and upon him when the work was done he might have been justly annihilated If merit be taken in a proper sense Adam in innocency was too low for it all his work being an homage due no profit redounding to God and the work bearing no proportion to the reward But a more superabundant measure of Grace is seen in Gods entrance into covenant with man in his fallen condition and infinitely more savor is shewn in his reconciliation then in his preservation Therefore this by way of eminency hath the honour to be stiled the covenant of Grace the other retaines the name of the covenant of Works These two bearing these denominations have their respective agreement and differences which are to be enquired into but before I reach those it is necessary that somewhat be spoken to assert a covenant of grace in Gospel-times and to give us some further light for a right understanding of it CHAP. III. A Covenant in the proper nature of it between God and fallen man asserted BEfore I proceed any further in this work one great rub that lies in the way is to be removed otherwise not only all that which I have said but also all that which I shall speak on this subject will fall to the ground and that is their objection that say that God hath not entred any covenant properly so called with fallen man He hath by way of Sovereignty laid commands upon man Of free grace hath made rich and large promises by way of legacy bequeathed life and salvation to him but hath entred no covenant properly so called as these say with him which is purposely done to avoid those conditions which are asserted in this covenant If this stand the division before laid down of a Covenant into a Covenant of Works and a Covenant of Grace necessarily falls such a division must not be suffered where any one member of the division is not If therefore there be no covenant of God with fallen man nor no such thing as the covenant of Grace there can be no such division of the covenant and all agreement or differences assigned will be between an entity and a non-entity between that which hath a reality and a meer Chimaera A covenant therefore in the proper nature of it is to be asserted and the speedâ—est way to make this good is to prove from Scripture the name and the thing that the word Covenant is there and the thing in the proper nature of it which the words hold out and all of this respective to the transactions between God and fallen man The word we finde in places without number it were a needlesse labour to give instances when every Reader is able to furnish himself with such multitudes But when this cannot be denyed the impropriety of the speech is objected It is called by the name of a Covenant as is said when in strict propriety of speech it is no covenant But to avoid this the thing it self may be as easily proved as the word and when we have nomen and nominis rationem then we have a covenant not equivocally not yet analogically but properly so called And here I may deal liberally with any adversary and undertake to make proof not only of all the essentials of such a covenant in Scripture but the usual adjuncts not onely of all that makes up the nature but all accessories usually added to the solemnity of covenants The essentials or real properties of a covenant are contained in the usual definitions which afterwards we shall see laid down from several hands all of which are in short comprised in these words A mutual consent of parties with stipulation on both sides Parties consent and mutual engagement is all that is required to the same being of a covenant when two parties agree and either of them both have their conditions to make good there is a covenant or bargaine see it exemplified in several instances given Chap. 1. All of these we finde in that one place Deut. 26. 17 18 19. in the covenant that God enters with his people Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgements and to hearken to his voice And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his Commandments And to make thee high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God as he hath spoken There are the Covenanters God and his people There is consent on both parties Thou hast avouched the Lord hath avouched And there is a stipulation on both sides On Gods part To make them high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour On the peoples part To keep all his Commandments to be an holy people There are covenant-mercies from God to his people unto which of grace he engages himself and there are covenant-duties unto which man stands engaged Psal 103. 17 18. But the mercie of the Lord is from euerlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments The usual solemnities of a covenant are also found in the transactions between God and his people as well as the essentials of it 1. Covenants used to be written for memorial for posterity and so is the covenant between God and man as in Old so in New Testament-times These things are written that you might believe and that believing you may have everlasting life John 20. 31. 2. Covenants used to be confirmed with outward visible signes as the killing of beasts Gen. 15. Jer. 34. this was done in the old administration Exod. 24. Half of the blood was sprinkled upon the Altar to denote Gods entering of Covenant vers 6. The people also were sprinkled with blood to shew their voluntary entring into covenant vers 8. And in the new dispensation a new and unheard of ratification was used the blood of the Mediatour of the Covenant Math. 26. 27 28. This Cup is my blood in the New Testament which was shed for you and for many for the remission of sins This latter is a plain allusion to the former in which you may finde 1. A threefold agreement Either of both these were covenants 2. Either of both these had their ratifications and confirmations 3. Either of both were confirmed with blood 2. A threefold difference 1. The former was the Old covenant which was antiquated This is the New 2. The former was ratified and sanctified with the blood of beasts This is ratified and sanctified in the blood of Christ 3. That blood could never take away sin Heb. 10. This was shed for many for remission of sins Thirdly covenants use to be confirmed by seal so is
sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. 15 16. All these identities evidence one and the same Church ours and theirs Therefore say I unto you the Kingdome of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Matth. 21. 43. The same Kingdom was taken from them and given to us was taken from the Jewes and given to the Gentiles where Sem left there Japhet took possession Gen. 9. 27. Sems Tents are Japhets These speak the covenants into which we have successively entred to be one and the same in substance A covenant entred by the same parties upon the same termes and propositions on either hand is the same covenant Such is the Old covenant entred with the Jewes and the New covenant entred with Christians they are therefore one and the same in substance CHAP. XXXII Differences assigned between the Old and New covenant THese covenants are not in that manner fully and entirely one but there is difference in the way of administration They are one in substance constituting one Church one Kingdome but different in circumstances Upon which account they are distinguished by the names of the Old and New the first and second Covenant Some have made it their ambition to rise as high as may be in the number of differences and have assigned several where there is a full accord and perfect agreement I shall lay down such where the difference is clear and afterward take view of those imaginary differences upon which any controversie of moment hangs 1. They differ in the agents employed in administration of these respective covenants entred of God and upheld and continued with his people The Old covenant was administred and held forth by Servants only Prophets Priests and such as God pleased to appoint whether by ordinary call as those of the Tribe of Levi who were appointed among men in things appertaining to God Or extraordinary to whom he spake in visions and dreams God in sundry wayes and manners as the Apostle to the Hebrews observes then speaking to his people Heb. 1. 1. The New covenant is held forth by the Son as in the same place the Apostle witnesseth He was the Angel or Messenger of the covenant Upon that errand he came from the Father clothed with our flesh This is that great salvation which first began to be spoken to us by the Lord Heb. 2. 3. And this he carries on by his delegates and deputies whom from the right hand of the Father he gifts and qualifies 2. They differ in their extent and latitude as to the Nations taken into covenant The Old covenant received only the Jews To them appertained the Adoption the Glory and the Covenants Rom. 9. 4. Circumcision the Seale of the covenant was proper to them with some few of other Nations that forgetting their own people and their fathers house joyned themseves to them whilest other Nations were known by the name of uncircumcision being without title to that Seale and were without Christ aliens to the common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of Promise Eph. 2. 12. Therefore the Apostles before the vaile was taken away had that restraint upon them Matth. 10. 5. Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not The lost sheep of the house of Israel being in covenant onely were in their commission That was a valley of vision All other people were in darknesse They were a people of God Others were no people The New covenant takes in all Nations respective to the covenant no Nation hath any barre put to it but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him Act. 10. 35. Christ having taken away the partition wall the Apostles have a commission for the discipling of all Nations so that in Christ Jesus There is neither Jew nor Greek Scythian nor Barbarian Col. 3. 11. 3. They differ in their duration or continuance The Old covenant had but its date of time which being expired it must give way for the New to succeed Thus the Apostle reasons from the Prophets prediction of a New covenant Heb. 8. 