work a work of God towards man not without the actual concurrence of man such in which neither God nor man are sole efficients nor any act of God or man can be sole instruments but there must be a mutual concurrence of both This must needs be granted unlesse we will bring in Doctor Crispes passive recipiency of Christ Christs abode in man without man in spight of man and suppose him to be justified in unbelief And hereupon faith is disabled from this office in justification by this argument If Faith be an instrument it is the instrument of God or man 1. Not of man for man is not the principal efficient he doth not justifie himself 2. Not of God For 1 It is not God that beleeveth though it is true God is the first cause of all actions 2. Man is the causa secunda between God and the action and so still man should be said to justifie himself 3. For as Aquinas the action of the principal cause and of the instrument is one action and who dare say that faith is so Gods instrument 4. The instrument must have an influx to the producing of the effect of the principal cause by a proper causality who dare say that faith hath such an influx into our justification I answer It is the instrument of man and though man do not justifie himself yet he concurres as a willing ready agent with God in it God is a justifier of those that beleeve in Jesus Rom. 3. 26. God hath set Christ forth a propitiation through faith Rom. 3. 25. It is one God which shall justifie the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith Rom. 3. 30. And because it is the instrument of man in a work of this nature it is also an instrument of God As some have observed a communication of Titles between Christ and his Church the Church being called by his Name so there is a communication of actions in these relative works Christ dwells in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. We believe and not Christ and yet faith there is Christs instrument whereby he takes up his abode God purifies the hearts of the Gentiles by faith Acts 15. 17. They beleeved and not God yet faith is Gods instrument in the work of their purification so on the other side the Spirit is Gods work yet we by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh Rom. 8. 13. Man neither justifies nor sanctifies himself yet by faith he is raised to close with God in both and so Faith as an instrument receives righteousness to justification and therefore is called the righteousness of faith which is our justification and works sanctification provided you understand not the first work which is properly regeneration and precedent to faith but the farther progresse and increase of it The Spirit working faith faith takes in a larger measure of the Spirit John 7. 37. He that beleeveth on me as the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this he spake of the Spirit which they that beleeve on him should receive The Spirit will do nothing without our faith and our faith can do nothing without the Spirit Man cannot justifie himselfe by beleeving without God and God will not justifie an unbeleeving man Faith then is the act of man man beleeves yet the instrument of God that justifies onely beleevers so that what is here spoken by way of exception against faith as an instrument holds of efficients and instruments sole and absolute in their work and causality But where there is a concurrence of agents and one makes use of the act of another to produce the effect that in such causality is wrought it will not hold The promise or grant of the new Covenant in the Gospel is insted of faith made the instrument in the work of justification This is indeed Gods and not mans It is the covenant of God the Promise of God the Gospel of God but of it self unable to raise man up to justification It is often tendred and justification not always wrought so disabled from the office of an instrument by Keâ—ker in his Com upon his first Canon concerning an instrument Assoon as the instrument servs not the principal agent so soon it loses the nature of an instrument He instanceth in an horse that obeys not the reins of his rider but grows refractory then he ceaseth to be an instrument for travel A sword is not an instrument of slaughter where it slays not nor an axe an instrument to hew where it cuts not neither is the Gospel an instrument of justification where it justifies not without our faith it never justifies Where the Minister is a Minister of condemnation the savour of death to death there the Gospel becomes an instrument of condemnation and of death The efficacy that is in the Gospel for justification it receives by their faith to whom it is tendred Heb. 4. 2. Vnto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the Word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it 1 Thes 2. 2 13. You received not the Word of God which you heard of us as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that beleeve So that the Gospel in it self considered is wanting in that honour assigned to an instrument to have influx to the producing of the effect of the principal cause by a proper causality If none dare say faith hath such an influx they may much lesse say that the Word hath such an influx The Gospel is an outward instrument saith Ravanellus Faith an inward They both making up one instrument full and compleat yet Faith is more aptly and fitly called an instrument Seeing that faith gives efficacy as an instrument to the Word the Word may be without Faith and so no instrument at all but Faith always presupposeth the Word of Promise is not without its object Therefore to wind up this whole dispute in which I have studied to be brief though I fear some will think I have been too tedious Seeing that those that make Faith the instrument in justification make the Gospel an instrument likewise and dare not go about to strip it of its honour I hope that they that make the Gospel an instrument will acknowledge Faith to be an instrument in like manner being in their efficacy as instruments so inseparably joyned and so all the controversie may be fairely ended and concluded CHAP. XXII Objections against the conditionality of Faith answered AGAINST this which hath been said it is objected by one that Vnbelief is not a barre hindring one Objections from having part in Christ God bestowes Christ without any regard to our belief or unbelief Which words how high soever against the Gospel yet he undertakes to salve with a distinction There is a twofold receiving of Christ saith
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
they are our conditions They are conditions on our part and therefore they cannot be Gods That they are ours is made known of God as by the beame of the Sun in his Word And I shall not stand to distinguish of an absolute and conditional covenant that so making the whole in the absolute covenant to be Gods and in the conditional covenant this part to be ours which I know not whether exactly understood the Scripture will beare but in plaine terms deny that they are Gods conditions and affirm them to be ours I know what God speaks in his Word concerning these works That he will write his Law in our hearts and put it into our inward parts That he will take away the heart of stone and give an heart of flesh which implies this work of which we speak I know likewise what in particular is affirmed of Christ that he is the authour and finisher of our faith Heb. 12. 2. that he gives repentance Acts 5. 31. that God grants to the Gentiles repentance to life Acts 11. 18. And I have not forgot what I have said before of the concurrence of grace in the performance of every Gospel-work Yet all this rises not up hither to make them formally Gods act not ours Whose acts they be his conditions they are this is evident But they are our acts We beleeve We repent It is not God that believes It is not God that repents That is an absurdity which Arminians have laboured to charge upon us to render that which we hold of the necessity of the concurrence of grace in these works odious But it is that which the Orthodox party have still disclaimed The Apostle calls upon the Philippians Phil. 2. 12. To work out their own salvation the work is their own as the salvation They are a Beleevers own act and not barely a spontaneous act on which he is carried as a Bird in preparing a nest for her young and Bees in preparing honey for their subsistence in which Phylosophy tells us that they aime at no end but they are voluntary actions of choice done out of choice aiming at salvation as his end The mercy in the Covenant being on these termes tendred With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse Rom. 10. 10. The just lives by his faith Hab. 2. 4. They to turne to the Lord with all their heart Joel 2. 13. They obey from the heart the form of Doctrine whereunto they are delivered Rom. 6. 17. They do the will of God from the heart Ephes 6. 6. Faith and Repentance are mans work which man in covenant does respective to salvation in the covenant tendered Object not Gods But the Apostle some may say in the next words tells us that it is God that works the will and the deed vers 13. There he seems to take them from us and ascribe the formality of them to God In this co-operation of God whether they be formally our works or Gods let Esay determine Isa 26. 12. Thou hast wrought all our works in us When God hath wrought it the work is ours we have the reward of it and we shall beare our sinne in case it be neglected and let the Apostle explaine himselfe Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them God hath ordained good works as a Christians way and walk They are charged upon man as is plain in the context in order to salvation They are the way that we hold in our passage on to that salvation which God of grace vouchsafes and we are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus for these ends Our dexterity in holy duties is from the frame into which grace put us So still the work is ours though power for action is vouchsafed of God And the conditions are ours for discharge of which we have yet divine assistance That faith and repentance are our conditions and not Gods take these arguments 1. Those conditions that are not mentioned in the proper conditional covenant as from God but required of God from us are not Gods conditions but ours in that Covenant This is cleare Being there expresly required of us and not so much as mentioned as from God they cannot be his engagement but ours to performe But Faith and Repentance are not mentioned as from God in the proper conditional covenant but required of God from us Therefore Faith and Repentance are not Gods conditions in the proper conditionall Covenant but ours 2. The conditions of a covenant are his that performeth and not his that imposeth This proposition is cleare in reason and confessed by the adversary But we perform and God imposeth Faith and Repentance They are therefore our conditions and not Gods in this covenant 3. Covenant-conditions are theirs that are charg'd with falshood in case of failing in them and non-performance of them This is plaine in all covenants To make conditions and to faile in them is to be false to them But in case of failing in Faith and Repentance man is charged and not God God fails not but man deals falsly Therefore they are mans conditions and not Gods 4. Covenant-conditions are theirs who upon failing in them and not performance of them suffer as covenant-breakers This is clear Israel covenanted to dismisse their Hebrew servants and dismissed them not and Israel suffered for it Jer. 34. But upon failing in Faith and Repentance God suffers not so much as in his Name as a covenant-breaker He is not charged with mens unbelief and impenitence Men themselves suffer Therefore Faith and Repentance are mans conditions not Gods 2. There are objections peculiarly against repentance as it comprises the whole frame of obedience Object as before held forth to disable it from being any Gospel-condition By this means the covenant of Grace will be say some a covenant of works Repentance in this latitude to which we have spoken containes the whole of obedience and being made a condition of the Covenant of Grace Works are introduced and a Covenant of Works re-established As there was grace in the first covenant Answ as you have heard which we call a covenant of Works So works are not wholly excluded from this covenant which we call a covenant of Grace God still keeps up his Sovereignty as you have heard and how this can be done when he leaves man at that wilde freedome not so much as to call for homage from him cannot be conceived his rule even in this covenant is to reward men according to their works Behold I come quickly and my reward it with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. Works then are not excluded from this covenant yea Christ the Mediatour of the covenant aforehand tells us Except our righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven Matth. 5.
