And this I say that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disanull that it should make the promise of none effect for if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise Wherefore then serveth the Law it was added because of transgression till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator SECT I. The subservience of the first Covenant to the second in general § 1. HAving largely opened to you the Doctrine of the first Covenant we are come at last to conclude it in these three heads 1 A mans Translation out of this Covenant with the nature and necessity thereof 2 The abolition of this Covenant unto all that are in Christ that it is a writing cancelled 3 The subordination thereof unto the Gospel and Covenant of Grace Of the two first we have formerly treated and come now to speak of the last and so to conclude the Doctrine of the first Covenant There are in this Chapter two principal parts 1 Here is a Doctrine confirmed 2 Here are some Objections against it answered and cleared 1. Here is a Doctrine confirmed in which Satan had bewitched the Galatians and they had fallen off from it and that is Justification by the righteousness of Christ alone without the works of the Law and this the Apostle proves by several arguments 1 That which conveys the gifts and graces of the Spirit by that a man is justified in the sight of God but that is not by the works of the Law but by the Doctrine of the Gospel v. 2. 2 All men that are Abrahams seed must be justified the same way that Abraham was but Abraham was justified by faith for he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness Rom. 4.21 22. Therefore they that are justified by faith only are the children of Abraham 3 Justification and blessedness are upon the same persons and that either to them that are of faith or of the works of the Law but it is not by the works of the Law but by faith that they are blessed with faithful Abraham 4 They that are under the curse cannot receive Justification and Life from the Law but they that are under the Law are under the curse 5 God has said that the just shall live by faith but the Law is not of faith that is it does not require faith and propound that way of salvation and life but it requires obedience for it saith He that does them shall live in them 6 If a man do make a Covenant he does disinable himself by his subsequent acts to break it for by his own act he is bound how much more then is the wise God engaged to keep his Covenant who is not as man that he should repent therefore his acts are firm and unchangeable like himself So that the Covenant with Abraham being made 430 years before an after-act in giving the Law cannot make it void 2. Now the Objections follow It will be said that the way of Justification and Salvation by the Law and by the promise are directly contrary or contradictory one to the other the Law is not of saith if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise so that Justification and Salvation cannot be by them both they cannot stand together and therefore it should seem that God did repent of his promise to Abraham and disanulled it or else why would he for four hundred and thirty years after reveal the Law as a quite contrary way to Heaven one by doing and the other by believing It should seem therefore that the Law doth make the promise of God of none effect or at least that God would have both stand together For if a
sprinkled upon the Book and upon all the people and all things under the Law were cleansed and sanctified by blood Exod. 24.23 therefore the Law in the administration of it unto them was never intended by God to set forth a Covenant of Works but it was a Covenant of Grace and is usually called a Covenant Deut. 29.10 11. They stood to enter into Covenant with God that he might establish them to be a people to himself and that he might be unto them a God Deut. 26.17 18 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and he hath avouched thee to be his people So that the Law was given by Moses in Gods intention plainly as a Covenant of Grace unto all those that were able to look upon the intent of God therein 2 But yet the Lords intention was also that it should be a copy of the Covenant of Works that God made with Adam before his fall which was never wholly blotted out of the mind of man because God would not have that wholly to perish and be forgotten and therefore it was delivered after a sort in the form of the Covenant of Works and in this respect the Lord has made it a handmaid to the Gospel not that the Lord did intend it for a Covenant of Works as if men should attain righteousness and life thereby but as faedus subserviens a subservient Covenant as that which in this manner God would make use of to advance the ends of the Gospel and the new Covenant By all this you see that the Covenant of which Circumcision was a sign and a seal was not the Covenant of Works but was the same that was made with Abraham because the Covenant was the same Circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of Faith and continued amongst the Jews in this Covenant and that Covenant that binds to the observation of the Ceremonial as well as the Moral Law is not a Covenant of Works but the Covenant made upon Mount Sinai did bind to the Ceremonial Law also nor was the Covenant that God made with Moses a Covenant of Works for Moses was Heb. 11.23 a Believer but Exod. 34.27 it is called the Covenant which I made with thee and with all Israel when I stood before the Lord forty days and he wrote the words of the Covenant the ten Commandments But more particularly the Lord did intend to make the Law given upon Mount Sinai a copy of the Covenant of Works and to be materially and for substance the same that he did make with Adam and with all mankind in him in the state of his integrity 1. Death reigned from Adam till Moses Rom. 5. Gen. 4. ult and therefore sin came in and we see that murder was a sin in Cain and publick worship was a duty Men did begin to call upon the name of the Lord so that the Law was in the World before Moses and it was not only written in the hearts of men 2 Pet. 2.5 So Beza Gen. 6.5 but it was taught in the publick Ministery before Moses for Noah was the Preacher of Righteousness and in the Ministry of the Word we know that the Spirit of God did strive with men Gen. 6.3 The word in the Hebrew is to strive in judgment and by way of argument for conviction so that the Law was given to Adam and Noah and Abraham as well as unto Moses and was for substance the same 2. It is given in the form of a Covenant of Works with a this do and thou shalt live and so it was afterwards by Christ and by the Prophets also preached it was to the carnal Jews plainly a Covenant of Works not in Gods intention but by their own corruption they going about to establish their own righteousness Rom. 10.3 and not subjecting themselves to the righteousness of God it is set forth to them as a Covenant of Works Now if the Lord will not give it as a Covenant why does he not propound it as a rule and lay down the precepts without any such terms of a Covenant as if men should attain life by it when he did never intend to deliver it as a Covenant in which men should attain life by doing but by believing Thus the Lord did that the terms of the first Covenant might be promulgated to the World and that they that did still desire to be under the Law might not plead ignorance of the terms that God required in the Law if they did expect life and happiness thereby 3. Though I say it be for substance and materially the same yet in many circumstances it differs from Adams Covenant for this was a Covenant of such promises and sanctions annexed to it as were not in the Covenant made with Adam and a Covenant confirmed by blood and thereby sanctified which Adams Covenant never had and therefore though it did for substance agree yet in many things there was a difference This Covenant given unto Adam in a state of Innocency and for substance renewed upon Mount Sinai when it was by sin wholly obliterated and blotted out God has made a handmaid or foedus subserviens a Covenant subservient to the Gospel it is Hagar Gal. 4.23 but the Covenant of Grace is Sarah and it is given in the hand of a Mediator not only by Moses but by Christ also for Christ delivered the Law to them Act. 7.38 Moses was in the Wilderness with the Angel who spake to him in Mount Sinai and with our fathers and what Angel was it but Christ he that saith I am the God of Abraham and he that was also tempted in the Wilderness and the Apostle says We are come to Jesus whose voice then shook the earth in the giving of the Law 1 Cor. 10.4 Heb. 12.25 26. it was his voice and then by an enumeration of particulars how the Lord has made every part of the Law as it is materially the first Covenant a servant to the Gospel for the discovery of sin the Law entred that the offence might abound and the Apostle says Rom. 5.20 I had not known sin but by the Law and also for the conviction of Conscience and the imputation of sin Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no Law and for the condemnation of sin that it may be a Schoolmaster to bring the sinner unto Christ the avenger of blood Gal. 3.10 a killing letter and the ministration of death to kill them and hew them and it restrains sin and puts a bridle upon a man and is a means of conversion the curse of the Law is sanctified and the threatnings sweet when the curse is taken out death has no sting the grave has no victory and it is to all under the second Covenant a rule a companion and a counsellor The Law is to be considered as I told you two ways 1 Largely as containing all the Doctrine delivered upon Mount Sinai and all things that may
conceive it was a body that was given him by the Father 2 There was Union from the Father and therefore there is a grace of Union as to us in Mystical Union it is the Father made up the match between us and Christ and we are united unto him for ever so in the Personal and Hypostatical Union it is the Father that made up the match and made the two Natures to become one Person and therefore it is said Luk. 1.35 That holy thing that is born shall be called the Son of God for it was in obedience to the Father that he did come to take this body into Union it is true he did take the seed of Abraham but it was by the Fathers command Heb. 2.16 Heb. 10.7 and in obedience to him and therefore he says A body hast thou prepared me and therefore he did take it upon himself as he did his sufferings The cup that his Father gave him he did drink and so in him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily 3. There is also the grace of Unction God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Joh. 3.34 Jesus of Nazareth whom God has anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power As it pleased the Father in him should all fulness dwell as the Sun of Righteousness and as the fountain of life and this is not in him only as God but as Mediator but all this is still as it pleased the Father acts of his free-grace 4. Assistance in this great work it is true that Christ was God and able to raise himself 1 Joh. 5.11 and did quicken himself and did overcome death and spoiled Principalities and Powers and triumphed over them openly but yet he doth ascribe all this to the gracious assistance of God the Father it is the Lord that made him a promise that he should go through with his work and Christ doth strengthen himself by exercising faith upon the Promises of God the Father who promised Isa 42.4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement in the earth I the Lord have called thee in righteousness I will hold thee by the hand that is by a mighty assistance and support and I will keep thee c. and with these Christ helps himself by exercising faith upon them I will trust in thee he is near that justifies me Isa 50.8 Who will contend with me the Lord is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal 16.8 9 10. therefore my heart is glad and my flesh shall rest in hope for thou will not leave my soul in Hell i. e. in the grave under the power and condemnation of that sin and wrath that now is upon me nor suffer my body to see corruption but thou wilt shew me the path of life c. And Psal 22. he strengthens his faith by experience of his forefathers Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou deliveredst them So that Christs assistance in all his managing of the work of the Covenant is wholly from the free-grace of God the Father and therefore in all the business of it Christ had recourse unto his Father by prayer continually 5. Acceptance It is true that Christ as his Person was in worth and value answerable unto all the Elect of God and beyond them so there was a worth and price in all that he did in his suffering answerable unto whatever the Law and Justice of God did require God did abate him nothing he payed the uttermost farthing else there could not have been satisfaction Isa 63.6 for it must be redditio aequivalentis pro aequivalenti it was a full satisfaction God did abate him nothing in this but God made our sins to meet upon him he did not abate him one sin and being made sin he did not abate him any part of the curse And what mercies soever the Lord doth bestow upon us Christ hath paid a valuable price for them because his obedience did deserve and did truly merit at the hand of God whatever the Lord shall bestow upon us to eternity either in Grace here or Glory hereafter it is indeed free unto us and a gift but yet it is unto Christ a purchase and therefore here indeed there is nothing of grace as it were but all is of debt that is Christ did lay down something answerable unto whatever God did either give or forgive But yet here is Grace in the Lords acceptance of all that Christ hath done and suffered for us and the imputation thereof unto us and that the Lord should account this by a Soveraign imputation to be as done in our stead and for us for the Law did say the soul that sins shall die it is Grace only that brings in the commutation of the Person though there be no commutation of the righteousness that was required of us Heb. 10.10 it is meerly of Grace that the Lord has accepted of Christ for us all the benefits of the Death of Christ as Pardon of Sin Reconciliation with God Justification and Adoption they do all depend upon this will of the Father for had he not appointed this work and thereby declared his acceptation had not he accepted it who was the Judge we could never have had any benefit by it and therefore it is by his will alone that all this is made over unto us there was free-grace abundantly in his acceptation By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 Joh. 6.38 by the knowledge of him and faith in him for of such a knowledge it is meant I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me the meaning is not as if Christ came unwillingly but that his Fathers will was first in this work and so much in it that the thing that Christ did principally aim at was to please his Father and to do his will therein Now because Christs great aim was to do his Fathers will and to please his Father doing all by appointment from him he knew he hath acceptance with him for though Christ had paid the price it was free with God to accept it or no. 6. There is a reward that is given unto Christ for all the services that he does perform He hath a name above every name Phil. 2.9 10. and a seed Isa 53. and a glory He being set on the right hand of the Majesty on high 1 Pet. 1. ult Angels and Principalities and Powers being made subject unto him and this the Lord hath given him as a reward of his service I will not now speak unto that Question put by some Divines Whether Christ did merit for himself which our Divines do deny in this sense as being the great end why he did come into the world to merit for his Elect-ones because the Scripture saith God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Joh. 3.16 And to us a Child is born to us a son is
