neither be prevened nor obliged by any thing in or for us is a Pillar-truth of Christian Religion Rom. 9. 16. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth c. So far as we detract from God's Soveraignty in the dispensation of converting and saving Grace we so far make God a debtor to the Creature before he makes Himself so by a free Promise 2. That all which Parents can do for their Children in attendance to the Precept viz. In bringing them up for God instructing them in His knowledge and fear exercising their Authority in keeping them in from leud courses and causing them to serve God in a visible attendance on the means of Grace c. It is no more then their duty and is in no wayes to be counted meritorious Luk. 17. 10. Hence for their own Souls safety they must do it except they will hazard the displeasure of God 3. That it out-does the power of Moral-means and endeavours though never so sincerely used to Plant or infuse Grace into any Souls The Work of Conversion is not wrought by the will of Man but of God only Joh. 1. 13. If good Men could Will could Pray could Labour Faith into any according to their desire their would none of their Children none of their Servants none of their Neighbours none in the World perish 4. That Divine Faith is not only a confidence but a grounded confidence The Rule doth not only command and bind us to believe but it also tells us what we are to believe The Hold of Faith is the Promise and therefore it can be assured of any thing no further then that goes Faith must have a clear Word for its Trust else it is but vain All our Plea is in the Covenant-Promise and if we cannot find that we look for There we have nothing to build upon but are at uncertainty 5. That Beleevers have no absolute and illimited Promise in the Word of God that all their Children or this or that Child shall be saved no nor limited neither to their care and faithfulness that if they do their best He will infallibly add saving Grace This will appear by two Arguments 1. Because God is faithfull to every Promise which He hath made He is a God that cannot lie or repent I know godly Parents may be remiss but they are not alwayes so and yet have had their Children whom God hath rejected Abraham his Ishmael Isaack his Esau David his Ahsolom and Adonijah Eli his Hophni and Phinehas Now of Abraham we read that he was Trusty and Faithfull in teaching his children Gen. 18. 19. And therefore he instructed and disciplined Ishmael he circumcised him and prayed earnestly for him 2. Because the faithfull People of God have themselves thus interpreted the Promise they judged it to be upon Supposition to carry a Condition in it Eminent for this is the forementioned instance of David that he thus understood it is evident not only by that forecited warning which He gave to Solomon 1 Chron. 28. 9. But also by that knowledgment which he makes of it to God Himself Psal 132. 11 12. Object But we shall find that God makes an absolute Promise to David that He will establish His Covenant with His seed and not Violate it Psal 89. 28 29. Ans It is to be observed that in that place David represents or typifyes Christ the Head of the Church and by His Children we are to understand only those that are given to Christ of God in the Covenant of Redemption concerning whom it is certain they shall obtain Salvation for as the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth who are His. But a Man may be a subject of the visible Covenant who hath no right to the Covenant of Redemption Que. But you will say then What encouragement is there for Parents to Pray for to instruct and take pains with their Children and give them up to God in the Covenant if they cannot do all this in Faith What is not of Faith is of Sin Ans There are other wayes for Faith to act us in our Duty besides this particular confident perswasion of this fruit and effect Consider then 1. That Faith is to eye the Precept as well as the Promise Faith is to influence our duty as well as our assurance Faith is the principle of our obedience And if we believe this is our duty to perform because God commands it and are hereby animated to our duty this is Obedience of Faith it is our duty to sow our Seed in the Morning c. Although we know not which shall prosper this or that because Faith workes by Love 2. That a Beleever is to be engaged to his duty not only by a promise but also by the precept it is true the promise is our Encouragement but the precept is our Rule in submission to the command therefore he is to go about his Work and to leave the success of it to Divine dispose and so doing he performes his duty in Faith and he that is not acted by this principle but doth all meerly as he thinks it may succeed is truly mercenary 3. There are other Promises which may encourage a Beleever in this duty viz. That if he doth it in Truth and sincerity it shall be accepted and rewarded by God God will some way or other make him to find that his labour hath not been in vain The Husband-man is in duty to sow his Seed in Faith but he is not sure he shall have a good Crop The Fig-tree may not blossom though he manures it with care but this is his encouragement that in a way of doing duty God hath said that He will bless him 4. Faith also teacheth us that attending the means is nearer to the particular blessing than not attending but neglecting them God oftner meets His people in the way of his ordinary then in the way of His extraordinary providence nor doth God alwayes though He may sometimes in Soveraignty deny the desired Blessing to His people yea and although He may sometimes worke there where we are guilty of shameful neglect as in Converting Josiah the son of a wicked Amon yet our neglect is inexcusable because we have despised the Command Such a Parent as hath faithfully done his duty may die in Hope that although he see not the desired Fruit of his Pains and prayers yet they may appear when his head is laid in the dust To be sure he may with this comfort leave the World that he hath been faithfull in his place 3. The provocations of Covenant-Children are most hainous and consequently most provoking to God The Sins of none are so offensive in His sight as theirs You shall find therefore that the Scripture sets a Note observable upon this consideration Amos. 3. 2. so Deut. 32. 19 The provokings of Sons and Daughters are bitter Jer. 5. 7. Thy Children have
must go to Him that He may worke your Workes in and for you the Life of a Christian is a Life of Faith Heb. 10. 38. Consider therefore 1 As long as you remain in unbelief you are on that very account Covenant-breakers for it is the first thing required in the Covenant viz. that we believe It binds and obligeth us to go to Christ and make an absolute choise of Him and place the Hope and Trust of our Souls upon Him Think of this you that live ly in a State of Vnregeneracy you break your bond as long as you thus live and are not therefore under the Promise but the threatning at the present When you shall be put upon tryal whether you have kept Covenant with God the first question will be whither you have believed and if this cannot be made good there needs no more enquiry to be made but the Case is cast against you all the pleas you can possibly make from your Moral Obedience or Legal Workes done by you will not in the least salve it but you will be found among and pronounced to be workers of iniquity 2. Without this Faith we cannot perform Gospel-Obedience which is also required of us As it is the first thing called for on our Part so it is the root and Principle of all the rest without which no service can be received To acceptable Obedience Three things are required 1. That the Person doing it be accepted in Christ 2. That it be performed by strength derived from Christ 3. That it come to God through His hands Now to each of these Faith thus embracing of Christ is requisite Hence without it no pleasing God Heb. 11. 