thorow with it here is pure justice without relaxation as to the value confest by those who yet contend whether idem or tantundem be paid by Christ the same in kinde as was owing by man or the like in value and estimate He that is brought under a divine attachment must not come out till he have paid the uttermost farthing which man in torments is ever in discharging and never can discharge It is as easie to make a world as by way of ransome to deliver a soul Christ therefore that knew no sin is made sinne that is an offering for sinne God manifest in the flesh he that was God and man hath undertaken the work man to suffer and God to satisfie in suffering and so God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Corinth 5. 19. The immediate effect or result of this price of mans redemption I suppose is the putting of man into a capacity of a covenant with God yet when this is done till more be done by Christ in the way of his Mediatourship for man men are not yet in covenant not the Elect among men This is evident in those Ephesians that were raised up together and made sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 6. There was no time in which Christ had not paid the price of their ransome yet there was a time and then but lately over that they were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world Ephes 2. 12. Elect Infidels are not till their call in covenant they stand not actually reconciled and one with God before Faith for then there needed no Ministery of reconciliation to follow If this were granted then Christ did the whole for mans salvation on the crosse by himself and doth nothing now in heaven by way of intercession nor any thing by his agents in a ministerial way upon earth neither could man before faith be underwrath in which he is yet concluded by our Saviour himself John 3. 36. A state of wrath and an actual reconciled estate cannot stand together There is a price paid and as I may say in the Fathers hand but to be applyed according to the good pleasure of the Father and the Sonne A man may purchase a prisoners liberty so that he hath it in his just and legal power to set him free and yet take what time he pleaseth in discretion to impart it to him and actually deliver him In this work there are three parties God the Father as Creditor Christ Jesus the Surety Man the Debtor The Father might have refused this discharge from the hand of Christ and exacted it of the principal Christ might have refused to have made such payment he was not in the Obligation There was a relaxation of the person as is agreed on all parties Man must come in and manifest his acceptance Till he is content to leave his old master sin and Satan This new Lord gives him no entertainment he must be content to come out of bondage or else he can enjoy no freedome 2. The next work of Christ is to bring man within the bond of the covenant professedly to accept it for which there is yet a double work First to make tender of it this hath been Christs work as the Prophet of his Church in all ages In what latitude in was carried in the dayes of the fathers before the flood it is rather obscurely pointed at then plainly shewed yet there was then a distinction between the posterity of Seth and that of Cain and so contiued till the dayes of Noah when the sonnes of God saw the daughters of men children of the covenant saw those out of the covenant Men within the visible Church saw women without the Pale and joyned themselves in marriage with them From Abrahams dayes it was confined to his posterity and held within his line and those few that as proselytes joyned themselves unto them In Gospel times it is enlarged the tender is made not to Jewes only but also to every Nation under heaven the Commission being to preach the Gospel to every creature none by Nation so contemptible that is to be excluded In Christ Jesus there is neither Barbarian nor Scythian Jew or Gentile Col. 3. 11. And as there is to be a tender so also it is his work to shape the heart for acceptation of it to embrace the terms and enter into it God shall perswade Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9. 27. The inhabitants of the Isles peopled by Japhets posterity shall become the Israel of God shall succeed the Jewes in a Church-state and vissible profession of the name of God The hand of the Lord was with them namely those that preacht at Antioch and a great number beleeved Acts 11. 21. where beleeving after the manner of the History in the Acts is no other then embracing the Doctrine of Faith they were made Disciples many of which after fell off even from their profession A third work is to enable those whom he brings to glory those among them in covenant that are called according to his purpose to performe the duties of the covenant to be stedfast and upright in it and this is by Circumcising their heart giving them a new heart writing his Law in their hearts putting it into their inward parts keeping them by his mighty power through faith unto salvation of which more hereafter The last work is to crown with glory those that by grace he raises up to the termes of the covenant thus qualifying them he crowns them I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to my self John 14. 2 3. Here some difficulties offer themselves If the covenant of works past between God and man in his integrity were immediate and the transactions of it without reference to Christ then if follows that faith in Christ is not commanded in that Law Obj. which was given to man for a rule There being no possibility of it there could be no command for it and there was no possibility of Adams beleeving it seeing Christ was not revealed and was not as Mediatour of any use This opinion is strongly maintained by Arminians Armin. in resp ad artic decimum nonum Corvinus Contr. Molin cap. 11. And to this end that they may make it good that God cannot in justice require faith in Christ from man in his fallen condition unlesse he withal confer upon him abilities to believe seeing he never had that power from him in his integrity and state of purity and upon this supposition
suddenly on no man neither be partaker of other mens sins In case Timothy had had that power to have conferred with the calling qualifications for the calling he had no need to have been in that way advised to use such circumspection Why should he be so careful to see them first fit in case his laying on of hands would fit them There need not such trial whether they were gifted in case a touch of the hand would be the gifting of them And for Timothies Ordination in the place quoted 2 Tim. 1. 6. it followes not from our grant that extraordinary gifts are there specified that authority for the Ministerial work is denied It is plain that Moses authorized Joshua for succession in his place by laying on of hands Deut. 34. 9. The people upon that took him for his successor yet it is as plain in the Text that the Spirit of wisdom was then conferred upon him Authority and power are sometimes given at once yet all that are in power to authorize cannot impower for this businesse he that will see more may read Dr. Seamans Treatise on this subject and jus divinum Ministerii Ecclesiastici CHAP. XXIX Ministers of Christ must bring their people up to the termes of the Covenant pressing the neccessity of Faith and Repentance THen it farther yet follows that the Ministers of Christ are to call their people unto these duties before mentioned as conditions They must urge and presse the necessity of Faith and Repentance These are the termes of the covenant and stipulation to which God in covenant doth engage in which the Apostles of Christ spent their paines Testifying both to Jews and Gentiles repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20. 21. And this must be the businesse of those that make it their businesse to preach the Gospel in all ages Men must be taught to observe what Christ commands and teaches Matth. 28. 20. These Christ teaches and gives in charge Thus he begun his Ministery Mark 1. 15. Repent ye and beleeve the Gospel They must so preach that men may not perish that they may not be the savour of death But they only that beleeve shall not perish John 3. 16. They that repent not must perish Luke 13. 1. They must so preach Christ that men may have their interest in Christ that they may not be cast off by Christ But Faith gives this interest He dwells in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3. 17. Workers of iniquity must be cast off Mat. 7. 23. Depart from me all ye that work iniquity It is no plain dealing in any of the Ministers of Christ to make tender of promises to hold forth priviledges and conceale the termes upon which they may be obtained to speak of salvation to men in sinne without so much as the name of sanctification or application to God in a way of Repentance to tell men in the Prodigals course of the Fathers bowels and readinesse to meet them with kisses without mention of the Prodigals humiliation or coming in to tell them of the many sinnes forgiven to the woman in the Gospel Luk 7. 47. without once mention of those many tears that were shed in evidence of her repentance They say that these are the strongest motives to work men from sin This I gladly yeeld when the promise is tendered and with it repentance urged I know it was the way of the Prophet Esay 55. 7. and therefore a prevalent way Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon The way also of the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. 17. Be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you But the severing of the promise from the duty so that Christ is heard only in a promise not at all in a precept when they heare that Christ will save but are never told that they must repent These are but delusions Promise-Preachers and no duty-Preachers grace-Preachers and not repentance-Preachers do but as the Apostle hath long since given warning deceive with vain words Ephes 5. 6. This will never work men from sinne but strengthen men in sin Ezek. 13. 22. Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad and strenthened the hands of the wicked that he should not returne from his wicked way by promising life These promises of life thus tendered we see are lies for men in sinne are men for death Ezek. 18. 31. These promises strengthen the hands of men in sinne that they return not from it It is the observation of many that the false Prophets so branded in the Old Testament vented no errours in Faith but only misapplications of truths They promised peace where the Lord had promised no peace and therefore a false Prophet among the Jews is distinguished from a false Teacher among Christians 2 Pet. 2. 1. These latter bring in damnable heresies and so did not the former But as ours outstrip them in that they bring in errours in faith so they joyne with them in misapplications of truths If thou be a whoremonger a blasphemer a drunkard a mad man in iniquity saith one or words to that purpose and there be no manner of change wrought in thee yet come and take Christ c. Does any Gospel-Text speak of such a mans taking of Christ without any manner of change wrought Are not those the enemies of Christ that rise in hostile rebellion Psal 68. 21. And while they despise him can they receive him We would not have such a sinner if we can possibly imagine a great sinner kept from Christ Jesus but he must come in at the Gospel-door He must come in the way of his call He must come to receive whole Christ in each function of his He must come for every gift which Christ poures out He must come for repentance from Christ as a Prince as well as remission of sins as a Saviour Acts 5. 31. God hath exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes He must come by the way of Faith for forgivenesse This both Prophets and Apostles Old Testament and New Testament-Gospel calls for Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his Name whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive remission of sinnes They must come by repentance and conversion in order to forgivenesse Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. I do not say that there is no promise in Scripture made to a wicked man that is the greatest Gospel-paradox But I say they are not made good to wicked persons They are made to the wicked made good that
hath lost its commanding power then it can give sinne no more being yea it hath lost its own being power of command being of the essence of it If the Law Thou shalt not kill have no power of command then I sin not if I kill If that Law Sweare not at all have no power of commanding then our RANTERS high oaths are no more sinnes then our eating of swines flesh or 〈◊〉 not observing the Feast of the Passeover Where there is 〈◊〉 there is no transgression and a Law antiquated and repealed that the power of command is gone as in the Laws before mentioned is no Law If he still prâ—sse that similitude of the Apostle that a dead husband hath now power of command But the Law to a beleever is a dead husband First I say if he will be pleased to informe me how a dead husband rips up his wives faults how he curbs and keeps her in which he confesses is the Laws office to a beleever then I shall speedily give an account how this dead husband retaines power of command The Argument is as well of force The dead husband hath no power to discover his wives faults to restraine curb or keep her in But the Law is a dead husband to beleevers Therefore the Law hath no such power It lies upon him to answer this argument to free himself from self-contradiction And I would faine see this answered and the other maintained Secondly for more full satisfaction I say that some learned Expositors make the husband in that similitude not to be the Law but sinne which hath its power from the Law So Diodati in his Notes upon the place Man signifieth sinne which hath power from the Law the woman is our humane nature and of these two are begotten the depraved errours of sinne So also Doctor Reynolds in his Treatise of Divorce page 37. setting out the scope of this similitude thus expresseth it As a wife her husband being dead doth lawfully take another and is not an adulteresse in having his company to bring forth fruit of her body to him so regenerate persons their natural corruption provoked by the Law to sin and flesh being mortified and joyned to Christ as to a second husband Master Burges Vindiciae Degis page 218. saith Sinne which by the Law doth irritate and provoke our corruption that is the former husband the soul had and lusts they are the children thereof and this the rather is to be received because the Apostle in his reddition doth not say the Law is dead but we are dead But if he will still contend that the Law is the husband in that place which by reason of corruption hath so much power for irritation and condemnation over an unregenerate man I shall onely give him that advice which Doctor Reynolds in the place quoted gives Bellarmine upon occasion of his interpretation of this similitude Let Bellarmine acknowledge that similitudes must 〈◊〉 be set on the rack nor the drift thereof be streched in such sort 〈◊〉 â—f they ought just in length breadth and depth to match and sit that whereunto they are â—â—â—â—mbled And when he confesseth power in the Law notwithstanding this death to performe diverse offices in the souls of beleever◠〈◊〉 cannot affirme that the law is wholly dead nor deny but that it may have this office of command likewise The power which the Law loseth is that which corruption gave it which is irritation and condemnation Corruption never gave command to the Law and the death of corruption through the Spirit can never exempt the soul from obedience or take the power of command from it Let it be granted that the Law is the husband here mentioned the similitude is this That as the Law through our corruption was fruitful in mans nature to the bringing forth of sinne and condemnation So Christ by the Spirit is to be fruitful in our nature to bring forth works of grace to salvation and so the death of the Law is meerly in respect of irritation or inflaming to sinne and binding over to condemnation not in respect of command That this is the full and clear scope of this similitude beyond which it must not be stretched plainly appeares verse 5. For when we were in the flesh the motions of sinnes which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death So that here is nothing against the commanding power of the Law God still keeps up his Sovereignty and by this Law he rules the regenerate I wish our Authour would sadly reflect upon that reason of his The Law is not authorized by Christ to reigne and rule in the consciences of his people For his Fathers peace his own righteousnesse and his Spirits joy There is none that speaks of the reigne of the Law in the consciences of the people of God but God in Christ reigns and by his Moral Law rules for all these reasons So farre are these from excluding his rule by his Law in his peoples hearts If this rule of the Law be destructive to Christs righteousnesse then Christs coming for righteousnesse must needs be to destroy the Law which Christ disclaimes And the rule of the peace of God in our hearts is so farre from excluding his rule by his Law that without it it can never be attained Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psalme 119. 165. This is the confidence that we have in God that whatsoever we ask according to his will we shall receive because we keep his commandments 1 John 3. 22. A Commandment hath a commandâ—â—â— power and only they that keep them have this peace ruling in their hearts The Spirits joy and the power of the Law to command are so farre from opposing one the other that the Spirit gives testimony of Gods abode in no other but such as confesse and yeeld to this power He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that be abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3. 24. And of like nature is that which he further hath Though the Law the former husband be dead to a beleever yet a beleever is no widow much lesse an harlot for he is married to Christ and is under the Law of Christ which is love If the moral Law respective to the power of command be dead then love is dead with it Jesus Christ reduces the ten Commandments into two Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self If then the Law be dead this love from the heart is dead and so a beleever is either a widow or an harlot Master Burges Vindiciae Legis page 12. shews at large that to do a thing out of obedience to the Law and yet by love and delight do not oppose one another which if the Reader consult with his enlargement of it he
