was lost and seeing the Preference of the Benefit by the second Adam is expressed in the Parallel if that Exaltation had been wholly new it would not have been omitted The Parallel also imports that the Promise of Immortality was not only to Adam but to his Posterity It could not consist with the Wisdom and Goodness of God that the first Covenant should have been impracticable and therefore it must have been a part of God's Promise that if Adam continued faithful for such time as God had appointed for his Trial that God would confirm him by more powerful and efficacious Grace as it is commonly believed that he hath confirmed the Elect Angels that they should never fall but be happy I see not how it could be called an happy State that were still under the fear of being lost There is no ground to think that by the first Covenant Adam's Posterity should have been in a better Condition than himself but that they also should have had a time of Trial as he had and such as should persevere should also be confirmed yet there was necessity that they should be endued with more Strength from the Womb thereby to be put in equal Capacity to stand as he was For seeing Adam was created in the Ripeness of Disscretion and in the clear Knowledg of God and yet so soon fell upon so small Temptation it had been impossible for any of his Posterity being to be born Infants without any Principle vigent in them but the Pleasure of Sense till they attained to Discretion and by long Exercise of these sensible Pleasures strong habitual Pleasures supervening that any one of them could have persevered unless God had promised that if Adam had stood out his Trial he would have given farther Perfection to his Posterity This first Covenant between God and Adam is commonly called the Covenant of Works to distinguish it from the Covenant of Grace and therefore there behoved to be something in it of Merit And that God's part of that Covenant was not only of Grace or free Favour but partly by Premiative Justice and Debt in Remuneration of the Holiness of the Creature as the Apostle saith To him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Yet it cannot be thence inferred that the Reward promised by God to Adam in his Perseverance was wholly and only a Reward of Debt by Justice but that it might be partly a Reward of Debt and partly a Reward of Grace freely given and not deserved Those who arrogate Salvation by the Merit of their Works fortify themselves in their Error by holding that Salvation by the Covenant of Works would have been wholly by Merit and therefore Christ having expiated the Sins of the Elect their good Works must merit Heaven which is clearly confuted seeing God's Dispensations are by Covenant importing Ingagements which did not arise from the Creatures Interest by Creation but only by God's Promise which was free by the Freedom of Indiffrency I am fully perswaded that a great part of God's Promises in the Govenant of Works was by his free Favour and could not have been claimed by Adam or his Posterity as due in Justice to their Perseverance For there was an exceeding great difference between the Value of Adam's part and God's part of that Covenant Adam's part was only Obedience to God There is nothing mentioned in Scripture or consequent from the Nature of that Covenant that God's Promises were for Adam's improving and increasing those Moral perfections God had given him by his Creation but on the contrary that which is expresly mentioned is only forbearance to eat of the forbidden Fruit which could not be the only Obedience but likewise the Obedience to all the Moral Law written in his Heart and also to the positive Law of Marriage instituted in Innocency yet Innocence in all was Man's part and Improvement tho it was no Work of Supererrogation even in him because he was obliged to love God with all his Might yet it did deserve and merit by God's Remunerative Justice but it cannot be pretended that it was a proportionable Remuneration to Adam's Innocency that he should not only become Immortal and be exalted to Celestial and Eternal Glory and that he should be confirmed and made free of the hazard of falling but that also all his Posterity should have additional Perfections created with their Souls enabling them against the Prepossessions of Youth to remain innocent and all as a just Proportion by Premiative Justice no certainly The Nature of a Covenant which is a mutual Contract implieth mutual Prestations to be performed by the Parties Contracters as the mutual Causes and Conditions of each to other and that the ingaging to these Performances be voluntary even tho the Matter engaged were necessary and have an anterior Obligation distinct from that Obligation which ariseth by the Contract For as it is well said by Lawyers the same thing may be due by several Obligations and may be exacted by any of them but the Property of a thing cannot be by more Rights for none can acquire that which is already his own Therefore before the Covenant of Works the Man was obliged to a full Observance of God's Commands without any Engagement of his own because God who gave him his Being might justly qualify his own Gift at his Pleasure so he had given Man his Being by Creation with sufficient Intimation of his Pleasure and Command by the Laws written in his Heart none of which did oblige him to enter into a Covenant with his Creator nor did God command him so to do but offered it to his free Choice inducing him thereto by the great Benefits he offered him by it which he had not Right to nor any ground of Confidence of it but through that Covenant The Covenant of Works had no Sanction by a Penalty added to it For the Dissolution of it upon Man's Failure in his part arose from the Nature of all Contracts whereby it the one Party fail the other may either urge Performance or declare himself free After Adam's Fall Performance became impossible and he was not punishable by that Covenant but by the antecedent Divine Law neither could Man's Consent or Engagement to be liable to the Punishment of Death have any Effect because his Life is not in his own Power Therefore he was only punishable by the antecedent Law of God which was before any Covenant and remained the same during the Covenant and after the Breach of it The Pain of Death expressed for eating the forbidden Fruit was no part of the Covenant and it doth appear to have been anterior to the Covenant intimated to Man immediately after his Creation before Eve was created otherwise Adam might have eaten of that Fruit which doubtless was most pleasant before the Prohibition but Eve's Creation is related after that Prohibition and there is no ground to doubt but the Covenant was made both with Adam and
Works he hath whereof to glory but not before God as if it were any thing whereof he could glory in himself for all Glorying and Boasting is excluded but Abraham's glorying is in God who freely justified him and he rejoiced from that Act of Faith concerning his Son evidencing the Soundness of the saving Faith and the Manifestation of his Justification thereby both to himself and other Men whereby he glorieth before Men and not before God And whereas it is said That Faith worketh by Love it cannot be understood that Acts of Love are Acts of Faith for they are Graces essentially distinct but that Faith is Man's Part of the Covenant whereby Love is given upon God's Part nor doth it follow that because Faith is perfected by Love therefore its Essence is not distinct from Love Man is perfected by Love yet it is no part of his Being That Historical Faith believing the Truth of the Gospel is specifically different from saving Faith and yet it is said That whosoever believeth Christ is come in the Flesh is born of God for no Man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit of God which imports no more than a Sign of saving Faith at that time when there was so general an Opposition against Christ when no Man did avow or own Christ hypocritically 7. The Church of Rome hath more exceeded in bringing Works as Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace than any other Society of Christians for they have made Works the whole and only Part of Man in the Covenant of Grace and have given no Preheminence to Faith but to Charity or Love consequently enough to that Principle As it is said of the three eminent Christian Vertues that of these the greatest is Charity so that if Faith did save as a good Work Love would much more save They acknowledg no Justification distinct from Sanctification they do not require good Works as the Condition of Salvation but as the meritorious Cause of Salvation that God in Justice could not deny Celestial Glory to those that live holily and which is yet more extravagant Supererrogation is the common Opinion publickly preached in that Church and when the Council of Trent was call'd on purpose to amend Errors in Doctrine and Manners that had crept into that Church not one Word in any of their Canons disapproving Works of Supererrogation and the Treasure thereof out of which the Pope by Assignment of the superfluous Merits of the Saints may supply the Merits of others and bring them to Heaven either immediately upon Death or shortning their purging by the purgatorial Fire as soon as he thinks fit and yet they dispute vehemently against the Imputation of the Holiness of Christ. They do acknowledg that Christ's Sufferings have satisfied the Justice of God that without encroaching thereupon he may give Pardon of Sin and they do not ascribe the Pardon of Sin to the Merit of their Holiness but only to the Expiation by Christ's Sufferings and inconsistently enough they require purging by the purgatorial Fire which cannot be thought Correction to amend them and therefore could only be to cleanse and expiate in which they derogate even from the Sufferings of Christ. But to give them the most benign Interpretation they think the Forgiveness of Sin could not exalt Men to heavenly