given Isa 9.6 And Rom. 5. Herein was the love of Christ that when we were enemies he died for us And Joh. 17.19 For their sakes I sanctifie my self But yet it cannot be denied that the Lord did give glory unto Christ as that which he promised as a reward of his obedience only it was of Grace to appoint it and of Grace to accept it and so by consequence of Grace to reward it 7. And this will appear at the last day that all that Christ hath and doth is from free-grace because the Kingdom that he hath received he must give up then unto God the Father 1 Cor. 15.24 He did receive a Kingdom at the beginning and had a gracious manifestation of it when he did ascend up into Heaven All power is given him in Heaven and in Earth Dan. 7.14 and when the Persecuting Monarchies be taken down there shall be given him a Kingdom which shall not be destroyed but all this shall be given up to the Father at the last day Not that Christ shall cease as Mediator to be the Head of the Church and to have an influence into them in glory God doing all by a Head for I conceive that the Mystical Union is eternal as well as the Hypostatical and that a man under the Covenant of Grace shall never stand before God in his own righteousness to eternity but as he is justified by the righteousness of Christ now by a righteousness imputed so he shall ever be for as here he is accepted of God for his Masters Grace so he shall hereafter enter into his Masters joy but Christ shall give up the Church which is his Kingdom and the present manner of Government of it and shall lay it all down and make it appear before Men and Angels that whatever he hath done it has been as his Fathers servant to please him and to do his will and shall after the day of Judgement which is the last act of his Kingly Office give up his account to him which shall be giving up of the Kingdom to God that so God may be all in all that is have the glory not only of all the glory of the Saints but of all the glory of Christ also and have his Grace honoured as the fountain of all and it shall be manifested to all the world that even the merit of Christ is after a sort Gratia inviscerata Grace inviscerated the Kingdom shall so return unto God as it is now committed and appropriated unto Christ Joh. 5.22 c. The Father judgeth no man and yet Heb. 12.22 he is called God the Judge of all the Father judgeth in the Son but the Son is the person to whom the execution and dispensation of all judgement is committed now he rules his Church by the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments and the supplies of his Spirit by degrees perfecting his Image begun in his Members and by the sword of his mouth destroying his enemies and so he shall do till the Resurrection of the Dead and then after a sort this Kingdom shall cease he shall no more exercise the Office of a Mediator in compassionating defending and interceding for his Church and then this glory he shall publickly â—â—sign before Men and Angels into the hand of his Father as having done all as his servant and he himself as a part of that great Church of the first-born shall appear subject to the Father as having done all by his command and God shall be all in all and have the glory not only of the salvation of the Saints but of the exaltation of his Son also yet so as Christ shall reign for ever as God co equal with the Father and also as Mediator shall be the Head of the Church as glorified for ever Vse 1 § 3. Let us from hence learn that God is willing to be reconciled unto sinners and to exalt his Grace therein for he is first in the reconciliation the Covenant of reconciliation began in him his love had no motive or foundation but within it self he doth it freely and â—or his own sake from the beginning to the end from the foundation to the top-stone there â—s nothing that is primarily active in our Salvation but free-grace he has loved us freely â—hosen us freely freely given his Son freely accepted his obedience for us and imputed it â—o us it is his gift by grace freely given us his Spirit faith and repentance free Rom. 5.18 Phil. 1.29 Gods works are free Ephes 2.10 and Salvation free For by Grace we are saved through faith Tit. 3.5 Even when he does reward our obedience it is free Hos 10.12 We sow in righâ—eousness and reap in mercy The unbelief of a mans heart is in nothing more seen than in jeaâ—ous and suspicious thoughts of God and therein doth the enmity of a mans spirit appear when man distrusts him as an enemy now his intention is to be reconciled and he hath used the most effectual remedy sent his Son and committed unto us the Ministry of reconciliation it was a work that his heart was much in How did it please David when Joab made the motion of bringing home Absalom again because his heart went out to him So it is here could you read the heart of God you think it may be Christ is willing and that he is compassionate towards you but that the Father is hard to be reconciled and Christ hath much ado to plead with him and perswade him but I tell you God is in Christ reconciling the world Christ is a fruit of the Love of God to you Joh. 3.16 Christ doth but his Fathers will when he brings you unto God and his Father loves to have it so for the Father himself loves you be assured thy unworthiness cannot hinder him for he loves freely Cast thy soul upon this free-grace in the Son anchor thou upon this Rock and remember that all glory that is given to Christ and all acts done by him are to be to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.10 11. It is required not only of the Saints that they close with the Grace of God conveyed by the Covenant but with that Grace that made the Covenant and is the foundation of it and say Here I will rest as the Lepers if free-grace save me I shall live if it will reject me I can but die it is free which way soever he deals with me there is not free-will in me that can make me differ Vse 2 2. How should this draw in our hearts to close with this Love and inflame them after the Lord There is nothing doth inflame the soul towards God but impressions and reflections of the love of God unto us 1 The great business of this Covenant is to win your Love not only that he may be reconciled unto you but that you may be reconciled unto him again 2 Consider what a grief it is to a man to lose his Love Love will be
paid in no coyn but Love again 3 The love and free-grace of God can do man no good unless it doth work in you love to him again and as he loves you freely so do you love him thankfully as no benefit that comes from him is saving to you unless it proceed from love so there is no duty that comes from you is pleasing unto him unless it proceed from love and the proper fruit of this love is to work in you love to him again 4 If you despise his Love you shall surely feel his wrath and there is nothing in the world that doth inflame the wrath of God and make his fire burn so fiercely as Grace despised and Love turned into wantonness For if Love will not win you what will Vse 3 3. How should this comfort us when we do turn to God and specially how should it encourage a back-sliding sinner to return No man hath such misgiving thoughts as he hath Erubescit conscientia erubescit oratio c. Tert. Hos 14.4 but yet remember he will receive you graciously Return you back-sliding children he will heal your back-sliding and love you freely There is no sin so great that free-grace cannot pardon there is no mercy so good that free-grace cannot bestow and therefore above all things beg of the Lord that the apprehensions of this Love may be shed abroad in your hearts it is this only that can make the promise sure because it is of Grace this will assist us in all duties arm us against all temptations sustain us in all conditions answer all objections that can be made against the peace and comfort of the soul and truly when all works in a man cease and the guilt of sin doth wear out the testimony of blood and the filth of sin the testimony of water and the soul hath nothing to fly to he is then fain to cast anchor here rest upon the Grace of God in the Covenant who promises mercy freely loves for his own sake and because he will to shew the absoluteness of his will and the unchangeableness of his Counsel towards poor sinners for ever Cogitatio suffulta est as de Deiu upon the place Isa 26.3 and here the soul is staid in the greatest desertions and darkness that can be and there is a sweet peace that follows in his soul and there is nothing can stay sinking thoughts and spirits like this when apprehensions of free-grace are put under a soul to support it That there is nothing can separate from the love of God that being the first cause there can nothing arise de novo that can make it void and of no effect CHAP. II. The Covenant of Grace as made primarily with Christ the second Adam Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ SECT I. The Covenant made with Christ Personal in regard of his Office § 1. WE have formerly spoken of the Person that made this Covenant whose Covenant it is and who had a chief hand therein it is the Lords Covenant We do now come unto the second thing and that is the Persons that are taken into this Covenant with whom this Covenant was made The first Covenant was made with the first Adam and with all the posterity that came from him by natural generation and is therefore fitly called Foedus Naturae the Covenant of Nature The second Covenant is made with the second Adam and with all those that are in him and because it belongs not unto all therefore is stiled Foedus Gratiae the Covenant of Grace and this Scripture holds forth a threefold subordination of the persons received into this Covenant 1 Christ 2 those that are in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum in loc Rom. 2.4 3 their seed also The Apostle had proved in the former part of the Chapter that men are justified by faith only and not by the works of the Law and that the same way of Justification that there was unto Abraham God did intend to justifie all the Elect by for Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness and he was herein the common father of all that should believe For they that are of faith the same are the children of Abraham the father of the Circumcision and of the Uncircumcision also and therefore he received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised Now Abraham being herein a common root and father unto both Jews and Gentiles there was but one way of Justification for both and that for ever And whereas it is objected that Abraham was justified by faith before the Law was given but the Law being published and that in the form of a Covenant this do and live this seems to disannul and to make void the promise and the ancient way of Justification of Abraham and to set up another Now the Apostle comes to prove the stability and unchangeableness of this Covenant from the manner and custom amongst men and their transactions one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word in the Greek signifies both a Covenant and a Testament and therefore we render it for both one in the Text and the other in the Margent pactionem so Beza Testamentum so the Vulgar Now if a man make a bargain and confirm ingross and seal it and deliver it to the benefit of another it becomes unchangeable and irrevocable to the person that did it and he is bound to it and cannot revoke it or if a man make a Testament and then die it is amongst men counted sacred and no man can diminish or add thereunto If men whose Wills are mutable who may err and repent do by their own acts disenable themselves to revoke their Covenants much more the great God who is in his Wisdom infinite able to foresee all inconveniencies that nothing can arise de novo that he knew not of before and who is in his purposes unchangeable and cannot repent surely if he make a Covenant it is sure and stable that no after-acts of his shall make it void and of none effect but to Abraham and his seed was the Covenant thus made long before the Law was given therefore the Law given afterward cannot make it void and if the Covenant be the same then the way of Justification and Blessedness must be still the same Here are three things to be expounded 1 What is meant by the Promises 2 How Abraham is here to be considered in receiving of the Promises 3 What is meant by Christ here this one seed to whom the Promises were made 1. By Promises the whole Covenant of Grace is meant He doth call it the Covenant in the former verse and the Promise in the singular number in the verse following and the reason is because the main of the Covenant doth
populi nomine fidem obedientiam So that the righteousness of the Covenant being only to be found in him and to be made ours by imputation and a gracious acceptation as we are one with him thence it doth plainly appear that the Covenant is made with him in the first place and we come to have an interest in the everlasting righteousness of it at second hand as we are one with him and so we are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. last Quest But is not the righteousness of the Covenant required of us also Answ It is true that perfect obedience in nature and life is required of us as well as of Adam in the state of innocency and so far as we come short of it we sin but yet in the Covenant of Grace it is not required as the righteousness of the Covenant and as that righteousness by which I am to stand righteous before God as afflictions in the Covenant of Grace are not laid upon the Saints for satisfaction to God but for correction c. but it is required and that perfectly 2 Cor. 7.10 That we should cleanse our selves from all filthiness and perfect holiness in the fear of God to manifest the truth of our union with Christ The branch cannot bear fruit of it self Joh. 15.5 without me saith Christ you can do nothing and you do hereby manifest that you are one with me As James 2.24 Abraham was justified by works according to James a man is justified not by Faith only and yet Paul saith that a man is justified by Faith alone without the works of the Law Rom. 4. A mans faith doth justifie his person before God and a mans works do justifie his faith before men and it is that we may shew forth the vertues of him that hath called us 1 Pet. 2.9 and that it may appear that our union with Christ is not a notion and no more but that it is real and powerful and our Faith is lively because it is a working Faith and this righteousness now imputed unto us as we are in him he will never leave till he hath perfected in us Ephes 5.27 That he may present us unto himself without spot or wrinkle this is a work that he hath undertaken unto his Father but yet so as the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found in him alone and made to be imputed only as we are one with him in Gods account and acceptation so that still the Covenant is made with him primarily because in him only the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found and comes unto us at second hand 4. All the promises of the Covenant are made unto him primarily and unto us only at second hand and as we are one with him they are made first unto him and therefore they are called the sure mercies of David and Ephes 1.3 Isa 55.3 God has blessed us with all spiritual mercies in heavenly places in Christ 2 Cor. 1.20 they are made in him that is unto us as we are in him and so they are accomplished If the promises of God were by deed of gift only from the free grace of God they might be made unto us immediately for God may give to whom he will but they are all of them a jointure or an endowment upon a Marriage which can neither be either rationally or legally claimed without an interest in the person All the Promises are as the lines and circumference they all meet in union with Christ as the center for they are all made unto Christ and unto us only so far as we are members of Christ Gal. 3. last Being Christs we are become heirs of the Promise and no otherwise God deals with a people in this as a Father takes an inheritance of a Child in his infancy or it may be unborn and he keeps it in his own hands for him till he comes to years and then puts him into possession thereof So it is with the Saints they are maintained a long time in the womb of Gods election before they are brought forth in a work of calling and regeneration and being called they are not capable of receiving of many of the promises they are in their infancy but yet these promises are conveyed from God to Christ as an inheritance which he receives as a publick person a common Father in their behalf which in Gods time he will put them also in possession of 5. All the graces of the Covenant be first bestowed upon him The Spirit as the Oil is poured first upon the head and afterwards it runs down upon the skirts of his garments Psal 133.2 So Psal 45.7 He is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows and 1 John 2.20 We receive an unction from the holy one Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we receive grace for grace 1 Joh. 5.11 God has given us eternal life and that life is in his son It is laid up in him as in a common treasury even the whole Image of God that he doth intend to bestow upon us in grace and glory it is given unto us and laid up in him for us but yet it is in him and not in us he has received the spirit without measure he is the Son of righteousness Isa 6.57 and our healing is in his wings There are as you may see three steps or degrees of conveyance in this life 1 The living Father as the fountain 2 Christ saith I live by the Father And it is given him to have life in himself as the chanel or way of conveyance 3 You live by me All the graces of the Covenant do actually belong unto him and unto us as we are one with him and therefore it is commonly called the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as that which is originally in him as in the fountain or principle and conveyed unto us only by union as we are members of his body so we have an influence from him as the head and no otherwise 6. All the priviledges of the Covenant do primarily belong to him and unto us only as we are in him he is the Son and from him we receive power to become the Sons of God he is the heir Jo. 1.12 Psal 8.4 Heb. 2. and we co-heirs with him Rom. 8.17 He has put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen c. This is spoken primarily and principally of the man Christ Jesus he is called Gods servant and in him we are servants also he is a King and a Priest and we are made by him Kings and Priests unto God the Father Rev. 1.6 he is the first beloved and we in him he first accepted and we in him he first justified and we in him he first overcomes and we in him we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our Testimony we sit together in heavenly places He judges the world and we in him and when we come to