6. III. Though we cannot go savingly to Christ before Faith be wrought in us because Faith is the first saving Grace yet it is our duty to be diligently using all those means which are appointed to this End and therein to be waiting upon Him for it Sense therefore of our own inability and utter insufficiency to do this Work in and of our selves is not a just ground of discouragement but may be improved to excite and direct us to go there where sufficiency is to be had Christ therefore sends His gracious invitations to such as these Isa 55. 1. Mat. 11. 28. 4. Those that have believed are to exercise Faith daily going to Christ for renewed Grace and strength Faith is the great help and the only help we have in us to fetch in that strength by which alone we can do that which is well-pleasing unto God It is not for a Beleever to say I am weak and dare not stir lest I fall No but he is to say Christ is strong and He hath bid me to wait on Him and believe in Him This I may assure you of That when a Child of God in tender sense of his own inability to do his duty as he should hath believingly cast it upon and committed it to Christ the bigger better part of his duty is done and he may chearfully and stedfastly go through the rest Let none hope or think to keep Covenant in his own strength nor let any despair of it as long as there is strength in Christ especially considering that if we believe in Him He stands Surety for us and is in the Covenant not only our High-Priest to make satisfaction for us to his Father but our King too to Rule in us and lead us in His fear and not to suffer us to depart from Him all the dayes of our Lives When we finding our selves to be of no Strength go to and Lean upon Jesus Christ we are carried forth happily and shall serve God acceptably It is then alone when we are too presumptous of our own strength and rely on that that we fail and dishonour the Name of God by breaking His Covenant 2. Labour to get a good understanding of and acquaintance with the Nature Tenor and Extent of your Covenant-Duty and keep it upon your thoughts Many are very forward and critically inquisitive after the Nature of Covenant-Priviledges And indeed it is one great Study and discourse of the Times But that which is for our Practice or in which we ought to be most of all conversant we are prone to be most backward in viz. Our duty whereas it ought to be the Servants constant Care to know his Lord's Will How else should he do it God affords us many means of knowledge our Ignorance therefore if we are guilty of it will not be any part of an excusing Plea for us Ignorance of Duty under means of Knowledge will not be acknowledged for Ignorance nor procure us any fewer stripes What Men are wilfully or unnecessarily ignorant of Through their own heedlesness will be charged not as Ignorance but contempt Neither can we do acceptably except we know Let us therefore be industrous to get a right understanding of the Will of God and what are the Rules of Faith and Practice that so we may be furnished for every good Work The Lord expects more in these Dayes and Places of Gospel-Light than where it is wanting The Duties of Christians are many and their Calls to Duty are diversly circumstanced Now God affords you many both publick and private helpes be not you negligent in using of them David by frequent Meditations attained to a large knowledge of God's Precepts Psal 119. 99. And if we could ponder upon these things as much and with as much intensness of mind as we are wont to do upon our Worldly Concernes we should in time grow good proficients in them 3. Get a Love to and delight in the wayes of God There is no such help to a chearfull and constant keeping of Covenant as a heart taken with and delighted in the Command Fear of Wrath may do something to restrain the outward Man from many gross Enormities which otherwayes sinfull Men would boldly and unreclaimably run into And hope of reward may put Men upon it to do many things which otherwise they would not be so forward to engage in And it is certain that both fear and hope acting in their due Places and managed by an higher principle are of no little use to a Child of God whom his heavenly Father is pleased to train up in a great measure by threatnings and promises But still there is nothing of such efficacy as Love Fear and hope invite us to close with the Command for our Own sake but Love allures us to embrace it for Its sake for the preciousness of it Love constrains It is a forcible and irresistible Impetus by which it carries us to our dnty Many waters cannot quench it persecutions cannot obstruct prosperity cannot inveigle it It makes the Command precious above all things Gold and fine Gold are not comparable to it c. Psal 19. 9 10. Now there is very much argument and reason to make us in Love with Covenant-duties They are the revealed will of God and if we
only as a consequent condion or the way in which we are to attain unto felicity Jam. 1. 25. Besides in the former it was to be performed by Man's own strength or the improvement of that Grace which was given Man in his Creation In this it is to be done by the help and strength of Christ Phil. 4. 14. In the former it was to be done perfectly else Man was to lose his Reward In this though every Beleever ought to press earnestly after perfection and be sensible of every defect and bewail it before God yet none is to expect to be perfect in this Life but God hath respect to and readily acknowledgeth the sincerity and integrity of His People In the former God punished the least defect with Death in this God is tender and pittifull to His poor People bearing with their many infirmities and accepting of their humble confession and Repentance There God animedverted on the least defect here he covers many transgressions There he cast the Sinner out of His favour Here His Children are only chastised but His Love is not taken away nor Covenant prophaned Psal 89. 30. c. In the former Repentance was of no worth nor account for it left no room for it in this the People of God may in a way of Repentance obtain Pardon and there Sin is done away Psal 32. 7. 2 Sam. 12. 13. These differences well observed will give us Light into the true Nature of Gospel-Obedience and there are these things requisite in it 1. That there be a sincere and hearty Love and respect to all God's Commandments David an Evangelicall Man professeth his endeared Love to God's Law and declares that His precepts are his delight yea that they are sweet and precious to him Psal 19. 7. c. Yea though he is not unacquainted with his own frailty yet by this token he is quieted and not afraid of being put to shame Psal 119. 6. 2. That this be confirmed by a faithfull endeavour after conformity to the whole known and revealed will of God This hath its rise from the former for if we do love God we will keep His Commandments Joh. 14. 15. i. e. According to the measure of Grace received we will observe them with an upright and devoted heart David will exercise himself in the Law day and night because he loves it Psal 119. We must avoid Temptations abstain from fleshly lusts walk according to Rule do our outmost that God may be glorified by us and therefore endeavour conformity to His holiness in our whole conversation 3. To bear about an humble sense or consciousness of and a Spirit of mourning for our frailties and dayly neglects we must bewail both our impotency and exorbitancy Though we do Sin for who lives and Sins not yet we do not allow it though we do omit much of our duty yet we condemn our selves for it Though Sin be too subtile and potent for us and often we are entangled by it yet we do account it a sore Oppression a distressing Captivity and cry out earnestly to Heaven for help and deliverance This was Pauls Spirit and practice Rom. 7. This shews the heart is true to God and is therefore in his account and interpretation esteemed Evangelicall-Obedience 4. That we do constantly repair to Christ for His strength to help us and that solely relying upon His Grace to give us favour and acceptance with God and ultimately resolving all our hopes not into our own but His Righteousness This is that which we are engaged and required to do in the New-Covenant and if we do not this let our Obedience be never so specious it is still reputed but legall and so becomes worthless Sense of our own infirmity disabling us from doing duty perfectly ought not to discourage us from endeavouring to do it sincerely but its use is to teach us this Lesson that since our strength is not in our selves but in another we ought to go out of our selves and repair unto Him All the Grace and Strength of Jesus Christ is exhibited and profered in the Covenant for the help of a Beleever in performing of his duty and here appears the VVork of Faith in quickning and enlivning of Obedience that it enables us to rely upon this Strength of Christ for our help and having placed our hope here in this confidence to set about our duty And now having cast our selves upon Christ to go on in it with courage not being dismaid for its imperfection but leaving it with Him to render the Services we do acceptable with His Father looking to have our Prayers and Performances offered not by themselves but with his sweet incense And hence when we have thus by the grace of God done our duty we are to have no confidence in the worth and merit of our Obedience to purchase ought of favour and happiness for us but to acquiesce in the way of Obedience only in the Righteousness of Christ Phil. 3. 8 9. Thus we see the Dependance between the two Covenants of Grace The Covenant of Reconciliation must alwayes be considered with the respect it hath to the Covenant of Redemption going before it and making way for it for till we are Redeemed we cannot be Reconciled And when through the grace and help of Jesus Christ our only Surety we are enabled thus to walk and do then do we in God's account keep Covenant with Him we answer the Laws and perform the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace enjoyned us and are acknowledged by him to be the subjects of His special Grace and Heirs of everlasting Mercyes IV. What are those everlasting Mercies that are engaged in the Covenant Ans These Mercies comprize under them the whole blessing of the New-Covenant whatsoever is in particular promised to the People of God in His Word comes under this generall Denomination in our Text. These Mercies are called Everlasting for severall Reasons 1. From the Bigger and better Part of them which are Positively and properly so Not but that there are Transitory and Passing Mercies included in the Covenant-Promise For Godliness hath the Promise of the Life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. But these Temporall Mercies are though great in respect of our deserving who are lesse then the least of God's Mercies yet Little and of Low Consideration when they are compared with those which are in reversion in another World and are therefore Swallowed up and lost in the Contemplation of these 2. To note to us the Originall and Continuance of the whole Series of Covenant-Mercies For their Originall they proceed from Everlasting Love and are therefore said to be from Everlasting The Love of God decreed them before the Creature had a Being yea and in the Covenant of Redemption they were provided secured for God's Elect before Man either was or actually stood in need of any Mercy for their continuance also although some Mercies are
it no great matter to despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities Jude 7. In particular how are God's Ambassadors trampled upon It is no new observation but of a considerable standing Many there are now at rest in Glory who living were openly and plainly branded for the troublers of our Israel and the culpaple cause of many awfull Judgements But they shall trouble us no more and if still it must be so that all the Apostasy or declension or corruption that growes upon us must be laid to their charge and they must be accounted the Porters that open the door to let in calamity upon us they must for the present bear it but God knows if these things are so though they be silent He will speak for them This also is a Sin the times greatly labour of and a notorious breach of Covenant it is and ought to be laboured against 5. Great Sensuality It is a most prevailing iniquity and contradicts that sobriety which the Gospel-Covenant obligeth us unto What abundance of drunkenness It is an Epidemical and infectious disease Excess in meats growing up almost into riot Excess in ordinary entertainments excess in apparrel c. I know it is no easie matter to set bounds and prescribe certain and determinate Rules in these things and there ought to be a latitude of charity extended by Christians one to another but doubtless there is great excess and that it should be and so abound in such times wherein God hath been many wayes bringing His People low argues a great deal of the contempt of the hand of the Lord which hath been upon us Be ye sober is a precept often urged and enjoyned in the Gospel There are other Sins also that have gotten footing and extend too far which it concerns God's Covenant-People to eye observe and avoid Your Covenant with God engageth you to withstand all sins and your own prudence will teach you to fortifie most there where the assault of temptation is like to be the most furious Examples Especially of our Fellow-Christians and Professours are of great force and the efficacy of them will not be avoided without great resistance Put but a Vessel into the stream and if you do not row against it it will readily enough run down with it The stream of the times will undoubtedly carry those Men away that will not take up a resolution to stem it And know it it will be your Glory to have stood it out and weathered evil times For you to stand true to the Covenant when there are so many that prove false will be recorded to your honour and commendation When many Disciples went away from Christ it was the credit of the Twelve that they stood by Him and would not go I know many will account you giddy nice whimsical over-precise to be ready to fall foul upon you with calumnies and reproaches for it hath ever been the guise of loose Professours and by this note you may know them that they count it a strange thing that others cannot comply with them and draw out their consciences to such a latitude as for companies sake to run into the same excess with themselves But know and be assured that if to keep other men company you go their pace and slip aside into their irregularities when God shall come to plead the controversie of His Covenant you must not think it hard measure if you be made then also to keep company with them But if you lay out your lives by the straight Line of Scripture Truths and not by the crooked line of such examples God will remember you with favour in such a time when it will be not only a safety but a glory and a happiness so to be remembred If you stand to your Covenant-oath against such Temptations He will never fail of His Covenant-Promise 3. Make conscience of discharging your Covenantdutyes one to another Man is made a sociable Creature and the main end of society is designed for the bettering of the Estate of Mankind by giving them opportunity to be mutually helpfull each to other And the particular end of Christian societyes considered as such is for the better promoting of spiritual good This duty is a Covenant-engagement which you stand under not only by vertue of a voluntary Promise plighted explicitly and engaged in mutually but by the will of Christ it being a New Govenant-Command Joh. 13. 34. A New Command I give you that you love one another It is a Debt which you owe each to other for Christ's sake Love is a very large and comprehensive-duty Christians being bound up together in a society ought to express this Love by a fedulous endeavour to carry on the Glory of Jesus Christ and foreward the Salvation one of another I shall comprimize what I have to present as particular advice in this Case to two Heads 1. Encourage one another to holiness in Life and Conversation We are called to Holiness and it is the way to Happiness Heb. 12. 14. The Covenant of God is an holy Covenant and God is honoured and His Covenant established in a way of Holiness It is then the duty of such as fear God frequently and sedulously to quicken to it and provoke one another to good Works Do this I. By the light and shine of a godly Conversation The example of Christians is very prevalent whither it be good or bad God sometimes pleaseth to make a godly conversation convictive of gainsayers and that which stops the mouths of the most spiteful Enemies and so brings from Men the tribute of Glory to Him Matt. 5. 16. Much more then may it be expected to be quickening and exciting to the graces of Beleevers and put them much foreward that truly fear God The zeal of one Saint if it blaze it may heat even a great many and indeed there is great need to be put upon this especially in these dayes wherein a lukewarm-Profession is much in credit being very fashionable but forwardness and zeal for God is almost out of date and when there are also so many evil examples carrying much of inticement in them to draw men away from God and turn them out of the right way be therefore very wary that you do not add to the number of such 2. By readiness and forwardness to relieve one another with good and wholsome Counsel and Christianhelp at every lift and time of need God is wont for the most part so to order it that in a Church there are some strong and others that are but weak and it is His Will that the strong should help the weak Ga. 6. 1. Are any not so well instructed in the Truth Be willing to take pains with them Are any overpowered with grief sorrow c Comfort and strengthen them Open your hearts one to another have you any thing laid up in your Cabinet of experiences and prudent observations which another stands in need of be not nigardly but readily and
vain shewes and false pretences he that trusts it is not Wise 3. Be sure rightly to understand and clearly to know what it is that you engage in That Christian is most like to stand firm to his Covenants that enters upon them with the most mature deliberation The want of this may bring a Man into a great snare and lay him open to grievous temptations Prov. 20. 26. It is a snare to a Man to devour that which is holy and after vows to make inquiry Without knowledge there can be no practice without consideration there can be no good resolution A Man's heart cannot be in that promise which he hath not weighed in his understanding He that Covenants to forsake that Sin which he hath a full purpose in his heart to keep and hug as his Darling how is he like to stand to it Remember then that you engage to be for God and for no other You give up your selves to be led by his Spirit directed by his Word to be at his dispose and not your own to make his Will your Rule and his Glory your end You promise that you will not run in the Current and Stream of the Times in the pursuit of vanity nor seek your own things but the things of Christ In a Word you promise sincere and universal Obedience Do you know or consider this Have you thought and do you approve of it in your hearts If not your hearts are false 4. Take up a firm resolution to stand to and perform your promises It is not Words but Performances that God hath a respect to God will not be mocked with flattering promises Purposes do nextly come from the heart and are elicite Acts of the Will and if these be wavering or unfixt the heart is not right A Covenant with God is a Bond firmly obliging the Soul and our engagements to him will never be performed without the greatest resolution You shall meet with great and many Temptations which will assault and batter you Evermore when a People have been engaging to God in a solemn manner they must expect some shaking Tyral And if then you would be strong and acquit your selves like Men your business now is to be fixt When Temptations come and assail you you must say with David The vows of God are upon me And as Psal 119. 106. I have sworn and I will perform If ever you repent of your engagement your heart was never firm in it If you find Satan or your own hearts laying bait before you to entise you you must say as Abraham I have lift up my hand to the God of Heaven c. Let therefore your purposes be hearty purposes free and not constrained 5. Beware of sinful Reserves Nothing more frequent nor more dangerous than Equivocation We make fair Covenants and plausible but we have our mental reservations which spoil all If your Covenant be not full and free and plain it is of no Worth Saul is sent to destroy Amalek and saith I have done it Only I reserved the best for a Sacrifice He had that reserve in his mind before Naaman hath his reserves In this thing pardon thy Servant It may be you think with your selves I can do all and I will do all but this or that one particular thing One hath his sinful and unlawful Calling by which he gets a Living another his oppression deceit another his excess in this or that lawfull liberty c. And this he intends to keep and thinks to say I never intended this Know it this is a dreadful heart-deceit and God will find it out and it will render your whole Covenant a vain oblation 6. Trust not in your selves or your own strength In the first Covenant Man was to look upon and exercise his created Grace though not without imploring Divine assistance and concurse In the New-Covenant Man is utterly to disclaim himself and deny all his own strength The consideration of our own frailty and plain impotency to spiritual things were discouragement enough to our renewal of Covenant If God expected or we promised performance in our own strength Though every Beleever must acknowledge with Paul that of himself he can do nothing yet is he neither to sit still and do nothing or yet to renounce the Covenant of God and engaging of himself to his service Only he must carefully beware that he do not turn it into a Covenant of Works by being his own undertaker lest whiles he pretends to renew he destroyes the Covenant of Grace It may seem a Paradox but is an Evangelical truth that a Christian must acknowledge that he can do nothing and yet resolve and bind himself to do all Therefore 7. In sense of your own utter insufficiency Be sure to get Christ your Vndertaker and Surety in the Covenant The heart is never right till it comes to this And this must be done not by a presumptuous casting all upon him whiles we indulge our careless neglect and say Let Christ answer for it But by a believing and humble dependance upon him as the head of the Covenant And that not only as a political head standing responsible for the carriages of all his Members but also as the head of influences from whom by Faith we are to derive Grace and strength to do and perform that duty which shall through him be accepted by God and reckoned to us as Covenant-keeping And now having him thus related and engaged to us we may with an holy confidence devote our selves to God and his Service From him we shall derive Wisdom to instruct and guide us in all the covenant-Covenant-Duties we are concerned in From him we shall fetch down Grace to animate quicken strengthen our Souls to Duty From Him we shall have encouragement and support against all faintings of spirit and despondencyes under our Work In him we shall have all our weakness pityed and pardoned Through him we shall trample upon Temptation and tread down opposition If Christ be with us we shall not fail though we may fall for he will lift us up And if your hearts do truely and sincerely trust in him and wait upon him he will not leave you wholly to swerve or utterly to violate your holy Covenant But when hypocritical and heartless Professours stumble and fall and by the righteous judgement of God receive the due reward of their dissimulation and falshood you shall be kept preserved established unto the day of the appearauce of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And in that Day when the secrets of Mens hearts shall be made manifest and perfidious and formal Professours shall be put to open shame then shall your Truth and Sincerity be openly acknowledged before Angels and Men and the Glorious Blessing of an everlasting Covenant shall be your Portion for evermore FINIS
really intended which may be reconciled in these propositions 1. We are here to carry in mind the fore-mentioned destinction viz. that the conditions propounded in the Gospell are not Antecedent and Meritorious or so propounded as to be the procuring cause of God's Love and Favour or of the reward propounded in the Covenant such as were the conditions of the Covenant of Works and these propounded to Christ in the Covenant of Redemption for whatsoever respected to price and purchase we must referr it to Christ alone But they are connex and consequent only pointing out unto us the way in which the free blessing of Grace is to be obtained by Mankind Hence we are utterly to disclaim and oppugne all such Popish Doctrines as any wayes tend to render good Works to be meritorious of the promised good This is certain that the different way of proponnding one and the same thing may greatly alter the quality and consideration of it If Salvation should be of Works as the Cause it would shut out Grace but that good Works may be of the things that accompany Salvation and that necessarily as concomitants is very well consistent with the free Grace of God appearing in our Salvation 2. That which makes a Command in a Covenant become a Condition is when it is tyed especially when it is both Negatively and Affirmatively tyed to a conditionall Promise It is true that a command positively given in way of meer soveraignty is no condition but when there is a command given and he that gives it so obligeth himself with it to him to whom it is given as to engage that if he truly and faithfully perform it he shall be thus and so benefited by it and also to threaten that if he fall short he shall thus suffer the command is now so qualified as properly to bear the notion of a condition because the Promise and threatning are positively related to it and must accordingly take place 3. God having pleased to deal with Man in the Gospell in a way of Grace Hence though He do command him as a Soveraign yet he mixeth Grace in all His Commands so that there is no command which is enjoyned us in the Gospell which brings not its benefit along with it Or there is no command in the Gospell which comes to us under the Title of meer Soveraignty but also carryes with it the sweetness of a Promise as well as the rigour of a threatning We may observe that the quality of a condition is not only put upon Faith as Mark 16. 16. but upon Obedience too Heb. 12. 24. Rom. 8. 13. That command in the Gospell which if a Man do perform he hath assurance of Life in his performance but if he do not perform he is certified of Death and Damnation by the neglect of it and all this according to the proposition of the Gospell-Covenant that must carry the respect of a condition but such is Gospel-Obedience as the Scriptures forecited and many more do evidence or we may take it thus All that which God propounds in the Gospel as needfull to be performed by us yea so needfull as eternall Life and Death are infallibly consequent thereupon yea and are referrible thereto is of the condition of the Gospel-Covenant and that is Faith and Obedience separate Obedience and you have a Faith which is vain Jam. 2. 14. and which may be found in Devils vers 19. 4. Whereas Faith is sometimes asserted to be the only Condition required of us in the New-Covenant it is thus to be understood viz. Either 1. That Faith is the only Condition of our Justification but not so of our Salvation It is a Condition of our Salvation too but not only the Right and Title to Salvation is conferred in Believing but there is Obedience also requisite in the way to Salvation Tit. 3. 8. 2. That Faith is the only Condition by which we come to have an interest in Christ's suretiship but not of what is in this suretiship engaged by Christ for us that we shall do By believing in him Christ comes to be our acknowledged and actual Surety in the Covenant of Reconciliation who was our designed and indented Surety in the Covenant of Redemption but still there is something he stands Surety for us in which is formally to be done by us though vertually by the influence and efficacy of His Grace God expects and Christ promiseth that we should fear Him and obey Him and for this He stands bound in the behalf of every Beleever yet the visible Covenant being proposed to us as well as to Him Hence we also stand obliged to the performance of it God in it tells us what it is that He expects of us if we hope to enjoy Him which though it must be wrought efficiently by His Spirit yet it must be formally performed by us Tit. 2. 11 12. 3. Faith may be said to be the only Condition as it is a comprehensive Grace Both 1 As it is that whereby we lay hold upon Christ and close with the Promise in Him and so come to be actually subjects of it according to rhe tenor of it in the Covenant 2. As it is the Spring and Life of New-Obedience i. e. such a Faith whose Nature is to work by Love and hence we find that the whole Spiritual Life of a Christian is called the Life of Faith Heb. 10. 38. Gal. 2. 20. It is not an idle or dead but a lively and working Faith for indeed it is the Faith that mixeth with the duty of a Christian that only puts a worth upon it in Gods account the want of which ingredient renders the most specious duties of Men of no value Heb. 11. 6. Quest But it may then be enquired whither Obedience be not rather a Promise made to Faith than a Condition required of us in the New-Covenant Since Christ hath Promised in the Gospell that he that believes shall be saved and if so then by necessary consequence he that Promiseth the end Promiseth also the means i. e. All that which is requisite to bring us to Salvation and there Obedience may properly take its place Ans In satisfaction to this inquiry these things are well to be weighed 1. We must distinguish between a Promise made by God as one Party in the Covenant and one made by Christ standing in the place of a Mediator interposing between both Parties t Jesus Christ Mr. Stone 's Catechis Manuscript stands as a Mediating Surety on both sides He makes Promises to His Father that all that He requires of us shall be done And He makes Promises likewise unto us that all our Works shall be wrought in us and for us He is a Surety for both Conditions and consequents of the Covenant now the Surety represents the Person for whom He is such and therefore the Person is in Him engaged for in that respect He stands on that Party there being but two in a Covenant If then
a Surety Promise for us that we shall do thus or so and that withall Promise to us that He will do the same thing in and for us if we will rely on Him for it this doth not change the Nature of it from being a debt on our Parts for though Christ hath promised us that He will do it in us yet God still look sthat it shall be done by us 2. We are to distinguish between that which we stand positively engaged to and that which God affords us to be our encouragement in standing to our engagement We stand engaged actually to serve God to obey all His Commands But of our selves we cannot do it Josh 24. 19. Now to relieve our impotency and animate our Obedience Christ engageth to us that if we will believe in Him we shall serve God viz. That He will put His fear in our hearts that we shall not depart away from Him He will give Grace This is the excellency of the Covenant of Grace that it requires nothing of us but withall discovers to and sets before us what and where our help is for the performance of it which Grace is then highly abused when we think our selves thereby acquitted from our duties Paul was of another mind and therefore frames an argument to excite us to greater diligence from this very consideration Phil. 2. 12 13. 3. It is to be observed that Christ's suretiship engageth Him to two sorts of Works There are some which He is to do Personally and alone such are all those things which He did for us in performing all that was required in the Covenant of Redemption He alone made satisfaction to Divine Justice and pai'd the Price of our Ransome fulfilling all Righteousness But there are other Works which He becomes engaged to worke in us as the efficient which yet are to be done by us by the strength of His Grace That we are to do something if we would inherit Eternall Life is the Language of all Gospel-precepts Hence we stand engaged in the Gospell-Covenant to the performance of them But God had no reason to trust us being all lyars and having proved false in one Covenant already it was therefore needfull that Christ should engage for us Now these Works He doth not alone but as He is the Head of the Church and all influences into it which flow from Him into the Body these Works He performes by His Members These Works being required in the Covenant of Reconciliation where Christ Mysticall i. e. Christ and His Church are the Party engaging hence they fail not to be of the Condition though required at His Hands as the Head of it 4. It is to be considered that in the Act of Believing the Soul doth not only give it self up to Christ as the high Priest of his Reconciliation but also as his Prophet and his King to be taught and to be ruled by Him as one that knows he hath not skill or power to order and direct his own wayes And this is properly that Obedience of Faith which Jesus Christ when He receives the Beleever into this Relation undertakes to maintain and carry on in him The Soul by Believing makes it sure that Christ shall be his Helper to supply him with all that Grace whereby he may do all that which the Covenant requires of him Hence though we have Security from Christ to help us yet this engagement of His takes not away the quality of a Condition from our duty Only shewes us whither we must go and where our dependance must be if ever we hope to live as God's Covenant-People who of our selves can do nothing If any shall this notwithstanding think it more fit and proper to call this Obedience rather a Covenant-Command than a Condition I shall not be eager to dispute of terms provided this one thing be granted which cannot without opposing the truth be denyed viz. That it is a part of the Gospell-way necessary to Salvation i. e. Necessitate Praecepti medii beside or beyond which interpretation I do not understand or urge the notion of a Condition in the Gospell-Covenant And now having discovered the Conditions propounded and required in this Covenant the question under consideration viz. VVhat it is to keep Covenant is easily hence answered To keep Covenant is in generall to perform that Obligation we stand in to it for Man to keep Covenant with God is for him to performe the conditions of his Covenant In particular let us observe that our present discourse referrs to the visible dispensation of the Covenant and our so being related to it as it stands propounded on God's Part and at least outwardly acknowledged and submitted to on our Part The conditions then are all those things which the Gospel calls for at our hands or prescribes to us as necessary to Salvation and then to keep Covenant is 1. To believe in Jesus Christ for Life i. e. for Grace and Glory to go out of our selves to Him for all and rely on or place our hope and trust in Him alone This every Member and Child of the Visible Church doth stand bound or engaged unto and that upon no lesse or lower considerations than Salvation and Damnation Mark 16. 16. In which believing they chuse God alone for their Portion Jesus Christ for their only Redeeming-Mediator the Spirit for their only sanctifying Leader They renounce all other vain trust and confidence They say Ashur shall not save us they cast their Idols to Moles and to the Bats They rest not upon the Works of their own hands nor hope to receive any thing at the Hands of God for their own sakes They seek the Glory of God and give to Him the Honour and Praise due to His Name they go to Him for all they want they acknowledge His Mercy and Grace in all they receive c. The truth is it is a large and vast condition to believe and it is a certain and undeniable truth that every one in the Visible Church is a Covenant-breaker till he believes i. e. he falls short of his engagement 2 x x x In foedere gratiae Deus promittit homini se fore ipsi patrem in Christo si filialem praestiterit obedientiam Alsted Theol. P. 375. To perform Gospel-Obedience which is the fruit and exercise of Faith and is therefore in Scripture called the Obedience of Faith because it is nothing else bnt Faith in Exercise animating quickning and improving all the Graces of Sanctification to their proper actions This Obedience is vastly differing from that which is required in the Covenant of Works For although it be the same Morall-Law which is the Rule of Obedience required or prescribed in both the Covenants yet it is presented under divers considerations In the first Covenant it was considered as the Antecedent-condition and Meritorious cause of Man's Blessedness and this Blessedness was therein propounded under the notion of a reward of that Obedience But here it is
such an Objection as this we cannot believe we cannot obey they are things above us and hereupon we take discouragement and begin to think our Condition is as remote from hopes of Life and Salvation as ever we mistake the Covenant For God knows that we cannot and therefore if we understand it aright the Covenant tells us that God doth not expect at our hands nor would he accept of us a Faith of our own making or an Obedience done in our own strength and that if thus we should go about to endeavour to keep Covenant with him we should but irritate or make it void and therefore Christ standing as a Mediator in the Covenant profers Himself to be our Surety and undertaker to help us and worke all our works in and for us that so we may perform the Termes and attend the Requisites of the Covenant to worke Faith in us and perfect us in holiness and so to keep us that we shall never depart from Him And if we set about or think to do any new-covenant-New-Covenant-duty without an eye hither and relyance here we run upon wofull undoing mistakes and utterly lose our selves Let all these thoughts teach us to see and be affected with the excellency and Glory of the New Covenant Coll. 2. We have here a Rule by which to judge of the State and Condition of a People that are in Visible Covenant with God and also it teacheth us what is the true and proper ground of a stable hope that such a People may comfortably rely upon We see that it all hath a certain reference to our dependance upon this one supposition if they keep Covenant This is the only third argument from whence may be drawn a sure conclusion For our more full and clear understanding of this take these Assertions 1. That for a People to enjoy all the visible and outward means of Grace and Good are outward and probationary favours It is true the Ordinances and Priviledges of the Gospell may in a sense be called spiritual relating to the end they direct us unto because they are means guiding and leading us to the enjoyment of spiritual good but yet in themselves as they are enjoyed by a visible Church visibly they are outward things i. e. they are separable from and may be enjoyed without true inward saving Grace A People High in means may be Low in Grace yea empty of it Such was Capernaum Mat. 11. 23. Laodicea may be rich and yet poor Rev. 3. 17. c. The best manured and most carefully tended Vineyard may bring forth wild and sower Grapes Isa 5. begin And as they are outward so also they are probationary God tryes and proves a People with Gospell-Priviledges It is not sufficient security to a Fig-tree that because it is planted in the Vineyard and there carefully manured it shall therefore bear Figs But the Husband Man comes year after year to see whither it bears or no and it is possible that he shall find it barren though in the Vineyard So that parable seems to hold forth Luk. 13. 7 8. God indeed expects Fruit according to his laying out and that justly and therefore He comes and looks for it but it doth not alwayes prove according to His just expectation Not that God can indeed be frustrated of any of His purposes but God here speaks after the manner of Men who are wont to take pains in their Husbandry with an eye to profit and therefore observe what In-comes they receive 2. To confide in these outward enjoyments as if they were real assurances of God's Complacency is not Faith but Presumption They are indeed expressions of His beneficence and bring with them a demonstration of His great benevolence but they are not assurances that He takes inward delight in such a People it is therefore a vain thing for them to repose their trust confidence in these things And yet what more common then for the Children of Men thus to delude themselves with such opinions To trust in Church-Priviledges as it is the most dangerous so it is the most common mischief and misery of a People in visible Covenant God calls it To trust in lying Words Jer. 7. 4. And it was a ground of the Jews ruine who when they abounded and were immersed in Sin and Apostasie yet thought it enough to say they were Abraham's Children John Baptist therefore so solemnly warnes them of the danger of it Mat. 3. 9. Think not to say c. q. d. it 's vain and will not profit It is a most certain truth that God indulgeth not only with worldly favours and the affluence of earthly abundance but also with Gospellenjoyments and plenty of outward means of Grace A multitude that are the generation of His Wrath and Children of His Curse who shall be prest to eternall Death and sunk down to Hell by the weight of Ordinances Such were those unto whom the Prophet Isaiah was sent Isai 6. 9 10. The means they have had have helped to fit them for their own place 3. Where God hath done more for a People there He expects more from them Clear for this is that of our Saviour Luk. 12. 48. To whom much is given of him shall be much required Christ in the Gospell compares the Kingdom of Heaven i e. the visible Church to a Vineyard which the Owner Lett out to Husband-men and in the season sent for his Revenue Gospell-priviledges as freely as Men think they are bestowed upon them and indeed inasmuch as they are undeserved they are free yet they shall find when God comes to reckon with them that they shall be called to a severe account for them God keeps a Book of accounts what ever Men think of Him or how careless soever they may judge Him to be and there He chargeth down to Mens score all the severall particular disbursements which He hath laid out upon this and that Man these and those Churches You find the severals enumerated of what he had been out upon or done for his Vineyard Isai 5. begin And so he doth for every Vineyard and every Fig-tree Every Sermon that is Preached to them every Sacrament that is administred every Labourer whom He either fixeth amongst them or sends occasionally to do any thing in His Husbandry there these are in His Treasures and a Memorial of them Registred with Him not an Item forgotten Poor heathen have not so much to account for as a People who are in visible Covenant with God have God connives at abundance of sin in places of darkness which He will not where Gospell-light shines Observable is that of the Apostle Acts. 17. 30. The Times of this Ignorance God Winked at but now commands all Men every where to Repent And what a difference of times meerly upon the account of the Gospell doth our Saviour Christ make Joh. 15. 22. If I had not come and spoken to them they had had no Sin but now they have no cloke for
visible Covenant-Priviledges and they are for the bringing the Elect home unto Glory Eph. 4. 10 11 12. Object But this is no Covenant-Priviledge for the heathen have this Liberty we keep them not away from coming to the Ordinances Answ From the Word Preached we exclude none any may come that will But still 1. There are no other Ordinances which we admit them to till they do embrace the Covenant and that by a visible profession of Faith and Repentance and so they subject themselves to the Covenant of God we Baptize them not we admit them not to the Lord's Table exercise not Church watch cover or discipline to them till then So that the Covenant is unto them a necessary Medium of Perticipation there must be a visible conversion wrought in them from the heathen to the Christian Religion 2. Though the Word may be preached to the Heathen yet it is committed to the Church or Covenant People of God Rom. 3. 2. It is a depositum that God put into their hands a gift of God's favour which He hath given His Church possession of Quest But it may then be demanded why then do you not admit all the Children of Beleevers to all the Ordinances If they be theirs wrong is done them by debarring them of their Right Answ That any of the Children of the Covenant being adult do not enjoy all the Ordinances is their own fault in a great measure The Door of the House of God stands open unto them and if they are willing to come in to it and are regularly fit for it there is no reason they should be prohibited nay all encouragement is or ought to be set before them that they may according to our Saviours manner of expression be compelled to come in i. e. By the force of argument and perswasion Thus we see it is a great priviledge to have a Title to the Ordinances for all that is needful to eternal Salvation as to means is therein afforded them The Word Preached is a perfect Rule able to make the Man of God so 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. The Sacraments administred have abundance of grace in them and afford great relief and sttength to the Soules of those who know how to make use of them The Church censures are Medicinal and appointed by God For healing and not for destruction 3. By vertue of the Covenant they are priviledged with much more of the presence and striving of the Spirit of God than others ordinarily enjoy The Spirit speaks directly to the Churches He walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks Church Officers are Stars in Christ's own right Hand and where God hath Recorded His Name He hath engaged His Presence Exod. 20. 24. He speaks more darkly obscurely weakly to Heathen by the light of their natural consciences then He doth to those who sit under the Word and Means the Word being the Chariot in which He chuseth to Ride most eminently and with which He insinuates Himself into the Souls of His People These to be sure shall have the first profers of Salvation made to them Act. 13. 46. And if they embrace and accept them to be theirs herein they greatly please God In a Word they are advantaged to have as much done with them for their good as can be as to Meanes the care the cost the pains of the Husband-Man is is not laid out upon the open Forrest or wild Wilderness but upon His Vineyard Isa 5. begin Prop. 3. That the Children of the Covenant stand in a very difficult and hazardous relation Many are prone to be proud of their priviledges and say The Temple of the Lord are These They boast themselves and are confident in their Church relations but how few are there that do solemnly consider their dangers As it is a precious so it is a very awfull thing to be in visible Covenant with God The name of Covenant relation viz. The Lord our God is a great and dreadfull Name Deut. 28. 58. There are none upon the face of the earth that stand upon more dangerous Precipices then the Children of the Covenant The truth of this assertion may be made clear if we consider these few things I. That visible-Covenant-interest will not afford Man sufficient security against eternal Damnation Many there are who fondly think the Covenant shall save them but they do but put a Cheat upon their own Souls Keeping of Covenant will save a man according to God's promise who will be true to his Word but barely being outwardly in Covenant will not do it The Covenant indeed hath saving Mercies in it but they are exhibited or propounded to us with an IF if you keep it There are many are admitted to tread in the Holy Place who shall never be entertained inthe most Holy If some Men shall be so bold as to plead the Covenant with Christ at the last day he will counterplead them yea and condemn them by the same Covenant by which they think to be saved because it will be found that they did not keep it This position is so notoriously true that there are manifold examples of those who have not only forfeited the visible Priviledges of it but also have fallen from it into the depth of Hell What got Ishmael by being a child of the Church and circumcised when he turned a mocker but rejection from the Church and exclusion out of Heaven What got Esau when he became profane or Absalom when he proved a Rebel If Children grow Loose Light Vaine wicked c. There is no hiding of themselves in the Church or under the Covenant from the wrath of God He will search Jerusalem with Candles and His wrath find out all those who say in their hearts God seeth us not Zeph. 1. 12. When dying David takes upon him to instruct his Son Solomon about the Covenant he opens the Nature and Hazards of it 1 Chron. 28. 9. If thou seek Him He will be found of thee but if thou forsake Him He will cast thee off for ever A noble Vine may degenerate and the Children of Godly Parents may prove Apostates and if they do What can be expected but Destruction A Man must be something more than outwardly a Jew or Church-member or Child of the Covenant else this will deceive him and give him no sure Title to Heaven and Glory 2. That Godly Parents cannot by their Faith nor all endeavours work no not so much as secure the Regeneration and Salvation of their Children It hath been a question moved by some whither godly Parents doing their duty to their children faithfully and using their outmost endeavours in bringing them up for God may not rely on the Covenant-promise and positively believe their Children shall be saved and that although for the present they see no change wrought in them but they walk in vain courses In answer to which I shall propound a few things to be considered 1. That the Soveraignty of Divine Grace which can
forsaken me How shall I pardon thee for this God hath taken such as these very near to Him He hath given them such priviledges and so many advantages Hence for a child of the Covenant to live like the Children of heathen and those whom God hath not known this is a Sin of a deep Dye yea far deeper than theirs who only abuse the light of nature and common goodness of God If you read Ezek. 16. per totum You shall there see what a course God takes to make Jerusalems Sin to appear unparrellel'd viz. By declaring what Covenant priviledges and favours they had enjoyed and prophanely abused Verily God can endure to see that in Sodom which He cannot bear to see in Zion 4. Hence to perish from under the Covenant will be a most astonishing perdition If Judah provoke God to destroy her She comes down wonderfully even to the astonishment of all her Neighbours Let me tell you there are none that leave the World with such amazing Fears and Terrors that close their Lives with such dreadfull agonies and horrours as such do who have been related to the Covenant and enjoyed the priviledges of it and slighted them The remembrance of their Church state their Baptisme the Ordinances they have sat under the Threatnings Warnings Counsels and Encouragements of the Covenant which they have despised will fill their Consciences with most dreadfull regrets and reflections and if any have been so seared as to stifle and suppress all these remorces and to depart this Life under a sullen and desperate hardness or a self-cheating hope yet in the great Day when the Righteous Judge shall give to every one according to their deeds then woe and ten thousand woes to those Children of the Church that shall have despised their priviledges and slighted the Grace profered in the Covenant that have sold themselves to profaneness or liv'd in desperate hypocrisie that have forgotten their Covenant-engagements to God and brought themselves under the Curses of that Covenant Thus you see the relation of Children to the Covenant what are their Priviledges and what are their Dangers God of His mercy grant both to Parents and Children Grace and Wisdom to make a right improvement of these solemne Considerations VSE II. For Exhortation to all such as stand related to God in the Covenant to be very carefull and watchfull to your selves that you keep it You are not so much to boast of or confide in your Covenant Relation as to see to your own part and duty in which you are nextly concerned Take these things for Motive 1. It is no little or light matter to keep Covenant with God It is true Evangelical duty is easie if it be compared with those rigid and strict yea impossible to be performed demands of the Covenant of Works Impossible I mean by the Children of fallen Adam God gives acceptance to such weak Duties and withall gives strength to do them But still if we consider what it is that is required in the Covenant of Grace we shall find that it is for Matter very large and for difficulty exceeding all our own power in our selves and cannot be performed without special Grace from Jesus Christ There is a great deale comprehended in those two short Words Believe and Obey Perseverance in the Faith maintaining it against all the shocks of Temptation which assaults it And constancy in Obedience continuing faithfull unto Death waiting till afterwards for our reward these are great Works To do all we do for God as being His Servants to devote all our time to Jesus Christ as those who are Bought with a Price requires Care Diligence Vigilance Agen there are a great many Duties laid upon us in the Covenant the Precept is of great latitude Psal 119 96. Every Command is full There are Duties to be done Sins to be avoided there are Afflictions Tryals to be undergone God is to be believed in and worshipped Our Neighbours are to be honoured and loved There are a great many relations which a Christian stands in and every one hath its particular respective Duties Moreover the whole Man and all in it stands engaged in these Covenant Duties Every faculty and member owes Obedience to the Will of God We have our hearts to look after and keep with diligence for God and His Glory Prov. 4. 23. Our tongue to order and keep within bounds which must be well looked after Psal 39. 1. And all our bodily actions must be conformed to Divine prescripts All our Natural Civil and Religious actions must be squared by the right Rule and directed to their proper End 1 Cor. 10. 31. Finally that which makes it so great a Work to keep Covenant is the weakness of our Grace and strength of our Corruption and force of the Temptation we are exposed to We have every one of us a Traitor in our Bosome besides a sollicitous and diligent Enemy waiting all opportunities to tempt and draw us aside And there must be great vigilancy and resolution to resist a subtile Devil holding correspondence with a treacherous heart Put all these things together and they will speak thus much that it is a very great Work for a Christian to keep Covenant with God 2. It is not a thing indifferent whither you keep Covenant or no. If you would enjoy the comfort of the Promise you must have the witness of your own consciences unto this It is one thing to be in visible Covenant and another to have the promise of the Covenant positively engaged to you Men deceive themselves greatly with this opinion that they think if they are in Covenant they have Christ for their Surety and Vndertaker And hence can maintain strong confidence in the midst of their own careless and carnal neglects abusing and perverting many Scriptures and particularly that 1 Joh. 2. 1. If we sin we have an Advocate They promise themselves that Christ shall answer for all their breaches of Covenant and hereupon it is no great matter with them to neglect Duty and live carelesly and irregularly but we must beware of deceiving our selves for God will not be mocked 1 Thes 4. 7 Consider then 1. We may be in visible Covenant and yet not have Christ for our engaged Vndertaker it is only Beleevers that have truly placed their souls trust in Him that He stands engaged to and for to others He is only propounded All in the visible Church have not saving Faith wrought in them they have not cordially closed with Christ as their Prophet Priest and King though they have outwardly and verbally promised so to do and His Mediation and Redemption will not be profitable to such These have Pardon Peace and Salvation promised to them only with this proviso if they believe and that with such a caveat annexed to it too that if they believe not they shall be damned God indeed bestowes upon them all visible means and helps to believing but if they improve them not unto the