Blessedness but that as in the Covenant of Works every one behoved to merit that Exaltation by their Works which could not be after the Fall because of Original Sin whereby the eating of forbidden Fruit did condemn all Mankind descending from Adam by Ordinary Generation until Christ's Suffering had satisfied that Debt and even the actual Transgressions of those in the Covenant of Grace yet tho Men be still sinful their Sins being pardoned as satisfied by Christ's Sufferings Mens good Works lose not their Effect to merit Heaven as well as Adam's which is the only Difference they make between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works Nothing can be more contrary to the Covenant of Grace and to the Way of Salvation inculcated in the Gospel wherein 1. All Glorying or Boasting of the Creature attributing any Part of its Salvation to it self is excluded Where is boasting then It is excluded by what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude saith the Apostle That a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law But God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sin hath quickned us together with Christ where it is twice repeated by Grace you are saved through Faith not of Works lest any Man should boast Yea Boasting is so far excluded that Man cannot boast of Faith as it is his Part of the Covenant of Grace for it is said By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God What could be more said to exclude Works from Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace not only that there cannot be an equivalent Cause deserving Glory but not so much as the Terms upon which Glory was to be freely given For it is expressy said that we are God's Workmanship created in Christ to good Works which God hath before ordained or prepared that we should walk in them and God hath not predestinated Men to Salvation for their Works foreseen or performed For whom he did foresee them he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son which Image is Holiness which is not the Cause but the End and Effect of Predestination Good Works indeed are Via Regni but not Gausa Regnandi and they are the Evidences of true and saving Faith to be diligently followed not only by reason of the indispensible Law and Duty anterior in order to any Covenant but as the Means to evidence true Grace and give solid Peace and therefore it is said Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life and that the Kingdom of God is taken by Violence and the Violent enter it by Force which doth import no more than the Way to the Kingdom And where it is said Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have Right to the Tree of Life it doth not import Right by Merit the Word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that Works can no more properly be called Right than the Evidence of Lands or Inheritance are called the Rights thereof as sighifying the same and therefore the explicatory Words are subjoined and may enter in through the Gates to the City All others but the Romanists that bring in Works to the Covenant of Grace bring them in as the Conditions of it but not as a deserving meritorious Cause much less as a superfluous supererrogatory Merit seeing Christ hath declared so clearly that the first and great Command of God is Thau shait love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind
called intrinsically evil God may excite these Acts where the Intention or Direction only is evil God's Intention being quite different so he may excite the giving of Alms intending thereby the relief of the Poor but the directing of the Alms to be seen of Men is a distinct separate Act. There is no ground inferring that God excites to that end much less that he excites to Acts intrinsically evil which no Intention can make good and where there are not different Parts or different Acts Therefore God doth not foreknow Acts intrinsically evil or the evil Intention of Acts that otherwise might be good or indifferent in his Decree to excite them but only in his permissive Decree not to hinder the free Creatures in acting them wherein I am convinced by many pregnant Reasons First God's foreseeing such Acts in his purpose to excite the Creature to them and his being an immediate and total Actor of them appears to me inconsistent with his immaculate Purity but thereby he behoved to be the Author of Sin I know many good Men perceive not this Consequence and are far from acknowledging it and are forced to harsh Concessions to shun it as that God is the immediate Cause of the Act but not of the Vitiosity of the Act which is only Privative and requires no Cause nor any Efficiency but Deficiency which importeth nothing as to evil Intention or Acts intrinsically Evil but only as to Acts that would be Good if right directed and is well illustrated by riding of a Lame Horse where the Rider is the cause of the Riding but the Lameness of the Horse is the cause of the Halting but this cannot be applicable to an indivisible Act whence Sin necessarily results and so the whole Act or the Act of Intention is totally Evil And thereby there cannot be one part attributed to God and another to the Creature if God be not the immediate and total Actor but that the Creature hath a different Act the forefight of that Act could not be by the Decree of God to act it and so all free Acts could not be foreseen that way The more Ingenuous are forced to recur to this Evasion that God is under no Law and so the same Act may be Sin in the Creature and no Sin in God but this overturns the Being of Acts morally Good or Evil in congruity to the Nature of God which are not so because God willeth them to be or not to be but he so willeth them because they are absolutely and immutably Good and not alone by the Will or Decree of God God is above his positive Law but he is neither above nor under his moral Law but is a Law to himself else God could make Vertue Vice and Vice Vertue for whatever depends upon Acts of the Will can be altered by another Act of the same Will So God hath altered many of his positive Laws and Precepts because they are only Good in that they are willed and commanded Secondly God hath expresly declared that he hath hindered many Acts of his Creatures which must necessarily import that they would have been acted if they had not been hindered for it is inconsistent to say that God decreed to be an Actor with the Creature and yet decreed to hinder that same Act Thus God declareth that he had hindered Abimelech to touch Sarah whom he had taken on design to make her his Concubine but God disabled him that he could neither meddle with her nor any other Thirdly There are many Sins of Omission wherein the Sinner doth not resolve to omit but by Carelesness and Inconsideration omits here there is no Act of the Creature And if God hinder the Creature to consider he must be sole Actor in these Sins and if not there is no positive Act or Excitation in them and so no Decree for such Acts and therefore they cannot be foreseen in that Decree and yet they are certainly foreseen Fourthly If it were sufficient to clear the Divine Purity that Sin is only a Privation requiring no Efficiency but Deficiency that could not but also vindicate the Creature albeit a total Actor of the same Act. Fifthly If God decree without foresight of what the Creature using its proper Power would act then he behoved to decree the torment of his Creatures without consideration of their future Sins voluntarily to be acted by them which is very inconsistent with his Justice and forces the Authors of this Opinion to acknowledg That God might eternally torment his innocent Creatures and that it is greater Goodness to give them a miserable Being than no Being at all which is neither consistent with his Justice nor his Goodness and gives a most unlovely Representation of him Sixthly There is nothing more inculcated in Scripture than the Efficacy of Prayer for it is said That the fervent Prayer of the Righteous availeth much But if God did determine all future things without Foresight and Consideration of the Prayers of his People Prayer were of no value but a meer Formality without any Efficacy For to what purpose should any pray to an unchangeable God who had already determined all things without consideration of Prayer I know no Evasion can be made but that God hath determined not only the Matter but the Manner of what was to come to pass and so determined many things to be after antecedent Prayer but then Prayer were a meer antecedent Formality and no efficacious Mean availing much But if God did determine many things upon the foresight and consideration of the earnest Prayer of his People they might with as much Confidence pray as if he were undetermined when they prayed I know there are many specious Reasons accustomed to be brought for God's being the immediate total Actor in all the Acts of his Creatures which I consider as Objections 1st It is objected If God decreed any thing upon Foresight and Consideration of any thing in his Creatures he were not altogether independent but behoved to depend upon such Considerations and be pedissequous to his Creatures This Reason can conclude nothing against God's Foresight and Consideration of what he foresaw in the Creature as given by himself above their natural Strength for thereby he depended on nothing but on his own Supernatural Grace It is true that if God's Election were upon the foresight of the Creatures Faith or good Works by that common Power all Men had by their Birth they might glory in themselves and the Election could not be said to be of Free Grace and God might be thought pedissequous to the Creatures and therefore that Opinion of Papists and Arminians is justly rejected But God cannot be said to be pedissequous to the Creatures he foresees would maliciously or obstinately and finally reject the offer of Grace because he decrees to let them follow their own Ways and in Justice to punish them whom he doth not follow but crosseth And though God doth not decree to damn the Reprobate