Christ is the fountain of Consolation and is therefore called in the abstract the Consolation of Israel Luke 2.25 and the more immediate the Lord appears in ordinances the more sweet and powerful they are as it shall be in the Ordinances of the later dayes Rev. 21.22 I saw no Temple there all dark discoveries of God that were in former ages shall be done away and yet it is not spoken of Heaven for vers 3. it is the Tabernacle of the Lord is with men and a Tabernacle is to be removed and no abiding habitation vers 23. The glory of the Lord and the Lamb shall be the Light thereof v. 23. and therefore no need of the Sun or the Moon that is of any creature influences or comforts but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucerna such a light as doth not make it a perfect day it is a light that doth argue its night still in comparison of what it shall be when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise in glory and yet this more immediate presence made them both more sweet and more powerful and that makes glory so infinitely sweet because the comfort that we shall have there shall come in immediately from the Lord here though Ordinances and Providences and Comforts be sweet yet they are conveyed by the creature and therefore they lose much of their sweetness and glory but then he will make us to drink of the Rivers of his pleasures Now for a mans comfort to come in from Christ immediately by partaking with him in the same Covenant and the promises thereof to have it in the same Fountain with the Lord of Life the consolation of Israel it doth very much sweeten them unto the soul and therefore it 's a Christians wisdom to drink his comforts as near the Fountain as he can and the greater cordials they will prove and the more reviving and therefore be you much in these things and your souls shall live they are the most quickning and reviving considerations that are in the whole Book of God To be much in creature comforts whether in delighting in them or depending upon them 2 Chron. 16.12 is a snare It 's said of Asa That in his sickness he sought not to the Lord and the reason is given because his heart was wholly in the Physicians and his hope and expectation from them But to be in these consolations is your duty because as Hezekiah observes Esa 38.15 by or upon these things men live by such experiments as these are by such promises and in all these is the life of my spirit And this was Davids consolation at the last when he came to dye 2 Sam. 23.5 2 Sam. 23.5 Though my House is not so with God yet he has made with me an everlasting Covenant in all things ordered and sure there is a threefold property of the Covenant that he takes comfort in it was everlasting it was sure it was ordered in all things the word in the Hebrew is the same with that in the Proverbs chap. 16. 1. The ordering and disposing of the heart is from the Lord and the word is used in a double sense in the Scripture Prov. 9.2 sometimes for the furnishing of a Table and for the ordering and marshalling of an Army 1 Sam. 4. they put the Battel in array every one keeps his rank and so it is in this Covenant every thing keeps its place Christ is first in it and then faith in its place and the Saints in their places and there is much comfort to be taken from this order of the Covenant and this will appear to us in several particulars for God is not the God of confusion but order and this being the greatest and the most glorious work of God there is the fullest and the most perfect order to be imagined and therein the wisdom and goodness of God doth exceedingly appear 1. It 's a great honour that the Lord has put upon his people that they should be conformed unto the image of his Son so that they should stand before him in the Covenant of his Son and have in their place and degree the same right and claim to mercy that Christ has The Scripture makes Christ the Sun in the Firmament of all excellency and the more any thing partakes of him the more glorious it is as the second Temple was and Johns ministerie the Law and the Prophets were till John but afterwards the Gospel comes which was a clearer discovery of Christ and they were all eclipsed though the Law had much more outward pomp and glory yet because it did discover Christ but darkly in comparison of the Gospel therefore that is said to exceed in glory and so in Scripture the Saints do ascribe glory one to another as they are in Christ and according to their priority in Christ as the Apostle saies Rom. 16.7 Who were in Christ before me and Paul saith in another place I was like one that was born out of due time because last of all he appeared unto me 1 Cor. 15. and therefore Austin saith It abated his earnest desire of some principal part of his own good works because nomen Christi non erat ibi the name of Christ was not there had the Lord put man fallen under the Covenant of the Angels that fell not it had been an honour and put them into the same condition with them but it is far beyond it to put them under the same Covenant that was made with him whom the Angels worship and the highest honour that we have by Christ is our union with him and our legal union standing before God in the same Covenant with him is the highest part of that honour for our natural union bearing with him the same Image doth flow from it It 's a great honour to stand before God in the righteousness of Christ but the ground thereof is because we stand before God under the Covenant of Christ the inheritance of Christ is in the Saints Ephes 1. they are therefore said to be the glory of Christ as Christ is the glory of the Father his glory shall be at the last to have a large and numerous posterity to have a beautiful and a glorious spouse without spot or wrinkle or any such thing and what is it that makes us have relation to Christ as a Spouse It is taking hold of his Covenant and therefore the Covenant of Grace is said to be a marriage Covenant And what is it makes the match between any but consent Hos 2 19. And therefore it 's generally concluded by our Divines amongst the essentials of marriage for parties to give mutual consent according unto that received rule of the Civil Law where there is not the consent of both parties it ought not to be held legal Matrimony There may be a wooing and a ravishment but truly and properly there can be no Marriage without consent It is therefore a consent joyntly
his wisdom and industry could not find out And what is that secret of the Covenant The Covenant is the secret and it is with them that he may make it known unto them therefore there is a mysterie in the dutys of the Covenant that is not revealed unto all but it is unto them that fear him and the Lord will do it suitably unto our frame as our grace comes in by constant supplies of the Spirit of God so doth our knowledge also and all by a daily increase of light from the Spirit and this is by a frequent repetition of the same act of faith and therefore the people of God love to repeat it and thereby they see farther into these mysteries from day to day and they do the more exceedingly prize the mercy of the Covenant as the greatest mercy they can injoy 3. How is this work to be done and what is it for a man to renew his Covenant 1. He that will renew his Covenant with God must be deeply sensible of the breach of Covenant and of the unfaithfulness of his heart therein It should deeply humble us to consider that no bonds should hold us If there were no other tye upon us but that of our creation that we had our being from him and that out of nothing but when unto this natural and necessary bond we have added a voluntary and have consented unto the Lord yet now for us to forget the Covenant of our God and prove perfidious to him and draw back is this your return unto God for his Grace in taking you into Covenant and who doth always remember Covenant mercies for you even then when you forget duty to him Is this your requital of the Lord who in the performance of the Covenant did not spare his Son when he cryed that he might be saved God was so resolved upon his Covenant with you that the death of his Son was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and he was delighted in it in performance of the grace of the Covenant made with you And also the Lord Christ met with variety of discouragements not only the weight of sin in the guilt of it which he complained of as his own though he knew no sin Psal 40.12 but the wrath of the Father the rage of his enemies the hour and the power of darkness the falshood of his Disciples and yet when he was tempted to come down from the Cross he doth hold it out that he might thereby shew that he loved you to the uttermost and would save you to the utmost And now for you Prov. 20.25 after vows to make inquiry whenas no man doth receed or go back from the Covenant in which he hath ingaged himself without infamy and it 's as odious as for a man to prove false to his friend and betray him and as unfair dealing it is as for a Servant to run away from his Master or a Soldier from his Commander and as David says by way of reproach he hath broken his Covenant and laid his hand upon him that was at peace with him yea for the Wife of a mans bosom to betray a man and to forget the Covenant of her God for a man to forget his Oath that he took at his Baptism and as the Jews did labour to make their circumcision uncircumcision and to do this unto a God that was never a Wilderness to you nor ever gives you cause to repent of your ingagement surely hereby you see not only your perfidiousness and unthankfulness but also fully to make forfeiture of all Covenant mercies to bring upon your selves all the curses of the Covenant Gen. 2.28 Num. 14.34 and to put God upon breach of Covenant with you who have behaved your selves so unfaithfully towards him and thereby you acknowledge though you have subscribed your names in the register of Zion yet you deserve unto your perpetual ignominy to have them expunged thence and to be written in the earth and given up to an everlasting forgetfulness So it was with Josiah when he made his Covenant his heart was tender and he did humble himself before the Lord for their Covenant-breaking 2 Chron. 34.27 31. Neh. 10. And Ezra 10. it doth follow upon a great humiliation a man that is not sensible of and his heart not affected with the breach of Covenant that man is not fit to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 2. It must be with a resolution of heart to break all other Covenants men are said Isa 28.15 To make a Covenant with death and hell that is they were as secure Isa 28.15 and as fearless of it as a man that hath a person in Covenant with him whom he looks upon as his friend and fears him not and thus they make a Covenant with sin and ingage themselves to serve other gods and so when the people renewed the Covenant in Joshuah's time you see the Command you have chosen the Lord to serve him Josh 24.22 put away therefore your strange gods and so the command was to put away their strange wives Ezra There are cords of vanity and there are bonds of iniquity by which men do bind themselves Now all these Covenants must be broken if a man come to renew his Covenant with the Lord for the answer you must give to the Covenant must be the answer of a good conscience and that Conscience that reserves to it self any league with sin unbroken 1 Pet 3.21 is not a good conscience before God a Covenant that is sinful is in it self void and a nullity because in every such ingagement there is dolus deceit and error which are destroying to the nature of a Covenant which should be free and deliberate and therefore it is in all such Covenants as with Herods Oath they bind to nothing but repentance for Juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis and therefore a man must resolve to break Covenant with all sinful ingagements if he do intend to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 3. A man must know the terms and read over the Articles of the Covenant anew for no wise man will set his hand to an obligation of which he is not well acquainted with the condition and if there were no other cause nor ingagement upon man to know the will of God and their own duty this were enough they have bound themselves to serve him and therefore by the same Covenant they are bound to know the rules by which he will be served for Deo serviendum non est ex arbitrio sed ex imperio so doth Josiah 2 Chron. 34.30 he caused to be read in the ears of the people all the words of the book of the Covenant and then he stood up and made a Covenant before the Lord to perform all the words of the Covenant written in the Book 4. It must be with a free and full consent of heart for the Covenant in the renewing of it must
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
they have no interest in it in respect of the spiritual priviledges and saving Graces of the same Covenant 3. There 's a two-fold Faith that the Scripture speaks of there is true and saving justifying faith which is call'd the Faith of Gods Elect and there is a temporary faith or a faith which is in profession only Math. 13. Heb. 6.4 Act. 8. and not in truth as we see in the stony ground and the temporary Believers and in Simon Magus and as it 's true saving faith that doth give a man an interest in the graces of the Covenant and makes a man Abrahams seed in reference unto grace so there is a visible faith a profession only that which only men are able to judge of to whom the power of the Keys for the dispensing of Ordinances are committed and this gives a man a title to the visible and external Priviledges of the Covenant in for◠Ecclesiae as we see Simon Magus profession of Faith was ground enough for the Apostles to administer Baptism unto him the Seal of the Covenant though afterwards he did quickly manifest that he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Though therefore the Gentiles can never claim Abrahams Covenant as his seed according to the flesh nor many of them a spiritual right as not having the saving faith of Abraham yet they may claim relation to Abraham as an Ecclesiastical father and from a profession of the faith of Abraham may claim a true and a real interest in the external priviledges of Abrahams Covenant though they cannot pretend to his saving Graces and spiritual priviledges having never had any experience of a work of Conversion and Regeneration Quest 8 § 8. Why will the Lord have the Covenant run by way of entail in reference to the outward Priviledges of it and not in reference to the inward Graces of it The Covenant that was made with Adam was to convey the one as well as the other and the image that he had received he was to convey to his Posterity and the promise of Life spiritual and Life eternal was made unto his Posterity in case of their Obedience as well as unto himself and therefore as all dyed in him so all should have lived in him Nos omnes in Adam◠peccavimus in eo sententiam damnationis accepimus omnes Bern. S. 1. de Advent So that by the first Covenant Adam might have conveyed not only outward Priviledges but inward Graces also and whereas now by reason of the fall all Mankind do convey death to their Children Tertul. but not life and so they are become non tà m parentes quà m peremptores not so much parents as destroyers therefore seeing that the first Covenant is broken why doth not the Lord only take the Elect into Covenant and extend the Covenant of Grace unto none else and so make it with particular persons as the Covenant of the Angels did run or if he will make it to descend from Father to Son why doth he not convey the Graces of the Covenant from Parents to Posterity as well as the outward priviledges of the Covenant Why does not the Covenant run for all the Benefits of it as well as for some only the internals of the Covenant as well as the externals Answ 1. The Lord will not have the Graces of the Covenant entail'd from Parents unto Posterity 1 Because the Curse of the first Covenant is now become ex traduce by propagation and all the Posterity of Adam do now as naturally convey the Curse by reason of their broken Covenant as Adam should have conveyed life and blessing if he had stood in his integrity and therefore whatever the immediate Parents be Adams sin comes