shall need to go no farther for refutation nor his own satisfaction Men are wont to expect in children and servants much more in wives both love and obedience If this rule hold they must quit the one and cleave to the other Either they must take to love without obedience or obedience without love These two which cannot be severed if ye love and keep my Commandments this Divinity makes inconsistent God gave Laws saith our Authour to man to declare his own Sovereignty and his creatures duty And we must tell him that to keep up his Sovereignty and his creatures duty he continues his Law They that take power of command from it divest him of his Sovereignty and exempt the creature from duty I know there are many evasions if it might be to shuffle off and evade this doctrine if not wholly denying the Law yet weakening the power of it in Gospel-time Some say that it bindes us as creatures but not as Christians And then it is to be feared that they taking themselves to be above creatures in that they are Christians being raised in a neerer relation to God then meer creatures they will take themselves to be disobliged But if the creature be cast into hell for transgression as a drunkard an adulterer a covetous person what will become of the Christian But it bindes both as creatures and Christians Christ having put his sanction upon it Others say that it bindes the unregenerate part of man but not the regenerate part that is free Paul delighted in the Law of God after the inward man Rom. 7. 22. That is as Interpreters understand so fâ—rre as regenerate How could he delight in it as a Law and not subject to it It seems these think that only wicked ones are bound or rather wickednesse to be alone obliged It will shortly be a mark of unregeneration as it seemes it is with some already to be subject to it They that urge it upon men and presse it as their duty have the name of legal Preachers and stranger from Gospel-mysteries put upon them It is a wearisome thing to rake further in this puddle I hope it is plain in that which hath been said that God holds up this part of his Sovereignty in keeping up his commandment the authority of his Moral Precepts in the hearts of his people CHAP. XI The Moral Law is a perfect Rule of Righteousnesse AS God keeps up his Law for a Rule to his people so it is a perfect and a compleat Rule to those to whom it is given This is a doctrine unanimously heretofore maintained by Protestant Writers but opposed by Papists Arminians and Socinians Papists have their traditions added as well to the Law as to the Gospel which is an accusation of the written Law as imperfect They have also their Evangelical counsels which though they are not commanded yet as Bellarmine speaks are commended as raising Christians to an higher perfection then ever the Law required Socimans with whom many Arminians joyne affirme that Christ hath instituted new precepts of obedience in the Gospel and added them to the commands of the Law such as transcend and exceed all that were delivered in Old Testament times Gerrard having disputed for the perfection of the Law against Papists cap. 14. De Evangelio saith The Popish opinion of new Laws promulgated by Christ the Phoâ—inians which is an other name of Socinians greedily embrace making a fair way for Mahometisme seeing that in the Alcoran it is in like manner said That Moses gave a Law lesse perfect Christ more perfect and Mahomet most perfect of all Gerrard quotes this passage out of the Cracovian Chatechisme in the same chapter Christ came not only to fulfil the Law for us but added new precepts to it These new precepts the same Authour saith they make twofoldâ— Some of which do appertain to manners some to ceremonies or outward rites in worship He names three that appertaine to manners To deny a mans self take up his Crosse and follow Christ Which three precepts my Authour in way of opposition saith belong to the first commandment Peltius in his Harmony of Arminians and Socinians chap. 4 5 6. sheweth their combination against the Orthodox party as in many other things so in this proposition now controverted He there quotes from Socinians these positions That Christ in the New Testament did not only abrogate the Ceremonial and Judicial Law but did much encrease and adde unto the Moral Law That he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it which fulfilling saith he is nothing else but a perfecting of it and addition of what was wanting That we ought not only to observe those things that are given us of God and not abrogated by Christ but those precepts in like manner that are added by Christ Much more from many Socinians and Arminians may be seen in that Authour to that purpose Dr. Hammond in his Practical Catechisme speaking of Christs Sermon in the Mount agrees indeed with the Papists against the Protestants That Christ doth not here expound Moses and vindicate the Law from false glosses but that he addes to the Law and names many additions to the sixth seventh and other Commandments but dissents from them in that they make these Evangelical Counsels and makes them precepts not precepts of Moses but of Christ added by him to the Law but this with much modesty as though he would not be peremptory in his opinion So that Mr. Burges page 166. handling controversies about the Law saith I shall now handle the perfection of it and labour to shew that Christ hath instituted no new duty which was not commanded before by the Law of Moses And this question saith he will be profitable partly against the Arminians partly the Papists and lastly the Socinians He further saith page 169. That Christ did not adde new duties which were not commanded in the Law because the Law is perfect and they were bound not to add to it or detract from it Therefore we are not to conceive a more excellent way of duty then that prescribed Further if we speak of holy and spiritual duties there cannot be a more excellent way of holinesse this being an Idaea and representation of the glorious nature of God Dr. Ames in his Sciagraphia handling the Decalogue makes this his first doctrine The Law of God contained in the Decalogue is a most perfect Rule for guidance of the life of man He gives foure reasons with an use of information That we esteem this Law as it ought to be esteemed and that as the only Rule of our lives and such a Rule that hath no defect but is perfect in it self and requires all perfection in it Davenant de Justit actual cap. 40. pag. 463. saith The Law of God it self is a most exact and perfect Rule of Holinesse and Righteousnesse And in the proof of it saith This is every where confirmed in
Law blamelesse therefore of a conversation exact walk up to his principles After conversion he knew nothing by himself 1 Cor. 4. 4. His heart condemned him not He exercised himself continually to have a conscience void of offence both to God and man Acts 24. 16. Yet he durst rest in none of these I am not saith he hereby justified 1 Cor. 4. 4. What things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Philip. 3. 7 8 9. The ignorance of this was the bane of the body of the Jewish Nation The Gentiles which followed not after righteousnesse have attained to righteousnesse even the righteousnesse which is of faith But Israel which followed after the Law of righteousnesse hath not attained to the Law of righteousnesse wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9. 30 31 32. For they being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves unto the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 3. And still it is the undoing of a great part of the world Man being naturally inclined to look after a righteousnesse of his own and extreamely opposite to this righteousnesse which in the covenant of grace is tendered and by which in a Gospel-way he must be saved The righteousnesse of the former covenant was wrote in the heart by nature and such remainders left that the man that minds any righteousnesse alone looks after it But this is onely of Revelation He must have light without him to lead to this righteousnesse which is not his own nor inherent in him What naturally he did not know he is naturally ready to oppose and refuse Men know not how till they be taught of God to see a reason of it or to understand that it is of any use A man may be wise with another mans wit strong with another mans strength learned by another mans knowledge as well as righteous as they conceive by another mans righteousnesse Hence are the scornes that are put upon it and the Treatises that are wrote against it Vain man would faine be somewhat as wise Job 11. 12. so also righteous This takes all from man strips him of all in which he may glory as Romans 3. 27. This which man so opposeth the covenant of grace establisheth And that which he so advanceth the covenant of grace disclaimes 3. The conditions on mans part in the covenant of works were for mans preservation in statu quo in that condition in which he was created To hold him in communion with God which was his happinesse he expected not to be bettered by his obedience either respective to happinesse no more is promised than in present he had nor yet in his qualifications respective to his conformity to God in righteousnesse and true holinesse What improvement he might have made of the habit infused by the exercise of obedience I shall not determine But no change in qualifications was looked after or given in promise The conditions of the covenant of grace are serviceable to man in his return to God for his recovery as to his state of happinesse lost so to the repaire or new frame of his qualifications depraved and spoiled This is plain of it self and will be further explained in that which follows Other differences there are assigned by Divines to difference these two covenants some of which fall in with these that I have mentioned and some to which I cannot in all things consent See Camero de triplici foedere 1 Thes 9. * These I thought to be most material and with these I shall rest satisfied CHAP. XXI Faith is a condition of the Covenant of Grace HAVING asserted conditions in the covenant of grace and held forth several differences between the conditions in the covenant of works and in the covenant of grace we are now further to enquire what these conditions are that are called for in this covenant on which we treat Those Divines that with concurrent judgments acknowledge this covenant to be conditional are not yet so unanimous in their assignation of them For a full discovery some things are to be premised as truths taken for granted rather than disputed 1. That God covenants with man and engages himself to him not onely for justification but also for salvation Not onely for pardon of sinne but everlasting life and glory Not onely to be reconciled to him but to conferre eternal happinesse upon him 2. Whatsoever God requires of man in order either to his justification or salvation without which he is not justified or saved and man engages unto in order to his justification or salvation this is a covenant condition This I take to be clear in case there be any such thing as a condition in any covenant and it is also granted by a professed adversary of all conditions in the covenant of grace faith and repentance are saith he means of our enjoying the comforts of the covenant but not conditions going out of the nature of a covenant for every means is not a condition though every condition be a means but when a means is by stipulation and contract appointed for the acquiring of any thing then it is a condition Whatsoever then we can finde thus required of God in this way of contract and stipulation is a condition by the confession of our adversaries 3. Whatsoever is required of man in order to his justification is a condition of his justification and all that is required in order to his eternal salvation is a condition of salvation God making tender of both and man engaging himself to seek both whatsoever is required in order to either respective to that is a condition 4. That which is a condition of justification is also a condition of salvation in that salvation presupposes a justified estate but it holds not on the contrary that which is a condition of salvation is not therefore a condition of justification More is required to hold us up in constant communion with God then to bring us into a state of actual reconcilement to God This being premised the work will be more easie to assigne conditions in this covenant The condition immediately serviceable for mans return to a reconciled state with God and consequently of his justification is faith which almost all acknowledge to be a condition and Camero with several others makes it to be the sole condition of the covenant A condition it is as is above contradiction John 3. 15 16. God so loved the world that he gave his