13. In that he saith A New covenant he hath made void the Old now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away This was to stand till times of reformation Heb. 9 10. This second covenant must remaine till the end of time These are called the last dayes in that after these there must be no change of Ordinances The Ministery now established is to remaine to the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. and the Sacraments until Christs second coming unto judgement 4. They differ in the way of dedication or consecration The Old covenant was dedicated and purified with the blood of Bulls and Goats and other Sacrifices which according to the Law were slaine and offered as the Apostle to the Hebrews observes from Exod. 24. 7 8. Heb. 9. 19 20 21. When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the Law he took the blood of calves and goats with water and Scarlet-wool and hysope and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying This is the blood of the Testament which God hath enjoyned you Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the Tabernacle and all the vessels of the Ministery But in the New Testament the dedication is in the blood of Christ This is my blood in the New Testament shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Where we see 1. An agreement Either of both are Testaments and covenants Either of both have their dedication Either of both are dedicated in blood 2. An answerable difference and opposition The first was the Old Testament to be antiquated The second the New to succeed in place of the Old The first was dedicated in the blood of Bulls and Calves The second in the blood of the Mediatour in my blood saith Christ The first had no possible power to take away sinne as the Apostle presently shews chap. 10. 4. But this is shed for many for the remission of sins The Apostle in the words immediately before these quoted gives the covenant the name of a Testament though a covenant and a mans last Will and Testament really differ seeing herein they agree that the covenant had its validility as a Testament by the death of him that made the covenant Heb. 9. 16 17. 5. They differ in the way of exhibition of Christ the glory and grace of the covenant And upon a threefold account here there is a difference 1. In the Old covenant we have Christ only in a Promise to be incarnate to suffer and to rise again and to be received unto glory Under that covenant light was by way of prophecie In the New covenant he is evidently set forth as come in the flesh Having been dead and now alive Rev. 1. 18. Having suffered in the flesh risen again and entred into glory To us
onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that thorough his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sinnes Acts 13. 38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you forgivenesse of sinnes And by him all that beleeve are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 16. 31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy whole house Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth In all these texts and several others faith is required of men in covenant and if men did not engage to beleeve they could not be so much as professed covenanters This is in reason further evident 1. That which gives us interest in the Mediator of the covenant without which we have no title to him or portion in him is a condition of the covenant This is plain of it self without interest in the Mediator of the covenant we are as though no covenant were entred and the former distance held up But it is faith that gives us interest in Christ the Mediatour He dwells in us by faith Ephes 3. 17. He is set forth a propitiation through Faith in his blood They that believe receive him John 1. 12. Others hold a distance from him To as many as received him to them he gave power to be the sonnes of God even to those that beleeve in his Name 2. That which receives all that grace gives must needs be a condition of the covenant of grace This is as plain to be under a covenant of grace and void of the gifts of grace is a vain entrance upon it and the reception of the gift is a condition necessarily requisite But Faith receives all that grace gives It is of Fath that it might be of grace Rom. 4. 16. God gives nothing at least tending to eternity but he puts it into the hands of Christ He is the Fathers treasury and store-house Col. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwell And that of his fulnesse we should all receive Joh. 1. 16. And faith receives al from him He that believeth out of his belly flowes rivers of living water Joh. 7. 38. 3. That which interest us in and gives title to all priviledges of a people in covenant with God through Christ is a condition of the covenant This is plaine the end of the covenant being to conferre those priviledges upon us But Faith interests us in and gives title to all these priviledges Paul is sent to the Gentiles to turne them from Satan to God to bring them out of Satans kingdome and to bring them in a covenant-way into Christs Kingdome That they may receive forgivenesse of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified saith Christ by faith that is in me Christ is the object of a Christians faith on whom it is terminated Faith which is in Christ receives that leading priviledg forgivenesse of sins without this priviledge we are strangers to all other priviledges Being under sinne we are heires of wrath and in no capacity of mercy Faith interests us in this Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 13. 39. And by him all that beleeve are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes that are past through the forbearance of God Faith interests us in the consummating priviledge an inheritance among them that are sanctified He that believeth hath everlasting life John 6. 40. Faith interests us in all intermediate priviledges which a man in covenant can enjoy in the way to this inheritance Adoption of sonnes is this way obtained John 1. 12. Gal. 3. 26. Pacification of Spirit Serenity and tranquility of minde Isa 26. 3. Rom. 5. 1. Boldnesse at the throne of grace Ephes 3. 12. There is no priviledge bottomed on Christ that hath foundation in him but Faith receives Faith then must be a condition of the covenant 4. That which puts into a capacity to receive the mercies of the covenant held forth in Promise is a condition of the covenant and the want of it strips off all hope and expectation of it But Faith puts into a capacity to receive all the graces of the covenant given in promise Said I not unto thee if thou wilt beleeve thou shalt see the glory of God John 11. 40. God exerts and glorifies his power in great things for good unto those that exercise the grace of Faith Paul saw the Creeple had faith to be healed Acts 14. 9. Sure if there be such a thing as a condition in any covenant in the world any such thing as a conditional covenant then sure faith is a condition of the covenant of grace Some conceive an absolute covenant made of God for grace as Jer. 31. 33. This with me is very disputable and I have given my reasons But the covenant made to grace must needs suppose grace There is no covenant for happinesse made with any creature but upon termes and conditions For further clearing of this point we must know that faith is considered under a double notion First as an instrument or if that word will not be allowed as the way of our interest in Christ and priviledges by Christ Secondly as an inherent grace or Christian duty to which both the Law and the Gospel call The radical grace from which others flow though not in their being yet in their farther growth and encrease I speak of Faith now in the first acception Neither as a part or any way a working cause of the farther progresse in inherent righteousnesse so it will come in the second place but as interesting us in another righteousnesse and so I say it is a condition in the covenant of grace immediately serviceable for our returne to God and reconciliation in Christ For clearring of which I shall clear it in some propositions First God will by no means justifie a wicked person no man in sin shall stand and live in his sight He that hath made a Law to forbid it ordained hell for the punishment of it will not justifie the person that is convinced and found guilty of it Some say it is against his essence The justice of God which is God ties him to take vengeance sure I am it is against his declaration of himself
love in a graciously disposed soul cleaves to Christ for communion but receives him not for justification These two stand as relatives there is no soul entituled to this righteousnesse but by faith and faith is it that entitles to it the beleeving soul hath interest in it Therefore justification in Scripture is ascribed to faith and denied to works when neither faith nor works can beare us out of themselves before the tribunal of God but faith takes hold and the soul by faith rests on this righteousnesse of grace which the Gospel tenders It is true that faith receives the Spirit as well as it receives the blood of Christ Joh. 7. 39. Gal. 3. 14. But this is for another use for the work of sanctification inherent not justification by righteousnesse imputed And it is also true that faith accepts Christ as a Lord as well as a Saviour But it is the acceptation of him as a Saviour not as a Lord that justifies Christ rules his people as a King teacheth them as a Prophet but makes atonement for them onely as a Priest by giving himself in sacrifice his blood for remission of sins These must be distinguished but not divided Faith hath an eye at all the blood of Christ the command of Christ the Doctrine of Christ but as it eyes and fastens on his blood so it justifies He is set out a propitiation through faith in his blood Romans 3. 24. not through faith in his command It is the blood of Christ that cleanseth all sin and not the Sovereignty of Christ These confusions of the distinct parts of Christs Mediatourship and the several offices of faith may not be suffered Scripture assignes each its particular place and work Sovereignty doth not cleanse us nor doth blood command us faith in his blood not faith yeelding to his Sovereignty doth justifie us There are several acts or fruits of justifying faith Heb. 11. But all are not justifying It is not Abrahams obedience Moses self-denial Gideon or Sampsons valour that was their justification but his blood in which faith alone gives interest who did enable them in these duties by his Spirit Paul went in these duties as high as they living in more clear light and under more abundant grace I doubt not but he out-topt them and yet he was not thereby justified as 1 Cor. 4. 4. James indeed saith that Abraham was justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son on the Altar James 2. 