alike upon all whether they be godly or wicked and the child of a godly Parent is as truly and as deeply guilty of the sin of Adam in his birth as the child of the most wicked man that is that is an entail left upon all mankind that can never be cut off while there is a man born upon earth Rom. 5.12 for in Adam all dye because in him all sinn'd and therefore the children of godly Parents as well as others are born the children of wrath Gregor so that Timothy though there was faith unfeigned that dwelt in his Grandmother and his Mother yet he himself must be converted by the ministry of Paul or else he had no benefit by the faith of his Ancestors Rom. 3.29 and thence the Apostle saith We look upon the Jews as a people holy unto the Lord and the only visible Church upon earth and the Gentiles as strangers unto God who follow'd dumb Idols as they were led and yet in reference to their natural condition the Apostle says there is no difference for all men have sinn'd and come short of the glory of God and therefore all in their births are alike corrupted with the sin of Adam that being imputed but the personal sins of their Parents are not imputed unto them and therefore they are said Joh. 1.13 to be born not of blood that is Joh. 1.13 not by a fleshly generation so some or else as Calvin it is bloods ut longam generis successionem melius exprimeret though Grace has continued long in that line and has as it were run in a blood and comes upon a man by succession as it were for many generations as it was with Timothy c. nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man Idem significat c. If the parents be godly and they never so earnestly desire that their children might be godly also as it was Abrahams desire for Ismael that he might live in Gods sight it was spoken of living before God as in Covenant with him as it appears by the answer that the Lord returns unto him but yet for all that his desire is not granted as concerning him though he saith I will make of Ismael a great nation and many nations shall come from him yet in Isaac shall thy covenant-seed be called and with him will I establish my Covenant c. therefore the Covenant in respect of the grace of it can never be entailed upon posterity because every man begets a son in the likeness of the first Adam as he himself did immediately after his fall Gen. 5.3 and thereby conveyed the image that by sin he had brought upon himself and his posterity 2 Because under the second Covenant it 's the Election of God that takes place and puts all the difference between men and men between whom in themselves there is no difference It 's true that it 's a great dispute Whether the Lord in Election did consider man in massa pura or corrupta and I conceive it was an act of Soveraignty and therefore God respected ma◠in massa pura as a creature and not in massa corrupta as a sinner as the potter hath power over the clay of
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
of his love and yet with all this he is never satisfied There is a further promise and that is an inheritance with the Saints in light and therefore he can never rest satisfied till he come there he forgets that which is behind and does reach forward to that which is before Phil. 3.12 Quest But how should we do to attain promises 1. Be sensible of your want of them we should look over all the Paradise of the promises and know that there is not a tree nor a fruit in it but it 's good for food the fruit is for meat and the leaves for medicine See how far thou dost come short look upon duty in the latitude and extent of it for obedience must be universal so you must do upon the promises that your faith may be universal also There should be always in our eyes a sight of something before unto which we should reach out our selves Phil. 3.12 God doth never accomplish promises but he doth use to make men see their need of them before-hand they say Lord increase our faith and Christ shews them the excellency of faith Luk. 17.5 and their necessity thereof that by this means raising their apprehensions of it and shewing to them their necessity of it they might be prepared to receive it as the Lord was ready to bestow it we go without many promises because we see no necessity of them and therefore our souls sit down quietly without them 2. Get a strong faith for it was by faith that they did attain the promises Heb. 11.33 and it must be such a faith as must stay the heart and fix the eye upon the promise and thereby support it under all the seeming oppositions and improbabilities or impossibilities unto an eye of reason or an arm of flesh it must cause a man to close his eyes against them all in the matter of justification there is in faith an exclusive resolution against all other ways and means of righteousness whatsoever so there is in this also against all things that from sense and reason may be offered or pretended to the soul to weaken the power of the promise of God therein Rom. 4.19 20. In Abraham there was enough that he might have taken in to have discouraged him but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not admit a dispute he did not take in a consultation of flesh and blood when men have so consulted flesh and blood their faith has failed them God had promised his people a deliverance but they say our bones are dry and our hope is past Ezech. 37.11.12 we have no more reason to expect the accomplishment of such a promise than that we should see dry bones revive and arise out of their graves And the people of God have had their hearts always to fail them when they have looked off from the promise as Peter when the wind arose and he begins to sink he crys out Lord save me and Martha saith By this time he stinketh and the Israelites say The sons of Anak are there c. As whensoever the people of God begin to turn away their eyes from the holy commandment then their hearts fail them in point of duty so it is when they look off from the holy promise then their heart fails them in matter of faith and they cast away their confidence for every promise carries with it an obligation laid upon the power of God to accomplish it our faith gives us a title to the promise and the promise binds the omnipotence of God for its accomplishment and therefore it 's said They stopped the mouths of lyons and quencht the violence of the fire Heb. 11.13 and raised the dead to life By acts of Gods omnipotence all this was done yet they are attributed unto their faith as the fruit of it by which the omnipotence of God is ingaged in the work Therefore it was a brave spirit in Luther fit for him that shall attain the promises that when they sought his life by all means that might be at home and abroad and at last raised a war against him that small Chaldean war yet he wrote upon the walls of his Study that speech of David I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord. Psal 118. 3. Be much in prayer for the promise is a kind of a debt and therefore it 's said when God doth perform any promise reddit debita nulli debens c. and it 's prayer that puts this bond in suit before the Throne of Grace Jer. 29.10 12. After seventy years are accomplished in Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return unto this place then shall you call upon me and pray to me and I will hear you and this was the very course that Daniel took Dan. 9.1 2. for we can expect nothing from God in mercy that we do not obtain by prayer he leads his people into their own land by supplications In the consolations that we receive from God he speaks to our hearts and in the supplications that we put up unto God we speak unto his heart and the grounds are these why God will have all promises to be nothing else but the returns of prayer 1. That hereby we may testifie that it 's the will of God that we eye in the mercy and not our own will for it's whatsoever we ask according to his will he hears us There is a natural and a carnal desire of mercies when it 's a mans own will that puts him upon it and there is a spiritual and holy desire of mercies and that is when a man has an eye unto Gods will in the promise to bestow them as well as to his own necessity that requires them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence there is a double importunity in prayer as Luk 11.8 a holy kind of impudency that they will in no wise be put off there 's a being stirred up by the apprehension of necessity Hos 7.14 and a desire of the flesh to attain the thing and so men howl for corn wine and oyl but they are but the crys of beasts and not of Saints and so men ask amiss and attain not as it is in Jam. 1.5 But there is an importunity that is grounded upon the will of God and upon the promise and the soul earnestly desires it because he sees it's agreeable unto the will of God that has promised it it 's not the love of the thing that is so much the ground of his importunity as seeing the will of God in the promise and for this cause the Lord will make the accomplishment of all promises to be the only returns of prayers 2. That hereby we may know that his mercy is free in bestowing of it and that though God has promised it in a way of mercy yet there is no way for us to attain it but in a way of duty
to perform the promise is Gods part and to press God with his promise is our part I will do it for you says tne Lord yet I will be inquired of by you that I may do it for you ask and you shall receive knock and it shall be opened and there is no way that ever any creature could attain any thing of God but this way Upon this very ground Christ himself if he will attain from God he must ask and so 't is with the Angels and so 't is with the Saints in Heaven Dan. 4.17 they cry How long Lord How much more is it to be with dust and ashes 3. That the Lord may honour his own Ordinance and testifie how much he doth delight in the worship of a creature and that thereby he might make it a double mercy For ungodly men to receive blessings as a fruit of Providence unto them it comes always single that is in the thing only but unto a godly man that has it as a fruit of the promise it 's always a double mercy mercy in the thing and mercy to the man not only an accomplishment of Gods promises but the return of the mans prayers the exercise of Gods faithfulness unto us and of our graces towards God and there are no mercies so sweet as those that come in with the exercise of grace in the attaining of them Deum orationibus ambiamus coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus as Tertullian says of the power of the Saints prayers because of his delight in the exercise of their graces And there is no duty wherein the graces of the Saints do act with more life and power than they do in prayer there is magna conjunctio a great concurrence of grace in them as we see it in Abraham in his prayer what strong acts of grace he puts forth Gen. 18. The nearer the soul draws to God the fountain of its life the more lively it works and moves the swifter the nearer the centre and there is no duty in which the soul draws nearer to God than it doth in prayer and hath more immediate communion with him than when he is upon his knees before the Throne of grace 4. And lastly the way to attain promises is a patient waiting for them till the Lords time come for it 's true of promises as it is of prophecies though the vision be for an appointed time Hab. 2.3 yet wait for it for it will come and will not tarry It 's a speech like unto that in Luk. 18.7 8. though he bear long with them yet he will avenge them speedily it may tarry long in respect of the time prefixed by us and may seem long to us but it shall not be long when the time comes that is appointed by God The Lord commonly does in the answering of prayers as he does in the fulfilling of Prophecies it 's a great while before the Prophecy seems to speak or to give any hope of its accomplishment as it was in the deliverance out of Egypt and Babylon but yet when once it begins but to dawn its day immediately in a manner it strangely and suddenly breaks forth that the Saints of God can scarce believe their own eyes they are like unto them that dream And so it is in the return of their prayers also as in the calling of the Jews they are as dry bones and they are scattered here and there all the world over but the bones shall come together and it shall be so suddenly done that the Lord saith A Nation shall be born at once and before Sion travelled she brought forth and so it is in the answer of Prayers as it was with Elijah he prayed seven times and his servant looked and there was nothing and yet he continued praying at last there appeared a Cloud like unto a mans hand and by and by the Heavens were covered over with Clouds and then the rain fell when it begins once to appear that the Clouds do break away a little the Lord doth strangely hasten the work and there is a glorious concurrence and falling in of all causes to its accomplishment there is a time of the Promise's accomplishment Acts 7 1◠and a great part of the Mercy is in the season of it the Lord doth not delay because he is unwilling to bestow it or because the Mercy comes hardly off for he knows that to our hasty Nature bis dat qui citò but the Lord doth defer it that he may improve the Mercy by the season of it for Gods time is best and not ours my time is not yet come though your time be alwayes ready all Christs Miracles were so much the more glorious by the seasons of their putting forth and so are Gods Mercies also the more magnified in coming to us in the fittest time he does wait to be gracious that is that he may bestow the Mercy when we are fittest to receive it and our hearts are best prepared for it As in judgement to a wicked man the Lord does watch over him for evil and he shall be ensnared in an evil time as a Bird in an evil snare judgement shall come upon him when he least expects it and is least prepared for it he shall be cut off as the foam upon the waters Hos 10.7 sicut aquae superiores ferventis ollae Jerome for the word spuma doth signifie a bubble that does arise from heat c. when they are swelled up and hold up their heads on high and be lifted up above the rest of the waters then they shall suddenly be cut off As I say there is a time for judgment that Justice doth watch over men for evil so there is also a time for Mercy that Grace does watch over men for good there is a time for the Promise to bring forth as well as the threatning and therefore it 's said That by Faith and Patience the Saints have inherited the Promises and there is as well a Patience in waiting as in Suffering Zeph. 2.1 2. let Patience have its perfect work in you in this respect also that you may be intire and perfect wanting nothing Hebr. 10.36 But the Soul will be ready to say I could be willing to wait Gods time if I could be sure to attain the Promise at the last but what grounds are there to support and underprop my heart that I shall receive the Promise and not miss of it in the end Now the grounds to assure the Soul thereof are these 1. The faithfulness of God the Promises are therefore confirmed by an Oath Heb. 6.17 that by two immutable things wherein it 's impossible for God to lye we might have strong Consolation Quid est Dei juratio nisi promissi confirmatio Aust. infidelium quaedam increpatio An Oath amongst Men puts an end to Controversie much more should the Oath of God put an end to all Controversie and Disputes in the Soul and
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