he 1 There is a passive receiving of Christ You will say saith my Authour what is passive receiving of Christ I answer saith he A passive receiving of Christ is just such a receiving of him as when a froward Patient takes a purge or some bitter physick he shuts his teeth against it but the Physician forceth his mouth open and poures it downe his throat and so it works against his will by the ever-ruling power of one over him that knows it is good for him Thus I say there is a passive recipiency or receiving of Christ which is the first receiving of him when Christ comes by the gift of the Father to a person whilest he is in the stubornesse of his own heart 2 There is an active receiving of him c. This distinction carries a full contradiction in it self There cannot be in the same subject a meere passive and active recipie cy of the same thing as appeares in the similitude brought to illustrate it This froward Patient that hath a medicine forced into him in which he is meerly passive cannot again afterward receive that medicine If Christ be thâ—s forced and enters against our will then we cannot actively at any time after receive him And could it be reconciled unto it self yet it stands in full opposition to Scripture Christ stands at the door and knocks Reâ— 3. 20. He waites till his locks are wet with the dew of the night as Cant. 5. 2. But he makes no forcible entry we read of Gods power in changing the will that it freely accepts but not forcing gifts of grace upon any against their wills Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power Psal 110. 3. He works a will Philip. 2. 13. Christ dwells in none that rise in hostility against him and the positioâ— which the distinction is brought to assert That unbelief is no bar hindring one from having Christ is no better If unbeliefe be no barre to our receiving of Christ then it is no barre to salvation where the Saviour enters he brings salvation He that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5. 12. But we finde it evidently a barre to salvation according to Scripture Joh. 3. 36. He that beleeveth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him He that beleeveth not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. Yea according to the Author himself There is no person under heaven shall be saved saith he till he have beleeved which is a truth according to Scripture They could not enter into the rest of Canaan that did lie in their unbelief Neither can they enter into the rest of heaven Heb. 4. 1. Then Christ dwells not in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3. 17. But also in a state of unbelief Then God is not a justifier of those that beleeve in Jesus as Rom. 3. 26. but equally justifies men without Faith in Jesus Then Christ is not set out a propitiation through Faith in his blood but without any Faith in it Then they that beleeve are not only justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses but they that beleeve not And God gave his Sonne that he that beleeves not on him should have everlasting life This doctrine layes all the honour of Faith in the dust Then Habakkuk might have spared this speech that the just shall live by Faith Habbakuk 2. 4. and Paul might have found another way of life in the flesh than by Faith in the Son of God Secondly Object It is said that the justification of a sinner was with God from eternity It was in his purpose before all time to discharge his Elect and to lay nothing to their charge So then this is as election it selfe unconditional To which I answer Answ That this ovethrows the redemption wrought by Christ and the price paid by his sufferings as well as the necessity of Faith What need Christ to be at all that pains to undergo all those sorrows as to be a man of sorrows to do that which from all eternity was done Then as Paul sayes in another case Christ is dead in vain This some have seene yet rather than leave their opinion have chosen to swallow it down and the absurdity with it and do maintaine that Christ did not purchase procure or work any love from God for man but only published and declared that he was from eternity beloved A fit conclusion drawn from such premisses Then Christ was no Authour of eternal salvation as Heb. 5 9. but only the publisher He was a messenger from God in the dayes of his flesh but no Saviour of man He did not redeeme us with a price but only made known that we were so farre in the love of God from eternity that no redemption needs Secondly I say Gods purpose of a thing doth no put it in being He takes his own way to bring about in time that which he purposed before all time All that is done even every work under the Sunne was alike from eternity in the purpose of God Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Acts 15. 18. So the house that was built this day was built from eternity The childe that was born this day was borne from eternity We may as well say that the Elect were glorified from eternity so that they need to look after no other glorification as to say they are justified from eternity All the works of God were in his purpose from ever who sees all things at once and not as we can comprehend them in their respective succession But we enquire after things as they are in themselves and not as they are in Gods purpose Thirdly Object Some say justification can be no other than an act of God from eternity being an immanent act and not a transient Transient acts are in time done in the juncture of time when God pleases to do them but immanent acts of God are from eternity Answ To which I first answer that it is not without danger for us to bring the actions of God under our examination and then to fix School-notions upon them according to which they must be bounded When as Master Burges well observes we are here in meere darknesse and not able to comprehend how God is said to act or work Treatise of Justification page 166. How much more safe were it for us to learne à posteriore from the mouth of God in Scriptures what his actions are and the order how he works than à priâ—re to conclude that they are thus and thus and therefore thus of necessity he must work Yet if we may be so bold as to look into this act of his and take it into consideration according to this notion we may farre rather conclude that justification is an action transient not immanent An immanent action as the Schooles tell us is terminated within the subject and works no real nor evident
the Spirits witnesse 2. It is for the most part in or upon performance of some duties or conscientious employment of a mans selfe in the way of his calling 3. After some great abasement of a mans spirit and more than ordinary soul-humiliations and self-denials 4. After some great adventures made for God and the advancement of his Name 5. After some great combate and conflict with temptation in which God gives in his Spirit as an honorarium or glorious reward upon victory obtained First by way of concession it is not to be denied that God in a more than ordinary measure doth many times manifest the gift of his Spirit for this work of Assurance and that upon these occasions here laid down the soule hath many cheering consolations nigh unto raptures The Spouse hath not like converse with the Bridegroome at all times Sometimes she walks with him in the Galleries Sometimes she is with him in the wine-sellers Sometimes she can say in a way of exultation My beloved is mine and I am his But these limits in the instances before laid down seem to me to be a full denial instead of proof that it is thus immediate without all reflex upon our graces These being means sanctified of God to stir up the habit of grace by his Spirit wrought within us and to bring them forth into action which God then farther honours with a greater measure of light to discerne his own work wrought in us Our spirits being got into such a posture are in an aptitude to witnesse with us and God is then pleased to come in by his Spirit to joyn in Evidence So that still the conditional promises are not only a safe but the alone way in which through the help of the Spirit we get Assurance that we shall be saved They that go about to assert an immediate teste will never secure the soule from delusion Satan will soon finde an artifice to counterfeit this testimony and bear witnesse in the Spirits stead and when we think we have the Spirit of truth to assure we shall have the father of lies to deceive A gappe will be opened to all licentious presumption Children of disobedience will soone heed vain words Object that the wrath of God shall not come upon them Neither will it be to purpose to demand how the Prophets were assured that it was the word of the Lord that came to them and no delusion and to affirme that the same way we have assurance of the truth of the Spirits witnesse seeing Gods extraordinary way of discovery of himself in visions dreams or what other way himself pleased to chuse is not the same with his ordinary way of discovery unto us we no more understand that way of discovery than we do the way in which by power received they wrought miracles As for Doctrines which men are apt to obtrude upon the Spirit so for testimonies in order to our adoption and salvation we must go to the Law and to the Testimony The Law and Testimony lead us for Assurance to our own hearts excusing or condemning in the particulars mentioned And if our hearts condemne us not then have we confidence towards God and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight And this is his Commandment that we should beleeve on the Name of his Son Jesus-Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment 1 John 3. 