21. But either there we must understand a working faith with Piscator Paraeus Pemble and others and confesse that Paul and James handle two distinct questions The one whether faith alone justifies without works which he concludes in the affirmative The other what faith justifies whether a working faith onely and not a faith that is dead and idle or else I know not how to make sense of the Apostle who streight inferres from Abrahams justification by the offer of his sonne And the Scripture was fulfilled that saith Abraham beleeved God and it was accounted to him for righteousnesse How otherwise do these accord He was justified by works and the Scripture was fulfilled that saith he was justified by faith Neither can I reconcile what he saith if this be denied with the whole current of the Gospel The Rhemists indeed understand those texts of the Apostle where he excludes works from justification to be meant of mans moral works done before faith and conversion The works of the Law done without Christ Annot. in Rom. 3. 20 28. As though the Law did not command those duties unto which Christ through faith strengthens a Christian converted by grace And when the Apostle concludes the impossibility of being justified by the works of the Law his meaning should be unlesse grace assist the Law that it may justifie This could not be the Apostle calls it a righteousnesse of God without the Law not a righteousnesse of the Law with addition of strength from the Gospel All works before or after conversion inherent in us or wrought by us are excluded from justification See Ravanellus in verbum Justificatio Num. 3. page 867. This justification wrought freely by grace through faith Rom. 3. 24. is no way consistent with justification by works And what the Apostle speaks of election we may well apply to justification the same medium equally proves the truth of both If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be of works then it is no more of grace otherwise works were no more works Rom 11. 6. And these things considered I am truly sorry that faith should now be denied to have the office or place of an instrument in our justification nay scarce allowed to be called the instrument of receiving Christ that justifies us because the act of faith which is that which justifies us is our actual receiving Christ and therefore cannot be the instrument of receiving This is too subtile a notion we use to speak otherwise of Faith Faith is the eye of the soul whereby we see Christ and the eye is not sight Faith is the hand of the soul whereby it receives Christ and the hand is not receiving And Scripture speaks otherwise We receive remission of sinnes by Faith and an inheritance among them that are sanctified is received by Faith Acts 18. 26. Why else is this righteousnesse sometimes called the righteousnesse of Faith and sometimes the righteousnesse of God which is by Faith but that it is a righteousnesse which Faith receives Christ dwells in us by Faith Ephes 3. 17. By Faith we take him in and give him entertaintment We receive the promise of the Spirit through Faith Gal. 3. 14. These Scriptures speak of Faith as the souls instrument to receive Christ Jesus to receive the Spirit from Christ Jesus The instrumentality of it in the work of justification is denied because the nature of an instrument as considered in Physical operations doth not exactly belong to it which if it must be alwayes rigidly followed will often put us to a stand in the assignation of causes of any kind in Moral actions The material and formal causes in justification are scarce agreed upon and no marvel then in case men mind to contend about it that some question is raised about the instrument But in case we shall consider the nature and kinde of this work about which Faith is implied and examine the reason and ground upon which Faith is disabled from the office of an instrument in our justification and withall look into that which is brought in as an instrument in this work in the stead of it I do not doubt but it will easily appear that those Divines that with a concurrent judgment without almost a dissenting voice have made Faith an instrument in this work speak most aptly and most agreeably to the nature of an instrument The work about which Faith is implied is not an absolute but a relative
other differences which I shall observe or which as I suppose are observable have their rise which are these following The covenant of Works or as learned Camero calls it the covenant of Nature was for preservation of man in life that is in present blisse and happinesse to hold him in the condition in which it found him which is implyed in the penalty threatned as was before noted man must not die till sinne enter and exprest in that promise of God Do this and live His life must be continued as long as his obedience lasted his happinesse must have been perpetuated though not necessarily in the same degree God might have translated him from a life on earth to a life in heaven had he kept to the terms of the covenant The covenant of grace is for mans restitution reconciliation and recovery He was before in blisse and if he had so abode he might with good reason have taken up Peters words It is good for us to be here Now he is in misery and must be restored if ever he be blessed and so a farther difference doth arise The covenant of works had its precedency was first in time The covenant of grace in order of time follows after This must needs follow Mans estate in integrity being before his fall the covenant made in his integrity must needs precede the covenant entred into in his fallen condition unlesse we will place the third of Genesis before the first the fall of man before his creation And therefore that is utterly a mistake in one who in the very entrance upon his Treatise of the two covenants gives the covenant of grace the precedency in time giving this as his reason why he places the covenant of Grace before the covenant of Works because the covenant of Grace was in being before the covenant of Works quoting for proof Gal. 3. 17. The covenant which was made before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disanul But this can by no means serve his purpose unlesse we should conclude that the covenant of Works had its beginning in Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law by Moses and the covenant of Grace of only four hundred and thirty yeares more ancient standing And that will as little serve his purpose which he after brings in that there was an agreement and covenant between God the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ about the salvation of man before Adam sinned yea before the world began Seeing that covenant between the first and second person of the Trinity was not the covenant which he hath in hand to treat upon namely the covenant which God entred with man as he himself confesses No covenant can be made with man before man be in being A noâ—ens can be no party in a covenant And whereas we are told that the same covenant which was made with Jesus Christ before time was afterwards made with man I desire that all would observe what is laid down in that Treatise concerning that covenant Christ for his part was by covenant to become a Mediatour Surety and Saviour for all those that his Father should give him And must we become such Mediatours Sureties and Saviours also God the Father did promise to Christ as is further said all the things that did belong to his Mediatourship and things to gratifie and satisfie him for his Mediatourship May we by covenant expect such things from the Father likewise If we are neither tied to the same work to which Christ by covenant was tied nor are to receive the like gifts as he by covenant was to expect we are not in the same covenant that past between the Father and Christ And though these two were one which must not be yeelded the covenants ad intra which the persons of the Trinity make with themseâ—es and those ad extra with the creature may not be confounded yet that would evince no such precedence in time seeing there was alike agreement in the whole Trinity for the creation of man and Gods covenant with him in his integrity as is fully assented to in the same Treatise to the utter overthrow of all that which upon the former supposition he had built To that question To what end should the covenant of Grace be made before man stood in need of Grace he answers Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world And he had all things then as present and real before the eyes of his glory as now he hath viz. Mans Creation Fall Recovery and in this sense there was no precedency of time in regard of any of Gods Counsels or secret actions And then there can be no precedency of one of his covenants before another we must finde then a sense according to which there is a precedency which is not found in any covenants of the Trinity among themselves which in exact propriety of speech are purposes rather then covenants and were before all time but in the actual entrance and assent by the creature given which is in time and admits precedency In which consideration the covenant of works hath its precedency before that of Grace as the state of integrity was before the fall Whence farther yet follows that the covenant of works was but a small time in force at least but a small time of use only during the space of mans integrity which some say was only one day in all probability not long in that man enjoyed no fruit of that blessing in Paradise Increase and multiply But this second is of everlasting continuance when the first Covenant was violated by our first parents and so made uselesse that of grace succeeded which is our only planck after shipwrack but none shall ever succeed this second Adam failing of salvation by the covenant of Works which he entred in the first place is saved by the covenant of grace into which after his fall he entred and into which he was of grace admitted but he that is not saved by the second must everlastingly perish and so I understand that text Heb. 10. 26. If we sinne wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinnes but a fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation where by sinning wilfully I understand an utter rejection of Gods tender of this sacrifice of Christs blood which I gather from the Apostle in the words that follow the proof that he brings of that sad assertion He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the blood of the Sonne of God and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing This is that wilful sinne of which there is no expiation When man had cast off the yoke a sacrifice was found Christ made his soul an