Father Son and Spirit in one and the same essence and therefore if any man say a person is something or nothing I say it is something it is Essentia Divina cum proprietate sua hypostatica the Divine Essence with its relative propertie As what is the Father He is God begetting the Son and what is the Son He is God and begotten of the Father c. and so the Father is infinite and the Son infinite because they have all Three an Unity of Essence which is infinite and therefore there is no reason why there should be so much exception against the title of Person as some of the looser sort would seem to take it being a word that doth most fully that I know express the nature of the thing that we can have and most answers the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle Heb. 1.3 Who being the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high but call them either Persons or Subsistences so the thing be the same I shall not contend for the words 3 But suppose that the manner of it we were not able to express yet it is and should be enough unto us that the thing is clearly set down in Scripture and that we walk by grounds of faith and not by reason it is enough to us that there is but one God and yet that Father Son and Holy Spirit are three and are yet said to be one if we could not describe how three are one nor how one is three yet the deep things of God we must not bring unto the rule of our blind crooked and presumptuous reason a quomodo or how in the things of God is hateful unto God and not agreeing to the nature of faith Col. 2.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is very unbeseeming Christians Take heed lest any man spoil you through philosophy the word notes to make a prize of you and carry you away as Pirates do another mans goods and so there is many a man made a prize of at this day Philosophy is nothing in it self but rectified and raised reason and res Dei ratio est Tertullian and whilst reason is subordinate unto Religion and a hand-maid it 's of excellent use but when it will step out of its place and will needs be a Judge in the things of God then it 's vain that man that will bring down the Scripture unto the rules of his own reason will quickly be made a prey of by any seducers Cum de rebus sibi subjectis pronunciat philosophia audienda est Daven sed cùm de rebus ad fidem spectantibus explodenda When philosophy judgeth of things that belong to her let her be heard but when she judgeth of things belonging to faith let her be exploded Dav. And this has heen the true ground of all these Heresies of Arminianism and Socinianism which have especially in these latter ages pester'd the world because they will arraign the highest Truths of God at the Bar of their own blind and presumptuous Reason and Understanding And this is that which in answer to it Justin Martyr often pressed De recta fidei confessione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 375. It becometh the Churches adherents to measure divine things not by humane reason but according to the intention of the Spirits doctrine So having in the same Book affirmed the Union of the two Natures of Christ he addes pag. 382. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you ask me the manner of this Vnion I am not ashamed to say and confess my ignorance therein but rather I glory in this that I do upon the authority of God believe that which my reason cannot comprehend nor my tongue express Vse 2 2. Exercise faith upon all the persons grounded upon these promises and walk in the love of them all and expect the sealing of them all and so much these promises will carry you unto Exercise faith upon all the persons grounded upon these promises they are the great and ultimate objects of faith now faith is imperfect that takes not in all the objects of faith and it 's a greater imperfection for a grace to fail in its object than to fail in any of the acts of it The Apostle 1 Thess 1. speaks of some defects in faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and truly these are the great defects there be abundance of objects of faith that faith doth not act upon because we know but in part c. nay the greatest suspicion that a man has of his faith lies in this if any object of it be willingly neglected as in a mans obedience it 's a great ground for a man to question the sincerity and the truth of it if the meanest duty thereof be willingly neglected so it 's ground enough to question the sincerity and truth of our faith much more if a man do observe the lesser duties of obedience and be precise in them but the great and weighty things of the Law are neglected by him so it 's here if a man take in lesser and inferiour promises but as for the promises of the persons which are the great things of the Gospel they are neglected and faith acts not upon them Here a mans faith should take in these particulars 1 That all the persons have a special hand in the salvation of a sinner and that by these promises every believer hath an interest in them all in reference unto these works Opera ad extra sunt indivisa It 's true they having one and the same nature and essence what the one of them doth the other doth also whatever thing the Father doth the same thing doth the Son likewise But yet though these be not opera propria proper works yet they are appropriata appropriate There are peculiar works attributed unto each person as 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ Now suitable to these appropriated works so should a mans faith eye each of the persons and his interest in them When the soul is conversant about Election faith then must look upon God the Father and when about Redemption then faith must look upon God the Son and when upon Sanctification then faith must eye the Holy Ghost because these are the works that the Persons have undertaken under the second Covenant to accomplish in mans salvation and they are by promise made over to these ends 2 One main intendment of God in the Gospel is not only to advance the Attributes of the Divine nature to glorifie his Justice and his Mercy and Grace by making higher discoveries of them than ever could have been shewed forth under the old Covenant but it is also to
glorifie the three Persons in the Trinity in the hearts of Believers and this appears plainly by Eph. 1.3 7 13. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus in whom we have redemption through his blood and have attained unto an inheritance in whom after you believed you were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise So that to honour the Persons and to exalt them in the hearts of Believers is one great and main intendment of the Gospel and therefore if your faith close not with them you cross one great and main end of the Gospel of grace and that must be done not only in receiving of blessings and benefits from the Trinity in common but that a man take special notice of the distinct works of them all what is done by the Father and what is done by the Son that in that blessing the person from whence it comes may be highly exalted in the soul therefore we do read of distinct acts of faith exercised upon the Son Joh. 14.1 Joh. 5.23 and the Father You believe in God believe also in me that all men may honour the Son even as they honour the Father 3 As the order of their working doth follow the order of their subsisting as the School-men observe the works of the Father being first and then the works of the Son so it 's in the work of grace and all the benefits of it attributed to God the Father are first in order of Nature and then those that are attributed to the Son and therefore Adoption being the act of the Father is by some asserted to be first in order of all spiritual blessings that we receive by grace before Redemption which is an act of the Son and of Sanctification Forbes of Justification p. 28. which is an act of the Holy Ghost and this very consideration will give a man great light into the order of all spiritual blessings that we receive by virtue of the new Covenant for the order of the blessings are answerable to the order of the workings of those persons from whence they flow 1 Joh. 4.16 2. Believers should exercise love towards all three Persons God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwells in God and God in him There is a walking in love and a dwelling therein as a man dwells in his own house there is not only a love of the Son as says Christ Joh. 15.9 So I have loved you continue you in my love but there is a love of the Father also that the soul is to look upon as distinct Joh. 14.23 Joh. 16.27 If any man love me and keep my words my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him I say not that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you becaâ—â—â— you have loved me 1 It is a great comfort and honour unto the Saints that they are come unto the innumerable company of Angels and unto the Souls of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 And the promise is made good to them Zac. 3.7 They have places or galleries to walk in amongst them that stand by and that they can walk in the love of Angels and of the general Assembly of the Church of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven but much more to walk in the love of all the Persons that they are come unto Jesus they are come to the Mediator of the new Covenant to the blood of sprinkling and unto God the Judge of all and so can walk in the apprehension of the love of them all and it 's a great comfort that they can go to them all in prayer grounded upon the particular love of them all the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Spirit Rev. 1.4 5. Grace and peace be with you from him that is and was and is to come and from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne and from Jesus the faithful and true witness And the soul tastes the love of the Father in giving his Son and the love of the Son in that he loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 2 That we might testifie our love to each Person distinctly and suitable unto the love with which they have loved us 1 let us fear to offend them all not only fear to offend God the Father because our God is a consuming fire and it 's a great and terrible name Ezech. 21.10 the Lord our God but also fear to offend God the Son our Saviour Take heed of him obey his voice provoke him not for my name is in him it is the rod of my son which it contemneth as every tree c. And Eph. 2.4 30. fear to grieve or quench the Spirit or resist his motions 2 Perform duties by arguments and motives drawn from the love of them all Joh. 14.23 If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will make our abode with him he that has my commandments and keeps them he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him 3 Give glory unto them all being affected with their love particularly that the soul may say Glory be unto the Father Son and Holy Ghost according to the intent of the Gospel that as we were baptized in the Name of them all so we may give glory to them all in a Gospel-sense And the truth is as this should be the great and principal object of our faith so it should be of our love also the highest love we can love God with is to love him for himself we may love God for his benefits and his blessings but yet that is not true love unless the highest love be set upon the persons Plus diligere famulum quam sponsum meretricis amor est Aust To love the servant more than the Bridegroom is adulterous love 3. As in the work of Faith the Soul is to be exercised upon all the Persons so also in the point of Assurance which is an addition unto Faith we should wait for the Witness and the sealing of them all because all of them set their seals unto the Evidences of the Saints The scope of the Epistle of John is 1 Joh. 5.7 that the Saints may know that they have Eternal Life and there are Witnesses some in Heaven and some in Earth but yet the Testimonies that these give all of them are in the heart of a Believer for so it is said He that believes hath the witness within himself the Father the Word and the Spirit Vers 10. and these three persons in Heaven give a distinct witness unto the assurance of the Saints in their own hearts there are three seals that are set unto it though it 's true that a man knowing the Love of
might cause his power to be acknowledged 2. God hath made over his attributes to his people that they may take from them all grounds of faith with an assurance that they shall be all exercised for them according unto their necessities Psal 13.5 so the Mercy of God I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation Here is mercy the object of faith and an assurance that this attribute shall shew forth it self in a work of salvation and deliverance for him I have trusted in the mercy of God for the bringing me out of this and another affliction and I have been delivered Psal 52.8 therefore I will always exalt the mercy of God So for the Power of God the soul can argue from thence Dan. 3. when men threaten and Devils rage and the fiery furnace may be heated seven times hotter to consume the soul that has no help amongst creatures yet says Daniel and the three Children the God whom we serve is able to deliver us And the Lord encourages the soul from the assurance of his power Is my arm shortned that I cannot save is any thing too hard for the Lord is there any restraint to omnipotence And so also Christ puts them upon it in this With man it 's impossible but with God all things are possible it 's spoken in reference to a work of Sanctification when the Disciples said Who then can be saved Esay 26.4 Esay 27.5 So for the Eternity of God Trust in the Lord for ever for the Lord Jehovah is a Rock of Ages and so men are said to take hold of the strength of God And so of the Holiness of God I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David and therefore Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life And so Abraham believed God was able to raise him up again from the dead if it might stand with his glory he did not question his will but that his power should be put forth for the accomplishment of his promise We know that the ultimate object of faith is God through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 our faith and hope is in God now the highest object of faith in God is the attributes of God that he has discovered for we can believe in him no otherwise than we know him and as he has revealed himself and the way of Gods revealing himself unto his people in this life is only by his back parts which are his attributes and therefore this is the way of the acting of faith in this life and all the promises of God and the precepts and the threatnings of God are all of them founded on his attributes and in these doth the strength and stability of them lye because the Lord Jehovah is a rock of ages As it is in ends all intermediate ends work in the strength and the power of the utmost end so it is in objects also Objectum mediatum fidei movet in virtute objecti ultimati ab eo perfectionem accipit The mediate object of faith moves in the virtue of the ultimate object and receives perfection from it Eph. 4.18.23.24 3. That from these the soul may receive all principles of grace grace is called the Life of God and the Divine Nature the Image of God created in the soul it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according unto God Now in an image there are two things required 1 Proportion or similitude and resemblance 2 There is a deduction or a derivation it must be taken from it As there is a resemblance of the nature of God so there is a derivation of it from God Now though the incommunicable attributes of God are so called because there are in the creatures no footsteps or resemblances yet there are of the attributes that are communicable from them the image of God is derived unto us and we are made partakers of his holiness holy as he is holy Heb. 12.10 Jam. 1.5 and merciful as he is merciful and wise as he is wise If any man want wisdom let him ask it of God as all of them shall be employed for man without him so all of them shall work in man an image or a resemblance of himself within him that a man beholding the glory of the Lord is transformed thereby into the same image And this is to be made the rule to judge the measure of our graces by for primum est mensura reliquorum c. The first is the measure of the rest in that kind So far as they do come short of bearing a resemblance with the communicable attributes of God I say of bearing a resemblance for they are in God by nature but in us by grace and by new creation they are nature in him they are not so in us so far we are to bewail the defects of our graces and so far grace is the image of God in us but in part a good work begun and no more and it is a discovery of his attributes which are the original pattern that doth perfect his image in us which is but the counterpane and therefore we shall be perfectly like him when we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 4. God hath in Covenant made over his Attributes that from these the soul may take all rules of duty and as the highest objects of faith are in God so from him are the highest rules of duty and therefore Eph. 5.1 the exhortation is Be ye imitators of God 1 Pet. 1.15 and be you holy in all manner of conversation because he is holy and so from the Soveraignty of God it 's the ordinary argument thou shalt do thus and thus for I am Jehovah thy God And David takes his rule from this in the preparation he made for the Temple the house must be exceeding magnificent and therefore all his preparation though the wealth of a Kingdom was but an act of his poverty for it is for the Lord who is a great God and dwells not in Temples made with hands c. And it 's the argument that he himself useth as the rule unto them in their performances Mal. 1.13 I am a great King and my name is dreadful amongst the Heathen As the soul is never rightly bottomed upon a promise till it is carried out into that attribute upon which the promise doth depend so the soul is never grounded in duty till it looks beyond the precept and sees the attributes in God which are the foundation of the duty and this is properly to walk worthy of God Col. 1.10 That ye may walk worthy c. It doth not note exactam proportionem Daven sed quandam decentiam convenientiam not an exact proportion but a certain decence and convenience when a mans duties are done by rules taken from so great a God and proportionable unto the nature holiness and excellency of that God God is a Spirit
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.