21 22 23. And if the stresse of all had not lien here Christ had never compared the Professor that hears and does not to the foolish builder that raises his hopes of salvation on a sandy foundation upon a bare title of an empty profession without any well grounded interest and the Professor that heares and does to the man that builds on a rock and so layes his hopes of salvation on a foundation that never will deceive Neither would the Psalmist have concluded that he shall not be ashamed his hope would not make him ashamed when he had respect unto all Gods Commandments Psalme 119. 6. And howsoever our doing does nothing by way of merit yet our doing through grace in which beleeving is comprized which is the command of God 1 John 3. 23. does all taking in the Spirits help to cleare the integrity of these works by way of Assurance And though it be no foundation of our subsistence in grace and therefore the Apostle durst not rest on that bottome nor will be found in his own righteousnesse yet it is the foundation of our evidence The Apostle gives it in command to Timothy Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertaine riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate giving this in as the end of all Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6. 17 18 19. God hath ordained these that we should walk in them Ephes 2. 10. and walking in them we are pronounced blessed Psalme 11 9. 1 2. The efficient cause of our happinesse is grace the free favour and good will of God towards man Being justified freely by his grace Rom. 3. 24. The formal cause is the imputation of Christs righteousnesse without ours when we fall short of the righteousnesse of the Law Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnesse Rom. 10. 3. Therefore the Apostle observes that David describes the blessednesse of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousnesse without works that is wherein his blessednesse doth consist saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinnes are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Rom. 4. 6 7 8. The instrument or hand applying is Faith Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth for propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3. 24 25. But the subject on whom this blessednesse rests is the godly righteous man The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself Psalme 4. 3. The man that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworne deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation Psal 24. 4 5. There is a concurrence of sundry causes in mans happinesse but all falls upon the head of him that is stedfast with God in covenant that comes up to the termes and conditions of it He is pronounced and shall remaine for ever blessed and without holinesse no man shall see the Lord. It is questioned by some whether it be the truth or the degree of these graces which are conditions of the Gospel covenant upon performance of which we may
partakers of the covenant of Grace He should rather have said that the ten commandments had been a covenant of Grace but sometimes by an accident or especial occasion had become a covenant of Works which yet could not have held The covenant of Grace and the covenant of Works are two distinct and opposite Species They have one and the same univocal Genus of whose nature they equally partake Therefore as an Oxe can by no occasion or accident be a Horse or a Horse a Sheep or a Sheep a Lion or a Lion a man so a covenant of Grace can by no occasion or accident be a covenant of Works one and the same thing intended for one end may occasionally and accidentally have another event as the Ministery intending salvation may prove an aggravat on of condemnation but no occasion or accident can change the nature of any thing into that which is of a kind opposite to it and different from it And in such cases where the event is hindred and another happens the denomination is and must be from the primary intention The Apostle calls the Gospel the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16. The word is called the word of Life though to some through their obstinacy it turns to condemnation and to death If our author in this question take liberty to differ from all as himself professeth I hope he will not be displeased if all differ from him Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim Sixthly In Moses time and under his administration commands were frequent and full as well ceremonial as moral as also menaces The directive and maledictive part of the Law were clear and open for discovery of sinne to work to a sense of danger to put them in a posture to look for and long after the Messiah But the promises more obscure I mean the promises of eternity scarce known any otherwise then as they were shadowed out in temporal things This as the Apostle shews was figured by that vaile which was before Moses his face when he spake with the people upon the renuing of the Tables Moses his face upon his converse with God in the Mount shone with that glory that Aaron and all the children of Israel were afraid to come nigh Exod. 34. 30. Afterwards he speaks to the people and talks with them And till he had done speaking with them he put a vaile before his face verse 33. Whereupon the Apostle having entred comparison between the Ministers of the Law and the Ministers of the Gospel alludes to this vaile before Moses his face 2 Cor. 3. 12 13 14. in these words Seeing then we have such hope saith he we use great plainnesse of speech and not as Moses which put a vaile over his face that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished but their mindes were blinded Upon which Diodati saith Moses Ministry kept the people under the shadows of ceremonies without contemplating the mysteries which were figured by them to the bottom which was reserved for the time of the Gospel Heb. 10. 4. Whereof was a figure that vaile on Moses his face Not saith he that that was the end of that act of Moses but of that which the Apostle saith may be allegorically understood thereby namely of the obscure dispensation of the Law Which obscure dispensation meeting with that blindnesse that was in the judgements of that people held them in such ignorance that they saw little of Grace in that covenant but rather through their blinde mistake looked upon it the generality of them as a covenant of Works And this the Apostle signifies in the place before quoted as also Rom. 10. 3. They being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves to the righteousnesse of God This caused them so tenaciously to hold to the precepts of the Law especially to the ceremonial part which though more burdensome yet was easilier fitted to their corruption that they refused Christ the end of the Law for righteousnesse sake to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10. 3. Seventhly There was yet so much of grace and Christ held out in this covenant that they were not only left without excuse that were under it but convinced of sin if they saw not Christ and the grace of the covenant in it Christ in his contest with the Jewes who would not receive him but stood in opposition and raised persecution against him appeales to the Scriptures Old Testament-Scriptures Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me and in them you think to have eternal life Iohn 5. 39. Where we see a double encomium of the Scriptures 1. From the Iewes own acknowledgement In them eternal life may be found 2. From the testimony they give of Christ In them upon search Christ may be found There are such discoveries there that hold him out and eternal life in him to those that search them And they suspecting by that intimacy of communion that he profest to have with the Father and the heavy charge that he laid upon them that he was about to accuse them to the Father Christ puts it off from himself and puts it upon one that they had least in suspition even Moses Moses in whom they trusted in whom they pretended to repose confidence It is he that is ready to accuse them not of breach of the Law or transgression of any command of his which they could easilier have beleeved but of unbeliefe of Moses You have one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust for had ye beleeved Moses ye would have beleeved me for he wrote of me Unbelief in Christ set forth in Moses is a sinne which Moses his writings shall charge upon them So also in that speech of Christ to the two disciples in the way to Emmaus O ye fools and slow of heart to beleeve all that the Prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered those things to enter into his glory where we see them charged with sin in that they understood not Christ in the Prophets Christ in Moses as follows there in the next words Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe Luke 24 25 26 27. They that dwell at Jerusalem and their Rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they fulfilled them in condemning him Acts 13. 27. Eightly There are those phrases in Moses which are ordinarily quoted as holding out a covenant of Works and in a rigid interpretation are no other yet in a qualified sense in a Gespel-sense and according to Scripture-use of the phrase they hold out a covenant of Grace and the termes and conditions of it To instance in some few Deut. 4. 1. Now therefore hearken O Israel unto the statutes and unto the judgements which I teach you to