offering for sinne but when Christ is rejected there is no other sacrifice to be looked for In the covenant of grace God hath made known his whole minde concerning mans salvation by what means and upon what termes man shall be saved CHAP. XVI A further difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace ANother difference of great importance between these covenants and which necessarily as the two former flows from the first is That the first covenant between God and man was immediate no Mediatour intervening no dayes-man standing between them to make them one But for the second man being fallen by sinne a Mediatour was necessary that God and man now in that distance should be reconciled I know some have contended that not only man in integrity but the Angels themselves stood in need of Christs mediation producing their grounds for their assertion and then this difference between these covenants falls neither of both are immediate both standing in need of a Mediatour The grounds are First Obj. That the obedience of man and Angels was imperfect and stood in need of pardon and for the righteousnesse of Christ which he performed to the Father was accounted perfect quoting that place of Eliphaz in his speech to Job Job 4. 18. Even his Angels he charged with folly If Angels stood thus in Gods eye under such a charge then much more man as Eliphas there argues But I would demand of these concerning this supposed imperfection in man and Angels thus supplied by Christs perfection whether it were properly and of its own nature a sinne If not then there is no place for pardon If it were then it must be divolved on Christ and laid upon him to expiate and so man fell or at least lay down groveling before his fall and the good Angels by reason of sin are evil as well as those that are fallen but these are absurd In that of Eliphaz therefore if it must be understood of Angels of glory sin is not charged or implied but only defect standing in comparison or competition with God an imperfection negative is yeelded they match not God in perfection but in his presence cover their faces with their wings Isa 6. 2. but no imperfection privative they want no perfection of which they are in any capacity and whereof they have any necessity God made no creature in such a necessity of sinning or in such a being that needed pardon A second ground is Obj. That though a Mediator was not necessary by way of reconciliation yet he was necessary by way of preservation in righteousnesse The second fully overthrows the first in that which it grants and I know not how that can be proved that it affirms Man was not preserved and therefore it appears that he had no such Mediatour appointed for his preservation And it seems according to this opinion man could not have stood unlesse Christ had been incarnate and so his fall was not from the freedome of his will but the principles of his creation For the Angels how they can be said to stand by grace received from Christ a Mediatour I know not they being no fellow-members with us though fellow-servants And howsoever accidental benefits come to the Angels by Christ in their joy to see lost man restored and reconciled as to God so also to their fellowship and communion according to that of the Apostle Ephes 1. 10. Col. 1. 20. in their experimental knowledge also of the wisdome of God in this great mystery 1 Pet. 1. 12. Ephes 3. 10. yet I doubt not that it was for man whose nature he assumed that Christ was incarnate and that he is a Mediatour between God and man 2 Tim. 2. 5. and not between God and Angels and that for fallen man and not for man in his integrity Therefore I conclude the first covenant was immediate no Mediatour intervening all the blessings of the first covenant flowed from the whole Trinity as the Creation it self without respect to Christ incarnate there was no revelation of that high mystery to man in innocency In which the Reader may consult Gâ—marus in Colos 1 20. The covenant of grace is by a Mediatour mans fallen condition in so great a distance from God necessarily calling for it Two cannot walk together unlesse they be agreed Amos 3. 3. That fallen man may walk in covenant with God it is necessary that a way of agreement be found This the second person of the Trinity by covenant with the Father hath undertaken and therefore he is stiled The Mediatour of the New Testament Heb. 9. 15. A Mediatour of a better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. The Mediatour of the New Covenant Heb. 12. 24. Many obstacles were in the way of mans covenanting with God and attaiment of the mercies and grace of the covenant all of which lay on the Mediatour to remove that God and man might once more be at one All of these Christ undertakes and effects and so is the Meditatour in this work CHAP. XVII Works incumbent upon the Mediatour of the Covenant of Grace THis work of Christ in his Mediatourship I suppose may fitly be reduced to these heads First to bring man into a capacity of covenanting with God Secondly to bring man into the bond of the covenant professedly to accept it Thirdly to enable those whom he brings to glory to perform the duties of the covenant to be steady and upright in it Fourthly to crown those with glory whom by grace be brings up to the terms of the covenant 1. He is to bring man into a capacity of covenanting of which sinne had made mankinde uncapable for though it should be granted that God in absolute justice is not bound to punish sinne wheresoever he findes it and that it is not against his Essence as some would have it to pardon sin without satisfaction yet his ordinate justice is thus bound That law of his being presupposed The day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die he cannot recede from it the penalty of this Law must be born in order to reconciliation and justice satisfied for mans transgression which must be done by such a one that can answer the claime of divine justice The beasts of the Forrests and cattel of a thousand hills which were yet often given to God in sacrifice could not do it The Apostle tells us that it is impossible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sinne Heb. 10. 4. They were never guilty and they are no valuable consideration nor yet the Angels who are above mankinde as the bruit creatures are below Man had sinned and a sacrifice from among man-kinde is to be found Neither can man in sin and under the taint of it be accepted all that he can suffer is due for himself and therefore can be no other mans discharge In the payment of my own debt I set free no other debtor Neither can any that is meer man go
be full and how to be hungry he can beare prosperity and not be puffed up He can be under adversity and not be cast down In the worst of times the just lives by faith Hab. 2. 4. He can make use of every Ordinance for his spiritual advantage The word preach is for his benefit Being mixt with faith when he receives it Heb. 4 2. He knows how to improve the Sacraments for his spiritual growth those seales of the righteousnesse of Faith Rom. 4. 11. Abel by Faith exceeded Cain in sacrifices Heb. 11. 4. and so do these exceed all unbeleevers in their performances All of these might be farther and more fully enlarged but that it is done at large by better hands Master Ward in his Life of Faith Master Culverwel especially Master Ball in his elaborate treatise on that subject CHAP. XXIII Repentance is a condition of the Covenant of grace THe condition immediately serviceable for mans reconciliation to God we have seen that which respects his reparation in his qualifications to hold up communion with God follows which is Repentance The end of Christs coming in the flesh being to save sinners He saves them not in their sins but from their sins and therefore calls them to repentance and engages all to it that he receives into covenant As God will have a self-outed and beleeving people So he will have an humble and an holy people So John Baptist the forerunner of the Mediatour began his Ministery Repent giving in this as his reason The Kingdome of heaven is at hand that is a New Testament-state in which the covenant of Grace was to be opened and the glorious priviledges of it made manifest Matth. 3. 2. With the self-same words Jesus the Mediatour of the covenant begins his Ministery Matth. 4. 12 17. verses compared From that time Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand To this he resolves to engage those that he receives So it was with the twelve that were men employed to bring Nations into covenant They thus began their Ministery Mark 6. 12. They went out and preached that men should repent Neither let any make these two Faith and Repentance or Faith and Obedience which is comprised under Repentance one and the same and old project to introduce justification by works The Scriptures evidently distinguish them Paul makes them two distinct heads in the Ministery when he preached either to the Jews or Gentiles Acts 20. 21. Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ They are two distinct heads of Catechisme in the Apostles times Repentance from dead works and Faith towards God Heb. 6. Repent ye and beleeve the Gospel Mark 1. 15. There are those acts in Scripture attributed to Faith that will by no means be ascribed to love or obedience as the taking in of the priviledges before mentioned If Faith work by love as the Apostle speaks Gal. 5. 6. And love be the end of the commandment out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. then faith is a distinct thing from love If by Faith the Worthies of old wrought righteousnesse then righteousnesse may be distinguished from it Heb. 11. 33. As Faith and Hope make two Graces so Love a third 1 Cor. 13. 