a restless life is a miserable life it was that which David did groan under Psal 55.6 Oh that I had wings like a dove then I would flye away and be at rest and there is no unquietness like to that of the soul a restless spirit is one of the greatest miseries that can befal a man Eccles 2.23 speaking of men labouring in the creatures he saith his heart takes no rest at night even when he is taken out of the mill of his calling and his body is laid down to rest yet has the man a restlesness all the while and therefore it is that Christ speaks Mat. 11.29 and promises as the great inducement Come unto me all that are weary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and you shall find rest unto your souls Psal 38.8 I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart A mans heart trades up and down amongst the creatures and he is always driving on such troublesom trades that he is never at rest in his own spirit and therefore a man by believing is said to enter into rest and the greatest judgment that can befal a man is Heb. 4.3 that God should swear in his wrath against him that he should never enter into his rest it is not spoken of Heaven any otherwise than as faith gives a man an interest here for we that believe are entred into it because it is faith gives a man an interest in God and bottomes his soul upon him and upon nothing else for there is a threefold rest there spoken of in that Chapter 1 A rest of the Sabbath that men did enter into according to Gods institution when he ended his works which is one of the strongest places against the imaginary anticipation of the Law of the Sabbath that is in the Scripture for then men entred into this Sabbath when God ended his works but that was from the foundation of the world 2 There is a rest of Canaan into which Joshua brought them and they were entred in Davids time therefore that cannot be meant for then he would not have spoken of another rest Now 3 what rest is it then that remains yet for the people of God That rest is a ceasing from their own works from all their sinful cares labours practices and supplies which are to be had in the creature and a quieting and resting the soul in God which is our salvation and answerable unto a mans enjoyment of God Inquietum est cor donec requiescat in te such will this rest of his soul be and when he doth perfectly enjoy God then shall his rest and the Sabbath of the soul in glory be fully perfected 2. He that hath not the Lord for his portion will chuse unto himself any thing else and set his heart upon it and it 's the greatest misery of all unregenerate men that they have their portion in this life Now what is a mans portion Psal 14. but that which he chuses unto himself and that in which his soul rests and receives satisfaction that is the mans portion and this all men that are unregenerate have in the things below something that is not God though it be the works of God it 's not the Essence of God and the greatest spiritual judgment that can befal a man in this life is this to be given up to the ungodliness of a mans own spirit to have his portion in any thing else in that which is not God this is to lay out his money for that which is not bread whereas a gracious heart saith Thou art my portion O Lord. And Esay 57.6 Lam. 3.24 Esay 57.6 Amongst the smooth stones of the streets is thy portion They did use by the rivers to worship their Idols and to build Altars to them there as well as upon the mountains and under every green tree and because they could not all of them have smoothed stones fitted for it therefore they made choice of the fittest they could find the smooth stones of the brook which the water by its continual running had smoothed and in these you have placed your portion and the happiness that you expect is to come in by these and seeing you have chosen it you shall be sure to have it and Ipsi erunt sors tua ut non nisi lapides inutilia saxa possideas Forer They shall be thy portion thou shalt possess nothing but stones And by this means a man turns his glory into shame Phil. 3.19 God is a mans glory and it is highest honour to have an interest in him or have any relation to him though it be but by way of office much more is it an honour to have a portion in his Essence and therefore the Lord calls himself their ornament as Jer. 2.32 Can a maid forget her ornaments but they have forgotten me their ornament days without number and they turned it into shame all Idols are so called they offered sacrifice unto that shame it 's spoken of Baal-Peor that which is filthy in it self and so is matter of shame Hos 9.10 which is malum turpe and that which is dishonourable unto the man and therefore truly his shame which is nothing else but the apprehension of an excellency abased Now the greater the excellency the greater must the shame be and the confusion in the apprehension of the abasement thereof 3. For a man to have no recompence for all his labours but barely creatures and the comforts of them is a great misery It 's true that the Saints may lawfully have respect to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.26 so had Moses and so had Paul We make says he things not seen our scope and aim in all our labours and endeavours 2 Cor. 4.18 and so did Christ For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross and despised the shame It 's true there is a recompence in obedience Psal 19.11 in the keeping of Gods commandment is great reward the excellency and honour of the work is a sufficient reward for the worker though there were no reward afterwards to come Now Christ having bought all the services of the creatures he doth imploy them all in his Kingdom they are all sent by him to work in his Vineyard and there is no man shall labour for Christ one hour in vain but as ungodly men do perform to him unsanctified services so they shall have unsanctified rewards and as their services be seemingly services but really sins so shall their rewards be seemingly blessings but really curses And as Christ said of the Pharisees they fasted and they prayed and gave alms but they had a reward here below only they did it to be seen of men to be well spoken of for it which they obtained now to have a mans reward in any thing that is below God that 's a mans misery But the recompence of the Saints reward lies in God himself when he will take from
sufficiens sufficient grace which God gives unto all men but Christ in the Text denies any such power he saith No man can come to me except the Father draw him What is this drawing It is not a forcible act by which violence is offered upon the will of man and yet it 's called drawing because it 's an act of almighty power the words note the sweetness and the efficacy of grace grace works powerfully and therefore God is said to draw and it works sweetly and therefore man is said to come as if he were not drawn trahitur animus amore c. it doth consist in a spiritual illumination of the understanding and in an effectual perswasion and determination of the will for it is a drawing that is a teaching as the next verse makes it manifest and in this is the foundation of eternal life as it is in us begun all this was in the purpose of God towards him but the man was dead in trespasses and sins as well as others without Christ and without God in the world and therefore the Saints actually converted are stiled by the Apostle the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.29 But how is this work attributed to God the Father that the power and the act of believing and of closing with Christ is from him the teaching and the drawing is the Fathers act Here I meet with a deep silence amongst all Interpreters only I find this to be offered by Kemnitius That the grace that we receive is laid up in Christ by God the Father and in the Gospel Christ is but God the Fathers Servant and therefore though grace be given unto us by Christ yet it is by the appointment of the Father and Christ is only the Fathers Servant in it and so the principal efficient of faith is God the Father though you do receive it immediately from Christ This is true that all the grace that we receive from Christ all our days here and all the glory we shall have to Eternity was by the Father laid up for us in Christ and in the whole work Christ is but the Fathers Servant but why in a special manner is this work of the Father appropriated unto the work of conversion and vocation The ground of it I conceive to be this In the Covenant that passed between Christ and the Father the Lord did require this service of him that he should lay down his life and give himself for the Elect he gave himself a ransom for many and he did make him a promise that he would give those souls unto him again Therefore as in the fulness of time the Lord did give Christ for them Vnto us a Child is born Isa 9.6 Joh. 4.10 unto us a Son is given and so he is called by way of eminency the gift of God for though he were promised from the beginning of the world yet he was not actually given and exhibited till the last days so there is a time also when God the Father must fulfil this promise unto Christ to give souls unto him as he has given himself for them in obedience to the Father Now when are souls given unto Christ It is when they come to him and believe in him they are not actually any part of his charge till then and therefore they are said to be without Christ they have no actual relation to Christ or Christ to them Joh. 4.10 for the union between Christ and the soul is matrimonial and it is the Father that gives them each unto other and therefore marriage between Adam and his wife is made a type and resemblance of it or rather mystery called by the Jews Cabala Eph. 5.33 This is a great mystery but I speak of Christ and the Church so that it 's God the Father that gives Christ to the soul and gives the soul unto Christ he it is that doth joyn them in a marriage-covenant for ever Therefore as when the time appointed by the Father was come he sent his Son actually into the world so when the time of love is come that a soul should be converted who before lay polluted in his blood then doth God the Father send his Spirit in Christs name into the soul who doth discover the beauty of Christ and the free grace of God the Father how ready and willing he is to bestow him and the manifestation of this grace of the Father is made effectual to the soul not only to perswade but also to enable it to accept of Christ upon the terms that he is offered And upon this ground the work of vocation is mainly attributed unto the drawing and the teaching of the Father because as they were in the purpose of God and in the Covenant between Christ and the Father given to him from all Eternity so they are by the Father actually given to him in the fulness of time that is when the time of their conversion appointed by the Father is come and therefore the inlightning of the soul in this work is attributed unto the Father 2 Cor. 4.6 God that commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts c. and by the same almighty Word that he did that work in the Creation he doth shine into our hearts discovering Christ unto us and the glory of God all the incommunicable Attributes of God are gloriously set forth in the Man Christ Jesus and so the power by which the soul is enabled to believe is the power of God the Father Eph. 1.17 19. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would shew you what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of the mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead so that if any soul be brought home unto Christ in a work of vocation it is by the almighty working of God the Father and you are to acknowledge his grace as well in giving you unto Christ as in giving Christ unto you 2. In the work of Reconciliation though all the persons were wronged by sin their essence and glory being but one yet the suit against sin doth mainly in Scripture run in God the Fathers name God has reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 and God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself This was properly the act of God the Father Rom. 5.10 When we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Col. 1.19 20. it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell as being to reconcile all things to himself c. What is it to reconcile It is properly amicitiam diremptam resarcire to set them all at one again who were before friends but now at variance amongst themselves God is an enemy unto all men by nature the wicked is an abomination unto the
so to all those that wait for them the Father will say I am thy Father and the Son say I am thy Saviour and the Spirit I am thine therefore exercise faith upon your interest in all the persons and in particular upon your interest in God the Father and be much in communion with the Father seeing communion is personal and there is a distinct interest in all the persons therefore a distinct communion that which was the happiness of these persons communion and the infinite satisfaction that they took one in another that shall be thy happiness and thy portion for ever § 3. We are to exercise faith upon all the persons in this manner made over under the second Covenant and to live upon this principle in all our ways 1 That they are all of them objects of faith is clear for the ultimate object of faith is God 1 Pet. 1.21 Now as we are to take in the whole Scripture as objectum immediatum the immediate object and every part of the Scripture is to be believed as an object of faith so the whole Godhead all the attributes of God and all the persons in the Godhead are by faith to be rested upon for there are 1 Thess 3.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defects of faith so long as faith takes not in its whole object it hath not its perfect work Jam. 1.3 2 We are to worship them all though not as apart one from another yet as in our apprehension distinguished and we are to give unto them distinct worship as Christ says Joh. 4.23 The time cometh that you shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father he that will worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth for the Father seeks such to worship him c. Now worship is twofold either cultus naturalis qui ex ipsa Dei natura pendet natural worship c. There is no man that did ever worship a God but he did acknowledge that this God he was to believe in and hope in love and pray to and to hear and obey him in all things and there is a cultus institutus qui ex liberrima Dei voluntate pendet c. instituted worship which depends on the will of God Now the highest act of worship is in believing and it 's unto this that all the Institutions which are but media cultûs means of worship are properly subordinate for cultus institutus medii locum tantùm supplet ad cultum primarium being to worship the persons we must give to each of them that which is the main of worship and that is to believe in them 3 It is from the objects of faith that the life of the soul comes in Esa 38.16 By these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit for the Prophet Esaias had said Take a lump of figs and lay it upon the boil and he shall recover by this promise I shall live and many others that come after shall live upon the promises by this experiment that I have had and found of them for faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mouth and eye of the soul Now the delight of the eye in seeing comes from the object and the nourishment of the body comes in by the mouth and therefore it 's said Eccles 6.7 That all the labour of the man is for his mouth it 's from the meat that a man eats that the strength of his body is derived and therefore Christ as the object of faith saith That his flesh is meat indeed and his blood drink indeed it notes strength and nourishment comes from the object of faith and the way of conveyance is by union it is by sucking the sap and the sweet of it crede manducâsti and if any object of faith do not contribute its part and the soul lives not upon it it will in its strength decay and therefore we live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 because it is from the direct acts of faith that life comes in and here are two things to be spoken to 1 What the objects of faith are that the soul is to take in in the making over of each person under the second Covenant 2 What acts of faith the soul is to put forth upon them 1. The objects of faith that the soul is to take in in each of the persons are these 1 The persons themselves we are to believe the record of them all 1 Joh. 5.10 Joh. 5.45 we are to hear and learn of the Father and we are to believe in the Son To him give all the Prophets witness 1 Joh. 5.6 Act. 10.43 that whosoever believes in him shall have remission of sins Joh. 3.16 and we are to believe in the Spirit it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth and so we are to come unto them in duties in prayer and hearing and in all acts of worship and the ground of it is because we are to believe in him for they cannot pray to him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10.14 Rom. 10.14 Now though the benefit that we have by all these persons is exceeding great the Father adopts and justifies us by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ and the remission of sins and the Son is Jehovah our righteousness and he gives us power to become the sons of God and the Spirit is the bond of our union the principle of our sanctification and the guide of our way yet the ground of all this interest in their benefits is our interest in their persons so that as our interest in the Mediator and union with his person is far greater than all the benefits that we receive by him because it is the fountain from which they do all flow and the root upon which they do all grow 1 Joh. 5.12 so it 's here also interest in the persons is the foundation of all our interest in their benefits for if we had no title unto the persons we could have no benefit by them or any part thereof and therefore as they are personal promises that are the great promises of the Gospel so they are personal interests that are the great priviledges of the Gospel and that in which the main of the life of a Saint lyes so that as when Christ is set forth by God the Father as a propitiation lifted up in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.25 the soul by the recumbency of faith casts it self upon him leaves it self with him Psal 10.14 so the Father and Spirit are set forth in the Gospel as the God of consolation and the soul is to rely roll and cast it self upon them and as we are not barely to look upon the benefits that come by Christ so neither are we to the benefits that come by them but it is their persons ens incomplexum not things that the soul is to rest upon 2