them onely that receive the benefits of it and are upright in it An eminent Divine putting the Question and returning answer How a man may know himself to be in covenant with God presently foresees an Objection against any such Quaere As Saul and all the people of Israel were in covenant with God so all professing Christians are covenanters likewise and hereby all distinguishing notes of Professors some in covenant and some without must needs fall to the ground one member then of the distinction having no being for solution of the doubt he layes down a distinction There is saith he a twofold covenant 1. A single Covenant which God makes with his children when they are baptized which is this if ye will believe repent and walk in my ways ye shall be saved now if they break this condition God is freed 2. A double covenant to performe both parts which is this if you will repent and beleeve ye shall be saved and I will give you an heart and you shall repent believe and be saved So Preston on Attributes part 2. page 85. 86. These distinctions plainly yeeld that there is a covenant between God and man in this latitude of which we speak and which here is exprest and that all professed Christians so called are in an outward and single covenant which puts them into a capacity of Sacraments and their children which is a covenant properly so called and which Scripture holds out for the covenant of God with his people These Divines yeelding so much and their meaning being so Orthodox there is no reason of contraversie with them or contention about words Yet I should choose rather to expresse my self in Pareus his words against Stapleton the Jesuite on 1 Cor. 7. 14. objecting against this doctrine for it is a doctrine which Antipaedobaptists and Independents have borrowed from Jesuites and we have them all in this as in many other things our Adversaries To be in covenant saith he is taken two ways either according to tiole to the covenant or to the benefits of the covenant He is said to be in covenant that either obtaines the benefits of the covenant which are remission of sinnes adoption c. Or else that hath onely the title and outward badge of the covenant so that he is repute to have interest in it and is not an alien from it The right of covenant belongs to all that externally make profession These engage themselves upon Gods termes The benefit of the covenant remission of sinnes justification adoption c. belongs only to the Elect regenerate Or farther we may distinguish of the covenant of grace and the grace following the covenant The covenant of grace is in the latitude before mentioned the grace following the covenant in that restriction that some contend for or else we may distinguish of entring covenant and stedfastnesse and faithfulnesse in the covenant All enter that are visible professors onely the elect and faithful are steady in it This distinction is evidently grounded on Psal 78. 34. They remembred that God was their rock the high God their Redeemer nevertheless their heart was not right in them neither were they stedfast in his covenant All covenant-enterers are not covenant-keepers To take off this restriction and for overthrow of this imaginary difference it were enough to require of these Asserters of this covenant-restriction and limit where God hath put any such restraint for affirmanti incumbit probatio and to require some reason why men in nature in Old Testament-times should be honoured with that neare relation to God as to be of the Common-wealth of this people enjoying not barely civil and domestick Priviledges but saving Ordinances and under the Gospel must stand shut out of all such visible relations why unregenerate men in order to regeneration may not come under the discipline of God under the Gospel as well as under Old Testament-dispensations Why poore sinners that confesse with their mouth with the Eunuch that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God Acts 8. 37. may not be indulged those proviledges now Christ is come in the flesh to save sinners whereby they may be brought to be beleeve with the heart that they may be saved To those that would make such a distance between the covenants as to throw out of the covenant of God and visible communion all that are unregenerate we may speak in Christs words From the beginning it was not so and either we must see some good ground that in this there is by the will of God this great change or else we shall beleeve as it was then so it now But I shall deale more liberally and make it appear that the Gospel doth not only not quit us of it but establishes it doth not only not abolish it as it doth the Types of the Law but holds it forth and gives testimony of the continuance of it CHAP. XXXVII New Testament-Scriptures asserting the latitude of the covenant of Grace in Gospel-times LEt that Text Matth. 28. 19. in the first place be weighed Go teach all Nations c. which our adversaries in this cause willingly consent to have translated Disciple all Nations and therefore there needs no words nor stir to be made about it and that a Disciple of Christ is in covenant with God is as freely confest he takes God in Christ to be his God he layes claime to salvation by him this ground being laid in which I think I have not an adversary I draw from hence a twofold Argument First that covenant between God and man which is committed to the Ministry of man to work to judge of being wrought and to put to a Seale for confirmation of it is a covenant onely visibly entred and doth not require any inward real change or work upon the soule to the being of it This Proposition is clear man can judge no farther than of that which is outward and visible Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart If none but a regenerate elect person be in covenant then none but God knowes who are in covenant Then we may apply that of the Apostle spoken of the Seal of Election The Lord knoweth them that are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. unto every one that as a Church-member is to be received into visible fellowship A Church-member and an elect person according to this tenent are termini convertibiles and the seale of the Spirit and the seale of the Sacrament are in equal latitude To baptize an unregenerate person is to put a seal to a blank as high an abuse of that sacred Ordinance as the circumcision of the Sichemites Gen. 34. 24. That this covenant is such appears in that Text It is committed to man to work and to judge of it being wrought to put a seal for ratification and confirmation of it The Apostles were to make Disciples to bring men into covenant with God and being discipled to baptise them
themselves to the true God and given their name to Christ and do professe him and his Religion whether it be done before God truely and sincerely or only before men so the people of Israel although they were not all truely holy yet they are all called holy so Paul calls all those Saints who had given their names to Christ so Peter 1 Pet. 2 calls all those Christians to whom he writes a holy Nation and a royal Priesthood And Laurentius 1 Pet. 1. 1. page 6. distinguishing of a threefold election 1. To any function civil or ecclesiastical 2. To the external communion of divine worship or the outward Church or people of God 3. To salvation and eternal life brings for proof of the second acceptation Deut. 7. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 9. both which Texts with him there are parallel and taken in the same sense that I understand them Ravanellus in verbum election quotes divers Texts of Scripture in which election is taken for the adoption of any Nation and puts this of 1 Pet. 2. 9. in the last place adding these words And this election is general as hath been said nor are all that are made partakers of it necessarily saved Rom. 9. 6. but respective to this general election he is said to be chosen of God who is called to the participation of his free covenant or a people whom God adopts to himself for a people So also in verbum Sanctus which he sayes is taken three wayes 1. By separation or segregation 2. By imputation 3. By inchoation of holinesse in this life He there gives many instances of the first acception of holinesse by separation distinct from the two other and 1 Pet 2. 9. for one So Salmero as I finde him quoted to my hand understands it of election distinct from that which is to eternal life and calls it an election to faith and all know that they mean no more than their Catholick faith which according to them doth not necessarily entitle to eternal life A Lapide with whom my adversaries in these controversies frequently joyn is also wholly on my part in his Comment on these words so that it needed not to have been said that no approved authour joynes with me Let the Reader judge as the strength of reasons given will perswade CHAP. XXXVIII Arguments evincing the Covenant of Grace in Gospel-times in that latitude as before is asserted THe first Argument shall be borrowed from those titles which undoubtedly and undisputably imply a covenant and yet in Scripture are still attributed to all that professedly accept the termes of the covenant and professedly appear as the people of God Those titles before mentioned by Peter from Moses are confessed to be such that argue a people in covenant and therefore adversaries are so shie to confesse them to belong to visible Professours But titles as high as these and as undeniably implying a covenant are given to visible Professours those then even according to them are on this account in covenant with God And these are all of those titles wherwith the people of God are honoured In New Testament-Scriptures which are especially foure Beleevers Saints Disciples Christians He that is a Beleever a Saint a Disciple a Christian he is a man in covenant with God But all visible Professors that accept the termes of the covenant are Beleevers Saints Disciples Christians so they are still stiled in New Testament-Scriptures Beleevers from the Faith that they professe Saints from the Holinesse to which they stand engaged or from the holy God to whose service they are separated Disciples from the Doctrine which they professe to learne and Christians from him whose they are whom they serve and from whom they expect salvation I know some have inured themselves to that language that those that are thus dignified are necessarily concluded by them to be Elect Regenerate persons It is grown I know the Dialect of the times but not of the Scriptures To begin with Beleevers He is in Scripture a Beleever that is a visible Professour that puts himself into the number of those that expect salvation by Christ Jesus So it is through the History of the Acts where account is given of the Converts made by the Apostles Ministry Acts 4. 4. Many of them which heard the Word believed and the number of the men was about five thousand They that are thus numbred by the poll are visible Professours that outwardly embraced the Doctrine of Faith This might be seene and the names of such taken They are not all Elect regenerate Christians such could not be visibly known The generality of men and women in Samaria beleeved Acts 8. 12. But that they were Elect Regenerate in that universality cannot be conceived Simon Magus is an example to the contrary of whom the Text sayes that he did beleeve vers 13. and yet his heart not right in the sight of God vers 21. He was with those Israelites Psalme 78. 34. in covenant yet his heart was not stedfast in Covenant A great number of the Grecians beleeved upon the preaching of those that were scattered upon the persecution raised about Stephen Acts 11. 21. yet Barnabas whom the Church of Jerusalem sent to them well enough knew that there was no certainty little hopes that all of these were Regenerate persons therefore he exhorts them that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord. He was afraid that the work might be overly and superficial of which the Church in every age hath sad experience he desires and endeavour that they may be rooted and established Only those hearers which are compared to the good ground are Regenerate persons But those compared to bad ground beleeve Luke 8. 13. Regenerate men who alone are invisible Church-Members have their hearts more right with God than to love the praise of men more than the praise of God but many beleevers are thus censured as we see John 12. 42 43. Regenerate persons make no shipwrack of Faith They are borne of incorruptible seed the seed of God abideth in them Yet there are beleevers that thus suffer shipwrack 1 Tim. 1. 19. Myriads of thousand of Jews beleeve Acts 21. 20. yet not all Regenerate The Apostle 1 Cor. 7. satisfies a case of conscience put to him by the Corinthians that if any brother hath a wife that beleeveth not if she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away If the beleeving brother here be only a Regenerate man then the unbeleeving wife is an unregenerate woman So the question will be whether a Regenerate sanctified man joyned in marriage to a Professour of the true faith not of those hopes for the truth of sanctification may dwell with her A case that never yet was disputed or doubted The unbeleever is a worshipper of idols one that sacrifices to devils and not to God The Beleever is a Professor of the Faith one in name a Christian and not a Heathen Saint is taken
Scripture speaks of those covenants which God enters with man There are those that enter covenant and keep covenant Psal 44. 17 18. All this is come upon us yet we have not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy way These have mercy promised All to which God enegages himself is theirs Psalme 103. 17 18. The meecy of the Lord is from everlasting 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 to do them There are those that break covenant Psal 78. 10 37. They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his covenant And these are threatned with a curse Jer. 34. 18 19 20. And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me when they cut the calfe in twaine and passed between the parts thereof The Princes of Judah and the Princes of Jerusalem the Eunuches and the Priests and all the people of the land which passed between the parts of the calf I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them that seek their life and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowles of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth The Lord brings a sword that avenges the quarrel of his covenant Levit. 26. 25. When the heaviest of judgements is mentioned and a large list enumerated as Esay 24. Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste and turneth it upside down and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof And it shall be as with the People so with the Priest as with the Servant so with his Master as with the Maid so with her Mistresse as with the Buyer so with the Seller as with the Lender so with the Borrower as with the taker of usury so with the giver of usury to him the land shall be utterly empited and utterly spoiled for the Lord hath spoken this word The earth mourneth and fadeth away the haughty people of the earth do languish the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein are desolate therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burnt and few men left the new wine mourneth the vine languisheth all the merry-hearted do sigh The myrth of Tabrets ceaseth the noise of them that rejoyce endeth the joy of the Harp ceaseth They shal not drink wine with a song strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it The city of confusion is broken down every house is shut up that no man may come in There is a crying for wine in the streets all joy is darkned the mirth of the land is gone In the City is left desolation and the Gate is smitten with destruction The reason of all this is given in the close of verse 5. Because they have transgressed the Laws changed the Ordinances broken the everlasting Covenant Now according to this opinion Regeneration is our entrance into covenant and Regeneration is our keeping of covenant before regeneration we make no covenant after Regeneration we break no covenant there is no such thing as covenant-breaking All this makes an utter confusion in the covenant 2. Then there is no such thing as an hypocrite in the world as in reference towards God no such thing as an hypocrite in the Church as in reference to Religion and wayes of godlinesse An hypocrite is one that personates the man that he is not with Jeroboams wife feignes himself to be another person 1 Kings 14. 6. He that acts Tarquin or Lucretia in the Tragedy is not Tarquin or Lucretia that acts a King is many times a peasant Now an hypocrite respective to Religion and in Scripture use of the phrase is one that pretends for God and is not Gods pretends to be wholly his and is some others of these God frequently complaines These in the Scriptures are menaced with heavy judgements Now according to this opinion that only Regenerate men are in covenant there is no such thing as an hypocrite No such sinne as hypocrisie Where the Gospel is preached God makes tender of himself in covenant and in case none but Regenerate enter Covenant then only they take upon them the persons of people in relation to him onely they strike hands with him and these as they professe so in sincerity and reality they are as they covenant with him so in the uprightnesse of their hearts they walk before him and so all of Israel are Israel There cannot be found a man in Israel that is not a Nathaniel Men out of covenant are without and aliens to the Common-wealth of Israel Ephes 2. 12. And if they be in covenant then according to this opinion they are men sincere and upright-hearted in it But you will say They pretend to the covenant and are not in covenant and so are hypocrites Object To this I say 1. It is plain against the Scriptures that makes hypocrites false in the covenant men whose hearts were not stedfast in it as Psalme 78. 8 10 a stubborne and rebellious generation a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law More fully verse 36 37. They did flatter him with their mouth and they lied unto him with their tongues for their hearts were not right with him neither were they stedfast in his covenant Therefore they pretend not barely to a covenant but the covenant which they enter is their pretence for God and their breach of covenant argues them guilty of hypocrisie before the Lord. 2 According to these such pretend to the stage but are never admitted on it They pretend to act the part of a Servant of God but never act in it so we may say they pretend to hypocrisie but never are in the honour to be in any capacity of it 3. If the covenant be with this limit only to Regenerate persons then no Minister in any Church no Church-Officer nor any other Church-member in case you will make it to be their work may baptize any person That Disciples are to be baptized is out of question with all that acknowledge such a standing Ordinance as Baptisme It being in the Apostles commission to disciple Nations and baptize them These are brought into the bond of the covenant as Ezek. 20. 37. But those only passing for Disciples and men in covenant that are Regenerate they can by no eye of any Minister Church-Officer or member be discerned This is that work that cometh not with observation or outward shew that men should say so here or so there Luke 17. 20
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