13. It is not the Gospel way to confound them together They must not be divided but they are to be distinguished In this of repentance which is a Gospel-grace and condition of the covenant we may observe First A necessary pre-requisite to it Secondly The essential parts of it A necessary pre-requisite to this of repentance as to the other of Faith is Conviction Compunction Remorse Unto which the name of repentance is often given though it be of farre more narrow comprehension than the whole work yea it reacheth not unto any thing which is of the essence of it Called repentance as some say by a Synechdoche the part for the whole but I rather take it to be a Metonimy Sorrow is rather an adjunct than a part of it yet such an adjunct that still accompanies it and makes way for it as the needle as the Ancients use to expresse it enters the cloth not to stay but to let in the thread An Officer enters an house to throw out one inhabitant and to let in another but not to stay himself It hath its name from paine grief or trouble which affects the soul for sin which must needs follow when once we look upon it with shame and wearisomnesse Who can imagine a man to have his eyes opened to see that through his whole life he hath risen up in hostility and opposition against God hath taken off that stamp which God in creation put upon him run his soul upon everlasting hazard and all of this without sense of shame fear or trouble Who can imagine that the soul can leave so ugly a path as that of sin formerly so pleasant and desired without any grief or trouble of minde that he hath so long held it Or that any will make out for help in a Saviour till they see themselves through sinne in a lost and undone condition I speak not of infants who neither act faith nor repentance but of those of growth whom God works for himself by his Ministers As they have their call by the Word So the Word hath its efficacy in some measure of soul-shaking by the Lawes discovery by which is the knowledge of sinne as Rom. 3. 20. Evangelical allurements on which by some the whole of the work is laid can never I suppose work on the soule without Law-convictions If these Gospel allurements draw to Christ they must draw from sinne and how shall any be drawn from what he does not know nor ever understood either to be evil or dangerous It is with me no lesse a Paradox that a man may be drawn from sin without the discovery of the Law as to be drawn to Christ without the light of the Gospel And to say the Gospel discovers sin as well as the Law taking the Gospel in opposition to the moral precepts as here it must be taken is the greatest absurdity Exem gr If it be questioned whether to take up armes be a sin whether to fight a duel be a sinne whether usury be sin or to marry within the Levitical degrees forbidden be sin shall I determine this out of a Gospel-promise That Jesus Christ came to save sinners That the blood of Christ takes away all sin That in him all that beleeve are justified A thousand of these will contribute nothing to the expediting of these or like questions or the conviction of any under guilt The work must be brought to the rule the action to the line for discovery Upon the Laws convictions there may follow Gospel-aggravations But conviction is the work of the Law as an instrument of the
most perillous times 2 Tim. 3. 3. How much more then will God and man have in detestation those that have entred covenant in an immediate way with God for faith and obedience and to stand out in opposition to sinne and Satan yet making defection from God by sinne and unbeliefe stand up in rebellion against him Is the dreadful Majesty of the great God of no more regard than to pretend to him engage with him and then stand up in hostility against him Is there any thing so lovely or honourable in sin to allure men to run upon the wrath of God that they may welter in it or any thing so unpleasing in the wayes of God that neither the dread of his name nor the blisse held forth in promise can perswade to embrace them A viler thing cannot be named than a Christian in sinne a Christian in wayes of unbeliefe and wickednesse Were the name of a Christian off and no covenant bonds engaging to the Lord then there were no more than a creature in rebellion and that were bad enough the work of Gods hand to strive with its Maker But standing vested in this covenant-relation honoured with this glorious Name here is an addition of Hypocrisie Apostasie and defection We hate none more than those that are false to us and we may well conclude that God hates none more than those that are false to him and therefore challenges his people whether they have found any iniquity in him Jerem. 2 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone farre from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain A servant doth not use to quit one Master and betake himself to another but he gives some reason of his change One that hath been engaged for the ways of God as all are that are called by the Name of God and dignified with the title of a Christian would be hard put to it to give a reason of his revolt from God When God and vanity are set in competition that God should be refused and vanity chosen when the fountaine of living waters that never can be drawn dry is left and cisternes broken cisternes chosen that are alwayes running dry How does the holy Ghost set out these 2 Pet. 2. 22. The dog is turned to his own vomit againâ—â— and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Can the sow find no other place than filth nor the dogge no other food than his vomit A returne to sinne is more loathsome than these and such are all the wayes of all men in sinne of all of a Christian profession that are seen in ungodly ways Nothing so glorious as a Christian that holds to his principles that answers in conversation to his profession Nothing so inglorious as a Christian in sin A Jew outwardly and a Heathen inwardly a face for God and a heart for iniquity When such as these came out of the holy land for Babylon they there said in way of reproach of their God These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36. 20. Rom. 2. 24. Insomuch that God is put to it for his vindication not to suffer them to carry their sin with impunity Ezek. 39. 23 24. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies so fell they all by the sword according to their uncleannesse and according to their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them This falsehood in covenant draws present sufferings National plagues I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant Levit. 26. 25. Every Christian Nation under sufferings may sadly reflect upon all that they groan under and say their iniquities have procured these things unto them But this breach of covenant with God hath greater evils even unto eternity following upon it Men of sinne and unbeliefe that lie in distrust and disobedience can claime no interest in the grace and mercy of the covenant God in covenant engages to Faith and Repentance these as we have seen are his termes when men come not up to them they dis-interest themselves and disengage God from any tye of conferring blisse and savation upon them Their own folly and madnesse puts a barre to their own happinesse and glory They cannot be self-saviours yet they will not go out of themselves for salvation by another when they have received the sentence of death in themselves they will not come to Christ that they may have life He may worthily bear his own debt that in pride of spirit refuses anothers bounty Christ offers himself as a Surety in our stead to make payment for us in his own person The unbeleever will stand on his owu bottome and make pay out of his own store or perish Having heaven and hell set before them the tender of the one and the terrour of the other quitting heaven and all the glory of it and happinesse in it they make choice of that fire that is prepared for the Devil and his Angels covenant-breaking having the certaine doome of destruction fastened upon it Assurance of salvation cannot be gained but in a way of covenant-keeping yea the conditions of the covenant are the basis and never failing bottome of our Evidence and Assurance It is gathered thus He that believes and repents shall be saved This is evidently laid down in Scriptures A man void of saving faith and impenitent may give his assent to it Then the sould is to assume to it selfe but I beleeve and repent therefore I shall be saved These two as at large hath been shewn are the conditions of the covenant these we must finde wrought in our souls or else all Evidence is wanting and when these are concluded an undeceiving interest in salvation follows There is a twofold work to be done on the soul that is in sin in order to bring it to salvation There is a third to be done for assurance of salvation The first work is to set the soul free from Hell to deliver it from the sentence of Death to which by the rule of justice man stands condemned A man must be fetched out of prison before he can be for any preferment or place of honour This is done by the blood of Christ Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace This is the price of our ransom Being redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1 18. Secondly to make a man meet for heaven A man so vile as sinne makes is a man fit for nothing but hell and must have a change wrought before he be meet for heaven Upon this ground the Apostle is
the Sonne of God and do despite unto the Spirit of grace but unto Christ himself Christ was sanctified they say with this blood This indeed clearly takes this Text out of their hands that would from thence inferre the Apostasie of sanctified that is regenerate persons And if this hold it as little serves our purpose Here is Christ in covenant but no reprobate or wicked person in covenant But this reference of the words and the interpretation which is grounded on it hath I suppose come into the thoughts of few Interpreters and it seemes to be very much strained the scope of the place being for aggravation of their sinne that set themselves against the Sonne of God and the holy Spirit The common interpretation which is obvious and clearly held out in the Text fully vindicates it from any favour shew'd to the doctrine of Apostasie of the Saints and fully confirmes the point in hand There is a sanctification by separation for God and dedication to him as there is by inhesion and infusion Master Dixon on the words having so fully spoke my thoughts I had rather expresse my selfe in his words than my own putting the Question How the reprobate can be said to be sanctified by the blood of the covenant answers There is a sanctification to the purifying of the flesh and a sanctification to the purifying of the conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb 9. 