natural Affection would incline to the forbidden Fruit tho it might easily have been overcome by minding Gratitude to God who did forbid it and the Penalty of the Breach of that Command Therefore the Choice of eating the forbidden Fruit was with Inclination but the Choice of forbearing it had been against the Inclination of the sensible but with the Inclination of the rational Appetite Before the Fall Adam had the Scales of Good and Evil superable but after the Weight of Sin made it insuperable to him and to all his sinful Posterity till they were restored by Grace then the Inclination became superable but the Choice of Good is ordinary contrary Inclination yet there is still in things meerly indifferent a Liberty of Indifferency but in the State of Glory there shall be always a Choice of Inclination which through the Grace and Power of God shall never alter There is no small Contention among different Perswasions concerning the Freedom of Men whether in Mortality they have any Freedom and in what Subject it resides whether in the Understanding the Will or the Affections Some will have Man to have a Freedom in all things and that it is essential to the Will that God cannot determine it by infusing any Habit or Inclination but by Perswasion which it may effectually resist and reject Others attribute a Freedom to Man in indifferent things and in the choice of one Sin rather than another and in the forbearing or not forbearing a particular Act of Sin but that before Grace supervening there is a moral Impossibility of doing any good and holy Work and never a Freedom against the Divine Influence which may be sufficiently proved by Reason and Revelation but it is not proper here to be debated All do agree that a Man is not fully free as to his outward Acts which are liable to Restraint and Constraint and there is thence no small Influence on the inward Acts for thereby Self-love excludes the thoughts of these Motives which are opposite to Force in doubtful things but in things evident and certain no extrinsick Force can alter or hinder the inward Impressions or Acts but the more a Man is constrained or restrained the opposite Desire is the stronger tho outward Dissimulation be procured Then comes the Question In what inward Faculty or Power Liberty resides Some place it in the Affections when they become pliable to the Will some in the Will only without Dependance on the Understanding but that the Will commands the Understanding if not what to judg at least when to judg or think Others place it in the Will with Subordination to the last Judgment determining that it 's now fit to act or forbear But where there can be no real or imaginable Difference the Mind doth not by a positive Act suspend its Choice but privatively cannot choose because there can be no Judgment of Preference but that which appeareth indifferent may with more Attention and Meditation appear not indifferent Some also place Liberty all in the Understanding yea some apprehend the Will to be nothing different from the last Act of the Understanding determining what is fit to be chosen done or forborn at the time of the Resolution I need not now insist in discussing these but I conceive the Enumeration is not full for there are some Acts which are neither from a Power in the Understanding Will or sensible Appetite but are immediately subjected in the Soul or Spirit as Pleasure Grief or Pain which result from the Perception of certain Objects and are not the Acts but the Objects of the Understanding Will and Appetites yet certainly are Acts of the Soul such are all the Acts which the School-men call actus suppositi and therefore a Man is only simply free when he is neither outwardly nor inwardly overpowered and yet that Freedom can neither be an Act of his Understanding or Appetite for these being unchanged outward Force may hinder his Freedom The Understanding is a contemplative but not an active Power The Will or Appetite cannot compare and so cannot prefer one thing to another but the Spirit by the Understanding perceives and compares and the Spirit chooseth by the Will for it understands by the Understanding and wills by the Will The Will of Creatures hath no Activity without it self and cannot suspend the Judgment unless the Judgment be unclear and suspend it self in not concluding what is best to do or forbear yet may it determine what is best to profess or to prosecute by Meditation or by Action I shall now return to the Freedom of God which can no otherwise be known but by Revelation or by Reason from his Works Hence it is evident that God doth not act all that he could by his absolute and infinite Power for then there should be continual and infinite Alterations of all Creatures new Worlds should be every moment created and those that were created annihilated new Kinds new Individuals new Perfections should be continually multiplied and destroyed Therefore God doth not act by an intrinsick Necessity but determines the Effects of his own Omnipotence This may confute their vain Curiosity who enquire why God did not sooner create the World Why he created but one World Why no more Kinds no more Individuals no more Perfections And thence are brought to conjecture that there must be more Men than are upon this little Clod of Earth not descending from Adam and it may be not by Generation yet in other things like to us which may be without Sin as the Angels and live upon the Moon or other dark Planets like the Earth yet still Millions of these would have no Proportion to the Infinite Power of God therefore Creation must be an Act of God's Freedom of Indifferency and so must be the Life and Endurance of the brute and inanimate Creatures and there is no Parity in God's acting in these and in the Acts of his Justice and of his other Moral Perfections They are more brutish that imagine any Creature to have had its Being from God by Necessity or Emanation as many have thought the World to have so been eternally from God which would also import that God hath not Power to create more than he hath created or less than he hath created which some have been so absurd as to imagine besides those that quibble upon the Impossibility of any other thing in respect of the Decrees Seeing God executeth all his Decrees by his sole Will his Will must be necessarily distinct from his Omniscience or any Act of his Judgment in which he differs from all Creatures whose Will alone hath no extrinsick Operation God's Freedom in the Acts of his Moral Perfections are not by Indifferency but commonly by Inclination and yet are free from absolute Necessity albeit not from conditional Necessity or necessary Consequence for so whatsoever is acted while it is acting is necessarily acted not simply but conditionally because it cannot be both acted and
Apostles but to others Was either Reason or Will made use of in the producing of these or was it a brute Way unbeseeming God Are not the Principles of reasoning inbred in Nature and freely given of God Is therefore Man's reasoning a brute Way Nothing can be more express against this Opinion than that of Ezekiel A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and give you a Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and you shall keep my Judgments and do them 3. There is a great Inclination in Man to put Works upon Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace and that as deserving by Justice the Performance of God's Part. The Semi-Pelagians after the Pelagians were baffled and exploded that they durst no more profess the Powers of Nature to be sufficient for Salvation said there behoved to be supernatural Grace given of God at Conversion yet there were preparatory Works such as the Sense of Sin and of its deserving the Spirit of Bondage the use of Ordinances which they thought deserved Grace which God in Justice could not but give these were also exploded and were called Semi-Pelagians All the Apostle Paul's Arguments against Righteousness by the Law strike as fully against these as against any Merits or Works on Man's Part in the Covenant of Grace and he is accurately positive That by Faith only we are sav'd without any thing on our part in which we might glory or attribute our Salvation to our selves in whole or in part 4. There is of late an Opinion vented in England that tho the Covenant of Works is now become impossible which required perfect Obedience yet God in his Goodness hath entered into the new Covenant or Covenant of Grace in which Man's Part is not a legal and full Obedience but through Christ's Mediation he hath accepted an Evangelical Obedience being a sincere Endeavour to fulfil all God's Commandments and a Course of Life without continuing in any kind of known Sin Their main Ground is that it cannot be thought that God entering with Men in the Covenant of Grace would not have Men as a Part of their Engagement to resolve and promise to have respect to all God's Commandments and to endeavour so far as humane Frailty could allow to fulfil them all if it were not so that Holiness were Man's Part of the Covenant we behoved to take the Antinomian's Interpretation that we were no more under the Law but under Grace that the Law had no more Obligation on Believers therefore the new Obedience must be Man's Part. This Opinion hath been held by some Pious and otherwise Orthodox Divines and therefore it ought rather to be cleared as a Mistake than prosecuted as a stated Profession It must therefore be adverted that God's Moral Law is indispensable and behoved to be binding tho there had never been a Covenant as hath been shown before God's Dispensation might have been without taking Man's Consent by way of Covenant but by the Law written in his Heart obliging him to Obedience under the just and proportioned Punishment of eternal exclusion from God's Favour the breach or loss of no Covenant could take away that it became indeed Man's Part of the Covenant of Works but that Covenant is broken yet the Obligation of the Law which was anterior to that Covenant stands In theCovenaut of Works there was partly Merit partly Favour but the Covenant of Grace excludes all Merit and Man's Part is by Faith only so that Faith is not considered in its moral Goodness for in that Consideration Love is a far more excellent and disinterested Vertue than Faith but Holiness is on God's Part of the Covenant of Grace as in the former Conception is expressed he infuses the Habits of all the Christian Vertues in Conversion Man's Engagement to endeavour to keep God's Law were of no Import unless he did keep it and so God's Part should not be at the time of Conversion but at the time of Death after the Course of Man's Life did appear The Scripture makes no mention or moment of Man's Resolution which is as the early Cloud or Morning Dew which quickly passeth away Neither would the Terms of the Covenant of Grace be equal to all the Endeavour of some would go much further than the Endeavour of others 5. Some Divines in England have made Man's Part of the Covenant to be Faith as it is a good Work because it is said Abraham believed in God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness That is it was held sufficient as if all Righteousness had been performed But this had been still a Covenant of Works accepting one Work in place of entire Obedience but Abraham's believing in that Place was not the Act of Faith as it is Man's Part of the Covenant for it relates to a former Place of Scriptnre as the Scripture saith Abraham believed which was concerning his Son Isaac who was promised to him in his Old Age and therefore he staggered not at the Promise of God through Unbelief which was a particular Act of Belief of that Promise and was properly an Act of Holiness and was so imputed or reputed as an Act of Righteousness but the Act of Faith in which Abraham entered in the Covenant of Grace was believing in God through the Messiah to be justified sanctified and glorified 6. Some Reformed Divines in France and England bring good Works on Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace as perfecting and compleating Faith for only a lively Faith working by Love is saving for there is a Faith that worketh not by Love The Devils believe and tremble and Faith without Works is dead Abraham was justified by Works when he offered Isaac Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works And Abraham believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only Yet Paul's reasoning is much more full and accurate discussing the Point of Justification by Faith only without the Works of the Law which could not consist if James spoke of Faith as Justifying whereas James takes off an Error of those that thought they might be saved by believing the Gospel without Holiness which he redargues as a wrong Consequence from Paul and shews that not to be true Faith but such a Faith as the Devils have which cannot be that Act of Faith whereby Man entereth in the Covenant of Grace which is not believing the Truth of the Gospel but relying on God for Salvation through Christ according to the Gospel and on the contrary Abraham's Faith is brought in as true Faith which yet was not the justifying Act nor is the Justification there meant the Justification in Conversion which maketh a Man just but that which manifests his Justification to himself and other Men For Paul saith If Abraham were justified by
to which Luke adds witth all thy Strength Can any Creature do more than this Command doth require which doth not import that all are obliged to the same measure but according to their several Capacities For to whom much is given of them much is required 3. Nothing can be more apposite to take off that Pretence that Remission of Sins is not attributed to Works but only the Exaltation of Man from an Animal Life such as Adam had in his Innocence to an Angelical Life in Heaven than where it is said Even when we were dead in Sin hath he quickened us in Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly Places with Christ Jesus What a pitiful Pretence is it that by the Works of the Law are only meant the Mosaical Law including Institutions and Ceremonies when Faith is said to justify without the Works of the Law and thereafter Works are excluded without mention of any particular Law all Negatives and Exclusives are Universal It is also a groundless Pretence to bring in Works to the Covenant of Grace to make Men more diligent in Holiness seeing it is the Evidence of true Faith ever joined with it in Existence tho not in Concurrence as the Terms of the Covenant on Man's part for the habitual Grace of Holiness is God's part given in Regeneration which even Infants must have I do not think it a convincing Reason against Merit as it is against Supererrogation or Super-Merit that no Creature can merit except it did that which it was not obliged to do seeing all Creatures are indispensably obliged to love God with all their Strength and so to do all that is acceptable in his Sight For then God should only have Punitive Justice and not Premiative Justice by proportionable Rewards which yet certainly is as congruous to the Divine Perfections as the other To him that hath shall it be given Well done thou good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful in a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things There are indeed two kinds of Rewards and there is but one word commonly used to signify both The one is a Reward proportioned to deserving of which it is said To him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Whence it is clear that there is one Reward of Debt and another of Grace which is more properly to be called a Prize or a Gratification I doubt not that the Exaltation of Adam if he had persisted in Integrity from an Animal to an Angelical Life and the Confirmation of him and his Posterity against the hazard of falling was a Prize far above the Proportion of his Merit and so a Reward not of Debt but of Grace for it was annexed to Perseverance in his Innocence not to any high degree of his Attainments and was lost by losing his Innocence not by coming short of such a degree of Holiness How impudently insolent is it then for any sinful Mortal to claim Celestial Glory and to be out of hazard of Misery by their own Merit which were the ground of the most excessive boasting for then they might say that God had given them nothing that he could have withholden These are all the ways I know that Men pretend to ascribe any part of Salvation to their own good Works or Holiness whereof the last is the worst and it is a wonder that such a Multitude of People after so great Discoveries of its Falshood should not be asham'd to own and urge it Many of them at their Death durst not adventure on that ground but betook themselves to the Merits of Christ alone even their greatest Champion Bellarmine to whose Merits more is ascribed in the Support of that Church than to the greatest Merits of the most mortified Monks but they are necessitated to own it because their Church hath defined it as an Article of Faith so that without Shipwrack of Infallibility which is the Ground and Pillar of their Church they cannot part from it There are other Mistakes and Errors about the Terms of the Covenant of Grace and the way of Man's Salvation even of those that admit nothing of their Works but who ascribe all to Faith and acknowledg that Faith is not by the Power of Human Nature but that it is the supernatural Gift of God Those of the Augustan Confession and the Arminians hold that Christ hath purchased to all Mankind a Renovation of Nature concreated with their Souls whereby it becomes in their Power to repent believe and be holy or not as they please and choose And that these Graces are not given to every Individual at the time of their Conversion but that their Election is by God's Fore-knowledg that they will make use of that Power aright which God hath given them and will repent believe and be holy at their Death tho during their Life they may oftentimes fall from all these Graces yet God who foresaw these would not fall away finally did elect them to Glory In this they think they do not boast because this Power was the Gift of God but given to all alike which therefore they call universal Grace thereby they think they fall neither in with Pelagians who attribute these Powers to Human Nature nor with Papists that attribute their Salvation to their own good Works Yet these Opinions are abundantly inconsistent with Revelation of the way of God's dealing with Man and even with Reason They are very clearly inconsistent with the Wisdom of God who doth nothing in vain Were it not in vain to give Grace to the greatest part of Mankind whom God knew would never make use of it or at least would not continue in it but finally fall from him Is it not evidently more consonant to the Wisdom of God to give Grace only to the Elect at the time of Conversion Could it be consistent with the Wisdom of God that he should reconcile with and accept into Favour those whom he knew would apostatize and desert him I know nothing they can pretend to extricate the Wisdom of God in such a course but that it could not consist with God's Justice to require of Creatures that which were impossible for them to perform much less to condemn them to eternal Punishment for that which was impossible and therefore both the Wisdom and Goodness of God required that even the Damned should be inexcusable and so all Mankind behoved to be put in a Capacity of Salvation if not by the natural Powers of Man in Creation at least by superadded Powers after the Fall But there is no necessity to infer that kind of universal Grace to render all Mankind capable of Salvation and to make the Damned inexcusable It is sufficient and consonant to the Word of God that Christ's Merits should be in Value sufficient to purge away the Sins of the whole World and that Grace should be effectual to all of them who when it was offered
without a meritorious Cause deserving Damnation it doth no way follow that he doth save and glorify the Elect upon foresight of a meritorious Cause in them God's Independence cannot exclude the consideration of the Object of his Decree as it must be considered in his Decree He cannot decree to give Mercy but to a Creature that is in some measure miserable He cannot decree to relieve a Creature unless he consider it as distress'd He hath clearly declared and consequently decreed that he would never pardon the Sin against the Holy Ghost Therefore he behoved to foresee who would commit that Sin for he doth nothing in vain and would never decree any thing relating to a Case that were never to exist he could not decree to elect any Creature but upon Foresight and Consideration that he was to create that Creature and that he was never to suffer it to have Hatred and Despight against him In that Golden Chain Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conform to the Image of his Son and whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified The first Link is Foreknowledg of the Object to be predestinated which with congruity to the Divine Natural Perfections were predestinable prior in order of Nature to Predestination Yet in none of these is the Independence of God incroached on Could a miserable or distressed Creature be so impudent as to pretend that its Misery or Distress were the cause of God's Mercy or Relief but only the Object or Occasion thereof the true Cause being God's Mercy and Goodness and so God's Decree to inflict eternal Punishment upon his rational Creature that he foresaw would hate him or be obstinate in Sin is his own Justice and Purity 2dly It is said In God we live we move and have our being And therefore all the Motions of our Minds and Bodies must be his Motions acted by him which Inference is no better than this in him we have our Being therefore our Being is his Being but the true meaning is cleared by those Things which are frequently said of Christ That they are in him and yet are the Creatures importing no more but that they are by Virtue and Power derived from Christ and so we move in God that is by Virtue and Power derived from him 3dly It is objected That if in the worst of Actions God were not Actor he could not be the first and universal Cause but thence it will not follow that the first and universal Cause must still be the immediate and total Cause which is necessary to an universal Predetermination 4thly The main Reason against universal Predetermination is to vindicate the Purity of God which it doth not for whosoever permitteth Evil that he could hinder is accessary thereto and guilty thereof And so God judgeth his Creatures which will not conclude against God because Creatures are not only subject to the moral and unchangeable Laws of God but to his positive Laws neither are Creatures universally obliged to hinder all evil Acts that they were able to hinder For God having set up Civil Authority thereby obligeth Subjects to suffer the Legal Executions thereof though unjust albeit they have sufficient Strength to hinder the same This Reason hath been the chief Inducement of the Error of those who to maintain the Purity of God incroach upon his Power and Wisdom holding that the Will of a free Creature is essentially undeterminable by any other than by it self and therefore God can do no more but perswade and bring Motives into the Mind and so is blameless having done all he could do to hinder Sin For certainly God could have been so powerful a Perswader as to make Prophets and Preachers go to all Nations which he hath not done and this Ground encroacheth on God's Omnipotence that he cannot effectually over-rule his Free Creatures and encroacheth on his Wisdom who having no need of any Creature created such which he could not govern but behoved only to supplicate and perswade The 5th Reason assign'd for universal Predetermination is brought from the accurate arguing of that Case by the Apostle Paul in the 9th of the Romans where it is said of Esau and Jacob That the Children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the Purpose or Decree of God according to Election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Against which he brings this Objection Is there Vnrighteousness with God To which he answers with a strong Denial God forbid For be saith to Moses I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy And thence concludeth That it is not of him that runneth or of him that willeth but of God that sheweth Mercy Whence he doth conclude Therefore hath he Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Against which Conclusion he brings a new Objection thus Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his Will To which he answereth thus Nay but O Man Who art thou that replies against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter Power over the Clay of the same Lump to make one Vessel unto Honour and another unto Dishonour Thence the Authors of universal Predetermination or Excitation of God to the worst Acts think they have unanswerable Grounds to infer That God is not only the Permitter but the Actor of Hardening as well as of Mercy Yea that he hath no more Consideration of what the Creatures were to act in Reprobation and Damnation than in Election and Glorification but that of the same Lump or Mass of Mankind he doth as indifferently make the Vessels of Dishonour that is the Reprobate as the Vessels of Honour that is the Elect. But the Context sufficiently cleareth the Mistakes of these Inferences for it inferreth nothing as to Reprobation that the Children being not yet born had done nothing of Good or Evil the Inference is only that Election might not be of foreseen Works But where it is said that God loved Jacob and hated Esau tho they had yet done nothing it doth not infer That as there is no foreseen Merit or cause of Love of the Elect fo that God hates the Damned without a meritorious Cause deserving his Hatred there is no Consequence from the Freedom of God's Election and Love which are Acts of Bounty to infer the Freedom of his Hatred and Reprobation which are Acts of Justice for Bounty and Mercy are absolutely free but so is not Justice But the main Mistake is that the Vessels of Dishonour are supposed to be the Reprobate and the Vessels of Honour the Elect As if God as indifferently reprobates and elects as the Potter doth of the same Lump make one Vessel to Honour and another to Dishonour
truly he so intended his Faithfulness also in so far only as that it is expected he will punctually and readily perform without Compulsion and he were unfaithful if he did not so perform untrue if he did not intend to perform when he engaged as well as unjust by not performing These may all concur in God but his Justice in performing his Promise and his Truth in intending to perform it can never be separated yet his Faithfulness may be without them in particular Acts so may his Justice in Rewards and Punishments be without any Word and consequently without Truth in that Word and both may be without exerting Faithfulness The Ground and Warrant of Faith is the excellent Disposition of the Person trusted whereby it were incongruous to him to disappoint the Expectation and Confidence which he knew were placed in him and were not rejected by him The Psalmist saith They that know thy Name will put their Trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee Here the Knowledg of God's Name which signifies his excellent Nature is the ground of Trust and specially that Divine Perfection that he will not forsake them that seek him Here is no relation to a Promise the Psalmist founds his Prayer both on God's Faithfulness and on his Justice in performing his Promise and not on this alone when he saith Hear my Prayer O Lord give Ear to my Supplications in thy Faithfulness answer me and in thy Righteousness where these are clearly distinguished The same Psalmist saith in another place Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy Faithfulness reaches unto the Clouds Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains where God's Faithfulness and his Righteousness are clearly diversified If one should trust in a powerful vertuous Person if he did not make his Trust known to that Person he could not be said to disappoint him or to fail in Faithfulness yet the Manifestation of Confidence may be without Words and sometimes it is unfit to be by Words and it may be abstract from Particulars and be left to the Discretion of the Person trusted So the Attendance the Dependance the humble and kindly Countenance may better express Confidence than Words which are more frequently false Courtiers do manifest their Confidence in Princes Souldiers in their Generals and Creatures may so express their Considence in God but it is more proper to pray to God in Faith for particular Favours as being more the Homage and Dependance of his Creature than the urging his Justice on general Promises It is not Faith but Folly to trust in any but those that are indued with Vertue and moral Perfections or in these for things that the Person trusted hath not or which were unbecoming for him to bestow therefore there is no Creature on which there can be laid entire and absolute Faith because the Inconveniency may occur that they cannot satisfy In this Sense God may be said to be only Faithful as well as only Wise and Good one may trust when he is not wise in trusting yet he may become unfaithful that admitted the Trust they were very unwise that would trust a Secret to a Liar or the managing of an Affair to an imprudent Person or Money to a Prodigal yet if they did admit of the Trust they were unfaithful if they failed It is very evident that it is highly congruous and worthy of the Divine Perfections to be faithful and it were inconsistent with these to disappoint the Faith of his Creatures trusting in him for things fit for him to give and them to receive without consideration of any Promise or Declaration of his purpose so to do It is fully evident that it were unsutable to him to give Happiness to them that love not Holiness or to pardon Sin to those whose Souls cleave to it or to give the highest Favour to such or Glory to any in the next Life to whom he never gave Grace in this in Act or Inclination which by the very Light of Nature do appear but by Revelation God hath clearly declared in what Things he will not allow of Trust or Faith in him or Hope from him especially for obtaining Reconciliation Forgiveness and Happiness and hath expresly declared when Faith is saving God bestows many good Things out of Commiseration or meer Goodness upon those that have not saving Faith nor can I say that he doth not bestow some good Things upon such even upon consideration of their trusting in him for them as by the Faith of Miracles upon whose Confidence he exerted his supernatural Power though at the great Day he rejects them who had that Faith Those who do not by Word or Sign signify that they allow not the Confidence or Hope of these who pertinently signify it do fail in their Faithfulness if they disappoint them My Thoughts upon God's Faithfulness do exceedingly clear me in that eminent Point that Faith is the only Consideration on which God gives Pardon Reconciliation and Happiness and not upon Love or any other good Work as never to be claimed upon rewarding Justice or Merit but of free Favour and Grace alone Albeit Love to God or Reverence and Obsequiousness to him be more excellent Perfections than Faith for in Faith the Creature hath Consideration of the return to it self and much more in Fear but Love is terminated alone upon God himself and upon no return from God which would make it defective The Love of Gratitude is for what is already received but the Love of God purely on consideration of his infinite Perfections is the highest moral Perfection of Creatures If Happiness had been by the Creatures Love Reverence or Obedience it would have been by Justice and Debt not by Grace as the Apostle says to him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt but being by Faith there can be no pretence of Debt or Justice There is no more ground for him that hopes or trusts to attribute the Effect to himself as deserving it by his Faith than if the Miserable should imagine his Misery were the Cause of Mercy shown him I never find a Reward attributed to Faith for tho it be said cast not away your Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward Confidence there is not Faith but Forwardness and Boldness for in the Original it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though Faith were in the Power of fallen Man he could have little more ground to boast of Happiness on occasion of it than the Beggar of his Poverty which is the occasion of Alms or the Oppressed of Oppression as the Cause of his Relief or than the Infant or Idiot of his Salvation God could have given all good Things without either Prayer or Faith as he doth to Infants but it is a far greater Measure of Benignity to give that which is longed for and desired by Prayer and which is hoped and trusted by
and diligent heed to keep all his Goodness and all his Perfections ever in remembrance left they should be perverted by Satan Self-love and Sensual Pleasure The Terms of the Covenant of Grace are much more fully represented in the Scripture than was the Covenant of Works The Covenant of Grace was first published to Adam and Eve after their Fall in these Words The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent Where by the Serpent is understood Satan who under the appearance of a Serpent deluded them and by the Seed of the Woman is meant the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace who is to bruise that Serpent's Head and to deliver from the Power thereof such as should obtain the Benefit of the Covenant of Grace which for my more distinct understanding I do conceive as if it had been more fully exprest and as if God after the Fall had said to our first Parents thus I made a Covenant with you for your selves and your Posterity that if you continued innocent during the time of your Trial I would have given you supernatural Grace whereby you should never sin but should be eternally Happy I gave you sufficient natural Capacity to fulfil that Covenant but you have distrusted my Kindness and have believed an Apostate Spirit and therefore have lost to your selves and your Posterity the Benefit of that Covenant without being in any necessity to break it by my Decrees or Dispensations I might justly cut you off without having any Posterity or might leave you and them to follow your own ways and I will no more make a Covenant with you for them but I will raise up a second Adam who shall take upon him your Nature and be like you in all things Sin only excepted who will be for ever Innocent and Holy and so not only perform that which by the former Covenant you might have performed but will submit himself to Sufferings for you and your Posterity of greater value than if you had all suffered eternally the just Reward of your Sins And for his Sake I do offer you and will offer to all your Posterity who shall be capable to know an offer of Mercy and Grace that I will make you new Creatures enduing you with supernatural Powers and Inclinations making you Holy and Happy and will not suffer you to continue in Sin if you be not so addicted to your Sins as to reject my Offer to make you Holy and therefore I will continue with you and your Posterity the Light and Law of Nature written in your Hearts whereby you may know Sin the Transgression of it and that you may know that there is Mercy for the Penitent and none for the malicious while obstinate Sinner whereby you may also know that if you repent and betrust your selves to my Mercy and Conduct that I will make you Holy and Happy And albeit neither you have nor will they have Ability to repent and trust yet with the Offer I will give Strength to perform these Acts if the Offer be not rejected and will bring them to the Means of Grace to follow out the same This Offer becomes a Covenant by acceptance thereof the Accepters betrusting themselves to God's Grace and Direction by his Word and Spirit trusting to obtain Pardon of all Sin and of Excitation to Repentance for obtaining of it and for obtaining eternal Happiness by infusing the Habits of Grace here and perfecting them in Glory hereafter in the beatifick Visions of God's Perfections and the shining of his Face for ever without fear of Sin or falling from that happy State I do conceive that in this Representation all the Requisites of a Covenant are comprehended For the Difference between a Covenant and any other Favour done or promised whether absolute or conditional is no Covenant albeit there may be therein mutual Prestations required but this is special in an Offer that it hath no Obligation till it be accepted whereby the Accepters become obliged to perform the mutual Prestations on their Part. God making the general Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation to Sinners if they repent and betrust themselves to him for all things necessary for their Happiness for even the natural Conscience of all Men of Discretion is capable to know and represent to them that God is Just and will punish obstinate Sinners and yet is merciful to penitent Sinners throwing themselves upon him tho without Revelation they cannot know how a just God can pardon Sin without Satisfaction to his Justice but the same is manifested by the Gospel as by the first Adam all his Posterity were capable of Happiness if they sinned not so now by the second Adam all are again capable of Happiness upon far easier Terms of Repentance and Faith and even these performed by supernatural Grace If Adam or his Posterity had the making of the Covenants of Grace they could not without Impudence make them larger for there could be no more added but that even all the obstinately Wicked and Impenitent should enjoy the Pleasure of their Lusts on Earth and thereafter the Joys of Heaven so that I do and all considering Persons might cry out with the Apostle O the Height the Breadth the Length the Depth of the Love of God! And yet his electing Love is even larger than this Offer for albeit it be inconsistent with his immaculate Holiness to make any happy whom he doth not first make holy yet some Rejecters he maketh holy and happy pulling them as Firebrands out of the Fire which maketh none of the obstinate and rejecting Sinners excusable who continue to refuse to be made holy and tho they may deceive themselves thinking they would be willing to be holy yet while they are addicted to their Sins in reality their Will is not to quit them In my most serious Thoughts I can perceive nothing in this Conception of God's Covenants with Men that is impossible inconsistent with or incongruous to any of the Divine Perfections but highly illustrating them all and becoming the Majesty and Glory of God as the King and Ruler of his rational Creatures as to their eternal State Thereby he shews himself to be the most excellent King not only in a just Distribution of Rewards and Punishments but in great Goodness providing all things requisite that might have made them all happy without making any one miserable but by their own particular Fault Thereby also his great Wisdom is manifested designing or doing nothing in vain but ever choosing fit Means for the best Ends whereby his Mercy doth eminently appear that even against Merit he gives Grace and Glory to those Creatures of whom he had no need and who had willingly and ungratefully offended and injured him that he hath left nothing undone that could consist with his Domion his Wisdom his Purity and Holiness to extend his Goodness to his rational Creatures He doth not only govern the Elect towards their Happiness after their Conversion
know that God can make them willing in the Day of his Power Conversion and Regeneration when accurately considered are distinct for Conversion is wrought by that Inclination given of God to accept the Offer of Grace for thereby the Soul is no more addicted to Sin but Regeneration is the Infusion of the Habits of Grace the Pardon of Sin Justification or holding of the Believer as Just and thereby reconciling with him and adopting him as a Son which are God's Part of the Covenant of Grace and are always done together and the future Blessings of the Covenant for increasing Grace giving Perseverance exciting Repentance and renewing Pardon Direction Protection and Glory are not Parts but Effects of the Covenant of Grace proceeding from God's Bounty and Faithfulness and from his Engagement in the Covenant of Grace to give these things which Promise is a Part of the New Covenant There is a great deal of Debate and Noise between divers Churches and those of the same Church in what Justification doth consist And it is clear from comparing Paul and James that there is a Justification before Men and a Justification before God The former is but the Manifestation of Justification the latter is the being of it and this only is in God's Part of the Covenant of Grace so that the Question is in what Justification before God consists Some make it anterior to the Covenant of Grace with the Believer and so no Part of it but rather of that Covenant between the Persons of the Trinity accounting the Elect as just Persons Others hold Justification never to be till all Sin be purged and so not before Death Neither of these do agree with the golden Chain of Salvation the Order of which is not without great Moment wherein Foreknowledg is first Predestination second Vocation third Justification fourth and Glorification last So that Justification is after Vocation and before Glorification and so it is one of the two Links in Time Foreknowledg and Predestination being before Time and Glorification being after every particular Believer's Time when they are entred into Eternity Yet even those who hold Justification to be in Time and a Part of the Covenant of Grace differ in their Conceptions of the Nature of it Some hold it to differ nothing from the Forgiveness of Sin to which I cannot agree for then there behoved to be an Act of Justification whenever there is forgiveness of Sin which is often to be repeated and is a chief Article in the Lord's Prayer which bearing Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Sins must at least import a Prayer for these every Day By entring into the Covenant of Grace future Sins are not forgiven before they be committed which would be an Indulgence to Sin The Church of Rome maketh Justification to be nothing else but Sanctification which doth not consist with that golden Chain where Sanctification is put as the End or Effect of Predestination For whom he foreknew them he did predestinate to be conform to the Image of his Son That Conformity is Sanctity or Holiness not only in conformity to the Holiness of God which would not reach many Duties of Man's Holiness but conformity to his Son God-Man which comprehends them all Others make Justification a judicial Act whether before Time after Time or in Time supposing God to charge a Man as a Criminal with the Guilt of his Sin and that Christ for the Sinner or he for himself pleaded Christ's Satisfaction and thereupon God doth absolve But I conceive there is no such pleading by Man at the Entrance of the Covenant of Grace tho virtually that Absolution be implied but only his assenting to be converted and to be made holy and happy Therefore I conceive Justification to be God's holding and reputing the Believer to be as if he were intirely Just notwithstanding the Remainders of Sin seeing he is become an Adversary to Sin and so may say with Paul Not I but Sin that dwelleth in me In which Sense only it can be said That God seeth no Iniquity in Jacob nor Sin in Israel and that he that is born of God cannot Sin Seeing the indelible Habits of Grace do ever continue in him which is called the Seed of God Tho forgiveness of Sins past at Regeneration purge him and make him innocent yet thereby alone he cannot be accounted Just because the sinful Inclinations remain yet may he be reputed as Just seeing it is expresly said Happy is the Man to whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and whose Sin is covered It is an ordinary Expression that the Righteousness of Christ is imputed to Believers and that their Justification consisteth in that Imputation because Christ is said to be our Righteousness which is not a proper or accurate Expression but improper and metonymick whereby the Cause is put for the Effect as Christ is also our Wisdom and our Peace because he is the Cause of both And likewise Faith is said to be imputed for Righteousness which gave the Rise to that Error that Faith as a good Work is accepted in place of intire Righteousness and of all the good Works required for the fulfilling the Law Whereas the Apostle in the Fourth of the Romans saith Abraham believed and it was counted to him for Righteousness and Faith is counted for Righteousness to him that believeth on him that justifieth the Ungodly but is not imputed to him as Righteousness for the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not to impute but to reckon account esteem or repute And therefore Christ's Righteousness can no more properly be imputed as our Righteousness than his Wisdom or his Peace can be our Wisdom or Peace of which he is the Cause not the Effect for if his fulfilling of the Law were our fulfilling of it we needed not also fulfil the same and the Antinomians would have too much to say that Believers are not obliged to fulfil the Law which Christ fulfilled in their Place and that all their good Works are only free Gratifications Christ's Rightousness is no otherwise imputed to Believers than as a necessary Accomplishment of the second Adam coming in the Place of the first Adam who if he had continued Righteous would have made effectual the Covenant of Works which was lost by his Failure The fifth Point proposed will now easily be cleared That the saving Act of Faith is not ordained to be Man's part of the Covenant of Grace upon Consideration of its own Worth and Value but as it relateth to and relieth on the Mercy and Faithfulness of God and the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ. It useth to be called the Eye of Faith looking to these the Hand of Faith laying hold upon them or the Instrument of the Soul whereby it obtains Salvation There are sharp Disputes under which of these Considerations it justifies but I like it much better to be conceived only as the
Manner which God hath freely chosen whereby to communicate Grace and Glory to the Elect. I like it not to be called properly an Instrument which is an inferiour Cause having some Influence with the principal Agent whereas God and Christ are the only Cause of Grace and Glory Neither yet to be properly a Condition upon which God is to give Grace and Glory seeing a Condition must be uncertain to him who makes it a Condition The being an Eye or Hand are certainly Metaphorical without doubt Causa Conditio Modus are different There is least to be attributed to the saving Act of Faith as it is only the Manner how God is pleased to save which is not a necessary Manner for God might have exerted all his Dispensations with Creatures without giving them the Honour to enter into Covenant with him and therefore he freely chose the way of a Covenant and so the manner of it and to magnify his free Grace and to exclude all glorying of Man in himself he hath chosen the manner of the Covenant of Grace wherein there could not be less of Man in a Covenant If God had proceeded only by Mercy to save Men there could have been no place for a Covenant and Man had not been so much dealt with as a Rational Creature proceeding by Reason Deliberation and Choice as by a Covenant Hence way is made to the last Point proposed What may be thought the Reason why God chose an Act of Faith rather than any other Act of Man to be Man's part in the Covenant of Grace wherein there needs no other Reason but the free Arbitrary Choice of God yet tho the matter had been indifferent his Wisdom appeareth much in this Choice and his Goodness also that he would honour Man to contract with him and to take his Consent to that and yet to give him no Cause and even no Pretext to glory in himself If any Person did obtain great things from another freely which he knew he expected from him and were sutable to the one to give and the other to get Could he without the highest Ingratitude and Impudence attribute the Gift to his own Hope and not wholly to the Goodness and Faithfulness of the Giver The Faithfulness of God is the chief Perfection exerted in the Covenant of Grace The Object of Mercy is Misery the Object of Faithfulness is a rational Hope or Trust which is far larger than Mercy and is extended to innocent Creatures who were never miserable This way of the Explication of the Covenant of Grace gives an easy Outgate to that bitter Contest in the Protestant Church of France and elsewhere whether only the active or also the passive Obedience of Christ were imputed by the Covenant of Grace As the Controversy was stated the Arguments on either side were hardly solvable for it was stated thus Whether Christ in his Sufferings stood in the place of Man or if he did also stand in his place in his Acts of Holiness The former was granted by both the latter affirmed by the one and denied by the other The main Reason for the Affirmative was That suffering could do no more than satisfy the Guilt of Sin and so could only bring Man to be free of Misery and Torment in which case Adam was before the Fall but could not raise Man from that Animal State being so much common with Brutes to an Angelical State in Heaven and yet that is frequently attributed to Christ. Therefore it behoved to be the Merit of Christ not by his Sufferings but by his Holiness as Adam would have merited Heaven for himself and his Posterity by his good Works as of Debt not of Grace For to him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt so that Christ paid the Debt of the Elect and so advanceth them unto Glory And on the other part the chief Reason was that Christ by his Human Nature being a Creature was under an indispensable Obligation to the Creator to love him with all his Soul with all his Heart and with all his Strength beyond which there could be nothing by which he did deserve all that Glory that no other was capable of and therefore they could not conceive a Supererrogation in Christ's active Obedience meriting the Heavenly Glory which Merit was not only sufficient for the Elect but for the whole Race of Mankind altho it was free for the Son to become Man his becoming Man was a part of his Humiliation and Suffering and which is yet more pressing if in that way the active Obedience and Holiness of Christ were imputed to the Elect they were thereby intirely holy and their own Holiness were but Works of Supererrogation at least were not Works due by Justice but Works of Gratitude and the failing in them could never require Repentance which would agree to the Principles of none but of the Antinomians Nor did it magnify the free Grace of God if he gave nothing to the Elect in advancing them to Glory but that which in Recompence at least in Premiative Justice he was obliged to give There being small ground in a Creditor to glory that he had exacted all he could have required tho not from his Debtor but from an interposed Person I have already cleared my Thoughts that tho Christ's Satisfaction may by Resemblance be called the Payment of a Debt yet properly it is not Nor doth God crave Satisfaction as a Creditor or is Sin expiated by God's taking Pleasure in the Misery of his Creature to compense the Displeasure he had in their Sin seeing he declareth the contrary with so solemn an Asseveration As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner But the Satisfaction he requireth in Conformity to his Holiness is the Vindication of his Purity and of his infinite Aversion from Sin as by his Justice he proportions the Suffering requisite for the Vindication to the Sins deserving Therefore upon the foresight of Adam's Fall and thereby not only the loss of the Exaltation of himself and Posterity to Celestial Glory but falling into a sinful State which no Creature could expiate the Son did freely interpose to restore Mankind to what they had lost by Adam and to vindicate the Purity of God by Sufferings of as much Value as if all Mankind had been in eternal Misery and by Christ's performing what Adam was obliged to perform by a full Implement of the whole Will and Law of God and for that end assuming the Nature of Man I have also cleared my Mind that tho Adam had stood he could not have merited that Exaltation which he and his Posterity were to have had by the first Covenant for he might have continued innocent and sinless without great Advances in Holiness Can it then with any Reason be thought that his so continuing did in any way of Justice and Merit purchase Glory for himself and the Capacity of the like to all his Posterity
Eve Death was the due Punishment of the Breach of that Prohibition tho it had not been expressed for the Obedience of a Rational Creature to the Creator is indispensible not only by the Immutability of the Divine Decree not to dispense but simply by the nature of the Thing It could not consist with God's infinite Love to himself to make a Rational Creature that owed him no Obedience and if he could renounce Obedience in one thing he might in all But tho the Prohibition had been after the Covenant yet it was no part of it nor did God by it restrain his own Freedom to command what he pleased for which he had given an Ability to perform For it was a chief Law written in Man's Heart to obey all God's Commands The Institution of Marriage was also before the Fall and even before the Covenant of Works and the Breach of it or any of God's Moral Laws would have annull'd that Covenant God did both in Wisdom and Goodness express the Sanction of Death to the eating of that Fruit as that which Man might be most readily deceived in the Matter being in it self indifferent and of small moment abstract from the Command and therefore the Devil tempted to break it rather than any other God made the Covenant of Works with Adam and when Adam had broke that Covenant and made it ineffectual God did publish to him the new Covenant of Grace There is but little of either expresly related by Moses yet doubless both were largely revealed and made known to Adam and now when the Canon of Scripture is full the Analogy of Faith may thence sufficiently be collected both as to the Tenor of the Covenant of Works and of the Covenant of Grace It were a vast Task to gather in order all that might be deduced from Scripture concerning these Covenants But that which I find necessary for my Satisfaction and for clearing to me the beautiful Representation of the Divine Decrees and Dispensations towards Mankind by Grace and Glory to the Elect and just Judgment against the malicious and obstinately wicked I will digest my Thoughts of both these Covenants between God and Adam that the Parallel may the more clearly appear by expressing the Terms of both in the Form of a free Offer made by God and accepted by Adam for himself and all his in the way Covenants used to be entred in as if God had said to the Protoplasts I have made you after my own Image Innocent and Holy and have endued you with Understanding whereby you can judg and reason and have written my Laws in your Hearts in the Principles of Knowledg to which you cannot but give assent and the Knowledg of necessary Consequences which you may thence certainly deduce I have also endued you with Capacities of Pleasure and Grief whereby upon the Preception of these Objects which may most concern your Well-being Pleasure or Grief will result and from Pleasure Appetite and from Grief Aversion and have made the purest and powerfulest Joy to arise from the Perception of my glorious Perfections and next from these things which conduce to the Well-being of your Kind and then the Pleasure that is peculiar to every one All which are good when kept within their Limits and in due Order I have given you that capacity of Freedom that you need not be under the Power of the Pleasure or Grief arising from perception of any Creature but that you may avoid or abate them by the Application of other Objects to your Senses or Mind by the Pleasure or Grief thence resulting especially by perceiving and considering my own Perfections whereby you may govern your selves and your Choices Appetites or Aversions as may be allowed and accepted by me and as may conduce for my Glory shewing my Divine Perfections in creating preserving and ruling such Creatures whereby as I have been the first Author so indispensibly I must be the last End of your Being to which you must subordinate and direct all your considerate Actions even the desire and endeavour of your own Happiness that thereby you may be in the fuller capacity to please and glorify me wherein if you transgress you must be punished by perpetual Exclusion from my Favour which neither you nor any Creature can ever be able to expiate and restore you my Aversion from Sin being infinite as my self If you improve the Capacities I have given you I will also reward you with greater Perfections as you shall deserve Your Obedience and Devotion to me must not be in trivial things but in such things as require Attention and Diligence yet such as by these shall still be in your Power while you remain innocent By careful Inspection of your own Minds you may find my Laws written therein most of them are evident to you without reasoning and I have endued you with this Principle to know all things that are congruous to and becoming my glorious Nature and yours as you bear my Image and as is congruous to and becoming that part of your Nature peculiar to your selves I am now pleased to enter with you into a Covenant by your willing Engagement in the Terms that I offer you wherein your part is no more than persevering in your Innocence during that time of Trial which I appoint you to which you are obliged by your natural Duty to which I propose the Accession of your voluntary Engagement and my part shall be to put you thenceforth out of hazard ever to offend or to lose that Happiness that I give you and to put all your Posterity in the like Condition that now you are in that each of them that shall continue innocent during his Trial shall be likewise confirmed and because they are to be born Infants carried only by sensible Pleasures before Discretion which will become habitual and strong and much more ready to exceed than you who were created in ripeness of Judgment I will enable them to be in like Capacity to stand as you are and I will exalt you and them from an animal Life on Earth to an Angelical Life in Heaven so that you shall be Immortal without any Separation of your Souls and Bodies I will put you in no Necessity to fall by my Decree or any Circumstances in which you shall be placed I will now add nothing to your Obedience by the Laws of your Nature but the For bearance to eat of the Fruit of one Tree in the midst of the Paradise that it may be an Evidence of your Obedience for my Command alone in a Thing in it self indifferent wherein you must take heed that you yield not to the Pleasure which will arise from that Fruit. Are you now content to enter into this Covenant for your selves and your Posterity wherein if you fail on your Part you lose all the Benefit of it To which Adam and Eve with Joy Acclamation and Blessing did engage and assent and God exhorted them to take good