The soul is to rest upon all the promises that in Scripture are made concerning these persons there are promises that have a peculiar respect unto them all 1 There are promises that specially concern the Father which though they be formally made unto the Son yet it is with special respect unto the Saints as the promise of giving Christ unto their souls and nourishment and life by him for he says Joh. 6.32 Moses gave you not the bread that came down from heaven my Father gives you the true bread promises of justification by him Esa 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many that is as much as to say as many as believe in him shall receive remission of sins and a promise of guidance Exod. 23.20 Behold I send my Angel before you They were in a strait for they were in the wilderness where there was no way now the Father doth promise the Son should undertake their guidance and it is not a promise that is peculiar unto those times only though there was something peculiar in it And there is a promise of gifts Acts 1.4 Wait for the promise of the Father The extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost that were to be poured out to fit men for office in those times it 's called the promise of the Father and the promise also of preservation and perseverance My Father that gave them me is greater than all Joh. 10.29 and no man can pluck them out of my Fathers hand 2 There are some promises that do more especially belong unto the Son as that of grace and a continual supply he shall go in and out and find pasture and says Christ I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly and a promise of a constant presence I will dwell in them and walk amongst them Joh. 10.9 10. what concord hath Christ with Belial I am with you to the end of the world that he will beautifie his Church and sanctifie it and cleanse it that he may present it unto himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 6.26 27. and that he will subdue our enemies Esay 63.3 4. I will take them in my arms and keep them from their enemies fury their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment for the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is come he shall be cloathed with a garment d pt in blood and his name shall be called the word of God Rev. 19.13 3 There are some promises that in a more special manner respect the holy Spirit he has promised them a spirit of sanctification and he will purge the filth of the daughter of Sion by a spirit of burning Esa 4.4 promises of direction The Spirit shall lead you into all truth Joh. 16.13 he shall undertake to be the guide of your way and you shall hear a voice crying behind you This is the way walk in it a spirit of liberty also you shall have 2 Cor. 3.17 for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and a spirit of victory Esa 59.19 when the enemy doth break in as a floud the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him so that they shall conquer not by might nor by power but by my Spirit Zac. 4 6. Now all these lead a man unto the person of the Spirit and his interest in him as so many lines into a centre for as all the promises do lead a man to union with Christ by which means he becomes an heir of promise so do all the promises lead a man to an interest in his person without which he can lay no claim unto the promise that is made by any of the persons for they are not universal and made unto all but as the promises of Christ belong unto those that are one with him so all the promises of the persons belong only unto those that have an interest in them and therefore we are to cast our selves upon the persons for the accomplishment of the promises 3 Faith is to rest upon the love of them all for though they are essentially one and therefore have but one will yet as they are personally distinguished so they are three and have distinct wills and distinct loves and therefore Christ distinguishes between his will and the Fathers will I am come not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me not my will but thy will be done essentially his will and the Fathers are one but they are personally distinguished so they have essentially one love but if we look upon them as persons so they have each of them his own proper and peculiar love He that loves me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him if any man love me my Father will love him Joh. 14.21 c. so that faith is not only to close with the love of God in general as it is an Attribute of the Divine Nature as his Wisdom and Holiness Mercy and Power are but faith is also to close with the love of each of the persons as they are relatively distinguished one from another the love of the Father and the love of the Son and Spirit and as it is the love of God essentially that is the ground of all that God has wrought for us it was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.4 and though Esau was Jacobs brother yet I loved Jacob Mal. 1.2 so it is the personal love of all the persons that is the ground of all those workings of the persons for us and therefore you are to take in that love also as an object of your faith 4 Faith should rest upon the appropriated acts of each of these persons and rely upon them for the performance of them We have formerly heard that each person hath undertaken some special and peculiar acts for mens salvation as 1 the work of Vocation Adoption Justification Preservation Glorification for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdom they are all of them undertaken by God the Father And 2 the work of Satisfaction Presentation Oblation Intercession Conquest Judgment all these the Son has undertaken 3 The work of Sanctification Direction Consolation Supplication they are all of them undertaken by the Spirit Now we are not only to rely upon the essential faithfulness of God for the performance of it Heb. 6.17 but upon the personal faithfulness of each of these undertakers for they are all of them ingaged in it and here is a farther and higher consideration to be taken in the acts of the persons and they are of two sorts 1 Acts ad intrà internal acts and they are acts of nature which are acts one towards another as the generation of the Father in respect of the Son and the procession of the Holy Ghost as from them both 2 There are acts ad
of persons they may as Eli did misreprove a Hannah in the Church of God and as David believe a Zibi against the son of his friend for commonly the best deserving Christians are clouded by the glaring light of the lamps of Hypocrites who make it their business to raise false reports against such as outshine them in true grace and holiness but at last God will discover them and cast them out of the Churches prayers and affection they shall not always abide with them 1 Joh. 2.18 that they may be made manifest not to be of them and they that are approved shall be made manifest and so shall they that are corrupted also they shall be found lyars and they shall be cast out the Lord will cut them off that they may deceive the expectations of the Saints no more the Lord doth delight to do it and we should wait his leisure in it who will certainly shew himself a God that judges in the earth 3 That thereby the Saints may be awakened and admonished when Hymeneus fell then 2 Tim. 2.7 is that exhortation most seasonable Let him that names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity and let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall when a man observes horrendas tempestates flenda naufragia horrid tempests it is a hint to the Saints look to your standing see that you be built upon a Rock that storms and tempests may not overthrow you 5. In their judgments for they are terrible judgments that the Lord doth execute upon unregenerate men in the Church there are no mercies like those out of Sion and there are no judgments like them no men are so eminently under the curse as they are Out of the Throne came thundering and lightning and voices Rev. 4.5 for the Churches sake and by their prayers And this is 1 that the Saints may be thankful how great a mercy is it that I had not fallen away as well as he Joh. 14.22 2 That they may take heed of the same sins lest they be overtaken by the same plagues Remember Lots wife the natural branches are broken off thou standest by faith be not high-minded but fear they entred not through unbelief let us fear lest we also come short c. Heb. 4.1 § 3. There belongs also unto the spiritual Kingdom reductivè all the works and the dispensations of God amongst the creatures for though only men that live in the Church be the proper subjects of the spiritual Kingdom and in respect of the spiritual part of it only the Saints yet as the Mediator undertook the government of all other things for the Churches sake so in the government of all things he has a special respect unto their good Eph. 1. ult Joh. 17.2 so that all the creatures and the government of them all comes under the spiritual Kingdom two ways 1 As they tend to perfect the graces of the Saints 2 As they belong unto the priviledges of the Saints so reductivè they belong to the spiritual Kingdom 1. Christ in the spiritual Kingdom doth so order and dispose of all the creatures that they do all tend to perfect and increase the graces of the Saints Rom. 8.28 Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God the Apostle speaks it in reference unto affliction but yet because there was a general doctrine in it he would not restrain it and therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is all creatures and all events 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 1 they shall not work so of themselves but by a blessed and gracious concurrence of God with them all as it is said That Ministers are workers togethers with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6.1 Alas it is not any thing we can do or by any power that is in us but only there is a concurrence of the principal with the instrumental cause for instrumentum agit dispositivè in virtute principalis agentis 2 Some refer it unto the creatures themselves that they do not do this apart as if any one action or any one dispensation meerly did it but they do it as it were in a conspiracy or concatenation they all joyn together in the work that if we take any one particular we may seem to go backward and it may tend to the disadvantage of the spiritual Kingdom but we must take them all together as we are not to judge of the works of God ante quintum actum so neither are we to judge of the fruits of his works but by laying of them all together and see how they work in a due order and subordination one to another c. and unto what is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is ad aeternam piorum salutem for sine summo bono nil bonum As there is nothing good without the chiefest good so there is nothing good that doth not lead a man unto the chief good and therefore when it 's said That all things work together for good the meaning is they shall all make for the increase of their grace here and their glory hereafter all of them shall work for the eternal good of their souls whereas unto all wicked men all the creatures and all the dispensations of God in the ordering of the creatures cedunt in perniciem tend to their perdition they are unto the one in praemium for a reward unto the other in supplicium for punishment as Prosper has it Or as Cyprian saith of the Sacrament it was Petro in remedium Judae in venenum a remedy to Peter but poyson to Judas so it is here all the creatures that the wicked do enjoy they are indeed seemingly blessings but really curses outwardly bread but in verity a stone a fish in shew but in truth a scorpion for they do all of them tend to the ripening of their sins and the hastning of their ruine but to the Saints 1 Cor. 3.21 22. All things are yours he was speaking of glorying in men they should not boast of their Teachers though it is true indeed that the Primitive Church had their Crown of twelve Stars yet they were all the servants of the Churches debent tam corpori quà m capiti servire they ought to serve the body as well as the head and therefore some will have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Apostle doth speak here as in the fore-quoted places as I conceive where though speaking of one particular yet there being a general truth in it he doth propound it generally for it is not to be restrained to persons as the after-enumeration shews for he speaks of life and death things present and things to come now how doth he mean that all is ours that is aedificationi saluti destinata as ordained for our edification and salvation there is a special design of grace in ordering and disposing of them all so as
shall be from the immediate hand of God and that by a creating work that when the people shall look to the creatures and say we see no means to defend us yet they can look to an immediate acting of Omnipotency Esa 67.17 and that by a creating work for his people I create a heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness it is spoken of the glorious reformation that shall be in the later days it is there spoken not of renewing the substance but of the qualities of Heaven and Earth a glorious restitution of their primitive and original glory a mighty work that God shall not only pass upon Saints but on the creatures which shall be restored and delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God and he that looks upon the corruptions of men and the desolations of nations and the confusions amongst the creatures that shall be immediately before those days he will say How can these things be It is impossible that such a glorious reformation should be wrought But to strengthen their faith and to raise them up to expect it he puts them off from second causes and tells them it shall be an act of almighty power it is by a creating work and surely the same hand and the same power that did make them at first can also renew them and restore them unto their primitive and original glory that as the said immediate power is put forth for the renewing of their souls Eph. 2.10 We are created in Christ to good works all is made new within him by an immediate power so also all shall be made new without him by an immediate providence that though there be no concurrence of means and second causes yet if God can make a new world then he can renew this he can create a new Heaven and a new Earth and he can create Jerusalem a rejoycing and the people a joy as the promise is unto them so that the Lord will not always work for his people in a ruling but sometimes in a creating way in which there is an immediate putting forth of power and there is not there cannot be any concurrence of means or second causes with it 2. God puts forth an immediate providence for the Churches preservation he doth many times work immediately when there is no help in second causes but all men are ingaged on the contrary part and the Lord looks and there is none to help and the Lord wonders that there was no intercessor no helping of them none to intercede for them there was none so much as by way of prayer that comes in for them and yet now the Church must be preserved Zac. 4.23 Zac. 4.2 3. the Candlestick is the Church but by what means shall this be maintained there can be no supply of oil expected from men but the Lord will make Olive-trees to grow by it that shall make oil of themselves and shall drop into the bails thereof that though no men in the world stand by it or prepare for it yet the Lord will supply it in an immediate way from himself and by himself and by this means the lamp in this Candlestick shall never go out for by an immediate provision of God they shall be maintained Mic. 5.7 Mic. 5.7 The remnant of Jacob shall be as dew from the Lord and as showers upon the grass when they were Jezreel strengthned by the Lord though amongst many people that should hate them and persecute them yet should they be preserved and therefore as Calvin observes rorem pro prato rorido like unto the herbs which are nourished by the dew from Heaven and by the showres from above which stay not for man it tarries not for the sons of men that as the grass is nourished immediately by the dew and doth not depend upon the labours and the watering of man so shall these from God immediately there shall come from him an immediate dew an influence shall come by which they shall be supported that they shall not need to stay for any creatures assistance or any concurrence of second causes whatsoever 3. There is an immediate Providence that is seen in restraints upon the souls and spirits of men when there are no hindrances in second causes and yet this shall work for the people of God see it Gen. 20. Sarah was in the hand of Abimelech and his lust was stirred up towards her when he heard of her and there was nothing to hinder him but he might have had his will of her and yet for Abrahams sake she was returned unto him chast and undefiled but it was by an immediate working of God upon his spirit when there were no second causes in the way the Lord saith I did hold thee that thou shouldst not touch her And the same thing is true of the people of Israel when they went up to worship at Jerusalem and all the males left their habitation the fittest advantage that could be for the neighbouring Nations who hated them and sought to invade them and did it at other times yet that now they should not have made inrodes upon their Land in the several borders thereof when there was no restraint in second causes no man can give a reason for it but the immediate working of providence that the Lord doth put forth his power upon the spirits of men that it shall be enough if he withhold them There is a bridle without and there is a bridle within by which the spirits of men are turned about there is a hedge for mens ways God doth many times hedge up mens ways with thorns but there is a hedge for the spirits of men also that when there is no hindrance in second causes and none to lift up a hand against them yet their spirits are restrained by an immediate hand And indeed when the secrets of the counsels of Gods providence shall be made manifest at the last day many and glorious will â—he records of such immediate puttings forth of providence be We have an instance in Esau his malice was stirred and he had power in his hand he had three hundred men by which he might have cut off his brother Jacob but only there was an immediate appearance of God upon his spirit and that put a restraint upon him that he could not so much as speak an ill word unto his brother 4. The Lord appears immediately for the destruction of the Churches enemies when their means fail When there was no help from second causes to destroy Egypt or deliver themselves for the Israelites had no power but they cryed unto the Lord and in the night the Lord looked upon the Egyptians host and troubled them and took off their chariot-wheels and they drove heavily and there was a terrour upon their hearts that they said Let us flye for God fights for Israel And so he will do in the destruction of Antichrist the little horn who doth arise with the ten horns and