13 14. The sanctification external to the purifying of the flesh consisteth in the mans separation from the world and dedication unto Gods service by calling and Covenant common to all the members of the visible Church and it is forcible thus farre as to bring a man into credit and estimation as a Saint before men and unto the common priviledges of the Church whereupon as men so God also speaketh unto him and of him as one of his people and dealeth with him in his external dispensation as with one of his own people In this sense all the Congregation of Israel and every one of them is called holy yea Core also and his followers Num. 16. 3. The sanctification internall by renovation consisteth in a mans separation from the state of nature to the state of grace from his old conditions to be a new creature indeed by this latter sort a reprobate cannot be called sanctified but by the former he may be called sanctified and that by vertue of the blood of the covenant albeit he should not get any farther good thereby for as the blood of Christ hath vertue to cleanse the conscience and â—â—nue the soul which cometh unto it truely and spiritually so it must have force to do that which is lesse that is purifie the flesh and external condition of the man who cometh unto it outwardly only as the types did under the Law whereupon an hypocrite in the Christian Church must be accounted one of the congregation of the Saints as well as an hypocrite under the Law was so called because Christs blood cannot be inferiour to the Types which were of this force to sanctifie men to the purifying of the flesh Or we may say more shortly There is a sanctification by consecration when any thing is devoted or dedicated unto God and a sanctification by inhabitation of the holy Spirit 2 Cor. 6. 17. 18. Of the former sort the Censeres of Corah Dathan and Abiram are called holy and the reason is given Because they offered them before the Lord therefore they are hallowed Num. 16. 38. And in this sedse all the members of the visible Church even such as afterwards do prove Apostates are sanctified because they offered and offer themselves unto the Lord. But the inhabitation of the holy Spirit is proper onely to the elect and Gods children To the same purpose Paraeus on the words The sanctification of Apostates was not internal saith he but external consisting in the profession of Faith and participation of the Sacraments They were sanctified that is separate from the Jews and Pagans in profession and accounted for true Christians In the same sense as men are ordinarily called Saints as after we shall hear so those that are turned Apostates were sanctified by the blood of the covenant and therefore were men in covenant Neither can all the noise that hath been made about that Text 1 Pet. 2. 9. adversaries take it off but that it speaks fully to hold up a covenant in this latitude and from thence I thus argue If those phrases a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people be applied to Christians as to Jewes in an equal latitude to one as to other then it must needs follow that there is a covenant in Gospel-times in like latitude as in the time of the Law including all that accept the termes of the covenant and visibly appeare as the people of God and is not restrained onely to the Elect regenerate The consequence is evident seeing the termes plainly imply a covenant Here is a covnant-people or no where But these termes a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People are applied to Christians as well as to Jewes to one in as great a latitude as to the other That which God speaks to Israel in the wildernesse that Peter speaks to the Church to which he writes All Israelites in Moses dayes all Christians professing in Peters time had those titles when only those that kept covenant were at any time worthy of them and had the comforts of them Here 't is objected that this Text is meant of the Church as it is invisible and so it follows not that it is spoken by the Apostle in that latitude as it was by Moses to the Israelites but in as great a difference as the Church visible stands from the Church as it is invisible but I would wish that it might be taken into more serious consideration First whether the first Verse of this second Chapter be meant only of invisible members Whether the Apostle perswades Regenerate men and only Regenerate men to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and evil speakings Secondly whether the third verse be to be thus limited whether the Apostle makes doubt in that manner whether invisible members had tasted that the Lord is gracious and yet the words in both those verses must needs be understood of the same men and under the same notion as these ver 9. The Apostle brings his speech to no full period till ver 11. Those that must lay aside all malice guile c. and those of whom he makes question whether they had tasted that the Lord were gracious are this chosen Generation this royal Priest-hood Thirdly let us more seriously consider the Apostles farther enlargement of this honour of these Christians Which in times past were not a people of God words borrowed from Hos 1. 10. Hos 2. 23 and spoken of the call of the ten revolted Tribes and in
narrative of the work but onely doctrine given in charge which they were to deliver which least of all speaks the order in which the duties specified must necessarily be practised All that can be collected is that we must in Gods ordinary way of conferring salvation have both Faith and baptisme though there be not the like absolute necessity of baptisme as of Faith baptisme being necessary necessitate precepti Jesus Christ having instituted it and commanded it but Faith is necessary both necessitate medii and praecepti seeing Christ not only commanded it but salvation at no hand can be obtained by men in capacity of it without it And therefore it hath been well observed that in the words following the like stresse is not laid on Baptisme as on Faith not he that is not baptized but he that beleeveth not shall be damned 2. Let Peter where he speaks of salvation by baptisme interpret these words Baptisme doth now also saith he save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 3. 21. and then explaines himselfe Not the pntting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God This answer or restipulation unto the outward administration of baptisme is that which follows upon baptisme but justifying Faith is that restipulation at least a principal branch of it and therefore there is no necessity that it go before but a necessity that it must follow after baptisme It is true that in men of yeares justifying faith sometimes goes before baptisme as in Abraham it went before Circumcision but it is not of necessity required to interest us in a right neither of baptisme nor circumcision Thirdly Object That faith to which the promise of Remission and Justication is made it must also be sealed to or that faith which is the condition of the Promise is the condition in foro Dei of the title to the seal But it is onely solid true faith which is the condition of the promise of Remission Therefore it is that onely that gives right in foro Dei to the seal Here is an Argument first proposed Answ secondly in a parenthesis paraphrased for the proposition I say faith is not sealed to but remission of sinnes or salvation upon condition of faith A professour of Faith that goes no farther may engage himself to a lively working faith and upon those termes God engages for and puts his seale for Remission and Salvation For the parenthesis That faith which is the condition of the Promise is the condition in foro Dei of the title to the seale I judge the contrary to be undeniable That faith which is the condition of the Promise is not the condition in foro Dei of title to the seale An acknowledgement of the necessity of such faith with engagement to it is sufficient for a title to the seale and the performance of the condition of like necessity to attaine the thing sealed To promise service and fidelity in war is enough to get listed as to do service is of necessity to be rewarded Fourthly as for the Argument ad hominem framed against those who make initial or common faith sufficient to entitle to Baptisme and yet affixe remission of sins to all Baptisme even so received without any performance of farther engagement I leave to them to defend who maintaine such doctrine and to speak to the absurdities that follow upon it Fifthly that of Philip to the Eunuch seems to carry most colour The Eunuch must beleeve with all his heart before he be baptized and I have known it troublesome that are fully convinced that a dogmatical faith gives title to Baptisme satisfying themselves with this answer That howsoever Philip called for such a faith which leads to salvation yet did not expresse himself so far that no Faith short of this gives title to baptisme It may be answered that a dogmatical faith is true faith suo genere as well as that which justifies therefore I know not why men should give it the terme of false faith seeing Scripture calls it faith and such as those beleevers and the heart in such a Faith as to an entire assent is required If we look into the Eunuchs answer on which Philip did rest satisfied and proceeded upon it to baptisme it will take away all scruple his answer is I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God There is no more in that then a common faith this is beleeved by men not justified yet this faith entitles to baptisme and upon this confession of faith the Eunuch is baptized CHAP. XLIV Impenitence and unbelief in professed Christians is breach of Covenant 4. IT yet follows by way of consectary that men in impenitence and unbelief that lie in sin and live in neglect of the sacrifice of the blood of Christ live in a continual breach of covenant They engage by covenant to believe in Christ and forsake their sin when yet they lie in unbelief impenitence are convinced that they are Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate abusers of themselves with mankinde thieves covetous drunkards revellers and extortioners These do not only transgresse the Law which on the severest penalty forbids these wayes but break covenant with God and so are shut out of the Kingdome of Heaven the reward upon covenant to those whose hearts are upright For howsoever I fully assent to learned Master Baxter that all weaknesses are not covenant-breaches and therefore with him judge it to be their mistake who in their confessions acknowledge that we break covenant all that we do yet those men in the list mentioned having given their names to God and entred covenant with him walking in these forbidden wayes are found covenant-breakers and therefore the Psalmist deservedly sayes to them Psalme 50 16 17. What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behinde thee that is to claime any mercy or favour by vertue of Gods grant in covenant as appeares in the context Engaging to him and thus flying off from him they desert the mercies which they might receive from him As a wife by adultery so they by sin forsake the covenant by which they stand betrothed and by consequence it must needs follow that Christ died for breach of the covenant of Grace as well as for breach of the covenant of Works unlesse we will say that all men by name Christian and found in any of these sinnes are in a lost and unrecoverable condition joyning with them that have said that there is no grace or pardon for those that fall into sinne after baptisme That he died not for their sinnes that live and die in final impenitence and unbelief may be easily granted and that rises to no more then that he died not for those that finally and unrecoverably break covenant with him It is granted by a learned adversary that final unbelief and impenitence are violations
saying To you and to as many as the Lord your God shall call it plainly shewes that he does not limit but amplifie the mercy extending it not barely to the Jewes who in present by reason of fruition of Ordinances were a people near to the Lord Psal 148. 14. but also to the Gentiles who Ephes 2. 17. we affare off 2. In that he saith this promise belongs to them not simply as Jewes but as called is a full contradiction A Jew uncalled at this time before the Kingdome was taken from them is as much as a Convert unconverted or a Gentile disciple undiscipled In case they think to come off by limitting it to an effectual call the Scriptures by themselves quoted doth evidently contradict it Christ came to give them that effectual calling and not onely to those that were thus called It is yet said Peter doth exhort to repentance and Baptisme together and in the first place perswades to repentance then to Baptisme which shews repentance to be in order before baptisme To which I answer that these who had crucified Christ as a blasphemer a seditious person an impostour must needs repent before they would accept Baptisme in his name or hope for remission of sinne by him I had been lost labour for the Apostle to have pressed those that had crucified Christ and retained their former opinion of him to become disciples to him and to look to be saved by him To perswade them to look for remission of sinnes in his blood who took themselves to be without sinne in shedding of it Yet notwithstanding this guilt of which the Apostle would have them to repent he shews that they and their seed are under the promise of God and puts them into a way in acceptation of Christ in the Gospel-tender in his present way of administration to be continued his people still in covenant and that as is plainly enough signified that they might enjoy it in their former latitude to them and to their children The promise of which they were not yet dispossest but stood as a people of God in visible Covenant and their children is here brought as a motive to encourage them to hold correspondency with God as his covenant-people embracing the way which their long expected and desired Messiah had now instituted appointed But this promise was to them and their children Here is yet another evasion The text speaks not expressely of Infants but of children indefinitely And if infants be not children we will be content that they be cast out of covenant and will hold no more plea for their Church-membership nor Baptisme God in the Covenant with Abraham did not expressely mention infants but seed yet infants were his seed and as his seed by Gods command to be circumcised And all our infants are our children and consequently to be baptized Acts 20. 7. is an expresse Text with some of this party without any help of consequence to prove that women received the Lords Supper Because it is said that disciples came together to break bread as though woman and disciple were synonyma But here the promise being made to children infants must neither be comprized in the letter nor yet by any favour of consequence included It is further objected that the text speaks not of the children of the Gentiles at all of whom we are but of the children of the Jews and therefore if that promise be extended to infants which doth not appear the promise is to be expounded so as to note something peculiar to the Jews infants If the Gospel held out any such transcending priviledges appertaining to the seed of the Jews above the Gentiles they may do well to produce a Text for it otherwise we shall take it for granted from Saint Paul that there is none at all that in Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew Circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian nor Scythian bond nor free And when the Apostle addes To those that are afarre off even as many as the Lord shall call he plainly meanes the Gentiles as appears comparing Ephes 2. 13. and though I take not the boldnesse to adde to the words as some stand charged yet it is cleare that he same is understood there in reference to the children of the Gentiles that is exprest before to the children of the Jewes If any shall grant an inheritance to Titius and his heires for ever and to Caius every one will understand that the heires of Caius are meant as well as the heirs of Titius especially if it can be proved out of the Grant it self that the priviledges conveyed to Caius are as ample as that to Titius We can prove the priviledges granted to the Gentiles in the Gospel to be equal to those granted to the Jews when the Jews children then are under the promise with their parents the children of beleeving Gentiles cannot be excluded CHAP. XLIX Rom. 11. 16. Vindicated SECT I. The Series of the Apostles dispute opened and several Arguments deduced THe next Scripture for proof of the Covenant in New Testament-times takes in children with the parents is Rom. 11. 16. For if the first fruits be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches which Scripture that it may be aright understood we must look into the whole Series of the Apostles dispute in that place Having before largely discoursed of the rejection of the Jewes out of a present Church-state and fellowship with the call of the Gentiles and their present Adoption now somewhat to allay the seeming harshnesse of that doctrine of his against the Jewes and to take down the insultings of the Gentiles over that people in this chapter he speaks to both 1. To the Jews by way of mitigation limiting this doctrine of their rejection with a double caution 1. That it was not total 2. That it was not final That it was not total he first asserts secondly proves asserts ver 1. I say then hath God cast away his people God forbid Proves by a threefold argument 1. By instance in himself verse 1. For I am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the Tribe of Benjamin and he doth not dispute for his own rejection 2. By instance in the elect of God verse 2. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew 3. From a parallel Scripture out of 1 King 18. which parallel he first lays down verse 2 3 4 Wâ—t ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying Lord they have killed thy Prophets and digged down thy Altars And I am left alone and they seek my life But what saith the answer of God unto him I have reserved to my selfe seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the Image of Baal And afterward applies verse 5. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace And so falls into a digression
judgement in this way of refutation as though the right in which they stood could be no Topick from which in a moral way the Apostle might perswade them to Baptisme When Shechaniah perswaded Ezra to the reformation of the marriage of strange wives in these words Arise for the matter belongeth unto thee Ezra 10. 4. Here was a motive in a moral way to call upon him to do it and an Argument inferred that it lay upon Ezra as a duty by command from God to set upon it The reason added is worthy of observation This is manifest from the form of words ver 38. which if they had exprest a right to Baptisme by vertue of the promise should have been in the indicative mood in such a forme as this you are to be baptized you may be baptized you have right to it the Minister ought to do it but the words are in the imparative mood exhorting them and perswading them to it They have quite forgotten that the words holding out their right are in the indicative mood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the promise is to you and your children And here is a notable correction of the Apostle he should have said if this had been his meaning you must be baptized and he sayes Arise and be baptized Lastly It is said In the paraphrases which usually in their disputes Paedobaptists make of Acts 2. 38 39. they put not any thing to answere the terme repent as if it stood for a cipher but paraphrase it thus Ye may be baptized you and your children for the Promise is to you and your children The sixth exception was against our interpretation of the word repent ver 38. as if it were as much as to say Covenant for your selves and your children and here it is complained that it is left for a cipher And the Author thinks he hath discovered the reason of this Omission The putting the word repent first and be baptized after doth manifestly overthrow their paraphrase of a right to Baptisme from the word of promise and shew that the particle For doth not prove a right to Baptisme but presse to a duty and such a duty as iâ— to have repentance precedent and that in every person that is to be baptized I confesse it presseth to a duty and such a duty as is to have repentance precedent in them that at that time were his hearers to interest themselves and with themselves their children in this priviledge But right and duty do not shoulder out one the other but very well stand together encouraging to a duty which is a priviledge as well as a duty he fitly makes use of their interest as a motive And they might see that the Apostle puts the promise in a greater latitude than he urgeth repentance He speakes to his hearers when he sayes repent and he tells them that the promise is to them and to their children with them Whereas our Author presseth the precedency of the word repent to the command of being baptized and elsewhere saith Pâ—â—er doth exhort to Repentance and Baptisme together and in the first place perswades to Repentance then to Baptisme which shewes Repentance to be in order before Baptisme I answer as I did before Chap. 48. that these who had crucified Christ as a blasphemer as a seditious person an impostor must needs repent before they would accept Baptisme in his name or hope for remission of sinne by him It had been lost labour for the Apostle to have pressed those that had crucified Christ and retained their former opinion of him to become Disciples to him and to look to be saved by him to perswade them to look for remission of sinnes in his blood who took themselves to be without sinne in shedding of it and yet notwithstanding this guilt of which the Apostle would have them to repent he shewes that they and their seed are under the promise of God and puts them into a way in acceptation of Christ in the Gospel-tender in his present way of administration to be continued his people still in covenant and that as is plainly enough signified that they might enjoy it in their former latitude to them and to their children So that Master Stephens his Interpretation so much sleighted by an adversary and repeated not in his words but in his own paraphrase upon them is indeed the Apostles meaning The Apostle saith he pag. 14. doth speak to these Jewes who had crucified Christ that if they would receive him as the particular Messiah the same promise should still continueâ— to them and their children in the new dispensation And on this doth he build the word of command to baptize father and childe To this the word repent here referres as may be made plaine First By taking into consideration the present state of this people and that in several particulars 1. As yet they had the promises with them and were children of the covenant Acts 3. 25. Though the Apostle Rom. 9. 4. do distinguish between the covenants and the promises yet to have the promises here and to be children of the covenant there seemes to be one If any can distinguish them this people had the honour of both of them God had not yet cast them out of a Church-state and covenant-relation 2. They were in present danger to be cast off according to what Christ had foretold Mat. 8. 12. Mat. 21. 43. Being so fast riveted to the ceremonial Law which now was dead and presently grew deadly God denying any presence as hath been said with them now the substanee was come 3. These particular persons with whom Peter had to deale were now well prepared for a free acceptation of a Gospel-way under this administration which Jesus Christ having pulled down the Law of Ordinances was to set up Being amazed with the glory of the mircale which was wrought before their eyes and convinced with the powerful application of the Prophets by Peter in that elegant Sermon they fell upon enquiry what they should do Secondly By comparing other Texts of Scripture which may serve as a Comment to the clearing of this especially two Texts of two Evangelists recording the words of Christ and holding out the impenitent obstinacy of the Jewes standing out against every call to repentance respective to their rigid pertinacious adhering to former dispensations and opposition of that now tendered and offered to them 1. That of our Saviour Christ Mat. 21. 31 32. Christ having held before them ver 28. 29 30. the parable of a certain man that had two sonnes and came to the first and said sonne go work to day in my Vine-yard He answered and said I will not but afterward he repented and went And he came to the second and said likewise and he answered and said I go Sir and went not and made appeale to them ver 31. Whether of them twaine did the will of his father and they answering the first Jesus saith unto them as it followes
208 Circumcision that painfull signe was the leading initiating seale of it p. 209 Nine positions tending to clear the Old Covenant under Old Testament-dispensations p. 210 211 212 c. See Moses It was not made up of carnal promises p. 219 c. The charge of the Old Covenant to be meerely carnal serves divers interests 1. To bring down all honour and esteem of Old Testament-Scriptures p. 220 2. To take Infants out of Covenant p. 221 3. To keep Infants from Baptisme p. 222 Testimonies evincing the spirituality of Old Covenant-Promises ibid. This Old Covenant was a pure Gospel-Covenant and not mixt p. 224 New Covenant It is held forth by Christ the Mediatour p. 205 It takes in all Nations ibid. 206 It must remain till the end of time ibid. The dedication of it is in the blood of Christ p. 207 Christ already come in the flesh is set forth in it ibid. Truth without type or-shadow held forth in it p. 207 208 Light abounds and knowledge is clear in it p. 208 Baptisme is the initiating seal of it p. 209 It is not limited to the Elect Regenerate p. 231 The meaning of some Orthodox Divines that in some expression seem to deny it p. 233 Severall New Testament-Scriptures evincing it p. 235 c. Arguments asserting it p. 205 Absurdities following upon the restraint of the Covenant to the Elect regenerate p. 252 Objections answered p. 257 It comprizes professed Beleevers and their issue p. 246 The question stated as to the issue of Abraham in severall particulars p. 296 297 c. Arguments from Old Testament-Scriptures evincing the natural issue of Abraham to be in Covenant p. 301. From New Testament-Scriptures p. 304. The grand Objection Rom. 9. 6 7 8. answered p. 309 A second Objection that it is not in that latitude in New Testament-times answered p. 316 1. By Quaeries put p. 317 New Testament-authorities Acts 2. 38 39. Rom. 11. 16. 1 Cor. 7. 14. Gal. 4. 29. Matth. 19. 14. p. 318 3. Arguments evincing it p. 401 c. D. Death WHat in Scripture it implies p. 100 p. 101 The same in the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The proper and most received signification denotes a Testament and not a Covenant p. 38 39 Disciple Vnregenerate persons have the name and outward priviledges of Disciples p. 251 Whole Nations in capacity to be Discipled p. 236 Infants are Disciples p. 413 Discipline God in the Covenant of Grace keeps up his Sovereignty in exercise of Discipline p. 77 78 c. See Separation E. Election INto a Church-state p. 340 The Covenant of Grace not commensurate with Election p. 98 Election leads to salvation without any merit of workes p. 341 See Reprobation Engraffing There is no engraffing into the Church invisible p. 336 Engraffing by Faith according to Election is into Christ. ibid. Engraffing into the true Olive Rom. 11. is into the Church as visible Asserted by Arguments p. 327 c. Errors Have their estimate more or lesse according as they are against Christ p. 280 Some render Christ in an incapacity to be Mediatour ibid. Some are in whole or in part inconsistent with his Mediatorship ibid. Errours either in the foundation or in the superstructure p. 278 In the foundation more neere or more remote p. 279 Epample The Argument that there is no example for infant-baptisme answered p. 414 Extreames In the worship of God dangerous p. 439 F Faith IN Christ commanded in the Moral Law p. 96 c. Is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace p. 118 c. Proposâ—tions tending to clear it p. 122 Reasons to confirme it p. 119 Objections answered p. 130 c. As accepting Christ as a Lord it doth not justifie p. 125 It justifies as an instrument p. 126 Truth explained p. 127 Objections answered ibid. See instrument Faith of profession entitles to Baptisme p. 289 Arguments proving it p. 290 Faith and Repentance our conditions not Gods p. 144 Faith of profession Entitles to the Church visible p. 334 May be lost p. 333. 334 Flesh Birth after the flesh gives a visible title to Church interest p. 370 c. Children of the flesh those who in course of nature come from Abraham ibid. G. Gentiles SInners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. 15. what it implies p. 305. 306 Engraffing of the Jewes and the Gentiles Rom. 11. is into the Church visible p. 327 See Engraffing Church of Jewes and Gentiles one p. 328. Gomarus His answer to the Anabaptists Argument draw from Rom. 9. 6 7. p. 313 c. Gospel Where it is tendered and recieved there is a Covenant p. 161 Where it is tendered and refused there is no Covenant ibid. Grace Is the Fountaine and rise of every Covâ—â—nant of God with man p. 9 The necessity of the concurrence of Grace in mans conversion p. 111 Arguments evincing it p. 104 c. Objections answered p. 113 c. Sufficiency of Gospel-grace in the Old Covenant to convince men of sin for not beleeving p. 215 H. Holy Holinesse HOlinesse of relation of infusion p. 326 One and the same holinesse in every branch of the Olive Rom. 11. ibid. Holinesse not legitimation p. 357 Not regenerate with the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 14. ibid. See places Holinesse of relation of persons p. 440 Of unreasonable creatures ibid. Persons holy in some peculiar way of service p. 444 In a more general way as separate from Idols to God p. 447 Heaven See Kingdome I. Jew A Jew by nature is one in Covenant by birth p. 306 Infant Those little ones that Christ recieved and blessed were infants p. 394 They were infants of Parents in Covenant p. 394 395 They were themselves in Covenant ibid. They were admitted upon a common right and no special priviledge above other infants in Israel ibid. They were admitted to a Church-priviledge p. 397 The Disciples excluded them upon their minority and Christ will have that to be no bar for their admittance p. 399 Infant-Baptisme By Arguments asserted p. 410 c. Objections answered p. 411 c. Infants of all Christian Parents have right to Baptisme p. 448 Infants of wicked Parents p. 448 Of misbelieving Parents p. 449 Of ignorant Parents ibid. Of illegitimate birth p. 450 Of excommunicate persons p. 468 Right of infants of Apostates discussed p. 453 Infants have right to Baptisme as from immediate so from mediate Parents p. 465 Infants within the verge of Baptism-institution p. 411 412 Infants of Christian Parents entitled to the Lords Supper by jus ad rem not jus in re p. 436 Instrument The Word the outward Faith the inward instrument in justification p. 129 Faith more aptly said to be an instrument in justification than the word ibid. Relative actions have not their instruments fitly and properly so called as those that are absolute p. 127 Faith is the instrument of man in the work of justification and because of man in a work of this nature it