Rom. 4. is directly opposed to the work of faith and therefore we find Abraham denied his reason and shut his eyes against it when he came to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he did not judge of it this way and that way he did not dispute it but rested in his word alone And therefore the Apostle asks 1 Cor. 1.20 where is the wise man the scribe and the disputer of this world The more wisdom men have and the greater improvement of reason the greater disputants men are the farther off usually from faith and the greater enemies thereunto 3. All a mans own righteousness either what a man has done before his conversion as Paul or what he can do after his conversion may be so abused and relied upon as to derogate from the righteousness of God for when men are convinced of their sins and see that there is something wanting to their Salvation then they think they will do something more as the young man in the Gospel What shall I do to inherit eternal life he had a confidence in what he had done and fearing lest that might fall short there was something more that he was willing for to do When men are once convinced of their sins they cannot look upon any thing that they have done that will satisfie and their good deeds will not weigh down their bad but then they say Mic. 6.6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God will he be pleased with thousands of Rams c. As if their after-obedience should make amends for their former sins And so under Popery at this day many do fast and macerate their bodies watch and pray and chastise themselves by scourging and going Pilgrimage give away all their Goods to the poor and betake themselves unto a voluntary Poverty shut themselves up in a Monastery and Hermitage and seclude themselves from all the comforts of this life yea even Princes and Emperours lay down their Kingdoms and cast away their Crowns and betake themselves unto a private life and all upon this ground that these shall be opera satisfactoria satisfactory works Luth. in Gal. 5. and so expiatory for their former sins And hence it is that men convinced of their sins labour as for life to satisfie God and to quiet their Consciences And when men have wrought hard all their days with such expectations as these they are hardly brought off to come to Christ as stript naked of all and to acknowledge that all their righteousness is an abomination And these are the mountains that are to be cast down the high imaginations and presumptuous thoughts of themselves before they can come to Christ and the casting down of these is a preparing the way for the Lord. 4. When mens Consciences are awakened and sin revived by an almighty work of the Law and the second Covenant offered to them then they say the news is too good to be true there is no mercy for them whatever God intends to others surely he can never think thoughts of peace to them he will never take such toads and serpents as they are into his bosom to have communion with him and they say there is no hope While men are in peace and sin lies sleeping at the door so long a mans self-love and self-flattery makes it easie to presume and he says It 's a small matter to believe for God is merciful and Christ died for sinners And if there be but a few men that shall be saved yet he doubts not but he shall be one of that number But when once God discovers his sin and awakens his Conscience then the man says Though the greatest part of mankind should be saved and if there were but one man in the world that should be condemned surely he should be the man If a man had come to Judas after his Conscience was awakened on the sight of his sin before he hanged himself and told him be not discouraged though thou hast committed a great sin Christ is the Saviour of the world and it is but believing in him and this sin shall be pardoned and thy soul saved He would have answered you as Spira did when they did exhort him to believe That they were as good bid him to fulfill the whole Law and bid him lay hold upon a star in the firmament For a man to see sin to be an infinite evil and God to be a provoked God ready to take vengeance and Hell open and himself ready to drop into everlasting destruction and yet now for him to cast himself into the arms of everlasting mercy and relie for his eternal happiness on the favour of an almighty and a sin-revenging God and say If I perish I perish I will rest upon him and trust to his mercy whether he save me or damn me For a man by an exclusive act to shut out all other hopes and ways and confine his thoughts to free Grace alone and to leave himself at the mercy of God Psal 10.14 and at his foot-stool to be willing to be at his dispose it 's that which the unbelief and despair of a mans heart upon the apprehension of the guilt of sin will never be brought unto without an act of Almighty power Ephes 1.19 Therefore we read in Luk. 3.5 to make way for Christ there be vallies to be filled as well as mountains to be levelled and laid low Before men are humbled they are mountains too high to submit to this righteousness and being humbled they become vallies and are too low to rise up and to imbrace the Grace that is offered by the Prince of the second Covenant Now so far as a man does not submit to the righteousness of God so far he desires to stand under the first Covenant still § 4. In a man under the Covenant of Works there are two things 1 An answerable spirit 2 Suitable fruits And if a man desire both these then we may conclude he desires to be under this Covenant 1. They that under the Covenant of Works have an answerable spirit a spirit that does always accompany this Covenant Rom. 8.15 We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear c. Now this was the natural fruit of this Covenant Gal. 4.24 for it has only gendered to bondage since the fall unto Adam in innocency it was a Covenant not of bondage but of freedom but being broken all that come under it are children of the bond-woman and the spirit that does accompany it is a spirit of bondage For there is a twofold spirit that is answerable unto the twofold Covenant and with the change of a mans Covenant there follows a change of a mans spirit and never till then now this spirit is a spirit of fear to witness guilt a fear of Gods presence and a fear of Gods judgments Amos 1.10 Heb. 2.15 Isa 33.5 Fearfulness has surprized the hypocrite and as Cain says
whole man therefore it is called the old man and when we sin we are carnal and walk as men 1 Cor. 3.3 now the whole man is not defiled with it in the rising of sin it is kept within bounds till it overflow into the members also the inward man is defiled but sin will come upon the outward man also and there is in the members in reference unto the act of sin 1 A fitness to be imployed in it Rom. 6.13 Weapons of unrighteousness the members have distinct forms according to the imployment for which they were created there is a fitness in the foot to walk and in the hand to work so there is a different fitness answerable unto the several acts of sin that the soul can put them upon or imploy them in and they are weapons there is a fitness in them to be used and imployed in the service of sin it 's said of David Psal 45.1 My tongue is the pen of a ready writer it is fit to be imployed in the works of grace so because Doegs tongue did cut like a sharp rasor he is fit to accuse others and to wound them in their good name 2 There is also a readiness as well as a fitness fitness may be passive but a readiness is active You have given your members weapons of unrighteousness Rom. 6.13 14. Acts 13.10 and therefore Acts 13.10 Full of all mischief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad peccandum facilitas ad quodvis scelus propensio so Beza their feet are swift to shed blood whereas there is a deadness and a backwardness unto every thing else that is good there is a weariness their feet are not ready to walk nor their hands to work c. 3 There is also a greediness and an unweariedness the one in the soul and the other in the members Deut. 29.19 it is a drunkenness and they are for taking of their fill of drink as if they could never have enough to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant and so in a lust of the flesh how unsatiable is it and in the lust of the eye the eye is never satisfied with seeing though presently weary unto any thing that is good and there is no such greediness towards it but towards sin it is so and in this doth sin in the body lye Now that it may appear what an overspreading evil is in sin and that the Saints may know in themselves the power of it in the breaking forth therefore the Lord doth give them up to acts of sin 2 That a Saint may see that if he be deserted of God he shall be drawn into sin in all the kinds and degrees of it I cannot saith he resist the rising of it and if the Lord leave me I shall not be able in the least to resist the actings of it according unto the measure of a mans desertion such is the degree of his sin that we may see how great an evil and how dangerous a thing it is to be deserted by the Lord in any degree in any measure of it Damascene in his Orthodox Fidei cap. 29. mentions three sorts of desertions 1 Temporary for tryal such was that of Job which was a desertion only for a present dispensation that thereby the Lord might shew forth and draw out the grace of Job which else had not been so clearly seen 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 castigatory which is for correction of some former neglect and to teach the people of God to keep closer unto him and to fear his departure more than formerly 3 Vindictive and that 's a final desertion and so he doth never forsake his own people the Lord left Hezekiah that he might see what was in his heart and so he doth the Saints that they may see if they are left to themselves what they are and what a terrible thing it is to be deserted of God and what a fearful creature the best men would quickly appear to be then Elias Cretens made four sorts 1 Explorationis to try their graces as we see in Job 2 Correctionis as in David and Solomon and Samson 3 Rejectionis and so the Lord deserted the Jews and so he doth wicked men 4 Satisfactionis and so he did desert the Lord Jesus Christ but there was a satisfaction of Justice in that desertion for it was the payment of a debt 3 That they may see how weak all means are if sin in the power of it be so set against them that they cannot keep it in but it will break out and that unto the highest degree men would think that reason and fear and shame would suppress it and indeed by these the Lord doth many times restrain sin as they did the Jews they would have taken hold of John but they feared the people but now let but the Lord withdraw his hand and all means and arguments and reasonings will not prevail at all with them they are like unto the wild Ass in the wilderness and as the swift Dromedary there is no restraint nothing will be withheld from them of any thing that they have a mind to do they run into it as the horse into the battel Jer. 8.6 so Christ says of Judas it had been good for that man that he had not been born but there is a prevailing injunction he goes on to act nothing can stay him 4 That the pople of God may fear to be delivered up unto the power of Satan There is a kind of spiritual Excommunication which the Lord doth exercise towards men many times What thou dost do quickly and Satan entred into Judas there is a restraint upon the Devil that he cannot always carry men to acts of sin the Devil is bound wicked men shall have the same persecuting hearts but they shall not be able to draw forth those lusts into act Rev. 20.8 but Satan shall be let loose and will hurry men to acts of sin with violence he tempted David to number the people 1 Chron. 21.1 and God was angry with him and Satan stirred him up and it was in vain for Joab to speak to him and shew him his folly he was set upon it and it must be done the Kings word prevailed and so it is still with many of the children of God Satan will carry men on unto horrid actions and they shall act with violence 5 That godly men may exercise repentance of all kinds the object of repentance is all sin not only this or that sin but all sin original sin actual sin sins in the heart That the body may be afflicted by fasting and prayer c. and being famula in culpa it may be socia in poenitentia and sins in the life sins of commission and sins of omission as God will have our faith take in all the objects of faith and be exercised about them all so should our repentâ—â—â—e take in all the object of repentance and the Lord makes us sensible
of our proneness to all sorts and all ways of sin that as patience so repentance may have its perfect work for as to humble the soul sin is left in it so also the breaking forth of sin into act discovers our natural weakness and is in wisdom permitted because the Lord will have his people to perfect their repentance as well as their faith while they do live here 6 That the soul may be willing to put off the body as it is an instrument and a servant to the soul in sinning I am shortly saith the soul to put off this tabernacle and I am the more willing to do it because my members are weapons of unrighteousness I shall then never sin more no more be subject unto the bondage of corruption to serve the lusts of men it shall be the glory of the body to serve the graces but never the lusts of the soul any more but perfect sanctification shall be in it 4. The Soveraignty of God is seen in the breaking forth of scandalous sins there are but two sorts of sins that godly men are freed from the sin against the Holy Ghost and final impenitency because they are delivered from the wrath to come and being in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation unto them Rom. 8.1 but else there is no sin either in judgment or practice from the danger of which they can assure their hearts be it never so foul never so hateful before God or man and therefore when we look upon the naufragia shipwracks of the Saints who can if God should withdraw his suitable assistance secure themselves or promise unto themselves freedom If we consider the idolatry of Solomon and that as gross as any that we shall read of 1 King 11.4 8. and the persecution of Asa 2 Chron. 16.10 and the Apostasie in Peter and that the grossest with a denial nay an abjuration Mar. 14.71 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound to abjure Christ Mar. 14.71 and to wish unto him a curse but most do say it was wishing a curse and an Anathema upon himself Grotius makes it the same with that Act. 23.14 They bound themselves with a curse diris se obligavit c. of whom Bernard saith Peccavit grande peccatum fortassis quo grandius nullum est c. Now seeing that there is in them a sea of corruption a body of death it is only an act of the Soveraignty of God that restrains the winds that they blow not upon this sea Rev. 7.1 There are Angels that hold the winds of commotions that they break not forth and Jer. 49.36 Dan. 7.2 3. that they shall break forth in their season so he doth also hold the winds of temptation that they do not blow upon the sea of corruption and by this means the mire and dirt is not discovered but let but the wind blow upon it and it is full of unquietness and rage immediately 2 Sam. 12.4 there came a way-faring man unto the rich man concupiscentiam viatorem vocat aut peregrinum Pet. Martyr 1 It is not a friend or a servant it is not one that is ordinarily accustomed to the house there are some sins that are daily in a man constant inmates but there are great sins that da rise in a man but now and then 2 Lusts are travellers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heart of man doth coast and wander all the world over to see what will become of it and where it may be able to make advantage unto it self 3 It comes upon a man suddenly and unexpectedly as a stranger or as a traveller useth to do 4 Yet when it comes it looks for entertainment and it doth so ordinarily find it the man will make provision for it Now this traveller goes not where or when he pleases but according to the Soveraignty of God in the ordering the going forth of the lusts of men it is a messenger of Satan there is a time appointed for the opening of Hell for the sending forth the messenger of Satan upon the soul the letting forth of the smoke Rev. 9.1 The Lord doth in his Providence turn this unto good 1 Unto a new conversion Luk. Luk. 22.32 22.32 Christ said to Peter after his first conversion when he foretels him of his scandalous fall When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren there is a double conversion 1. From a state of sin Acts 3.19 2. From some particular gross acts of sin because that doth make a breach upon a mans justification 1 A damp upon grace which there is upon the committing of such sins Create in me says David a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me 2 There is a suspension of all the comforts of grace he is as the leper and he doth as Zanchy saith quodammodo excidere à gratia he hath no comforts in the promises and the priviledges of the Saints 3 There is a change of all the dealings of God with him Esa 63.10 he became their enemy and fought against them by spiritual judgments upon them vers 17. he shall have broken bones and his moisture shall be dryed up Gods wrath shall fall upon him for there is a temporal wrath there is filius sub ira c. Now here seems to be a particular Conversion by laying of all anew in the Soul as if nothing were true before he must repent anew and believe anew that as Zach. 1.17 the Lord 's returning unto a people after eminent displeasure is called a new Election so also this is a new Conversion 2 Hereby the Soul hath experience in himself of the strength of Sin the power of Temptation and of Christs Intercession 1 He has experience of the Strength of sin for sin is but too powerfull in the best Gen. 49.6 7. it is said of the Sons of Israel Simeon and Levi Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel and David put the Ammonites under Saws and Harrowes and Jonah 4.9 he justifies himself against the debates of God with him and saith that he doth well to be angry unto the death 2 The Soul experiences the power of Temptation what there is in the winnowings of Satan if the Lord should leave a man to the power which he hath already received he would soon work all good out of his soul for Satan is the ruler of the Darkness of this world Ephes 6.12 and he hath not only a great power over wicked men as Darkness it self for they are led captive at his will and he doth work effectually in them but even upon the darkness that is in the Saints also he can stirr up that darkness in them that it shall endanger to over-spread all that there shall seem little difference between them and ungodly men for the time that it doth prevail upon them 3 The Soul experiences the power of the Prayer of Christ Luk. 22.32 I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail