Gen. 4.14 Every one that meets me will kill me Now when men are acted by this spirit from day to day they are full of guilt and fear and all this does not awaken them to seek out for a remedy and to cry out unto Christ from day to day for a spirit of adoption the spirit of a child in Gods account they are well pleased with it and they desire it As a man that walks in the ways of sin and is acted by the spirit of the world and groans not under it but is willingly led captive by Satan at his will he desires to be acted by that spirit so a man that walks under bondage from day to day and sees not his misery desires to be led by the spirit of bondage which is the spirit of the first Covenant 2. This spirit has suitable fruits As the spirit of Adoption is a spirit of love and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost so it 's with men also that are acted by a spirit of bondage that spirit has its fruits also and they are commonly such as these three 1 They that are under this Covenant do place their Religion in outward performances There was a righteousness that the Pharisees had under which they rested and that was making clean the outside of the cup and platter as a whited wall as a painted sepulchre and their Consciences are satisfied with it as it was in Paul before the commandment came and sin revived he was as concerning the righteousness of the Law blameless 2 They do all their services without a Mediator they do not bring their sacrifice to the Priest the Lord Christ and they do not bring their Incense to be mixed with his odours but they come in their own names and offer services unto God immediately without a Priest and though they may talk of Christ yet they come not to him for acceptance and to have the iniquity of their holy things taken away but if the duty be done they expect it shall be accepted 3 They do all with a legal spirit performing it as a task and are glad it is over It is by the second Covenant that the yoke of Christ is easie it is otherwise such a yoke that man cannot bear Rom. 7.6 Men serve not in the newness of the spirit but in the oldness of the letter To serve in the newness of the spirit is to serve spiritu novo spontaneo with a new free spirit and therefore in the oldness of the letter that is in a slavish and a servile manner when a man only looks at the duty commanded without as a task as an act of obedience but not as an act of faith Heb. 8. It is the second Covenant that writes the Law in the heart and makes the duties sweet and pleasant unto a man by putting into a man an inward principle of love answerable unto the things that are required putting into a man an inward disposition answerable to the Law that a man delights in the Law according to the inward man and men living in the strength of a legal spirit contenting and pleasing themselves therein this is a plain argument that they are acted by the spirit of the first Covenant and bring forth the fruits thereof and their contentedness under it shews that they desire and love so to be SECT II. The Causes why men desire to be under the Law § 1. BUt how can this be that men knowing themselves sinners and under the curse of the Law and that unto justification by the Law a perfect obedience is required which it is no more possible for them to yield than it is to stay the Sun in its course or remove the Earth out of its place and therefore the life promised therein is unto man fallen upon an impossible condition because all the imaginations of his heart are evil and only evil continually and in his life there dwells no good thing and therefore it is said to gender to bondage and all that are under it are bondmen The case standing thus How comes it to pass that there should be in the heart of man a continual desire to be under this Covenant still The grounds of it are taken from a threefold principle that is in the heart of man A principle 1 of Ignorance 2 Of Enmity 3 Of Pride 1. From a principle of Ignorance and that 1 of the Law and the nature of the first Covenant and mens condition under it 2 Of the Righteousness of Christ and the Glory of the second Covenant 1. Ignorance of the Law and mens state under that Covenant 1 Men are naturally ignorant of Gods intent in giving the Law and therefore look upon it as a Covenant by which they should attain righteousness and life Mat. 19.20 Christ answers the young man according to his own principles Good Master saith he what shall I do to inherit eternal life Christ replys Keep the Commandments For he looked upon it as a way of obedience in which he should attain Salvation And so all men would work for life and that is given as the reason why the Galatians were so greatly bewitched by false teachers and drawn away from the truth of the Gospel to join something of the Law with Christ in the matter of Justification because they did not know wherefore the Law was given Gal. 3.19 20. They seeing a Covenant made with Abraham and a promise of free grace and of righteousness and life without works an inheritance by promise and 430 years after a Law given requiring works and promising life upon perfect obedience thereof they did not know how to conceive but that either God did repent of and revoke his former Covenant or else they must be both joined together in the matter of Justification and life now to answer this the Apostle acquaints them with the end why God did give the Law it was not to set it up as a Covenant alone that any man should attain righteousness and life thereby for unto man a sinner it is impossible and inexorable it can neither be obeyed nor endured but he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not given as a Covenant by which men should attain life as it was to Adam in the state of innocency as if God did intend any man should be saved thereby neither was it published to make void the Covenant of Grace but it was added not by way of opposition but subordination that it might be as Hagar to Sarah a handmaid to further the ends of the Gospel and to advance the grace of it that it might be as the avenger of blood to the City of refuge and make men look for the Law in the Ark Christ Who is the end of the law for justification and that it might be the perfect rule of the obedience of the Gospel This men being ignorant of they look upon the Law as a Covenant of works and all that they do in obedience thereunto is to gain
produce any such effect but rather the contrary for it doth forbid sin upon the highest penalties it has upon it an impress of the Holiness of God and is contrary to sin in all things being holy and just and good and in its proper causality does work holiness in the hearts of men and a conformity unto the will of God as the rule of Goodness as it appears in the Saints all the grace that they have is nothing else but the Law written in their hearts which is the grand promise of the new Covenant 2 There is causa per accidens an accidental cause when the effect flows not from the nature of the cause but from something else that does by accident cleave to it so the Apostle says knowledge puffs up all true knowledge is humbling and there is nothing that a man can know either of God or himself but it does afford him great ground of abasement and self-denial but yet through the lusts of men sin takes occasion by the knowledge that should humble him to lift him up so fountains are hottest in the Winter and the fire by reason of the cold of the circumstant air not that the Winter does add heat to either by its own nature but by accident and occasionally inclose the one and draw forth the other so the Gospel meeting with the lusts of men who either reject the Gospel or else do turn the grace of God into wantonness thence it becomes the savour of death unto death not of it self nor in its own nature for it is the word of life and salvation so does the Law draw forth sin not of its own nature for it forbids it and curseth it but yet sin takes occasion by the Law and through many things that do adhere and cleave to the man by the Law it does become the more exceeding sinful Let us therefore come unto the proper causes how it comes to pass that sin by the Law which is good should take such an occasion of evil The causes are many 1. One cause of it is lust There are in lust many things from whence it flows but especially these 1 Lust is carried towards its object with earnestness violence and vehemency there is a lifting up of the soul to vanity and the hearts going after covetousness and therefore some render that of Laban when Jacob departed and he saw that the hope of his gain was gone Gen. 31.20 Deut. 29.19 Amos 2.7 Eph. 4.19 Jude 11. that he stole away the heart of Laban And as a godly mans desires are for God and Grace so a wicked mans desires are after sin and he thirsts and pants after it and it is therefore exprest by greediness as we may see it in Shechem Amnon and Ahab after Naboth's Vineyard All these set forth the violence of lust how fully the soul of man is carried after sinful objects and the ground is because sin looks upon sinful objects as the husband of the soul as the chief good and therefore is carried after them modo infinito in an infinite manner as a God therefore they are said to serve mammon and their God is their belly and they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God Rom. 7. and therefore desire them infinitely the sinner is never satisfied but like the barren womb crys give give his desire is as Hell and the Grave it never has enough Now whatever comes in the way as a bar unto that which his soul does so infinitely desire it is no wonder if his heart rise against it with an answerable violence If Naboth come in the way of Ahab's Covetousness his life is little enough to make satisfaction and if any man stand in the way of Haman's honour his life and the life of a whole Nation is but a fit sacrifice to expiate so great an offence Now the Law of God putting a stop upon such vast desires therefore the hearts of men do rise up against the Law in opposition answerable to the desire that sin hath unto the object from which it is stopt by the prohibition of the Law 2 Lusts are proud and do swell the heart and cause it to be lifted up Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his countenance doth not seek after God Obed. 3 The pride of thy heart has deceived thee And this fills the heart with a great deal of obstinacy and stoutness of spirit against God and contempt and scorn of whatever comes in his way to resist it as we see in Pharaoh even against the Lord himself Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice And answerable unto a mans pride and exaltation of spirit such is the rising of his heart against any thing that makes against him and the more full of lust any man is the more the pride of his heart is drawn forth for he is thereby made the more conformable to the Devil who saith I am a God and so do all mens lusts say and therefore the heart is lifted up as a God answerable to the pride of a man such is his impatience 3 Lust is resolute this proceeds from the two former it will go on whatever come of it Ephes 2.3 Hos 9. in despight of all opposition There are wills of the flesh as great resolutions as if there were many wills in one as a wild ass alone by it self i. e. that has neither rider to command it nor bridle to restrain it will venture any-where Jer. 8.7 They go on in their own ways as the horse rushes into the battel Christ warns Judas The son of man goeth indeed as it is written but wo to him by whom the son of man is betrayed it had been good for that man that he had never been born And yet Judas went forth and from that time he sought an opportunity to betray him If the Lord make hedges about a soul yet he will labour to tread down all with the greatest resolution and with the highest contempt as we may see it in Pharaoh after all his plagues yet his heart was hardened that is his will remained obstinate and he resolved not to yield unto God come what will come yea though death to himself and destruction upon his Kingdom did ensue And therefore they say What thou speakest to us in the name of the Lord we will not do Jer. 44.16 but we will do whatever proceeds out of our own mouths And if any thing come in the way to cross them in this resolution men resolve to oppose it see it in Saul 1 Sam. 22.17 Go and kill the Priests of Jehovah which some have made to be the sin against the Holy Ghost and Job 15.26 They do prepare themselves thick-bossed bucklers they resolve to make resistance they harden their hearts and stiffen their necks though the law of God set the sin and the evil before them yet men despise it and fear not the danger let it be of temporal judgment they say
they grow above ground the more they spread under ground lop them continually that they grow not above and they will by degrees wither and die Grace doth grow by the actings of it and so does sin and if a man should have Grace in his heart and yet never bring forth fruit though it could not wholly die because it it an immortal seed upheld by the Spirit of Grace yet it would never thrive There is a double way that the Devil takes to increase sin in a wicked man 1 He doth infuse all the devillishness into them that he can the Devil entred into Judas and put it into his heart to betray Christ the wicked one toucheth them 2 All that wickedness that is in them he does act and draw forth to the utmost And there is a double way of the decay of Grace 1 By stirring up and strengthning the contrary principle of sin 2 By hindering Grace from acting in all things and so though it be immortal seed yet in the degrees of it it will decay So it is here the Spirit of God infusing a new principle and restraining and hindering the actings of the old by this means sin dies by degrees and the heart is weaned and taken off from it and this is done by the Law SECT IV. The Subservience of the Law to the Gospel as it is a Rule § 1. WE have thus far considered the Law as it is in its subservience to the Gospel as a glass discovering sin and as a bridle restraining it now we come to the third Consideration as it is a Rule to guide and direct a man in all the ways of obedience and it is a Rule within and a Rule without 1. It is a Rule within that is the Spirit of God given by the Gospel or the second Covenant doth make use of the Law of God as an Instrument of Conversion and so plants in a man a rule of holiness and obedience in his own heart a principle of conformity unto the will of God in all things The Law indeed cannot do this of it self looked upon as a Covenant alone for so it is a dead letter but as it is in the hand of the Spirit Rom. 7.9 The saving knowledge of the Law is brought in by a secret and yet sacred blast of the Spirit of God breaking in and blowing when he listeth Now that the Law is an instrument in the hand of the Spirit for the conversion of souls is plain 1 Every part of the Word of God has a converting power if the Spirit of God be pleased to concur with it for every part of the Word of God is seed to beget as well as milk and strong meat to nourish if any part of the Word of God be ingrafted in the heart it will change the stock of what nature soever 2 It is that which is attributed to the Law Psal 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Indeed there is some difference about the word converting some say it is reviving or returning the soul when going down to the pit thou sayest Return again but it is returning from sin as well as sorrow and therefore Act. 7.38 called verba viva vivificantia living and life-giving oracles which give life here and bring to life hereafter 3 That is the promise of the new Covenant I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their inward parts for no man has by nature the Law of God in his heart for the image of sin and the law of sin is upon the heart of man by nature Gen. 6.5 Rom. 12.2 1 The Law of the Lord is by sin blotted out of the hearts of men that image of God and conformity unto his will is taken away which they had at first and they have a new law the law of sin there 2 It is the Law put into the heart by the Spirit of God that is the rule of all a mans inward obedience and conformity unto God Adam had the Law written in his heart not only a Law without but inward dispositions conformable to it within and when man had blotted it out God wrote it in tables of stone but now he will put it into the hearts of men so that they shall have an inward principle answerable to the Law-rule without and whatever he does require in the Law something within shall answer to it but this Law is put in by the hand of God 3 In Conversion God does put in the whole Law into the heart of man what Law is it but the Moral Law that which is a Rule of a mans way without is the Rule of a mans heart within and God will put it so therein that it shall never be blotted out again by sin for he will write it there that it may remain Litera scripta manet c. but more particularly observe 1. That no man hath in him the Law of God by nature but all are enemies unto the Law in their minds they are not subject unto it neither can be and therefore the Apostle says Rom. 8.7 When the Commandment came c. it was a coming Commandment not of his own fetching it is therefore said to be a voice crying behind us This is the way walk in it for every man by nature hath another law the law of sin the law of his members which stands in opposition to the law of his mind the image he has upon him is the image of the Devil and he has contrary dispositions in his inward man unto God and to the will of God in all things not formed by the word Rom. 12.2 2. That which is written there is the Moral Law There are two great principal parts of a mans holiness Faith and Obedience and because the ground of Obedience is Faith therefore it is commonly called in Scripture the Obedience of Faith and answerable unto these are the two great principal parts of the Word there are the precepts of the Law and the promises of the Gospel and both these the Lord makes an ingrafted word the foundation of a mans faith is the Promise and thereby a man is made partaker of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and the foundation of a mans obedience is the Precept for in the regeneration we are renewed after the image of him that created it therefore writing the Law in the heart is a renewing of the image of God which in Adam we had lost and that was a knowledge of the whole will of God in whatever concerned Gods glory and his own duty and he had an inward ability and disposition of soul in all things to submit himself thereunto with cheerfulness So that in the fall the Law of God that was written in our hearts that was stamped upon us and concreated with us was utterly blotted out and now the renewing of this Law in our inward man is our regeneration a putting the same dispositions within us that were
at first created with us 3. The finger that writes it is the Spirit or the writer is Christ and the ink is the Spirit and the table is the heart in which the Spirit works the habits of all Grace De spiritu litera Cap. 3. Austin has decided it against the Pelagians that there must not only be freedom of will in men and a teaching and a moral perswasion from God which they hold and the Papists and Arminians since but there must be an almighty work of the Spirit of God upon a man creating in him a new nature and putting into a man inward dispositions answerable unto what the Law of God doth require and that by a hand without and so writing does signifie something wrote in a man from without and that I conceive to be the meaning of Rom. 2.15 Rom. 2.15 The work of the Law written in their hearts all the outward acts of obedience that they do and their Consciences accusing or excusing them all those are but the fruits of the work the efficacy of the Law that is written in their hearts We do not read that the Law is said to be written in Adams heart only God created man righteous but writing notes rather an act from an extrinsecal hand And therefore I should rather conceive those practic notions Rom. 2.15 to be written in man by the common work of the Spirit of Christ than to be left in him after the fall not the dross of the old Adam but the foundation of the new c. so that the Spirit of God has his works wrought in both only in the one by a common hand in the other by a saving work 4. The thing that the Spirit of God doth write there is the whole Law he doth write the Gospel and all the Promises thereof he doth take of Christ and shew it unto you Joh. 16. he reveals his glory to you and the preciousness of Gospel-promises and priviledges and a man does believe them and is transformed into them He does also shew a man the Law of God and a man is transformed into the likeness thereof even the whole Law so that a man has respect unto all the Commandments there is an universal change for there is not any part of the Law but it is written within him Civil men may have something of the Law put into their hearts as the Heathen had and they may shew forth something of the work of the efficacy of this Law in their hearts and in their lives also but they have but half the copy but where the Spirit of God does write the Law savingly he writes the whole Law 5. The Law is written in the heart as it is written in a Proposition that which is written in the greatest Letters in the Law hath the greatest Characters in a mans soul and that which is most often repeated in the Law that is most often repeated in the heart and therefore Rom. 6.17 Rom. 6.17 There is a form of doctrine into which you were delivered as into a mould Now in a thing cast into a mould as there is not the least scratch in the mould but it will appear in the thing moulded thereby so answerable unto the impression in the mould will the impression be in the thing and if it be deeper in the one it will be deeper in the other now to know God and to fear him to cleave unto the Lord Christ and honour him and obey him these are the great things of the Law of God wherefore for men to neglect these and have their hearts much taken up though about truths yet things of less consequence and lay out the whole intention of their spirits in these to tythe mint and cummin and to be all in meat and drink and neglect true godliness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in which the Kingdom of God consists mainly this is an evil sign and an argument there is not the right moulding of the Law in the heart 6. Lastly It notes an abiding and continuing of the Law there as things written are for continuance and for after times So Jer. 17.1 The iniquity of Judah is written with the pen of iron that is they are so set upon sin and so hardened in it that there is little or no hope of their repentance their sin is written in the stains and the guilt of it upon their souls So Prov. 3.3 we are exhorted To write the Law upon the tables of our hearts that is by constant observation and meditation to fix them and to imprint them So that the Law is said to be written in our hearts for continuance the Law that was concreated with us in Adam Satan has blotted out but when the Spirit of God does write it there again by the finger of God surely it is that it may be never more obliterated or blotted out Mat. 11.30 Christ saith Mat. 11.30 Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easie so that Christ suffers not his people to go without a yoke he is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawless as to his actions he is not a son of Belial which Glassius saith signifies a man without a yoke and this yoke is the obedience which in the Gospel the Lord requires and that is nothing else but the obedience of the Law for though Christ hath fulfilled it yet it lies upon us still as a duty though not by way of satisfaction to be performed and this yoke is mainly upon the souls and the spirits of men Now writing the Law in the heart is a perfect conformity of a mans inward man unto the Law of God and all duties that the Lord requires and this is it that makes the yoke easie because it is become another nature an inward principle and what a man does so work from is not burdensome there is a potentia visiva a visive power in the eye therefore it is not weary of seeing and there is a principle a law of motion in the nature of the Sun and therefore it is not weary of motion because it works from an inward principle Men do evil with both hands earnestly and are never weary the reason is because they work from an inward principle And in this conformity unto the will of God which is taking up the yoke 1 There is obedientia voti the obedience of desire when a man desires to obey God in all things and has a careful respect unto all the Commandments and desires to make his heart perfect with the Law of God 2 Obedientia conformitatis obedience of conformity when a man does in some measure answer the Law of God in his actions and in the workings of his inward man 3 Obedientia resignationis obedience of resignation when a man can wholly give up himself to it as to the perfect Law with joy and delight love the law and finds sweetness in it and sees a goodness in whatever it requires and
gives up himself unto it as the perfect law of liberty that wherein his happiness lyes this is that which makes the yoke easie and the Commandment not grievous and the ground of it is because the Law is written in his heart and this is to serve Christ in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter not barely to have a duty in the letter injoined which is that which only prevails with other men to perform duty whilst all that is in their heart is against it they do it and yet hate the duty when done and the Law that injoins it but here is the Spirit of God renewing and working in a man such dispositions of heart which answer the duties of the Law in all things so that a man loves the duties and the Law that commands them as setting him about a service that he is pleased with so that it is the Law that is the yoke of Christ and it is writing it in his heart that makes it an easie yoke In putting the Law as a rule into a mans heart the Spirit of God doth let a man see 1 The Holiness of the nature of God Ephes 4.24 for man was in this created after God neither did the Creature behold the Holiness of God any other way than in the Law which doth forbid the least blemish and defilement all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Herein a man sees the glory that was stampt upon him in his creation for his heart was nothing else but a perfect copy of this Law created in it and in this conformity in his inward man to the Law of God did this image principally if not wholly consist 3 This is a perfect resemblance of the Holiness that was in the humane nature of Christ in whom the Law was fulfilled for there was no sin in him He knew no sin neither was guile found in his mouth he was a lamb without spot or blemish he was a living Law 4 This is a perfect copy of that conformity unto God that is in the Saints and souls of just men made perfect When he shall appear we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.2 The law of his mind shall be perfected and the law of the members wholly destroyed Now we are conformable to the will of God but in some degrees for that perfectio graduum perfection of degrees is to come but the Spirit of God will go over our hearts and write more and more of this Law in us till we be made in all things answerable thereunto And in our conformity to the Law glory being nothing else but Grace perfected shall our conformity unto God in Heaven be where we shall not be like God in part as here we are but shall be wholly conformable to him which is the perfection which we strive for and aspire unto and therefore the Scripture calls this our perfection Paul saith 2 Cor. 13.9 I long for your perfection that is a perfect writing of the Law in the heart and this fits a man for Gospel-Ordinances and the perfection hereof is the reward of the Gospel for the Law written in the heart is the foundation of all obedience unto the Law and the perfect writing the Law in the heart is the highest reward of all the Promises and all the obedience of the Gospel § 2. As the Law is a rule within being planted there by the Spirit given in the second Covenant which does change a mans nature and doth give a man inward dispositions suitable thereunto a law of the mind so is the law a rule to guide and direct a man in his way unto which all the Saints are to give heed from which they are to learn their duties and by which they are to judge of all the ways of God and the ways of the world the Law is added unto the Gospel Fides efficit quod lex imperat as the rule to the hand of the workman the rule is able to do nothing of it self it is a dead thing it is the hand only that does the work and if the hand can do nothing aright without the rule the Law can work nothing being dead without the Grace of the Gospel that only inabling a man to perform all acts of obedience and yet the Grace of the Gospel does inable a man to no other obedience but that of which the Law is the rule Christ himself tells us that his intention in coming was not to destroy the Law of God or put an end to it or make it void Mat. 5.17 Think not that I come to destroy the Law or the Prophets and interpreters of the Law Now there are in the Law but three things to be considered either it is for Justification for Condemnation or for Direction Now for Justification unto all that are in Christ it is by Christ abolished no man is justified by the works of the Law but by the Grace of Jesus Christ and for condemnation also for he hath delivered us from the curse of the Law and was made a curse for us There remains now no other proper use of the Law but for Direction as it is a rule and therefore either Christ has destroyed it wholly or else he will have it remain in this last sense and so the next vers 18. tells us Heaven and earth shall sooner pass away and the whole frame of this world fall to pieces before the Law shall pass away therefore it doth remain for Direction unto the Saints unto the end of the world So Rom. 3.31 the Gospel does not destroy but establish the Law the word in the Greek doth signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to strengthen and make a thing firm that was falling before so by the sin of man the Law became weak through the flesh neither to be fulfill'd in the precept of it or the curse but men must be for ever satisfying it now the Gospel comes and it makes the Law firm 1 In our Surety for in him is the precept fulfilled and the curse born he did fulfill all righteousness 2 In us because by the Grace of the Gospel we do attain strength in some measure to obey the Law which is encreased more and more till in our nature and actions we shall be made perfectly conformable unto the Law in Heaven and so the righteousness of the Law perfectly fulfilled in us the Lord perfecting his good work that he has begun in the day of the Lord so that the Law remains as a rule to Believers being not abolished but established by the Gospel 2. The Gospel sends us unto the Law as a rule of duty Luk. 16.30 31. They have Moses and the Prophets the Law and the Expositions of the Law and the Lord requires Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul as well under the Gospel as under the Law And Jam. 1.25 He that looks into the perfect Law of
personal and real c. We have seen that the Covenant on Gods part does consist in promises and that these promises are either absolute or conditional either performed by God without any required condition in us not only citra meritum sed conditionem not only without merit but also condition or else performed by God upon a certain condition wrought in us as a preparation or a qualification of the subject to receive the promises And we find in the next place that these absolute promises are of two sorts answerable unto a twofold object of faith that the Scripture doth hold forth they are either personal or real either promises of persons or of things 1 Promises of things that are absolute and real and of these are chiefly four 1 Ezech. 36.26 I will take away the heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh 2 Jer. 31.33 I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts And these two are promises of conversion and of the power of God in Christ put forth upon the Elect of God 3 Esa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins And unto this belong many other promises of remission 4 There are also promises of perseverance Jer. 32.40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 2 There are also personal Promises and these are the great and leading promises of the second Covenant Here I will shew you 1 that there are such promises and 2 shew you the nature of them 3 the grounds of it why the second Covenant must have such promises as these 4 wherein the excellency of these promises doth consist 1. That there are some personal Promises in which all the three persons in the Godhead are made over unto the soul The first great promise was Gen. 3.15 personal it was of the seed of the woman that the Lord would give Jesus Christ his Son to be born of a woman and to take mans nature and pitch his Tent with us that he should take not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham c. and so Esa 9.6 To us a Son is given And when the Lord came to renew the Covenant with Abraham it is That he will be a God unto him and to his seed after him and that is common in Scripture for God to say Jer. 31.33 I will be their God and they shall be my people And there is a further discovery of the promise in Esa 44.3 I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring And so Joel 2.28 I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh So that these three are the great personal Promises of the Gospel and in these doth the main grace of the new Covenant lye 2. As for the nature of personal Promises they do import a gracious propriety in the persons which God doth by Covenant make over unto the creature The end of promises is to give a propriety and we know that a propriety amongst the creatures is nothing else but jus ad rem when a man doth claim such a thing as his own and has a power to use it and dispose of it in a lawful way for his own benefit and advantage as it seemeth good to him so that propriety as it were puts the thing into the mans hand to do with it what he pleaseth to make improvement and advantage of it that it may be for his own accommodation he may do what he list with his own c. As if a man hath a propriety in Lands or Houses he may either sell or let or give or leave or live upon them as he pleaseth Now as there is a real propriety that respects things so there is a personal propriety that respects persons which is grounded either in natural or voluntary relations as a Father has a propriety in his Son and the Son in the Father and the Husband in the Wife and the Wife in the Husband the Prince in the People and the People in their Prince and the intent of personal propriety is the same in its kind with that which is real that every person that has such a propriety in another should enjoy all benefits and advantages as they could in a way of equity expect or desire to do as the husband that hath a propriety in the wife if there were no sinful defects in the persons that are so appropriated should receive from her all manner of help and assistance as if he himself were the wife and his wife receive from her husband all that kindness and support as if she were the husband and as if all were in her own power to use And so it is in personal promises the intent of them is to make over the persons that when the Lord says I will be thy God the meaning is whatsoever is in me as a God shall be truly thine my infinite power my infinite wisdom and grace and mercy all shall be thine that the soul may lawfully lay claim to it and confidently expect it of him and that as truly as if the creature it self had infinite power and wisdom and mercy and all in his own hands So it is in giving the person of the Son that we should have a propriety and an interest in him as our Brother our Husband our Head and whatever is in him whether of grace or merit shall be as truly ours as it is his and as truly laid out for us as if we had it all inherent in our selves And so it is in giving the Spirit it is a propriety in the person so that the Spirit for conviction for conversion for sanctification for renovation for direction and for consolation doth as truly improve these for us as if they were our own and as if they were inherent in us or we could use and exercise them according to our own pleasure and they are these personal promises of the Covenant that do intitle the soul to such an interest in the persons 3. The grounds of them why must the second Covenant have personal promises The grounds of it are these 1. Man in his Fall had wholly lost God and therefore he is said Eph. 2. to be without God in the world one that had no relation to him one that had no interest in him It 's true that Adam before his Fall had a natural propriety in God both as his Creator and as his Father Luc. 3. ult Adam was the Son of God and so it 's true of the Angels they are called his Sons because they did bear his Image Job 1.6 which no other Creature did but after his Fall all Right unto God was forfeited and man could not look upon him in any relation either as a
deterr'd from sin and kept in obedience to the Covenant All the threatnings in the Word since the Fall are but conditional which argues that it is to no other end but that they might be avoided and prevented He tells us the danger before that we may escape God under the first Covenant will'd that Adam should have continued in his obedience and avoided the curse of it and the Lord to manifest he neglected no means to this end created in him a holy nature gave him a righteous and an easie Law made a glorious promise to his obedience added a fearful threatning upon his disobedience therefore God did not will the death of a sinner And we may say with the Scripture He doth not afflict willingly the children of men Lam. 3.33 but as Tertullian says of the earnest prayers of Gods people so I may say of importunity in sinning Coelum tundimus We assault Heaven he says Misericordiam I put it vindictam extorquemus We extort vengeance 2 But God had decreed the fall of Adam and that this curse should come and it could not have been against his will how can it be said then that God will'd his obedience and continuance therein There is good ground for a double will of God which the Scripture speaks of a will of complacence and a will of efficacy approbationis effectionis a will of approbation and of effection the one is a general and a conditional will manifested to the Creature whereby the Lord approves and rewards obedience and perseverance therein in all persons whomsoever And this is his revealed will without determining any thing of particular persons in whom he will work this obedience But the other is a secret will toward that particular person in whom he will work this obedience and to whom he will give grace to continue in it God did in his revealed will manifest to Adam what he did require of him what he delighted in and what he would reward him for but he did not tell him that he would give him grace and a supernatural assistance to cause him to continue in obedience but he left him to the mutability of his own will and in the hand of his own Counsel God wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth 1 Tim. 2 4. God wills that all men should believe but he will not work faith in all men He wills that all men should be saved but he will not bring all men to Salvation he wills the one voluntate approbante by a will of approbation but the other decernente by a decreeing will So Davenant his answer to Gods love to Mankind pag. 220. 3 Threatnings and Promises are of great necessity and use even to a creature in the state of Innocency with whomsoever God will deal in a Covenant-way even the purest Creatures may and ought to make use of them and to fear to offend God because of his wrath for even our God is a consuming fire Now of what use could this have been to Adam in innocency having no sense or fear of sin or suffering but more of this afterwards 4 Even the Creature in the state of innocency has nothing in it to satisfie the Holiness of God he gives a command and adds a promise but as if the Lord were jealous of him he adds a threatning to keep him in obedience and so he did with the Angels he put no trust in them he charges even them with folly Job 4.18 though not with actual yet with possible folly The best Creatures as Creatures are changeable therefore the Holiness of God can never take full contentment and satisfaction in any thing but in Christ who is by the personal union impeccable 5 How comes it to pass that this Tree proved so hurtful to man That totum genus humanum per infinitam successionem perdiderit It destroyed all mankind throughout such an infinite succession Luther proposes the question and says the cause was not in the fruit for fructus protulit nobilissimos it produced most excellent fruit but the ground was in the Word of God and his prohibition Arbor vitae vivificat virtute verbi promittentis arbor scientiae occidit virtute verbi prohibentis the tree of life vivifies by virtue of the word promising and the tree of knowledge kills by virtue of the word prohibiting It 's the Word of God that is the cause of life and death to the Creature God exalts his Word above the best of the Creatures and it is dearer to him than Adam was in Innocency or the Angels he has exalted it above all his Name Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather than a tittle of it and therefore he will not now spare us for the breach of it But why did God give Adam this Commandment having given him so freely all the other Trees of the Garden Preceptum exploratorium Paraeus Arhor diviri cultus fuit why should he forbid him this one it was a precept for trial a tree of divine worship They were not one tree says Luther though here so called collectively but Nemus quasi sacellum quoddam a wood as it were a Chappel God loves to try the obedience of the best of his Creatures to give them matter and occasion to exercise the Graces that he has given them As every word of God is a tried word and has been in the furnace often and Gods people have found it true so every grace wrought by that word is a tried grace and the trial of it is to the Saints now and so it should have been to Adam precious as the Apostle Peter says The trial of your faith is more precious than gold 6 But what need had Adam of such a Tree being he had a Law written in his heart of obedience to all Gods requirings as the Sun has a law of motion He was freely and fully carried after it by a command within he was a living Scripture a walking Bible but yet the best of the Creatures had need as of daily assistance and direction so also of daily admonition and a publick Monitor The Angels themselves as they have new service daily to do for God so they have a new supply from the spirit of Christ to quicken them daily We read in Ezek. 1.13 there is a spirit of fire that goes up and down amongst the living creatures which denotes the active daily and vigorous supply of the Spirit of Christ and the constant working of it Surely men may see yea those that are learned in the School of Christ what need there is of a Ministery Some say what need is there to have the same things taught that we know as well as they do and may be better Yet though you do know them there is need we should stir you up by way of remembrance 7 But why should it be so great an offence to eat of this Tree seeing God made it pleasant to the eye and
is the act and the guilt the act with the pleasure of it is fading the pleasures of sin that are but for a season but there is an abiding guilt upon the spirit that is after a sort infinite being an offence against an infinite God a violation of an infinite Holiness and a contempt of infinite Majesty and Authority and it is also eternal and will remain upon the Creature for ever and nothing in the world but the Blood of Christ can take it away from the soul Gen. 4.7 being sprinkled upon the Conscience and this is the meaning of that Proverbial speech Gen. 4.7 Sin lies at the door it 's a speech taken from a dog or a fierce beast that lies at the door to watch and it teaches us three things 1 That though the act be past yet the guilt remains binding over the soul to punishment the sin lies there 2 That there is a time when sin in the guilt and punishment of it may lie still and be quiet and a man may ruffle it in the house within and never be troubled at that which lies at the door 3 Sin lying at the door will surely be awakened and it will be easily awakened Luther in loc ad fores somno minime aptus est locus ibi quiescit peccatum ubi diu quiescere non potest c. Sin lies asleep there where it can lie long asleep the door will surely open and the sin that seems sleepy now will awake and therefore it is a fearful thing talem habere janitorem to have such a porter Jer. 2.22 Though thou wash thy self with niter and fullers soap yet thy iniquity is markt before me it 's spoken of all the false glosses and pretences that men have to excuse themselves and to extenuate their sins There is a guilt upon the man before God Jer. 17.1 The iniquity of Judah is writ with a pen of iron c. It is to be referred both ad reatum culpam and it notes the indelible characters of it upon the soul that as the people of God have the Law of God writ upon their hearts so have ungodly men the guilt of sin and the law of sin their sin will find them out There are two things that men are terrified with Numb 32.23 and they look upon as enemies the word of God and the guilt of their own sins and therefore men do endeavour to fly from the one and to hide themselves from the other now the word follows them and will surely overtake them at last Zach. 1.6 and the guilt of sin that seeks the man and albeit he has many a hiding place yet sin both in the guilt and in the punishment of it also will at last find him out 3 Hence follows an evil Conscience Heb. 10.22 There are two things that make the Conscience evil it 's pollution by reason of the filth of sin and its accusation and condemnation by reason of the guilt of sin and though this indeed be mainly reserved to the last day Rom. 2.15 16. when the book of Conscience shall be opened and that faculty enlarged because then it is to give up its Viatory office and an account of the whole man that God has betrusted it with yet it doth in many men begin here according as the Lord is pleased to act it and doth bring into the soul an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.27 a receiving of judgment before-hand binding a man over unto wrath that the Creature is continually in expectation of it Heb. 2.15 Mat. 8. â—9 Art thou come to torment us before the time therefore an evil Conscience they have that tells them that there is a torment in a greater measure provided for them and that there is a time appointed when the extremity of this torment shall begin though as yet they knew the time was not come Hence comes that fear which does torment the soul 1 Joh. 4.18 that wrath will seize upon a man wheresoever he is as it was with Cain Gen. 4.14 Every one that meets me will slay me he lookt upon himself as Luther saith Tanquam excommunicatus spiritualiter corporaliter regnum amiserat ecclesiam as one who was excommunicated both spiritually and corporally c. And therefore he that was put out of the protection of God could look for no safety amongst the Creatures hence a man walks in the horrour of the shadow of death Felix trembles and Herod fear'd it was John Baptist that he had slain that was risen again There is fear on every side if he walks by the way he looks vengeance should come upon him and he shall never again visit his habitation and if he abide in his house there is a curse entered into the stones and the timber of it when he lies down at night he says it may be this night God will take away my soul and he is scared with dreams and terrified with visions that he is not able to stand under the imaginations and thoughts of his own heart if he attend upon the Word there is a savour of death unto death he sees the grave open and this is to him a testimony of a further death 2 Cor. 2.16 And hence is that shame and confusion of face that is in men looking upon themselves they abhor their own image and are not able to endure their own stink seeing how their souls do breed worms as Herod's body did they see that they are the loathsomest Creatures alive and hence there is a loathing of themselves and it comes at last to a revenge as we see in Judas And the reflections and reproaches of a mans own spirit he cannot bear and he has these dreadful desperate thoughts I shall never find mercy my glass is run my hope is past surely there is no mercy for me if there were as many windows in Heaven as there be Stars as many doors as there be souls yet there would be no entrance for me And the soul sinks down under his own burden for ever and says My iniquity is heavier than I can bear And this is properly the death of the soul it is eternal desperation it 's hell it self I had time and means and offers and intreaties and works and motions of the Spirit of God but the Lord has now forsaken me and the night is come upon me there is as much hope of the Devils as of me And this is much strengthned by the threatning and the Curse of the Law giving a man his portion Hos 6.5 and so Ministers are said to judge men Ezech. 20. â— and to torment them Rev. 11.10 and to kill them which is all barely by the words suggesting to an evil Conscience and the Conscience assisting thereunto and there is answerable to the Curse of the first Covenant a work of the Spirit of God upon a mans soul which is called a spirit of bondage and a spirit of fear Rom. 8.15 2 Tim. 1.7
then from the condemnation of the Law and the sentence of it there is no appeal or redemption CHAP. III. How and whence it is that sin is irritated by the Law Rom. 7.8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence SECT I. How sin takes occasion and is irritated by the Law § 1. WE have seen that to be under the first Covenant though broken is unto every man in a state of nature a desirable thing though formally indeed men desire it not for they will all disclaim it but interpretatively and by consequence they do desire it as Prov. 8. ult it was finis operis though not operantis it was the end of the work Ezek. 8.3 though not of the worker and so men going about to establish their own righteousness and not submitting unto the righteousness of God and being contented to be acted by a spirit of bondage which is the spirit of the first Covenant which doth produce in them fruits answerable to the Covenant under which they stand this is in Gods account and in the censure of the Scripture an argument of an inward desire and contentment to be under this Covenant still Now because men do look upon it as a desirable condition let us examine what this condition is of a man fallen to be under the first Covenant as broken Divines do commonly say that a man that is in Christ is freed from the Law he being dead to the Law and the Law being dead unto him in some respects as was mentioned at first 1 For Irritation the Law hath not this power in men to irritate and exasperate and enrage their lusts by the restraint and the prohibitions of them and so they apply that place Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law That is saith Beza He exhorts them to Sanctification Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies and he does promise them sin shall not raign under the Law only forbidding sinning and thereby provoking and increasing lust but you are under Grace strengthning against sin and healing it and hence it is concluded from several other Scriptures that a man in Christ and under Grace is freed from the Law and irritation of it 2 For Co-action to keep them from sin by force for fear simply of the curse of the Law and to compell them to duty as a task-master against their wills when the Law they hate and the duty that is required of them that they hate and wish there were no Law and look upon it as a yoak and a burden insupportable for as a godly man says of sin so a wicked man says of duty that which I hate that do I. And it requires of him perfect obedience as a task-master he must work brick but gives no straw requires the full tale of duty but gives no strength nor assistance The Apostle says Gal. 5.8 if you be led by the spirit you are not under the Law the spirit that is in you is the spirit of the second Covenant a spirit of Adoption a spirit of liberty a free and a Princely spirit which enables you to perform duties out of an inward principle of love to them and delight in them unto them the yoak is easie and the burden is light for it 's their happiness and honour and meat and drink to do the will of their Heavenly father And so that place I conceive is to be understood 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law was not made for a righteous man that is neither in the restraining act of it or keeping from sin only for fear of the curse because he has an inward principle that lusts against it and as a fountain casts out the mud an inward antipathy a spirit lusting and rising against it that though there were no curse yet he would hate it and endeavour to avoid it nor in the constraining power of it to force to duty only as that which his soul hates and he comes hardly off too in any measure to do that which is required but he has a spirit within the Law written in his heart an inward principle suitable to what the Law requires of him as it is said of Christ in respect of that great Commandment was laid on him Joh. 10.18 This Commandment have I received of my father for of that I think he speaks lo I come to do thy will thy law is in the middle of my bowels I have power to lay it down and to take it up again He had an inward principle that made him ready and willing and chearful in it and in this respect the Law was never made for them as the only principle upon which they should act 3 For condemnation so as to be able to lay upon a man the guilt of his own sin and condemn him for it for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law there is a destroying power in sin and this it has from the condemning power of the Law do but take away the condemning power of the Law and the sting of death that is that power that it has to destroy the soul is gone because the guilt is taken off the sinner Now Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us And so Gal. 5.23 Against such there is no Law It is not spoken against such works but against such persons there is no Law partly because the Law is against none but those that transgress it and partly because those being the fruits of the spirit do argue and clear to a man that his Covenant is changed because he is acted by the spirit of the second Covenant and therefore he may thereby receive an evidence to himself that the condemning power of the Law is not against him any more Rom. 4.6 4 For Justification For blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works That no man is justified by the Law is evident Gal. 2. ult If righteousness be by the law then Christ is dead in vain And from hence I argue that if they that are in Christ and under the second Covenant are freed from the Law in all these respects then all those that are out of Christ are under the Law still in all those respects and therefore every unregenerate man is under the Law as a Covenant of works and under this Covenant he desires to be now the Covenant being broken he is under it for Justification Irritation Coaction and Condemnation Daven de luâ—ut actuali p. 397. which when we have lookt over it will appear that this is no such happy condition that a man should desire it In being freed thus from the Law the main part of a Christians liberty consists yet there is this difference the two last refer unto a person and state and in those his liberty is perfect and he is wholly freed from the Law
and that denial increaseth to an oath and that swearing multiplies to cursings and to imprecations upon himself in the highest kind as the word is in the original as if he had wished Mat. 26 74. I would I might never find mercy at the hands of God or come where God hath to do that I might be separated from God eternally and damned body and soul if that I know the man And Isa 57.17 says God For the iniquity of his covetousness I smote him and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart c. Theodosius was an Emperour of a very meek sweet and gracious temper yet a Temptation so far got the head of him that upon an occasion of a Tumult in Thessalonia a servant of his that he had in a special manner respect for being slain he commanded an universal Massacre throughout the City that in a very short space 3000 men were slain by his command and that by a wile being invited to behold a Play for which cause the Emperour himself was by Ambrose kept from the Sacrament It were strange to consider unto what a height even the sins of godly men from the remainders of corruption that is in them may be improved 6. For the improvement of sins in godly men Satan may and commonly does make advantage of the Law of God and the commands and restraints thereof whereby sin will take occasion See it in King Asa the Prophet did prophesie and he put him into Prison because he shewed him his sin and instead of repenting for it he increased it for he was in a rage temptation had got hand over him and by the reproof Satan did stir up his lust And even the Gospel is by Satan turned into wantonness and all the Grace of it yea and all the glorious works of Grace upon a mans heart sin will take occasion from Gods drawing nigh and wax wanton under his love there is not any part of the Law of God or the Works of God or the Providence of God that Satan will not make use of and sin take occasion by to stir up and to improve corruption in a man even those remainders of sin that are in a Saint Quest § 4. If a godly man be under the irritation of the Law as well as a wicked man where then lyes the difference that a man in Christ is said not to be under the Law in this respect The difference lyes in these three things mainly Answ 1. An unregenerate man has no other use of the Law but this all the fruit that he has by it is to improve draw out and increase his sins but a godly man being under another Covenant as he has the Law written in his heart in his regeneration so he has by the Law Grace increased in the continued work of his Sanctification Joh. 17.17 there is in respect of his regenerate part a power of Sanctification and the whole Law of God tends to that end in him and this the Law works in him per se as he is regenerate though it works the other per accidens as far as he is unregenerate Grace receives strength by the Commandment according to the law of the mind as sin does according to the law of the flesh in the one sin is restrained and subdued in the other sin may be restrained but it is increased and as a damm set upon the waters which â—â—â—es them swell the higher 2. Through sin may â—â—â—e occasion by the Law in the regenerate yet this does not constitute sin in dominion it doâ—â— never rise up so high in a regenerate man as to amount unto a compleat raign and dominion as Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you so that a man should obey it in the lusts thereof for in the highest improvement of sin by the Law in the regenerate there is another law in the mind a spirit that lusts against the flesh that a man cannot be given up unto all iniquity it does never work in him all manner of concupiscence as it does in the unregenerate so as to make a man always go on in a presumptuous way of sinning but Grace and the spirit of Grace gives a check to it because a man loves the law of God and its precepts according to his inward man 3. Lastly it does never so far prevail in the regenerate as to bring forth fruit unto death as it does in the unregenerate Rom. 7.5 The motions of sin that were by the law wrought in me to bring forth fruits unto death But as the law is made a servant unto the Gospel so both the precept and the curse of the law is made subservient and subordinate this way for as the remainders of sin in the godly are sprinkled with the blood of Christ so are all the temptations of Satan and the improvements of sin by the law which is unto all unregenerate men a part of the curse of their Covenant sanctified unto the regenerate and are a means to shew them their own vileness and to humble them deeply before the Lord as we see it in Peter and David and to make them hate sin the more and to make them the more watchful over their own hearts and lay the faster hold upon Christ and the Grace offered in the Gospel by faith and to ply the Throne of Grace by constant and daily prayers and the more to long for their adoption and redemption and so this improvement of sin by the law does tend in the end to the further subduing of sin and at last to the utter abolishing of it that so the remainders of sin being wholly done away Satan may stir up sin and sin may take occasion by the Commandment no more And so as other fruits of the curse of the law are blessed and sanctified unto them as their afflictions their temptations and death it self so shall these fruits of the curse be also sanctified unto them and tend to their sanctification and end in the perfection of their holiness at the last So that as death is swallowed up in victory in a mans resurrection so is sin also in a mans perfect sanctification unto which through the Grace of the Gospel sin it self was over-ruled to be a means for as there are two ways of a mans pollution so there are also two means of a mans sanctification there are proper and natural means as Satan and a mans own lusts c. and there are occasional means as the law of God so there are of a mans sanctification the Word and the Spirit and the Ordinances and there are occasions which in their own nature do work no such thing but Grace takes occasion from the one as corruption does from the other the temptations of Satan and the improvement of sin by the law being sprinkled by the blood of Christ shall be as effectual to a mans sanctification as the other being not sprinkled with the blood of Christ
shall be effectual to a mans pollution Vse 1 § 5. See here the malignity and the vile nature of sin and what a deadly disease it is when that which God did give of purpose to destroy it will increase it We say that is a very deadly disease that you can apply no physick but it does stir up the disease and it 's increased by it and all that you can take feeds the disease so here sin must needs be a deadly thing that the law should increase it which in its own nature should abate it There are two truths that should be always in a mans eye God to be the chiefest Good and Sin to be the greatest Evil. There is no one thing that does set forth the evil of sin more than this that the Commandment of God which doth forbid it curse it condemn it should improve it It 's no wonder then if mercies make men more wicked and if crosses add to mens sins for the very Law of God and his threatnings and restraints thereof will do it if any thing make sin appear to a man to be out of measure sinful and a disease incurable in it self this will 2. See hereby the vanity of that Doctrine that says Moral perswasion is sufficient unto conversion God enlightning of a mans mind and shewing him what is his duty and what is required of him and perswading of his will it is according to these able to imbrace it and so turn unto God and duty and herein is the drawing of God the Father when as we see that when God does set a mans duty before him in the Law with all the threatnings of it and all the promises of it this is so far from converting the man that it improves his sin sin and makes it the more to rage against God and become out of measure sinful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore there is an inward work of God an Almighty Power put forth in changing the heart and converting of the will Moral perswasions may make a man more wicked but they will never convert him or make him the more holy without this inward work put forth by God in changing the heart 3. See here what is the proper rise and ground of that unpardonable sin the sin against the Holy Ghost It is by a curse of the first Covenant coming upon to the word of God that it is an occasional means lust opposing it to make sin rise the higher and first it brings forth in a man sins against knowledge and afterwards sins with malice and despight If the Law had never been revealed again but man had been left as many of the Heathens are who have but that small glimmering of light which some do call the remainders of the Law within them which the Apostle speaks of Rom. 2. They shew the works of the law written in their hearts this sin had never been heard of in the world it is a sin proper unto the Church of God and cannot be committed out of the Church where men are enlightned in the truth and sin takes occasion from the Law to break forth into despight against it 4. See what a vain thing it is for a man to glory in any Church-priviledge The Jews did stand much upon it and doubtless it was a great mercy that unto them did belong the giving of the Law and the Promises and unto them were committed the Oracles of God and therefore they rested in and made their boast of the Law c. Rom. 2.18 19. And what fruit had most of them by the Law it did aggravate their sins in the guilt of them and drew forth their sins in the power of them unto the greater height and in many of them even to the sin against the Holy Ghost And so it does many men that live under the Gospel at this day they have no other fruit by their ordinances and of the word of God amongst them but to make them more exceedingly wicked 5. See what a misery it is to be in a state of unregeneracy he that is so is wicked by nature and every thing wâ—â— make him worse See also what a mercy restraining grace is to a man that is unregenerate when we read of Judas and how Christs reproof did heighten his malice and of the Pharisees how by Christs Sermon their rage was drawn forth and they gnashed their teeth upon him c. What a mercy is it should every soul say that all the Sermons that ever I have heard of Christ c. should not have wrought the same effects in me long ago Luther saith that reading that place Rom. 1.17 The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith and understanding it only de justitia activa scilicet punientè of Gods punishing justice Non amabam imo odiebam justum punientem Deum tacitaque si non blasphemia certe ingenti murmuratione c. odi istud vocabulum poenitentiae I did not love but hate the just and punishing God and by a silent great murmur if not blasphemy I did hate that word Repentance Now that it has not been so to every one of us and we sinned against the Holy Ghost and in the highest acts of direct enmity that there had been no hope of mercy seeing that we cannot say that we have done it ignorantly Oh what a mercy is restraining Grace 6. Lastly how should it engage the people of God to thankfulness that God has freed them from this great misery that now the Law should subdue their lusts and not enrage them and if it does at any time yet it 's not to bring forth fruit unto death not to have a full dominion over them how should it make them fear when they read or hear the Law lest it should add to the disease Oh! how ought people to pray and Ministers pray that they may not be a curse and that the word which they hear and preach may not ripen their sins and draw out and improve their corruptions but their graces and make them holy CHAP. IV. The Rigor and Coactive power of the Law Gal. 5.18 But if you be led by the Spirit you are not under the Law SECT I. Wherein the Coactive power of the Law consists § 1. THere is a double sense of these words given by Interpreters and both may very well be put together The Apostle having said before That in a godly man there are two contrary principles flesh and spirit and they lust and act one against another so that they cannot do the things they would but when they would do good evil is present with them he adds here a consolation to bear up their hearts in this which is the greatest conflict upon earth between flesh and spirit in the same heart and that which made them to look upon themselves as miserable men all their days Rom. 7.24 but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law that is though there
inward principle that answers the law without Heb. 8.10 a law written in his heart an inward and secret Bible that he always carries with him that though he were not forced to it by a law without yet there is in his heart an inward principle a law within And therefore Chrysostome doth distinguish men into two sorts that make use of the law men that live under the law and men that live above the law that is that have not only a law without commanding but within a law restraining so that a man out of Christ is under the law as a yoke and as a burden that no man is able to bear which he hates but cannot love 4. To an unregenerate man though the law command duty yet as he cannot love it so he can take no delight in it it does indeed exact it of him but so as he groans under it and does snuff at it and says what a weariness is it and his heart loaths it and he can take no pleasure in it from day to day he looks upon it as his only misery chains and fetters of iron c. Joh. 5.3 But to a godly man the Commandments of God are not grievous it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meiosis that is they are very pleasing and delightsome they are dearer than thousands of gold and silver they are sweeter than honey and the honey-comb Mat. 11. ult My yoke is easie and my burthen is light is taken from the agility of Harts to escape 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you may delight your self in it It is so far from taking away the comfort of your lives that it will exceedingly add thereto it is a regenerate mans meat and drink to do the will of his Heavenly Father and his soul is satisfied in it as with marrow and fatness he binds the law of God as frontlets upon his eyes and as a chain about his neck they are the great ornaments that he delights to wear the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace And this I conceive to be the meaning of the Apostle Rom. 7.6 To serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter the oldness of the letter is only the letter requiring duty without and the newness of the spirit is the heart delighted with duty within Spiritu novo spontaneo to serve God with a free and a Princely spirit 5. The law forbids sin but it heals it not it does revive it but it does not cast it out Rom. 7.9 When the commandment came sin revived and I died it does shew men sin and trouble their consciences for it but it is but as Ezekiels pot the scum rises and boils in again Had Paul gone no further than the Law sin might have revived by that and the man have died again but sin would never have died that he might live for though a man do abstain from it for fear and out of a slavish spirit yet he loves it still and desires it still because the law may keep a man from acting sin but it will never stir up a man to the hatred of sin and then a man is said to be under the law indeed Luther has a story of one that did use to relate of himself how it was with him before he was brought home to Christ I more than a thousand times promised to God in duties more than I could perform and so he came at last to be out of hope ever to perform them which he says was to him pia sancta desperatio an holy despair and this brought him home to Christ When a man has lookt upon the law long that saith Thou shalt not commit adultery and thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain and yet the heart of the man is carried after the sin though he may abstain from the outward act yet his spirit boiles after it he may pray against it and vow against it and yet still the grace that must subdue it must come from the Gospel But now a man in Christ he has his nature changed and so his pleasures and delights are changed and he says I am not I as Augustine said Others wonder how you can live without these things that you were so much delighted with heretofore alas the new nature wonders as much at the old A new nature brings new delights and now suave est istis suavitatibus carere it is sweet to want those sweets 6. The Law carries a man to God as a Judg. God does give the Law a Soveraignty and so doth judg all men according to this Law without respect of persons according to their works which fills a mans Conscience full of doubtful inquiries Rom. 10.5 And the righteousness of the law says who shall ascend up to heaven or fetch Christ down c. And a mans heart is full of jealousie of God and he does apprehend that he has offended God he does wish there were no God So the soul looks upon God as one that will strictly observe what has been done amiss and he stands afar off from God and cares not for coming near the Lord. But a man in Christ the Gospel carries him unto God as unto a Father My Father says Christ and your Father my God and your God Mal. 3.16 He will spare them as a father does his son that serves him He accepts of his endeavours when there is a willing mind he takes any thing well because it is from a child And there is an inward principle of affection and eternal love that carries God towards the man And so in the mans approaches to God in duties there is a great deal of sweetness and confidence when in an other mans duties there is a great deal of terrour and amazement because in the one he comes to God as a Judg through the exacting of the Law and there he is full of fear for he expects a doleful sentence and the other man comes to God as a Father and he fears not accusation nor a rejection 7. It does force a man to see sin whether he will or no and sets it yea holds it before the mans eyes when his desire is to cast it behind his back There is no unregenerate man in the world that is either willing to see his duty or his iniquity and obliquity not his duty and therefore he casts the Law of God behind his back as a thing that he is not willing to see and is most willing to put away from him Neh. 9.26 And cast the law behind their backs Psal 50.17 2 Pet. 3.5 and slew the Prophets which testified against them and therefore they are said to hide their eyes and to be willingly ignorant neither would they see and therefore they desire not to look into that glass which discovers their sins but Isa 29.21 They hate them that reprove in the gate they have many pleas to
justifie themselves in an evil way and to extenuate their sins and they do call light darkness and darkness light evil good and good evil and they love to have Prophets that should call them so also Now comes the Law as a glass and that discovers duty and makes men to see their sins and the duties that they hate and the evil of the sin which they love and delight in The Law is in Scripture resembled unto a glass and a glass it is two ways as it discovers duty and so it is of use in four things Jam. 1.24 1 As a glass it shews to a man that holiness â—â—â—â—ure and life that God did give unto him and require of him in his state of innocency which condition man has lost now and if a man look into the nature and lives of the best men he can find only some vestigia and poor beginnings of it which are not indicia veteris hominis but rudimenta novi not indices of the old man but rudiments of the new 2 Christ was our surety made under the Law and answered the precept and the curse and the Lord rather required if we may compare it that the precept should be fulfilled than the curse be born because the principal intention of the Lords giving the Law was obedience to the precept and not the suffering of the curse now all that holiness that was required of Christ and performed by him either in nature or life we may behold in the Law thus the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us there is in our justification a commutation of the person but not of the righteousness 3 The Law is unto the Saints a glass that shews them the obedience that the Lord doth require of them the Gospel indeed gives grace to obey but the Gospel requires no other obedience but that which the Law does discover as a rule a man must look into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein Psal 119.6 I shall not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments c. 4 It is the glass of perfection in the life to come Joh. 3.2 When he shall appear we shall be like him There shall be a perfect conformity in nature and life in us unto the Law in all things and we shall be every one of us living Scripture and walking Bibles for the word of the Lord is written in the heart and turned into grace enduring for ever c. Here indeed we have little conformity to the Law of God but hereafter our holiness shall be perfected 2. By the Law is the knowledg of sin when the commandment came sin revived and I died As a glass set before a man discovers his spots and as the light coming into a dark place shews our filthiness that before was hid An unregenerate man would never see his sin nor search himself nor turn into his own heart and try his ways if the Law did not make these discoveries All reflex thoughts he hates and if at any time he be forced into them and hath a glimpse of himself that does affright him that he does begin to see his own ugliness and deformity and smell the savour of his own filthiness even the sepulcher that is within him he doth immediately turn from it as an unpleasing sight which he is no ways willing to behold and fix his eyes upon Jam. 1. Beholding his natural face in a glass he forgets what manner of man he was Though he may remember the notions of a Sermon that are speculative to adorn his understanding yet the discoveries of his own sin and self in a Sermon he doth quickly forget and therein the main forgetfulness of a hearer of the Law lyes Now the Law has a constraining power and sets a mans sins in order before him and makes a man see his own vileness and holds it to his eyes that he cannot look off it but he crys out Psal 50. my iniquity is always before me as it was with Judas his sin in betraying innocent blood was still so present with him that he chose strangling rather than any income of comfort from any creature he quickly returned the thirty pieces of silver again So let all unregenerate men go from one creature to another and build Cities like Cain and add to their recreation and pleasures of sin yet still the sight of sin is by the light in this glass set before them and haeret lateri lethalis arundo the mortal dart sticks in his side 8. It forces men to a self-judgment and condemnation for sin and an expectation of the judgment of God for it Every natural man is willing to acquit himself and to put off the thoughts of judgment to put far from them the evil day and to say I shall sit as a lady for ever and shall see no sorrow or cry peace peace when sudden destruction comes upon him For there doth two evils go with a way of sinning Isa 2.1 1 a hard heart 2 a spirit of deep sleep that a man is willing to sleep and not to wake to see his danger as one that lyes down in the middle of the sea Prov. 23.34 or as one that sleeps on the top of a mast but a gracious heart troubles himself for sin and lays the judgment of God to the sin and labours to bring his heart to a trembling frame under the sense of it Joh. 11. as we see in Josiah and in Christ himself and so do all the godly if any affliction befall a child of God if he be judged of God he does clear God in it Psal 51.4 Rom. 3. and willingly takes the blame upon himself that he may justifie God but the property of a 〈◊〉 regenerate man is to justifie God but the property of an unregenerate man is to justifie himself and to condemn God Job 40.8 Says the Apostle Paul is God unrighteous I speak as a man Says Job Wilt thou disanull my judgment wilt thou condemn me that thou maist be righteous It is the disposition that is in the heart of men by nature to condemn God that they may justifie themselves Now the Law of God comes in with the coaction of it and that forces this man to judg himself and to fill him with fear and expectation of wrath Rom. 3.20 That all flesh may become guilty that they may appear and acknowledge themselves guilty before God Rom. 7 Sin revived and I died that is seeing self in a state of death and this is called the spirit of fear Rom. 8.15 and a receiving of judgment Heb. 10. This we may see in the Devils they know there is a time of torment coming wrath unto which they are reserved and they believe it and tremble and that never-dying worm that shall be in Hell is nothing else but from this coaction of the Law and the spirit of God setting a mans sins in order before him whereon there follows
a principle of life within or else a principle from without either weights or springs as it is in Clocks or Watches which makes the motion so many men may move to duty and abstain from sin not from an inward principle of life in the one or the other but from a weight without 5. There is in every unregenerate man a sinful and unrenewed heart deceitful above all things Jer. 17.10 and desperately evil a heart fully set in him to do evil and because this is natural therefore his heart is fully bent to go this way so that let him be constrained to do duty yet he will hate the duty that he does and count it a weariness and look upon it as a burden Mallet non facere si posset impune and say When will the Sabbath be gone And let him be kept from sin yet he will love it still if you chain up a Beast from the prey yet his inclination will be after it and keep the stone from the Center and force it up into the air as often as you will it will still return and when it comes down to the earth and can descend no further yet it will have a tendency thereunto So Conscience thâ—â— is meerly natural counts it its misery and affliction to be kept from sin for restrain it from sin never so much it will at last break these bounds and will be carried on with the greater fury greediness and violence because of the former restraint that was put upon it and the Devil will enter with seven worse spirits the dog will return to his vomit and the latter end will be worse than the beginning it had been better that man had never known the way of righteousness for he will be more wicked than if he had never known it Thus let the man have a heart set upon lust and let the power of the Law come into his Conscience acted by the Spirit it 's no wonder if it so far over-awe the man as to restrain him from sin and constrain him to duty § 2. But is a godly man that is under the Covenant of Grace wholly freed from the Coaction of the Law Answ This distinction was laid down in the beginning that though the main part of our Christian Liberty consists in being freed from the Law yet this liberty is in this life either inchoata or perfecta in respect of justification and condemnation A godly man is perfectly freed from the Law as a Covenant but in respect of Irritation and Coaction he is freed from these effects of it only in part We have seen how far the Irritation of the Law remains even in the regenerate and it is like lime which does quench those fires sometimes kindles 〈◊〉 Sin while it does remain and is acted by Satan may take occasion by the Commandment and produce woful effects even in the Saints so for the Coaction of the Law they are not wholly freed from it so far as they are unregenerate and the law of the flesh remains in their members the Law is of use to them and a handmaid to the Gospel and they do and ought to make use of legal motives to constrain to duty and to restrain from sin and the Law is to be preached to the regenerate to this purpose Heb. 11.25 1. To constrain to duty many times The Saints are to make use of the Law and the good things thereof so did Moses he had respect to the recompence of reward and the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5.9 We labour whether present or absent that we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Again Heb. 12. ult Let us have grace to serve him acceptably for our God is a consuming fire These be the helps that the Lord has given us and it were our sin not to make use of them there is no man but he finds so much deadness and backwardness in his flesh that he shall be forced to call in this help many times Mark 9.44 2. And to restrain a man from sin also Christs exhortation is Cut off your right hand and pull out your right eye for it 's better to go to heaven maimed than having two eyes to be cast into hell where the worm dies not c. And if Adam in the state of Innocency had need of the threatning of the Law to deter him from sin much more a godly man that is holy but in part Yet there is a great deal of difference 1 in a godly man this is not the only principle that acts him as it is in the unregenerate for an unregenerate man would never do duty while he lives were it not from this Coaction of the Law out of a principle of self-love and natural conscience for he does duties as a godly man commits sins and he must say that which I hate do I but in a godly man there is another principle also there is a law of his mind an inward disposition the law written in his heart a new and divine nature and his obedience to God is natural to him as it is for a tree to bring forth fruit in its kind and a fountain to cast out mud and to work out any thing that is contrary to it 2 As this is not the only so it is not the main principle that works in them but there is the Spirit of Christ that dwells in them and leads them and there is a law of love that does mainly act them in all they do 1 Joh. 5.3 they abstain from Sin as from Hell and that which they see all evil in and as that which is dishonourable to God and defiles their own beauty for Sin is the souls deformity as Grace is the ornament of the soul and he does duty from an ingenuous and free spirit And therefore Christ says Take my yoke upon you for it is easie Whence so far as a man is regenerate he is a law unto himself and he would be kept from sin and carried on to duty if neither of these were but only from a principle within 3. The more a regenerate man is acted by legal principles and the less love he has to spiritual duties the less spiritual he is and therefore his desire is always to be led by the Spirit of God and he always prays to God for his free Princely Spirit SECT III. The APPLICATION § 1. WE may hence learn what a miserable estate a man is in being under the first Covenant every thing is a burden to him because it is a constraint upon his spirit the thing he does he hates he has a contrary principle within him which he would indulge and gratifie Now there being in a man the same nature and the command of God lying upon a man this may and this does commonly put a force upon him to perform duties of the law but that
is never pleasant but always burdensome and the man desires to be set at liberty for he can never look upon the law as the perfect law of liberty until his nature answers the law and it is written in his heart 1. If we look upon the restraint that the law does lay upon a man that is unregenerate his condition is most miserable because 1 he does abstain from sin but it is forced and therefore burdensome because still his lust is active and carries the man after it with inward burning and the man is tormented the more it is adding drunkenness to thirst Deut. 29.19 The satisfaction of lust is compared unto drunkenness and the lust is compared unto thirst and as the drunkenness does increase the thirst and the more a man drinks the more thirsty he shall be and therefore none calls for drink more than those that have had too much already so it is here the more a man does to satisfie his lust the more he does increase it We know what a painful thing thirst is unless it be satisfied He that believes shall never thirst but shall have a well of water springing up in him Joh. 7.38 39. There is a double restraint 1 upon mens acts Abimelech's lust was stirred up but the Lord with-held the act Gen. 20 and so it was with the Pharisees they had often as bloody desires long before and sought to take Christ and put him to death but they could not there was a restraint put in for want of opportunity or fear of the people c. 2 There is a restraint upon mens lusts for though the heart of man be full of lust yet there is a Providence of God in permitting them to come forth some at one time and some at another so that the seeds of those sins that were in men before do now shew forth themselves as we see in Judas and Herod and Gehazi and in many men who carry it fair a while till there be an opportunity to draw them forth they have Neronis quinquennium for five years Nero carried it fair and yet afterwards he proved desperately wicked Now this restraint upon mens acts though unto the Elect of God it is a mercy and any thing that may hinder them in a way of sinning Hos 2.6 7 I will hedge their way with thorns and I will make a wall against them God can keep men from sin whether they will or no and if lesser afflictions will not do it God will raise greater But yet for all this the lusts of natural men will go after their former lovers though they cannot overtake them And this is a great misery unto such men first look upon the Saints also and they have desires after good but they find opposition so that they cannot do the thing that they would but there is still a law in their members rebelling against the law of their mind and this makes them to look upon themselves as miserable men because they have desires unsatisfied and they do still groan after a satisfaction and this makes them weary of their lives and they are willing to die that they may enjoy their desire to the uttermost and yet even in a regenerate man these desires are but of half the man and therefore in an unregenerate man when he is carried to sin with his whole man such a ones desires are more vehement Hos 7.4 Their hearts are hot as an oven they go out after it with greediness and they look upon it as the greatest misery to be restrained from it and their hearts rise against any opposition so much the more as you know Amnon and Ahab they were sick because they were restrained from that which they would have The soul of a wicked man is like a wild Bull in a net furiously bent upon sin they will perish rather than be hindred in a way of sinning This the Devil looks on as his great misery that though God lay not restraint upon his lust yet he restrains his acts so that he cannot hurt mankind as he would do though he smite Job with sores and imbitter his life to him yet he shall not be able to take away his life and the lusts of the Devil are as violent and as impetuous as ever he desires to winnow Peter and there is bounds set him that he cannot do what he would and his great torment is his restraint and the chains of darkness with which he is held and he could not enter into Judas that was his own till by the Sop the Lord gave him leave and he could not enter into the herd of Swine without license this is looked upon as a great misery by that violent and proud spirit Look what restraint either the power of God or the providence of God lays upon the lusts of the Devil the same does the Law of God lay upon the lusts of unregenerate men and this they look upon as their misery that they cannot enjoy their full desires there is an inward boiling of spirit and their hearts are hot as an oven they desire but they cannot attain and so their desire is their torment and they can have no rest 2. Even in those pleasures of sin that a man does enjoy this restraint of the law will imbitter them to a man exceedingly that a man does not enjoy them with that sweetness and delight that otherwise he should do because the sentence of the law and the judgments of God follow him with threats so that still they do add water to his wine and mix it with greater discontent than he should otherwise have for a man comes to it with a guilty galled and self-condemning conscience and so he can take no pleasure or but half the pleasure that else he should take and therefore the endeavour of the man is to put out the eye of Conscience and to make it grow sensless and to cast off this yoke and restraint of the law daily more and more and the more a man casts it off the more pleasure he does take in sinning As a godly man that has tasted of the sweetness of Communion with God he cannot take that pleasure in sin that other men do because still at the remembrance of his former communion the sweetness of it does arise in his heart and therefore he says it was better with me than it is now so also an unregenerate man that has tasted the bitterness of sin in the Law and the terrours thereof and has had the restraint of it laid upon his Conscience he cannot taste the like pleasure that other men do in sinning only the one is from a principle of conviction only and the other of conversion This is the misery of an unregenerate man under the restraints of the Law of God either his lusts do rage within and he cannot act them and therefore he wishes that there were no law or else if he do commit them it is but with half the man
because the law binds him over unto wrath and tells him that sin lies at the door 3. If we look upon the constraint the misery is as great also as not to do the thing we would so to be forced to do the thing we would not is no small misery and therefore Mal. 1.13 They say what a weariness is it which some render a weakness defatigatio and some molestia a trouble and all is because there is a force without contrary to a principle within Haman was by the command of the King forced to lead Mordecai's Horse and to proclaim before him This shall be done unto the man whom the King delights to honour how may we conceive this went against his spirit and it was as bitter to him even as death it self and the reason was because he had in him an inward principle of enmity and contrariety against Mordecai and so it is with every unregenerate man towards God and therefore though the law does force them to an outward observance yet they do hate that very outward obedience that they do perform and the law that enjoins it When the Saints of God have been commanded to do outward honour and observance to the dunghil gods of the Heathen for so they are called they have chosen death rather from an inward principle because they hated obedience to false Gods Now as a godly man would count it a misery and the greatest burden of his life to be forced to bow himself before an Idol so there is a principle of enmity in a wicked man unto the true God for they are all enemies to God and so they do hate to do observance also and any outward obedience unto the true God and as a godly man hates his sins because he is tempted to them by the law of his flesh so does a wicked man hate duties because he is led captive to them by the law of the Lord and therefore whatever they do in outward appearance they do it not before the Lord because they hate it when they do it § 2. We may hence learn the ground of all that hypocrisie and flattery that is expressed by unregenerate men towards God and Christ whom they hate with a perfect hatred it is all of it from the constraint of the law and as the coaction of the law has a further place in men so is a mans hypocrisie the deeper and becomes either gross hypocrisie or formal hypocrisie as Divines do commonly distinguish it the one is hid from others and the other from a mans self and yet all this while the man does but act a part as a Stage-player for so the name Hypocrite signifies And therefore we see unregenerate men abstain from those lusts which they dearly love and are brought to outward conformity in duties which they do truly hate and have no inward principle to perform We see the humiliation of Ahab c. and the observation and reformation of Herod the dissembled obedience and forced flattery of the wicked Jews and in the offers of other ungodly men at Religion Psal 78 34 â—5 36 and their hot beginning upon the ways of God But all this proceeds only from the Coaction of the Law and the power that it has even upon the hearts and consciences of the worst of men Hos 8.14 Hos 8.14 it is said For Israel has forgotten his maker and buildeth Temples c. A man would think that they that did build Temples had God much in their mind and did honour him highly building a Temple to his honour but yet all this was done in Hypocrisie and Will-worship They that repaired and beautified the Sepulchres of the Saints departed that were put to death surely it did argue they did highly esteem them and they did it in honour both of their persons and graces as Joseph did to the person of Christ and the Pharisees Mat. 23.29 who did build the Sepulchers of the Prophets yet Christ said it was all in hypocrisie for while they pretended to honour the Saints they did seek to destroy him that was the King of Saints Thus we see mens taking up an outward conformity unto the Law of God and some inward suitableness as being enlightned by the Holy Ghost tasting of the heavenly gifts c. which is the highest kind of hypocrisie such as is in a temporary believer who has the greatest shews of love to Christ and to duty and all this proceeds from this coactive power of the Law that God has upon the conscience of unregenerate men and this may come to a great deal of seeming delight and a man may seem to take great satisfaction in it The Lord says of Israel They delight to know my ways with their mouth they shew much love Isa 58.2 but their hearts go after their covetousness Ezek. 33.31 And many seem to have a great deal of seeming zeal for God and duty and Christ says Joh. 16.2 The time will come when they that kill you shall think they do God good service And Luther says of himself Tantus eram sanctus ut paratissimus fuerim omnes si potuissem occidere c. I was so great a Saint in mine own esteem that I was ready to slay all if I could c. And this he did not for worldly ends and for advantage sake but out of a blind zeal for Religion Therefore they that take away the restraining of the Magistrate in the things of Religion upon this ground because it will but make men Hypocrites may upon this ground take away the restraining power of the Law of God also In some respects as to prevent the outward dishonouring God before men and corrupting of others it were to be wished that all unregenerate men were come so far as to be Hypocrites and it was not wished amiss of the Father who said I could wish that all were Hypocrites It were better in respect of other men and honouring God before the world though it would be never the better in respect of a mans self for feigned love and secret flattery is in Gods account as bad as open enmity nothing so dangerous in men esteem as a false friend Judas was more hateful to Christ than all his Persecutors because he came to betray the Son of man with a kiss § 3. The next Use is of Examination Vse 4 Seeing that the Law has this power even upon unregenerate men that it can restrain from sin and constrain to duty and that godly men do duty and abstain from sin by vertue of the law written in their hearts how shall a man know that he abstains from sin and does duty by the law of his mind from an inward principle in his heart or else is only constrained from a law without and not from a law within for the Love of Christ constrains the Saints to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts Whether we forbear to sin and abstain from it and perform duty and be much
in him and this is therefore called the Covenant of Promise Ephes 2.12 2 As it was more fully revealed after Christs coming in the flesh Heb. 8.6 7. so the Covenant as to the Fathers being in the Promise is called the first Covenant and as performed and Christ exhibited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 8.10 In quo nihil merito potuit requiri post dies veteris testamenti exactos Par. the second Yet the first Covenant comes short of the second in two things First because imperfect and only in Types and Typical representations 2. Because the people kept it not neither were made perfect by it but God found fault with them for their disobedience c. 3 As it shall be more gloriously revealed at the calling of the Jews when the Lord shall make this Covenant with them that is take them into this Covenant again and call them my people who were called Loammi and this is their grafting in again Rom. 11. as the Gentiles were grafted in upon their rejection and therefore Israel under this Covenant is fitly called by some Israel surrogatus c. And of this Covenant with Israel who are the natural branches to whom primarily all the Promises do belong does the Lord speak Ezek. 34.25 The dry bones shall live and they shall dwell in their own land wherein their fathers dwelt they and their childrens children for ever and my servant David shall be their Prince for ever and I will make a Covenant of peace with her and it shall be an everlasting Covenant and I will place them and multiply them and set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore my tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people c. 3 All the mercies and deliverances that God has given his people have been by Covenant ever since the fall Luk. 1.72 he sent Christ into the world a horn of salvation he raised up that is glorious and victorious salvation in the house of his servant David to perform his mercy promised to our forefathers and to remember his holy Covenant he pardons their sins and subdues their iniquities and carries them into the depths of the sea but it is to perform his truth to Jacob and his mercy to Abraham which he swore unto our forefathers from the days of old And he writes the law in their hearts and sanctifies them to himself Jer. 31.33 A new Covenant will I make with you I will take away the heart of stone and I will write my law in your hearts c. Gen. 6.18 And so for all temporal mercies God delivered Noah from the flood that destroyed the world of the ungodly but it was by a Covenant I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt come into the Ark thou and thy sons c. God brought Israel out of Egypt Exod. 6.4 5. but it was by their Covenant I have established my Covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan Zach. 9.11 the land of their pilgrimage And afterwards delivered them out of Babylon the pit in which there was no water But it is by the blood of the Covenant He did nourish the people of Israel in the Wilderness and fed them there but it was because he was always mindful of his Covenant There were many that did not fear him that were wicked but he fed the wicked for the sake of the righteous their meat was given unto them that fear him Psal 111.5 So that the Dispensations of God in all ages have been by vertue of and answerable to a Covenant § 4. A man for the state of his person cannot stand under both Covenants because the one is contrary unto and makes void the other so the Apostle reasons Gal. 2. ult If righteousness be by the law Christ is dead in vain Though in some respects the Law may and doth stand as a rule and as a hand-maid to the Gospel as Hagar to Sarah and so in subordination yet as a Covenant and in co-ordination it cannot stand so for the one doth actually destroy the other and make it void for if the second Covenant take place the first Covenant is made void and if the first Covenant stand there is no place for the second And this will more fully appear if we consider the direct contrariety in the Terms of these Covenants Tit. 3.5 1. The Righteousness of the first Covenant is in our selves the works of righteousness that we have done and he that doth them shall live in them but the righteousness of the second Covenant is the righteousness of another Christ is the end of the law for righteousness Rom. 10.4 Finis perficiens sed non interficiens Aug. all the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in him It is in the Ark that the law is laid up and the righteousness of the Law is in him alone and in no other else to be found made ours by Imputation only thereby we are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 Now a man cannot be righteous by his own righteousness and by the righteousness of another 1 Joh. 5.11 12. A man cannot have life in himself and in another and therefore the one destroys the other 2. In the Covenant of Works acceptation is first of the works and afterwards of the person for the works sake and so does the displeasure of God begin first with the work and then redundat in personam it redounds upon the person and therefore God speaks unto Cain Gen. 4.4 If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted there is not acceptation of the person if there be any imperfection in the work Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continues not in the law c. because of a failing in the work there is a curse upon the person Haec doctrinae nostra summa quam docemus profitemur personam priùs Deo acceptam opus fieri acceptum ex persona But in the Covenant of Grace the person is first accepted and the works for the persons sake God had a respect unto Abel and to his Offering and this indeed is even the sum of the Gospel that the work is accepted for the persons sake but if the acceptation of the person be grounded upon the works it is contrary to the Gospel that says The acceptation is first of the person then of the works 3. The Covenant of Works is a Covenant without a Priest there is none to present a mans person but he must stand before God in his own person for the first Covenant was made with man immediately there is none to bear his sin and there is none to offer his sacrifice for it was a Covenant made with man in the state of integrity wherein he needed none of these Adam had no more need of a Priest in this estate than the Angels have but now all unregenerate men that are under
King should at first make a Proclamation unto Rebels that they should live if they would accept of pardon and then afterward should publish a new one that they that would live should keep the Law either a man would conclude that the King had called in his former Proclamation and made it null or else would have them both stand together and so it is here God did at first promise righteousness and life to be had by believing and afterwards he did publish a Law requiring duty Surely either the Lord did repent of the former and so that Covenant is become of no effect or else it seems he would have both joined together and man should be justified and saved partly by doing and partly by believing Now to this objection the Apostle answers Answ 1 Gods intention in giving the Law was not thereby to make the promise â—oid and of none effect for God did purpose to justifie the Heathen by faith and the inâ—eritance is still by promise the Covenant made with Abraham was a Covenant established by an Oath that nothing should arise de novo to make an alteration in it 2 Gods intention was not to join the Law and the Promise together in the matter of Justification and life because they be quite cross and contrary one to another therefore by the righteousness of the Law no man can be justified in the sight of God they do directly deâ—â—oy each other if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise and therefore 〈◊〉 man can be justified by both 3 Yet God having revealed the Law after the Promise and seeing he will have them â—oth to be perpetual and lasting they must stand together and a way must be found out â—ow they may and not cross one another nor destroy or disanul each other for the Law 〈◊〉 not against the promise of God God forbid we should think so then if they cannot and together in a way of ingrediency they may very well in a way of subserviency if not 〈◊〉 co-ordination they may in subordination both tending to honour the Mercy and Grace of â—od in his Son the one primarily and the other secondarily as an appendix or an additiâ— thereunto And so much the Text does clearly manifest 1 In that it 's said the Law was added was an appurtenance to something else and was not set up as that way alone by which men â—â—e to attain righteousness and life now added by way of conjunction it cannot be they câ—â—not mix together and be concauses of the same thing and in the same kind therefore it must be by way of subordination the one as the principal the other as the accessary or additional 2 It is said that the Law was given in the hand of a Mediator that is by the ministry of a Mediator 1 Moses was the Typical or the Notional Mediator for he stood between God and the people in receiving of the Law Deut. 5.5 and Christ was the real and universal Mediator And hence it will appear that it was not set up alone as a Covenant of Works as 〈◊〉 was at first for that was faedus amicitiae a Covenant of friendship when God and man â—ere not at variance when man stood before God in his own righteousness and there was 〈◊〉 difference nor variance between God and him for a Mediator is not a Mediator of one tâ—erefore God giving it in the hand of a Mediator doth clearly manifest that he did not set it up as a Covenant alone 2 The real Mediator was Christ though Moses Typical and Christ did not by his Ministry bring in this Covenant of the Law to make void the Covenant of Grace which was the better Covenant of which he was appointed Mediator the Covenant that was made with him as the seed and with all the Saints in him Ver. 16. Seeing therefore these two must stand together and the former cannot be disanulled by the latâ—er hence then it must needs be inferred that Gods intention was in publishing the Law to â—o it in subordination unto the Gospel and the second Covenant and that so it is to stand â—nd to be made use of by the Saints Hence the Doctrine that lies before us is this 〈◊〉 Doct. That for all those that are in Christ God has made the first Covenant subordiâ—ate unto the second The whole use of the Law unto the Saints and of all the parts of it is â—hat it may be a servant to the Gospel and as to be freed from the Law standing alone as a Covenant is the greatest part of a mans Christian liberty so to have the Law of God pressed â—pon the new Covenant and standing in subordination to the Gospel as a servant is a great â—art of a Christians dignity and a right understanding and apprehension of both these opens 〈◊〉 very great door unto all Gospel-mysteries § 2. Now that I may be understood we are to consider that the Law is taken in Scripture two ways as it was given by God upon Mount Sinai for a double end 1 It is taken largely Jer. 31.33 2 Cor. 3.3 for the whole Doctrine delivered by God upon Mount Sinai with the Precepts and the Promises thereof and so Grace is the Law written in the heart it is the Epistle of Christ ministred by us 2 It is taken strictly setting down an exact rule of righteousness and promising life upon condition of personal and perfect obedience And so the Apostle says Rom. 10.5 6. That the law is not of faith the righteousness of the law speaketh in this manner he that doth them shall live in them Now if we take the Moral Law as given upon Mount Sinai in the first sense so it is a Covenant of Grace but if we take it in the latter sense so it is a Covenant of Works for the Lords intention in giving the Law was double unto the carnal Jews to set forth to them the old Covenant which they had broken and yet unto the believing Jews it did darkly shadow and set forth unto them the Covenant of Grace made with Christ and therefore it was not only delivered as a rule of righteousness but in the form and terms of a Covenant this do and thou shalt live 1 In the first sense the Law given upon Mount Sinai was a Covenant of Grace for this Law does teach them 1 That the Lord was their God now since man sinned God is the God of none but in Christ 2 This Law did set forth God to them as shewing mercy pardoning iniquity not visiting iniquity a God forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and there is no pardon but under a second Covenant 3 All the Sacrifices they were Types of Christ and they were commanded in the second Commandment and they did all belong unto the Covenant of Grace and did shew that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins and God did ratifie this Covenant by blood which he
a glass Jam. 1.24 He that looks into the perfect Law of liberty Here it is spoken of the Moral Law as Beza observes in opposition unto the bondage of the Ceremonial not that the Moral Law is a Law of liberty or can set us at liberty of it self but it is so to them that are in Christ because it is a Law written in their hearts and they are stablished by a free and a Princely spirit There is a double glass that the Scripture holds forth in which Christians should often look as this here and that in the 2 Cor. 3.18 Rom. 3.20 Rom. 7.7 Per legem peccati cognitio per fidem abolitio Ambros in Rom. 3. that in the one they may see themselves and in the other they may behold their Saviour even the Glory of the Lord. The Law is the one and the Gospel is the other Now the great use of this glass is that a man may see his own spots and deformities that his sin may be discovered and therefore the Text says it was added for transgressions And of this use of the Law the Scripture speaks often Rom. 30.20 By the Law is the knowledge of sin the Law entred that the offence might abound I had not known sin but by the Law And Rom. 7.13 That sin might appear sin and by the Commandment become exceeding sinful that is that he might see sin in the extent of it and its utmost vileness and filthiness and therefore he shews that there could be nothing worse than it he calls it by no worse name than its own sinful sin as to call Satan a devilish Devil is not so bad as to call him sinful Angel for sin being the worst of evils can have no worse name than it self and therefore when the Apostle says it did appear to him in the utmost sinfulness of it then he says it did appear sin Lex est Index peccati non genitrix the Law is the Index of sin â—ot the Parent As the light enters and discovers filthiness that before was there but it lay â—id in the dark And these Scriptures do direct us to sins of two sorts which are discovered â—y the Law 1 Original sin which is called the offence which was in the world beâ—ore the Law even from Adam for by one man sin entred into the world and by him it passed â—pon all mankind 2 Actual sins whether of the heart or of the life all the inordinate â—otions of the spirit tending unto evil which the Scripture calls lusts Rom. 7.7 I had not known lust 〈◊〉 be a sin unless the Law had said unto me Thou shalt not lust Here I must speak unto two â—hings 1 How does the Law discover sin 2 How by discovering sin is it a handmaid and 〈◊〉 servant to the Gospel 1. How does the Law discover Original sin and that cursed frame of nature which is in â—ery sin 1. By shewing unto a man as in a glass that primitive holiness and righteousness in which he â—s created For the Law indeed is primitive justitiae speculum the glass of primitive justice â—or that image of God in which man was created was nothing else but a perfect conformity 〈◊〉 the nature of the Law and will of God in every thing So that as Christ while he was â—pon earth in his humane nature was a perfect pattern of that obedience that the Law requiâ—ed so that all that he did was agreeable to the Law in every thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.21 and he has therein left as a copy to write after so was Adams nature and so should also his life have been he should have known no sin neither should any guile have been found in his mouth he should â—ave been as it was said of one a living Scripture and a walking Bible a living Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so â—hat whatever the Law of God now requires of us that at first God created in us Now when a man compares himself with this Law and sees how unanswerable he is in every thing he does he thereby comes to see how he has utterly lost the righteousness and holiness that was in him at the first and the glory of his Creation his Mind that was in the Creation as full of light as the Sun is is now darkness it self and his Conscience is now feared his heart that was tender unto God is now hardned his Memory that was firm is now frail and leaking and his Affections that did move rationally and orderly as the Stars in their courses â—re now full of nothing else but confusion madness and disorder â—â—d his Thoughts the immediate issues and the first-born of his soul always excellent spiritual and useful but now polish vain and unprofitable flying up and down like atoms in the air to no end 2. A man looking upon this rule does not only see a privation of what formerly was his â—appiness and his glory but he sees now the quite contrary Act. 13.10 an opposition in him to the Law of God in every thing that he is an enemy unto all righteousness and full of the fruits of all unrighteousness the image of the Devil upon him so that look how the heart of the Devil works against God and duty so does his for he is as like him as a child can be like his father There is a touch that Satan has left upon a mans spirit and this is upon his whole soul 1 Joh. 5.19 also all the faculties of it are turned the wrong way all of them are taken off from God and duty and therefore a man when he is converted is said to return and when the Lord calls him he is said to hear a voice behind him but novv by sin he is turned quite avvay and there is this devillishness in him that he is the more contrary unto any duty because God commands it and is carried vvith the greater violence after any sin because God forbids it sin taking occasion by the Commandment which comes nearest unto direct â—â—â—ity that can be to do things by way of revenge which is the Devils sin 3. The Law discovers Original sin by shewing the dominion of it a man cannot resist it he cannot cast it off it has a double authority in the man the dominion of a Lord Rom. 6.14 and of a King a power of command and thence some expound sin mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 7.6 to be the husband and it is not much material which whether the Law irritating sin or sin irritated by the Law be the husband and so sin has a power of love also an interest as a husband to perswade and therefore there must be obedience men obey it in the lust thereof for he that hath authority over us to command and a power to persvvade the heart also he can procure obedience to all his commands vvhen he vvill but so has sin and therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
there is a virtual league with death and with Hell Job 5.23 they shall be at league with Sin and Hell as a good man is in league with peace and rest A formal league with Sin and Hell they are not capable of but a virtual covenant and a league taking off acts of hostility Whatever a man is in Covenant with he fears no danger from and men walk as if Death and Hell were at an agreement with them and they fear no evil but are setled upon their lees and they make lyes their refuge and under vanity they hide themselves There is says Bernard a twofold evil Conscience a peaceable evil Conscience and a troubled evil Conscience And the first state is more dangerous when a man is like unto the dead Sea as some are like the raging Sea which latter is better than the former upon such a soul let wrath be discovered and judgement threatned it is but speaking terrour to a deaf man nay to a dead man nay let plagues be executed and not only so but let the hand of the Lord be lifted up eminently in the threatning and they will not see nay let it fall down in the judgement and they will not see Bray a fool in a mortar and his folly will not depart But he is as a man lying down in the middle of the Sea and as one sleeping on the top of a Mast he sees no danger there is nothing that he can lay to heart but he says Psal 49. I shall have peace as Deut. 29.19 While he lives he blesseth his soul Now comes the Law as a Hammer unto such a soul and that sets before a man its absolute Soveraignty over the man it is the Royal Law shews a man that God is an enemy to him and writes bitter things against him and it is this Law by which he will surely judge him at the last day Zach. 1.6 and though he may fly from it a while yet it will overtake him though the decree may bear a great while a judgement in the womb of it yet it will at last bring forth and for ought thou knowest it may be Hell before the morning there is but a thread of patience between thee and everlasting burnings That shews a man the vanity of all his former hopes and plucks off all that cobweb lawn and varnish that the Devil has cast upon his actions and state and there is a storm that overflows his hiding place the Lord lets him see in Spiritual judgements as he does in Temporal judgments when men promise themselves great things that the bed is too short the covering too narrow for him to rest upon Then offer him the pleasures of sin and he cannot taste them they are to him the greatest detestation Oh how bitter is it to remember that which was formerly sweet to commit and what a terrible companion is that sin in the guilt of it that was in the act of it most delightsome The bitterness of sin is so great that all the comforts of the creatures cannot sweeten it as Judas he cast down the thirty pieces of silver quickly he had no pleasure in his money So a soul crys out My iniquity is gone over my head and as a sore burden too heavy for me to bear § 3. 2. The Law of God condemns the sinner says the Apostle Sin revived and I died Rom. 9.7 Hos 6.5 2 Cor. 3. The ministration of death and condemnation c. There is a hewing and a slaying by the words of the Lord he doth smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he does slay the wicked Jer. 6.11 And therefore the word of the Lord is called the fury of the Lord what fury or vengeance soever is poured out upon a land or soul it is all by this word that is the instrument and these are the effects thereof The Law saith Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law and Conscience makes the assumption truly this curse is my portion The soul of man is not more prone to sin than it is to self-justification every man desiring to establish his own righteousness And the great work that we have in the Ministry is this to beat them from their own confidences men will not pass the same sentence upon themselves that the Law does If men would but look upon themselves in this glass and stand unto the sentence of this judgment they would not be so severely judged by the Lord but there are ways of self-deceiving from that abundant self-love and self-flattery that is in the heart of man that they desire to be deceived and there is no man in the world that can be so great a flatterer of another as every man is of himself 〈◊〉 does smooth over himself and makes all please as a flatterer doth Psal 36.2 Jer. 23.31 therefore the false â—rophets are said to smooth their tongues that there may be nothing that may distaste 〈◊〉 be unpleasant and so men will not own their own condemnation they will not â—â—e shame But when the Law comes and the Spirit of God therein gives in evidence aâ—â—inst the man brings forth the hand writing and chargeth a man with his pride and unâ—â—â—anness and hardness of heart and says this thou hast done then the soul says I have â—â—ed in betraying the innocent blood I have done exceeding foolishly Men and brethren what â—â—â—l we do to be saved Now every word of the Law comes home to him with life and with â—â—er and all the curses of the book he reads as his portion and says This is the inheriâ—â—e that Adam has left me and this have I also purchased for my self Tertull. There are a generatiâ—â— of godly men in the world that read over the Promises of the Gospel and they do claim 〈◊〉 as their portion and their inheritance for ever but they are nothing to me they are 〈◊〉 childrens bread and I am a dog a devil Truly the Devils are better creatures and were 〈◊〉 to do the Lord more service and yet they perish under the curse of the Law and they â—â—ble at the sentence of it and there is as much hope of a Devil Jam. 2.19 in the state that I am in 〈◊〉 as there is of me I know God is merciful but not beyond the rules of the Word whilst the Word speaks wrath all the men in the world cannot speak peace to me Every â—â—tion is a curse to me and there are no Providences that I can look upon in mercy my â—â—â—ngs are cursed and my ordinances are blasted they shall add to my sins and hasten my â—â—eance It 's wonderful that seeing the time of patience has its period the Lord has â—â—â—â—hed it forth to so great a length that I have had thirty or forty years cut off of eterâ—â—â— as a respite of those eternal torments These are the workings of men
the Law which is a glass to discover sin and a rule to guide in duty to the end of the world and there will be use of this rule without as long as Heaven and Earth shall last and this frame of Heaven and Earth shall continue till the image of God be perfectly renewed in all the Saints and the law written perfectly in their hearts and they are a law fully unto themselves and so can live above the law and can live upon the law till then you will need the law without and so long this law shall continue and be of use in the Church of God 2. The meaning therefore is that the state of the Old Testament which is here called the Law and the Prophets that is that manner of discovering of the mind of God unto his people which was in the Law and the Prophets that was unto John that is by speaking of Christ to come and promising a higher and a greater light and a greater measure of the spirit in after times but yet it was not accomplished but in 1 Pet. 1.12 To them it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things that are now reported to us to whom the Gospel is preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into So that the state of the Church of God under the Old Testament and the manner of revelation of the mind of God and that measure of dispensation of the Spirit of God and not the Typical part only as some would have it is here meant So that the Ceremonial Law and the Prophets did but speak of Christ to come and did vanish in John's time the Substance being come the Shadows must fly away but also all that manner of dispensation being more obscure and less spiritual and less powerful all that did end because the Law and the Prophets did but speak of Christ to come but John of Christ already come Behold the lamb of God c. so much that word in the Original signifies 3. At the coming of Christ the Law and the Prophets were as it were taken away not by abrogation but by way of excellency as when the Sun rises the Stars disappear and are darkned and all mens eyes gaze on the Sun This is a new and a higher and more glorious way of discovery 2 Cor. 3.10 That which was glorious had no glory in respect of the glory that excelled because now Christ was manifested to be more fully that which he was stiled to be before Dan. 8.13 the word Palmoni signifies the wonderful numberer of secrets or as Junius and Glass what has innumerable secrets And there are divers such names given unto Christ in the Scripture his name shall be called Wonderful Counseller to set forth his nature and his actions Prov. 30.1 Ithiel and Vcal c. The Angel Dan. 9. prays unto Christ to discover unto him how long the Vision concerning the daily Sacrifice and the desolation of the Sanctuary shall be for as Christ is the head of the Angels so he is the teacher of the Angels also and the secrets of the Counsels of God he knows and he reveals them unto the Angels in answer to their prayers Rev. 5. Now there being a fuller and a more glorious way of revelation and a fuller dispensation of Grace the state of the Old Testament under the Law and the Prophets is to be done away not by way of Abrogation but by way of Excellency and so these Scriptures also I conceive are to be understood They shall say no more The Lord lives that brought up his people out of the land of Egypt Jer. 2.3 c. Not that this mercy should be wholly forgotten but as it were darkned and obscured by a greater mercy and a more glorious deliverance and that place also They shall no more teach one another saying Know the Lord for they shall be all taught of God from the greatest unto the least that is there shall be a more full and glorious way of discovery that in comparison of that abundance of light when the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the fulness of Grace vvhen the vveak shall be as David there shall be no need of those former vvays of instructions but they shall have their teaching more immediately from the Lord and so that place There shall be no more need of the light of the Sun and of the Moon there shall be a fuller and more glorious light there shall novv seem to be no need of these former vvays of instruction by them and also that place they shall see his face Rev. 22.4 not that men shall have the Beatifical vision here but that there shall be a fuller manifestation of God insomuch that in comparison of what it was before it shall be even as seeing his face in glory as there shall be no more death no more sorrow no more crying not that absolutely there shall be no more for while there shall be sin there will be cause of sorrow and there shall be death till the Resurrection when the change of them that are found alive at the Lords coming shall be to them instead of death death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed immediately before the giving up of the Kingdom of Christ unto the Father but the peace and prosperity of the Church shall be such all the former persecuting Monarchies being destroyed that there shall be in comparison of what there was in former times no more death nor sorrow nor crying under persecutions and groaning and mourning under the cruelties of men no more And thus you see for all this the Law and the Prophets continue till Heaven and Earth be no more Object 2 But it is said in this Text Gal. 3.19 that this subserviency of the Law was but to last till the seed should come unto whom the promise was made and afterwards be given in the hand of a Mediator Vers 16. But till then and that seed is said to be Christ and therefore now Christ being come who is that seed this subserviency of the Law is ended for till then it was to last and no longer Answ 1. Some would seem to understand this only of the Ceremonial Law which they say is afterwards said to be a School-master to bring men unto Christ and so Beza seems to carry it namely that the School-master is only the Ceremonial Law which I conceive our former whole discourse of the use of the Moral Law in this great work of bringing a soul to Christ by discovering of sin and restraining sin and shewing a man the way of Gospel-obedience hath fully rectified but if we consider what is said vers 12 13. this will be clearly manifested for he speaks of that Law that saith He that doth them shall live in them and of that Law that saith Cursed is every one that continues not
unnecessary He that appointed the city of refuge did as necessarily appoint an avenger of blood to pursue or else men vvould not have fled unto that city Will you say this is preaching damnation and driving men to despair vvas it not preached by Christ whose heart was so full of love and thoughts of Grace and who wept over Jerusalem he preached the Law and published it for his seeds sake Truly when we preach the Law we preach Salvation and not damnation intentionally the Lord did deliâ—er the Law for Salvation to serve the ends of the Gospel and so we do preach it and â—et if it proves not so it is by accident by reason of the corruption of the heart of man â—he damnation that it meets withal is thence Therefore see your folly and be ashamed of your ignorance It is a high act of Grace and one of the greatest priviledges that Believers have by Christ that the Law is a servant to the Gospel and yet that Mercy you despise and that Grace you do not love you are to be ashamed of your folly and unthankfulness herein 3. It should teach Ministers that the Law must be preached to the same intent that it was revealed and delivered in the hand of a Mediator and to the ends of the Gospel and that not only the curses and threatnings of the Law but the precepts and duties of the Law also In the curses and threatnings of the Law our Divines have usually sent men to Christ to bear those but duties have been pressed though not without Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian Orat. 17. but that a sufficiency is to be had in him and acceptance from him yet not laying Christ as the foundation of duties as he should have been in time past but men have been prest to duty without a through discovery of a mans Union with Christ as the ground of his assistance and acceptance as there should have been and so men have been put upon duties in a Moral or Legal way as if they had wrought them by their own strength and had a power in themselves though without Christ by reason of their imperfection they could not be accepted and so the way of the Gospel hath not been so clearly discovered and the subserviency of the Law unto the Gospel-grace as it should When the Law is so preached that men are stirred up to seek for Grace in another and to obey him and when the Grace of the Gospel is thus offered as that it inables a man to walk in the way of the precepts of the Law this is indeed to preach the Gospel when a man does so publish the Grace thereof that he does also publish the Law as a servant thereunto 4. See how the heart of God is much in the Salvation of Sinners and to exalt the Grace of the Gospel and honour and magnifie Mercy Isa 53.10 it is now that he would force men to accept of it If men were left unto themselves Christ should never be accepted but die in vain and not a man ever be saved though there were a city of refuge unless there were also an avenger of blood it is not enough for to offer mercy a moral perswasion will not do it but there is without a Law compelling breaking and within there is a spirit drawing and the drawing of the Father Joh. 6.44 lyes in a great measure in this work of the Law the Lord bringing the soul so low that the Blood of Christ and the Grace of the Gospel is precious and a man will accept him upon his own terms and say This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to save sinners Thus is the Son a servant unto the Father Isa 42.1 and the Law also a servant to the Son and put into his hand and this shews how much the heart of the Lord is on this work and next to the subjecting of his Son is the subserviency of the Law thereunto Vse 2 It should stir us up to make use of the Law in subserviency to the Gospel for so long as we are in this life the ends of the Gospel are not accomplished there is still sin to be discovered and restrained and condemned there are inward principles the Law in the heart to be perfected and there are duties in which men are to be directed in their whole course and so long as the ends of the Gospel are not attained so long the Law is still to be used and this is that mentioned 1 Tim. 1.8 1 Tim. 1.8 The Law is good if a man use it lawfully that is when it is used by us as it was delivered and published by Christ not for Justification so as to exact righteousness and acceptation from it not to set it up against Christ and the Grace of the Gospel to make the way of the Gospel void as the Jews did Rom. 10.3 but in the hand of a Mediator and for the ends of it and they are the great things of the Law it is the Royal Law and therefore it is a dangerous thing to abase it and therein to take the name of God in vain And as to neglect the Salvation of the Gospel so to despise the convictions or instructions of the Law When the Law is used to discover sin and to keep a man always low and humble in the sense of his own vileness it makes him set a high price upon Christ and the Mercy and Grace of God in him and makes him to keep close to him to keep in the city of refuge because the avenger of blood is without the gate to expect him and that which did at first bring a man in will keep him in for Christ is made a curse for us There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 And when a man comes once to delight in the Law of God it is sweeter to him than honey and dearer to him than thousands of Gold and Silver upon this ground because it furthers the Salvation of the Gospel as Paul says I delight in the law of the Lord in the inward man so far as a man hath an inward principle of conformity to the Law and is regenerate so far the Law is his delight the more a man is sanctified Mat. 11. ult the more precious and sweet it is to him the Commandments of Christ are not grievous but he doth willingly take up the yoke of Christ because it is sweet and light and profitable There is a sweetness in obedience as vvell as an ease and there is a profit also for there is a fruit unto holiness here as vvell as the end everlasting life and vvhen the Lavv does bring a man dovvn to follow the Lamb whither soever he goes and to vvalk humbly vvith his God and say Lord what wilt thou have me to do this is properly for a man to use the Law lawfully for the Law
And this is the Covenant that I will make with them I will be their God Jer. 31.33 and they shall be my people And what it is for to have Jehovah for your God The happiness of it you have heard that as you are wholly his so he also is become wholly yours all that is within you is for God and all that is in God is for you and for your good And he is your God as he is Christs God for there the Covenant-right doth first begin he is my father and your father my God and your God c. 2 He doth in this Covenant take you to be unto himself a peculiar people whom he hath separated unto himself above all people to be unto him for a name and for a praise throughout the earth as Exod. 19.5 You shall be unto me a peculiar treasure above all the people of the earth and he doth say they are his portion the Lords portion is his people and Israel is the lot of his inheritance though all the earth be his yet he hath set his heart upon them and they are dear and precious ones 3 By this Covenant the earth stands that all the creatures may serve the Saints those that are in Covenant with the Lord it is the curse of the first Covenant that shall set on fire the whole frame of the world at the last and great day all the creatures serve the Saints as they do serve God for Christ hath bought the services of all the creatures and he hath in his house vessels of dishonour as well as for honour and even the Devils and wicked men bow to him and they shall worship one day at the Saints feet and shall know that God loves them and God makes use of these vessels of dishonour to fan and purifie his people 2 King 21.13 I will wipe them as a man doth a dish and I will shave them with a rasor that is hired even the King of Assyria And some vessels of honour God uses for the good of his Saints and so do the Angels as well as all other creatures serve their graces or their necessities they are ministring spirits to the heirs of salvation 4 By this Covenant all their sins are pardoned and God remembers them no more the foundation of pardon is not only laid in the satisfaction of Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 price that he hath laid down but also in the free grace of God in making of the Covenant and in the gracious acceptation of the payment of the surety for you see that God is in Christ reconciling the world there is Covenant grace that runs along with all the fruits of the death of Christ so that even Meritum Christi habet in se gratiam invisceratam The merit of Christ hath grace imbowelled it 5 It is a Covenant of Communion for it is conjugal and in it is the nearest Union and Communion that can be between creatures it 's a Covenant of friendship and the proper effect of friendship is fellowship 2 Cor 6.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will dwell in them and walk amongst them which is a high degree of condescension There are two ways of Gods communicating himself the one is infinite and to us inconceivable so God doth in the mystery of his eternal generation communicate himself unto his son and as the Godhead doth communicate it self unto the man Christ Jesus in a personal union so there is a communication of himself unto the Saints and the highest communication that is is in a Covenant way there is but little that God doth impart of himself unto all the creatures in comparison of what God doth unto his Saints there is more of his wisdom holiness goodness and all his attributes that is to be seen in these than in all the world besides 't is the Saints alone that can shew forth the vertues of him that hath called them 1 Pet. 2.9 6 By this Covenant he doth dispense Grace and Glory 1 For Grace To make room for that in the Soul He will take away the heart of stone and he will put his law into their hearts Jer. 31.33 And that grace shall teach them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts c. And 2 for Glory hereafter that also is dispensed by this Covenant for the inheritance is not by the Law not by the first but by the second Covenant they only that are heirs of promise are the persons that are ordained to Glory and they only are the sons of the Resurrection their services only are accepted of God and all the glory that he hath in this inferior world comes in by them and it is whatever they do even the meanest services not only their religious works but their civil and natural works which they do out of necessity of nature yet having a tincture of the blood of this Covenant upon them they are in order to an eternal reward and whereas to all other men may be said to what purpose is the multitude of your services Summo dedecore vos afficiam I accept them not Mal. 2.3 I will spread dung upon your faces that is the dung of your fasts and of your solemn services they shall make you but the more hateful and abominable and vile and become a dunghill before God that 's all the fruit you shall have of your religious duties But now men that are in Covenant they can say We will be abundant in the work of the Lord for we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. last 2 Chron. 13.5 2. Have an eye unto the stability of the Covenant it is a Covenant of Salt Sal est duraturae amicitiae symbolum Salt is a symbol of lasting friendship and signifies here that the Lord will never turn away from them to do them good Jer. 32.10 it is a Covenant that we can never break because the righteousness thereof can never be spent And the stability of the Covenant lies not only in the love and mercy of God that made it but 1 in the faithfulness of God who is ingaged and cannot go back for he is not as man that he should repent Dan. 9 4. and therefore in the Scripture he is every where stiled the faithful God that keeps Covenant and mercy for ever and the Apostle says God is not unfaithful to forget your work and labour of love God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins for God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able It is said Mic. 7. last He will perform his mercy to Abraham and his truth to Jacob and he is ingaged by a double Oath That by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lye we may have strong consolation 1 By an oath to Christ for he is made a Priest by an oath Psal 110 3. 2 By an oath unto us and therefore it is
Idols of silver and gold unto the moles and to the bats It 's not honourable for the great God to put himself upon a people to be their God against their will and therefore there goes forth an illumination upon the hearts of his people by which they chuse him for their God and they will own no other and this mutual consent between God and them doth compleat their interest and propriety in him How did Dagon become the God of the Philistins and Apis the God of the Egyptians and Chemosh the God of the Ammonites it was because they chose them unto themselves to worship them and there is no means to set up a God over a people and to intitle them to him but by their own consent and so it is with the God of Israel it is because they yield themselves to give the hand to the Lord 2 Chron. 30.8 They gave themselves first to God says the Apostle Paul and then to us by the will of God 2 Cor. 8.5 And by this means it is that he that is taken into covenant with God doth change his God and take the Lord for his God The Lord doth make over himself unto him in the Covenant to be his God and he does consent to it and says This God shall be my God for ever and ever and I will have no other God but him Vse 1 § 2. First see here the miserable condition of all those that are out of covenant with God for they that are strangers to the Covenant of Promise Eph. 2.12 they are without God in the world and that will appear 1. in this it 's the greatest sin to live without God it 's against the great Commandment of the Law and against the grand promise of the Gospel the great Commandment of the Law is Thou shalt have Jehovah for thy God and thou shalt love the Lord thy God If he that loves his wife loves himself much more he that loves his God must love himself most for he is as the School-men speak intimior intimo nostro more intimate than our most intimate part he is nearer unto a man than a man is to himself and therefore conversion being a writing the Law in the heart this being the great Commandment this is specially written there to love the Lord our God with all our heart and the truth is upon this all the other Commandments do depend on this hang all the Law and the Prophets and therefore Austin well observes Qui non diligit Deum non diligit proximum quia non diligit seipsum He that loves not God loves not his neighbour because he loves not himself A man ought to love his neighbour as himself but he that loves not himself cannot love his neighbour and he that doth not love God neither doth he nor can he love himself he hates his own soul and as this command to love God is the greatest it is the grand promise of the Gospel that the Lord will be our God Now in a mans conversion as the precepts are written in the heart as soon as he is new-born to God as the rule of his obedience 2 Cor. 3.2 3. so also are all the promises written in his heart as the ground of his faith Ye are says the Apostle the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God in the fleshly tables of your heart And therefore as it is in vain for a man to speak of obedience unto lesser precepts if the great Commandments be wanting so it 's in vain to claim an interest in inferior promises if the great promise I will be thy God thou hast no part in 2. The baseness and unworthiness of a mans spirit is seen in nothing so much as in this that a man can take any thing for a God The Lord doth justly deride his own people that they turned their glory into shame Jer. 2.11 12. they changed their glory for a thing of nought the word in the Hebrew is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To worship the true God is a mans glory and to have an interest in him he is said to be the glory of his people Israel Psal 62.7 nihilitates nothingnesses and the Heathen man could well scorn the Egyptians for that porrum caepe nesas violare frangere morsu Men commonly count it a great matter what servants they have and much more what yoke-fellow they take as the companion of their lives or what Prince they subject themselves unto but here is the baseness of the spirit of man that he cares not what God he hath but he is contented to worship the creatures which God has subjected to him as servants nay to honour the Devil as a God who is his enemy and cursed above all creatures and yet all men that have not the God of Heaven for their God they worship the God of this world the Prince of the air the Devil Therefore to be mistaken in a mans God and to joyn himself unto a strange God Hos 9.10 is the greatest reproach that can befal a man It 's said of Israel That they joyned themselves unto Baal-Peor and separated themselves unto that shame and they were abominable secundum amorem eorum according to their love that is as the Gods that they loved as God is called the fear of his people 3. It is more to lose God than to lose all blessings that come from God And therefore Hos 1.9 that 's made the top of the judgment Lo-ammi it 's more than Lo-ruhamah for to have God is more than to receive any mercy from God and therefore this is the true difference between an hypocrite and a gracious heart one is content with what comes from Gods hands the other can be satisfied with nothing but God Sicut mea tibi non placent nisi mecum sic tua non satiunt nisi tecum c. As my good works please not thee without my self so thy good things please not me without thy self Bern. Let a man tender to God thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oyl yet all this doth not please God unless we give our selves to the Lord and so it is with the Saints of God Should God bestow all the creatures upon them in Heaven and in Earth yet all this would never make them happy without God himself Now if the Lord should strip you naked of all the comforts of the creatures Luk. 16.25 as one day he will all ungodly men for it shall be said Son remember in thy life time thou hadst thy good things you should neither have bread to eat nor cloaths to warm you nor the Sun to give you life If the fig-tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vine you would think your selves miserable men to want all these Now the people of God can rejoyce in the want of these can rejoyce and triumph
extrà which are terminated in the creatures and are meerly acts of will now faith is not only by this means to be exercised and taste the sweetness of the acts of will ad extrà but the acts of nature ad intrà for I have an interest in that Father as the Father that did from all Eternity beget the Son and I have an interest in that Son that was begotten by the Father so that those acts of nature that were of God before the world was they have all some respect unto me and I can taste a sweetness in them all that as I have not only an interest in the absolute perfections of God which are his Attributes but in the relative perfections of God also which respect the persons so I have not only an interest in and benefit by all the actings of the Atrributes of God but by the eternal actings of the persons also that we may see how high it reaches and that there is nothing in God but it is as truly for our good as it is for his own glory therefore we may rejoyce in them all 5 A mans faith should expect all the Attributes of God to be distinctly exercised for him by all the persons a man has an interest in them all in all the works that they do put forth for as they are three in their subsistence so they are but one in their Essence and therefore all the Attributes of God come in unto them all the Son thinks it no robbery to be equal with the Father Phil. 2.6 for he is found in the form of God that is in the nature of God subsisting in the nature or essence of God and therefore Divines do commonly when they prove the Deity of the Son and Spirit shew that the Attributes of God are in Scripture given unto them as Esa 9.6 Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father Prince of peace that 's given to the Son and to the Spirit is given Omnipotency Omnipresence and Omniscience c. Now when the Father comes to work he has the power of God the wisdom of God the holiness of God put forth for the accomplishment of his work and so have the Son and Spirit also and therefore we see that the Son could not miscarry in any thing that he did and though he dyed yet it was impossible that he should be held by death Acts 2. because he had the power of the Godhead to carry him through and so it is with the Persons in all their operations and undertakings for men in the work of our salvation and therefore it is good for a man not only to exercise faith upon the Attributes of the Divine Nature in common as they are infinite and absolute perfections but as those Attributes are to be found in each of the persons and to be exercised for us in all their appropriated actions and by this means the Attributes of the nature are made over not only by the Essence but also that they shall be all of them exercised by each person acting according to their own acts which they have undertaken and so we have an assurance of the acting of the Attributes for us in a threefold way and a threefold cord is not broken 6 As it is the recumbency of faith so it should be in the assurance of faith also it should distinctly close with them all in their witnessing as well as in their working 1 Joh. 5.6 7. 1 Joh. 5.6 7. There are three that bear record in heaven it is not only a testimony to the truth of the Gospel but it is a testimony also given unto the state of the Saints for they have the witness in themselves for it is that they may know that they have eternal life vers 13. which could not be unless the testimony were given in the heart and a mans state put out of controversie Now though they be one in Essence and though their testimony do agree in one yet they are three in their witness in the word and in the heart now under the Law in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established we receive the witness of man but the witness of God is greater the same God who hath but a few witnesses amongst men but two witnesses Rev. 11.3 yet he will not let a mans assurance go without a full testimony there shall be two classes of witnesses some on Earth and some in Heaven and they shall be three of each of them therefore as in acts of recumbency we are to close with the love of all the persons so in acts of assurance we are to close with the witness of all the persons and thus we see that there are distinct objects of faith upon which it is to work in them all 2. Now let us come to consider the acts of faith that are distinctly to be put forth upon them all as 1. There is to be a fiducial knowledge hereof that the persons are made over to us for as faith without works is dead so faith without knowledge is blind therefore faith is commonly set forth by knowledge in the Scripture Joh. 17. ult and Phil. 3.8 9. To know him and be found in him c. But it is not every knowledge but that which is described Col. 2.2 and Tit. 1.1 A knowledge of the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ a knowledge that draws an acknowledgment with it that carries the consent of the soul with it and he sits down under it and lies under the power thereof a sapida scientia a knowledge of a truth that lets in the savour of the goodness of it with the truth 2. The soul is distinctly to cast it self by distinct thoughts upon each of these persons as when a soul comes to Christ he sees his need of him that he is undone without him he sees the excellency that is in him and thereupon he doth leave himself with Christ and will look out for salvation in no other there is an exclusive resolution against all other ways and a full determination to go this way only and if I perish here I will perish so when a soul sees all this and sees his need of the persons and the glory that is not only in Christ but in the Father and the Spirit and sees that without an interest in them he is undone for else there are no benefits by them thereupon he doth distinctly resign himself unto each of them for as all the promises of the Gospel being distinct objects of faith have not their due honour unless we exercise distinct acts of faith upon them so it is true also of all the persons much more because Christ is set forth as an object of faith therefore we rely upon him so we should upon the Father and Spirit also and therefore Christ looks upon it as a dishonour that being set forth to them they did not distinctly believe in him 3. Faith
plainly that they did seek a country so when we see the Saints of God to seek after no creature-sufficiency and not to place their happiness and the stay of their lives upon them it is a plain argument that they have their sufficiency in something else there is something else that doth bear up and elevate their spirits which can be nothing else but the acting of their souls upon the alsufficiency of God Vse 5 § 5. All you that have an interest in the alsufficiency of God walk before him and be upright Gen. 17.1 2. for what need a man to turn aside to any other what need had he to hasten after another god Psal 16.4 If the alsufficiency of God be yours he that is self-sufficient for his own happiness surely he will be alsufficient for yours and therefore there is no need to wander after the pleasures of sin or the comforts of the creatures if there be no defect to be supplied what need had we to call in any other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect good seems to be alsufficient Aristot If there be a perfect good it must needs be sufficient for that is perfect unto which nothing can be added if the creatures be added unto the Lord he is never the more perfect therefore if the creatures are wanting there is no defect no deficiency in him and if we need no other why should we trouble our selves to make out to another to do any thing in vain we count it folly to take in many things for that which may be supplied in one frustra fit per plura c. therefore keep God to thee and thou shalt want nothing Here is a double duty required from the alsufficiency of God to all his Covenant-people 1. To walk with God Walk before me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before my face in conspectu meo as in my sight as being under mine eye in whatever thou dost put thy hand unto There are three expressions take in a mans whole duty towards God in the way and in the course of his conversation 1 Walking with God Gen. 5.24 Enoch walked with God 1 It is a term of reconciliation that the enmity between God and the man is taken away for they are friends that walk together Amos 3.3 2. Two cannot walk together unless they be agreed so that a man must be in a state of reconciliation 2 It 's a term of communion that in a mans way he should have fellowship with God in his whole course and in all the actions of his life for that is a mans walk and therefore 2 Cor. 6.16 when the Lord hath communion with his people he is said to walk with us and when we have communion with God we are said to walk with him Luther extra causam justificationis nemo potest bona opera satis magnificè commendare Luth. and a man is to walk with God not only in religious duties but also in all the common and ordinary actions of his life a man should not only do what the Lord doth command but he should do it unto the same end for which it was commanded and that is that he might enjoy communion with God therein 2 There is a following of God or a walking after him Num. 14.24 it 's called following of the Lamb that implies three things 1 A walking by rule for a man must go no where but where he sees the footsteps of God before him 2 It is coming up unto the exactness of the rule that he doth follow the Lord exactly he doth not miss one step where he sees God to have gone before him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this Eph. 5.15 is walking circumspectly 3 It is walking with God unto the end and so it implies a perseverance it is not a going a part of the way after God and then to turn back from following him but it is to follow after him and to continue unto the end and so it is said That the Lord called Abraham to his foot Esa 41.1 and this is to follow the Lord fully or as it is in the Original implevit post me he did fulfil after me c. 3 There is a walking before God that is with a constant respect unto his all-seeing eye he sees the eye of God always upon him and he sees that to be a holy eye that no sin can scape it nothing can blind it all things are naked and open before it and he that doth observe it it is unto this end that he may judge it that he may give unto every man according as his works shall be and that 's the meaning Luke 15.21 I have sinned against heaven and before thee by Heaven the Learned do understand the presence of God who doth dwell in Heaven and therefore Psal 73.9 They do set their mouth against heaven Mollet Ad veram sapientiam pertinet ut Deum praesentem cuncta inspicientem jugiter attendamus Carth. that is contra Deum audacter sese efferunt Mat. 21.25 The Baptism of John was it from Heaven or from men that is from God and that was the great thing that without regard unto the greatness of God and his glory without respect unto his presence and his holiness and his all-seeing eye he sinned against him and that did affect him and that also did cut the heart of David I have done this evil in thy sight and yet I had no fear of thy glorious presence and thy all-seeing eye so that there are these six things necessary to a mans walking as becomes a Saint in reference unto God 1 he must be in a state of reconciliation 2 he must walk by rule 3 he must go to the exactness of the rule 4 he must persevere and continue unto the end and not turn away and draw back 5 he must have an eye upon the presence of God and his eye in all he doth 6 he must do all this that he may enjoy fellowship and communion with the Lord in his whole course 2. That we be upright or perfect with him there is a perfection of the Saints in this life even while their souls are imperfect Heb. 12.23 and it consists in two things 1 When the soul in its choice and bent cleaves unto God alone and goes out after no other Psal 18.29 God will be yours if you will be his you must be unto him and to no other Hos 3.3 God can admit of no Corrivals with him 2 When there is a perfection in the inward man all grace is there in truth the whole new man the whole Law of God is written in the heart he respects the whole Law of God leaves none of his Commandments out in his practice it 's not enough to know the will of God but there must be a doing of his will his practice must answer his knowledge and when all these are in you and abound then you are said to be perfect
the first Covenant Doth this Covenant afford the least reward to any services that have the least imperfection adherent to them And can sinners offer to God any such perfect services Will it not thence hence necessarily follow that such as stand under this first Covenant have all their services rejected all their sins imputed to them their persons hated their blessings cursed and all the curses of the Law bound fast on their consciences by the sentence of the righteous God What are all their seeming services but real sins and what are all Gods rewards to them but real curses albeit seeming blessings What can they expect for such unsanctified services but unsanctified rewards which are indeed real curses But to treat somewhat more distinctly of the misery which attends such as are under the first Covenant we may consider it under these two Heads that both the Law and Gospel The Law to such as are under the first Covenant the means of death which are means of Life and Salvation to such as are under the first Covenant prove as to them means of Death and Condemnation First as to the Law it proves the means of death and condemnation to such as are under the first Covenant two ways 1 In regard of its coactive Rigor 2 As it irritates Sin 1. The Law doth by its coactive Rigor work death and condemnation in such as are under the first Covenant Doth not the Law exact of such perfect obedience 1. By its compulsion but gives them no strength to perform it It 's true the Law requires obedience of those who are under the second Covenant also but the promise gives what the Law requires But of such as are under the first Covenant perfect obedience is required but no intern principle is engraffed duty is required but no love or delight therein conferred Yea do not such perform duty as godly men commit sin May they not say of sin as Paul doth of duty Rom. 7.15 What I would that I do not And what Paul saith of Sin may not such say the same of Duty What I hate that do I The Law discovers sin to those that are under the first Covenant but did it ever cast out any one sin discovered by it Sin is sometimes wounded by it but did it ever kill any one sin Are not the hearts of such like Ezechiels pot in which the scum did arise but then boyled in again The Law drags such to the Tribunal of God as a righteous Judge but can they ever come to God as a Father Is not this the priviledge of such only as are under the second Covenant Lastly the Law drives such as are under the first Covenant unto self-condemnation but can any thing but the Gospel work Justification and Peace of Conscience So deadly and mortiferous is the Law to such as are under its violent compulsion and coaction as it is a Covenant And whence is it that the Law hath such a compulsive power over such as are under it as a Covenant 1 Is it not from those Principles of self-love and legal fear implanted in the heart of man whereby he is constrained to duty and restrained from sin by the threats and terrors of the Law which move Conscience as extern weights move artificial Automata or machines O! what a great power has Conscience over such when acted and enflamed by the terrors of the Law Doth not Paul Rom. 7.1 assure us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Law doth Lord it over a man so long as he continues under it as a Covenant And how doth the Law as a Covenant Lord it over the man but by ruling in the Authority and Sovereign Dominion of God in and by which it will at last judge the man And oh with what rigor and compulsion doth it rule over his Conscience and thereby restrain him from sin and constrain him to duty Again 2 Doth not the Law receive much Authority and force from the Spirit of God setting it home on Conscience and thereby terrifying and wounding the sinner 3 Is there not also in all men under the first Covenant a sinful Weight or Bent of Lust which makes the yoke of divine Precepts extreme irksome and burdensome to them And doth not this adde much to the rigour and severity of the Law Doth not the Law of God lay the same rigorous restraint on the lusts of those who are under it as a Covenant which the Providence of God lays on the lusts of Diabolick spirits And oh what a miserable case are such in who lye under this tyrannick compulsion of the Law as a Covenant If their lusts rage within but dare not vent themselves because the Law holds a rod over Conscience how do they burn like fire in an Oven and now and then flame forth in rebellious thoughts against God and his Law wishing there were no Law Or else if lusts break forth into Act how soon doth the Law bind over Conscience unto wrath and condemnation and oh what stings and torments follow hereon And is it not also a miserable case for the sinner to be compelled and forced by the Law to do those good offices which he really hates Would it not be a great torment to a Saint to be constrained to bow down and worship the Devil and is it not as great misery to a person under the first Covenant to be compelled by the Law to worship God whom he hates as much as an holy man hates the Devil And is not this the genuine cause of all that hypocrisie which is lodged and deeply radicated in those under the first Covenant that all their omissions of sin and performances of Duties proceed meerly from the violent tyrannick compulsion of the Law as a Covenant And as the Law doth by its rigorous exaction more or less prevail on Conscience so their hypocrisie is more or less radicated and refined Oh! how partial and inconstant are such in their abstaining from sin and performing Duties How disagreeable are those good works they do to their Natures and Principles and thence how little pleasure and delight do they find in the doing of them Yea the rigour and tyranny of the Law over such most eminently appears in this that in constraining and forcing men to duties it is so far from giving strength that the more they perform duties the less strength they have to perform them the more they hear meditate or pray the less strength they have to perform those duties as they ought So also for the Laws restraining such from sin the more they are restrained the stronger their lusts grow and break forth with greater violence in the issue Whereas one under the second Covenant the more the Law restrains his lusts the weaker they grow and the more it constrains them to duty the stronger they grow in the performance of them because together with the restraints and constraints of the Law there is conveyed a force and strength by the
Promise to abstain from the sin forbidden and to perform the duty required So much for the compulsion of the Law 2. The Law works death by irritating sin 2. To such as are under the first Covenant the Law works Death and Condemnation by its Irritation of sin The Law was in its first Institution and still is to those that are under the second Covenant a sanctified Instrument for the restraining and keeping under of sin but to those that are under the first Covenant it proves accidentally by reason of the violence of Lust and Gods Curse an occasion of irritating and enraging sin It 's true the Law as a Crystal glass discovers the soveraign holy pleasure of God forbidding sin but doth not the lustful bent of mens hearts affect sin even because forbidden And the Law discovering unto such the pravity and vitiosity of sin how do their hearts boil up with hatred against the Law because it strikes at sin wherein they place their chiefest good Again when the Law comes to put a bridle and curb on their Lusts are they not hereby like an untamed Colt the more enraged and furious And is not this the genuine reason why such as live under the clearest and brightest promulgations of the Law oft have their lusts boiled up to the highest pitch Yea is it not hence that the unpardonable sin takes its first rise namely from the lusts of such who living under bright notices and discoveries of both Law and Gospel and receiving some tastes of good things to come at last continuing still under the first Covenant have their lusts more irritated by the Law Moreover the Law condemning such as are under the first Covenant for sin and thereby injecting sparks of Hell-fire into their Consciences the fire-brands of dreadful terrors and despair how are their lusts enflamed hereby what revenge against God what excess of riot are they hurried into hereby Doth not also the righteous God by an invisible secret Curse suffer such as desire to be under the Law as a Covenant to have their lusts irritated and exasperated thereby Lastly doth not the wise and holy God permit Satan so far to abuse the Law as thereby to draw men into sin And oh what a pleasure is it to Satan to make use of that which is most deâ—â—â—â—o God thereby to draw men into sin And doth not this discover to us the miserable 〈◊〉 of such as are under the first Covenant that the Law of God which is so excellent in its own nature and of such excellent use unto the Saints should be so much abused for the irritation of Lust It 's true the Law may sometimes irritate sin even in such as are under the New Covenant yet it is not from any dominion it has over such neither doth this irritation so far prevail as to bring forth fruit unto death as it doth in those under the first Covenant who are under the complete dominion of the Law unto whom it hath no other use but to exasperate and improve their lusts And as the Law so also the Gospel and all the means of Grace To such as are under the first Covenant the Gospel and all other Blessings prove Curses yea all the Providences of God and comforts of this life prove snares and curses to such as are under the first Covenant 1 What greater Jewel is there to be found or desired among the Sons of men than the Gospel of Grace Is not the heart and bosom of God hereby laid open unto sinners O! what sweet attractives and cords of love are there in the Gospel to draw the soul out of its miserable and sinful state unto eternal Beatitude And yet lo how is this rich odor of life turned into a pestiferous odor of death to such as are under the first Covenant Is not that which is in it self the greatest blessing made by such the greatest curse The same food that nourisheth Believers unto eternal life of what use is it to those under the first Covenant but to nourish their incurable disease of self-sufficience Are not these mens lusts offended at the spirituality and simplicity of the Gospel What false Glosses and Comments do they put thereon How is the Grace of the Gospel by such turned into wantonness what controversies to their lusts make about it 2 So also for all Means of Grace Providences and temporal blessings which draw the hearts of Believers nearer to God are not the hearts of those under the first Covenant driven from God thereby Do not all their Duties though never so Evangelic center in Self Is not this the great Idol unto which their hearts are chained do not all the lines of their Devotion and Religion terminate in this center Oh! what an ample field of Contemplation is this to expatiate in were not our Meditations confined to the limits of a Summary The Second Part of the following Discourse regards The Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace explicated in in the Explication whereof our Author is more copious distinct and potent even to Admiration The Heads discoursed of by him and the method he makes use of in discoursing of them may with facility be apprehended by the Table of Contents that which I design in this Summary is some short Reflexions on such Heads as are not directly or professedly discussed by our Author And 1. 1. Its differences from the first Covenant We shall begin with the Differences between the first and second Covenant 1 In the first Covenant God dealt with man in a way of soveraign Empire and Dominion mixed with infinite Wisdom Justice Benignity and somewhat of Grace though without the least dram of Mercy there was indeed something of Grace in appointing the Reward but nothing of Grace in the infallible conduct thereto But now in the second Covenant the principal motive and Fountain that gave origine thereto was free Grace and Bowels of warm tender Mercies what was the foundation of this Covenant but the absolute and soveraignly gracious pleasure of God Were there any Objective Ideas of good any reasons grounds or motives foreseen by God which moved him to give grace to Jacob rather than to Esau Did not Esau and Jacob stand on equal ground as to Divine Election Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau Mal. 1.2 3. It 's true the free Grace of God hath deep Reasons in it self but yet no reasons or motives without it self to move or rule it in its egresses towards the creature Yea doth not the Grace of God find as much and as good reasons in Esau as in Jacob in Cain and Judas as in Peter and Paul in the worst as in the best of Men by Nature Yea what more agreeable to the Methods and Designs of Grace than this to shew mercy to the vilest of sinners How oft doth the free grace of God take hold of such as are most graceless and whence
do all the Issues of grace in this Covenant flow but from Gods tender bowels of mercy Was it not by meer grace that this Covenant of Grace fell from God Yea is not Christ himself as Mediator of this Covenant an admirable instance and effect of Gods free Election and Grace It 's true Christ as God falls not under an act of the divine Will because then he were not God but yet as Mediator he doth Was not his first Designation to office an act of soveraign grace Did he not also become Incarnate by an act of free Grace Is not the Hypostatic Union thence termed the Grace of Vnion Do we not also find mention of the Grace of Vnction whereby the Father qualified him for his Mediatory Office Is not the Oyl of Gladness wherewith he was anointed above his fellows an Oyl of Grace also or an infinite effusion of the Spirit of Grace on his humane Nâ—â—â—re Were not likewise all the Merits of Christ the effect of free Grace Whence hâ—â—â—â—â— his assistances for the doing and suffering his Fathers will but from his Father as Isâ— 42.4 And when Christ had obeyed and suffered to the full was not God the Fathers Acceptance of all an act of free Grace It 's true Christ paid a valuable price for all the mercies he purchased for sinners but yet whence comes it that all this should be made over to us what made way for the commutation of persons that the Righteousness of Christ should become ours and our sins by Imputation become his was not this all from free Grace Has not Augustin in his incomparable Tractate Of the Predestination of Saints excellently well demonstrated this that Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant fell under the free Election of God Now if the Election of the Head and Prince of the Covenant who is God Man was an act of free Grace then will it not necessarily follow that all the Federates Conditions and Effects of this Covenant can flow from no other fountain than the sovereign Grace of God 2 Another Difference between the first and second Covenant may be taken from the generic Idea of both what was the first Covenant but a Covenant of Friendship between the Creator and the Creature where neither part was at variance but what is this second Covenant but a Covenant of Reconciliation between a sin-revenging God and rebellious sinners 3 Do not also these two Covenants greatly differ in their Terms and Conditions What is there to be found in the first Covenant but conditional Promises to Grace but are there not in this second Covenant absolute Promises of Grace Was not the Righteousness of the first Covenant to be in our selves without the least imputation from any other but is not the Righteousness of this second Covenant to be found in Christ only and so made ours by Imputation Did not the first Covenant require perfect Obedience as a Condition antecedent to the acceptation of the person But doth not this second Covenant accept an imperfect evangelic Sincerity as a consequent of the persons being accepted In the Covenant made with Adam was not the Acceptation of his person grounded on the Acceptation of his works but in this second Covenant is not the person first accepted and then the works for the persons sake Is not this fully exemplified in the different acceptation of Cain and Abel Gen. 4.4 c. the former standing on the first Covenant and the latter on the second 4 To pass by other Differences as to the object foundation and duration are not these two Covenants greatly different as to their effects The first Covenant discovers what we are to do but the second enables us to do it the first is a glass to discover our sin and misery but the second is a glass that discovers the remedy as also applyes the same Of what use is the first but to declare men guilty and cursed but doth not the second pronounce pardon and blessing Was not the first given and continued to discover sin but is not the second given to cover it Doth not the first wound and terrifie but doth not the second heal exhilarate and chear Is not the first the Ministration of death and a killing letter but is not the second the Ministration of the Spirit and that which makes alive 2 Cor. 3.6 7 Why was the first given but to check restrain and humble the old man but is it not the principal Intendment of the second to conserve and quicken the New man Doth not the first accuse and condemn but doth not the second excuse and absolve In the first Man is bound to God but in the second God is bound to man the first generates bondage but the second Liberty And is there not a spirit of bondage suitable to that state in all such as are under the first Covenant but O! what a spirit of Liberty belongs to all such as are under the second Covenant and what different effects attend these different spirits Doth not the first Covenant make a legal spirit upon any great discovery of God to flie from him as an enemy but how doth the second Covenant cause an evangelic spirit under all the great discoveries of God to flie unto him Yea doth not the legal servile spirit who longs to be under the first Covenant secretly wish there were no law to rebuke him no hand of Justice to punish him but doth not the Evangelic spirit who hath by means of the second Covenant the Law writ in his heart delight therein as a Rule though he hates to be under it as a Covenant How sour and disgustful are all divine services to a legal spirit but how sweet and pleasant are they to an evangelic spirit Legal spirits give God much service for Quantity but how little for Quality and Spirituality But the Evangelic spirit gives peradventure not so much for Quantity but yet much more for Quality and Perfection Lastly the legal spirit makes all his good Offices matter of vain-glory and fuel for his pride but the Evangelic spirit sees cause to be humbled and self-abased for his best services Such are the different spirits effects and fruits that grow out of those two opposite roots the Old and the New Covenant which greatly demonstrate the boundless differences between the two Covenants 2. 2. The excellence of the second covenant Hence we may take just measures both comparative and absolute of the incomparable excellences of the second Covenant The first Covenant informs us what we are by Nature but the second what we are or may be by Grace The Law was given that men might more studiously seek after Grace Lex data est ut Gratia quaereretur Gratia data est ut Lex impleretur August but Grace is given that men might be enabled to fulfill the Law And what is the supreme ingredient of the Covenant of Grace but the free Grace of God Is not this Covenant then the Believers Great
through him Have we then any thing to do with or receive from God in a covenant way but by this Mediator and union with him Did not God from all Eternity give his Son as the foundation of this Covenant to the Elect as also give them to him as a seed And is not this the true import of their being elected in him Is it not also hence said Tit. 1.2 That eternal life was promised to the elect before the world began How could it be promised to them but by this Covenant of Redemption with Christ their Head Did not the Church Christs mystic body lie hid in him from Eternity as Eve lay hid in Adam her head Are not all Believers by the Covenant of Grace in Christ as by nature we are all in the first Covenant And is not Christ in every Believer as Adam in all his natural seed How is the first Adam in us but as the original cause of our nature and its moral vitiosity which causeth death And is not Christ the second Adam in all Believers as the original cause of their restauration and life What is there good in man but what is first in Christ as the original Head of the Covenant and public Receiver Wouldst thou see Gods love and grace streaming towards thy soul Must thou not then first see it lodged in Christ as the Fountain of all Dost thou desire to see all thy sins wiped off Must thou not then see them first wiped off from Christ thy Representative Wouldst thou by a prevision of faith see thy self in a glorified state O then by faith look on Christ the Head of the Covenant as glorified for thee Alas if thou look on thy self in thy self growing out of thine own natural root what art thou but as a branch cut off from the Olive-root But O! how comfortable and sweet is it to see thy self crucified acquitted and glorified in Christ the Head of the Covenant Yea doth he not only become a surety for us to God but also a surety for God to us And O! how much doth this engage sinners to exalt this glorious Head and Mediator of the New Covenant Was not this the grand design of God in making this Covenant that his Son the Prince of it might be in every thing exalted Why are all the promises of the Covenant dispensed first unto him and all the duties of the Covenant required first of him and of us in him but that he may have the preeminence in all things and a name above every name That the Son of God and Lord of Glory should by his own consent in the Covenant of Redemption between him and the Father come under an act of Gods will and undertake in the fulness of time to take upon him the form of a servant to pay debts who never owned any that he that was Lord of the Law should be made under the Law that all the Elect should have their names transcribed out of the Fathers book of Election into the Lambs book of life Rev. 13.8 yea have their names written in his heart from all Eternity and thereby to have such a blessed Being in him so long before they had the least Being in themselves what an essential obligation are they hereby brought under to exalt this glorious Head and Prince of their Covenant 4. But let us discourse a little of the Nature of this second Covenant 4. The Nature of the Covenant as relating to Believers as terminating more immediately on Believers And here the Reader will excuse me if I studiously avoid the controversies of these times and touch only on that which is more essential to Faith and Godliness The Covenant of Grace as made with Believers has a twofold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habitude or regard the one externe the other interne (1) As to its externe Dispensation which is The Covenant of Grace as to its externe Habitude and Dispensation admits some Variety Generality and Conditionality which is not applicable to the interne spirit and mind thereof [1] Various It admits of some Variety It has pleased the infinitely wise God out of his rich mercy and condescendence to the condition of his people in all Ages to suit the externe Dispensation of his second Covenant to their infirm capacity albeit as to the spirit and substance thereof it hath been ever the same Thus in the first promulgation of it to Adam after his Fall God expressed it by the seed of the woman and its bruising the serpents head c. Gen. 3.15 which was a form most agreeable to their present state introduced by the Serpents subtility and craft So in the second promulgation of this Covenant unto Noah after the Floud Gen. 9.17 God expressed it by the Ark and Rain-bow c. as it 's repeated Esa 54.9 which were symbolic Images very apposite and agreeable to their preservation newly obtained The like Variety God manifested in the repetition of this Covenant unto Abraham Gen. 17.2 to 16. where God promulgates his Covenant as to its externe Habitude under the symbolic forms of multiplying his natural seed the sign of Circumcision c. which were â—ll lively figures very much adapted to his present state he having no children So again when God renewed this Covenant with the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt what variety doth he use Is not the very Prologue to it touching their deliverance out of the house of bondage an illustrious Symbol to mind them of their miserable state by the first Covenant What were all the Sacrifices but federal Symbols representing to the life mans sin and misery under the first Covenant and reconcilement to God by the second So also for the moral Precepts with which this Mosaic Covenant was ushered in of what use and intendment were they but to make way for the promulgation and advance of free Grace as John Baptist made way for Christ It 's true some of late from this variety have started a Notion of a threefold Covenant one natural another legal or Mosaic and the third Evangelic but this Notion was the figment of the old Origenistic Monks to establish their Antichristian merits as Melancthon Chron. lib. 4. assures us The true Idea of the Mosaic Covenant seems this it was indeed as to its interne spirit mind form and essence Evangelic albeit as to its externe form and dispensation it was mixed and composed of moral Precepts and symbolic Types or shadows and O! how agreeable was this to the infantile state of the Israelitic Church Did not the wise God herein act like a curious Limner who first gives an adumbration and dark shadow with a rude Pencil and then adds lively colours to compleat his Picture What were all the Types but Evangelic shadows whereby the Grace of the second Covenant became visible and sensible [2] Indifferent and general The Covenant of Grace as to its externe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dispensation admits of some
have made which are not many regard principally the Explication of some few Texts and Interpretation of Latin Sentences for the use of vulgar Capacities As for Diminutions I have religiously avoided more than seemed necessary to make the sence and Contexture clear And whereas I gave the Subscribers a promise to review the Copy and take care that it be well done what endeavours I have exerted yea how many hours I have borrowed from my natural Refreshments to make good this my word is not meet for me to mention only the Reader may judge somewhat hereof if he consider how many Imperfections must unavoidably attend such Posthumous Transcripts and that out of Manuscripts written in Characters and I am apt to perswade my self the Subscribers when they have considered the whole will not think themselves deceived in this particular specially if they compare this with other pieces of our Author formerly published out of his own Notes And I have herein endeavoured to fulfill that great Effate of our Lord To do as I would be done unto in the like case I judge some guilty of much unkindness to their deceased Friends as well as injustice to the World in thrusting forth Posthumous Works without due emendation and correction Whatever service has been performed herein is no more than what is required by and due to the Lord of the Harvest from an unprofitable Servant Theophilus Gale TABLE of CONTENTS A Discourse of the two Covenants BOOK I. Of the Covenant of Works CHAP. I. The Curse of the first Covenant Gen. 2.17 THE Covenant of friendship made with Adam Pag. 1 Why God adds the threatning to Adam with the use of threats and promises Pag. 3 The temporal curse that follows Adams fall Pag. 4 1. All the creatures cursed thereby Pag. 5 2. The curses upon mans body Pag. 6 3. The curse upon mans name Pag. 7 4. The curse on relations 1 On Magistrates Pag. 8 On the people towards Magistrates Pag. 9 2 On Ministers and people Pag. 10 3 On husband and wife Pag. 11 4 On parents and children Pag. 12 The spiritual curse as privative of God Pag. 13 1. Mans forsaking his chief good Pag. 14 2. His loss of an interest in God Pag. 15 3. His loss of Gods image Pag. 16 4. His loss of communion with God ibid. 5. His hatred of God Pag. 17 The spiritual curse as to the soul it self ibid. 1. The souls desertion ibid. 2. The guilt of the soul Pag. 18 3. The dominion of sin Pag. 19 4. The power of Satan Pag. 20 5. The curse on ordinances ibid. 6. Spiritual judgments ibid. Eternal death Pag. 21 CHAP. II. Gal. 4.21 Mens desire to be under the Law To be under the Law most desirable to corrupt nature Pag. 22 1. All men desire to establish their own righteousness Pag. 25 2. All men would be doing something for heaven ib. So far as any man submits not to the righteousness of the second covenant so far he manifests his desire to be still under the first covenant Pag. 26 1. Mens sins will not submit ibid. 2. Their gifts and abilities will not submit ibid. 3. Their own righteousness before or after conversion will not submit Pag. 27 4. Awakened consciences think the second covenant too good news to be true ibid. Two things in a man under the covenant of works 1. An answerable spirit ibid. 2. Suitable fruits 1 Placing Religion in outward performances Pag. 28 2 Doing all their services without a Mediator ib. 3 Doing all with a legal spirit ibid. The causes why men desire to be under the Law ibid. 1. A principle of ignorance ibid. 1 Of the Law Pag. 28 29 30 2 Of the Righteousness of Christ Pag. 30 31 2. A principle of enmity against God 1 His wisdom 2 his justice 3 his power 4 his love 5 his soveraignty Pag. 31 32 3. A principle of pride exemplified in seven particulars Pag. 32 The Application 1. God wrongs not the unregenerate in leaving them under the first covenant Pag. 33 34 2. A state of sin is miserable Pag. 34 3. An exhortation to three duties 1. Humiliation for this sin Pag. 35 2. Watchfulness over the heart ibid. 3. No satisfaction without the contrary grace Pag. 36 CHAP. III. Rom. 7.8 How sin takes occasion and is irritated by the Law Pag. 37 Doct. Every man out of Christ is under a Covenant of Works and under the irritating power of the Law Pag. 39 Sin hath a threefold power from the Law ibid. 1. Of condemnation ibid. 2. Of conviction ibid. 3. Of irritation ibid. 1. In the unregenerate there is the seed of all sin ib. 2. Lusts are acted and drawn forth by degrees ib. 3. There is nothing to the unregenerate that is not a means to draw out and improve their lusts 1 All creatures 2 All opportunities 3 All estates Pag. 40 How sin takes occasion by the commandment ibid. 1. The Law as a glass discovers sins ibid. 1 It acts many sins because they are forbidden ib. 2 It is against light ibid. 3 In that man hates the light ibid. 2. The Law restrains sin whence it breaks out more violently ibid. 1 It spreads the more ibid. 2 It is the more enraged Pag. 41 3 It improves it thereby ibid. 3. There is a condemning power of the Law And from this sin takes occasion 1 By reason of terrors 2 By driving to despair 3 Whence follows a giving up to excess of riot 4 And it rises to blasphemy and rage against God ibid. Whence it is that the law exasperates and increases sin ibid. The law is not the formal cause ibid. But the accidental cause Pag. 42 The proper causes of it are 1. Lust 1 which is carried towards its object with earnestness violence and vehemency 2 which is proud and swells the heart 3 which is resolute 4 a principle and root of enmity against God Pag. 42 43 2. The curse of God that is come upon all under the Fall which is twofold 1 emptiness and deceiving 2 Corrupting and defiling Pag. 43 44 45 Quest Whether are true Believers wholly freed from the law in respect of its irritation Pag. 45 46 47 48 Quest If Believers be under this irritation where lies the difference between them and wicked men Pag. 48 The Doctrine improved Pag. 48 49 CHAP. IV. Gal. 5.18 Wherein the coactive power of the Law consists Pag. 90 Doct. Every man out of Christ is under the coaction and rigor of the Law which 1. Requires perfect obedience Pag. 51 2. Gives no strength to perform it Pag. 52 3. Lays it upon him as a burden which he loves not ib. 4. Nor takes delight in ibid. 5. Which forbids sin but heals it not Pag. 53 6. Carries a man to God as a Judge ibid. 7. Forces a man to see sin whether he will or no. Pag. 53 54 8. It forces to a self-judgment and condemnation for sin Pag. 54 Whence the Law hath this coactive power Pag. 55 1.
's utterly defaced and a new Image is now stampt upon us We are all by nature the children of the Devil and there is an image that 's earthly which we do now bear 1 Cor. 15.49 therefore we must be renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created us for all knowledge and inward abilities of mind either to know God or the Creature is lost and the soul is darkness it self Ephes 4.18 dark in its principles and dark in its reasonings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is darkness and though Divines do commonly say that there are some common notions as fragments of the former image I conceive we are beholding to the Covenant of Grace for them and that they are preserved in us by Christ as our lives are and the support of the Creatures for our use and whatever does tend to our comfortable being whatever is on this side Hell we have not as a part of the first Image and from the first Covenant but as an overflowing of the Grace of the second Covenant by which I say the world stands for surely man fell in lutum lapidosum into a stony mire as Bernard the one blotted out the image of Holiness and the other brake in pieces all his natural abilities It 's laid for a ground that Original sin is alike in all now how comes it to pass that it has not the same punishment and power upon all Take a natural fool and the veriest idiot and every one of us was as guilty of Adam's sin as he now why are those common notions blotted out in him and preserved in us surely it is from the different dispensations of the Mediator into whose hand the government and administration of all things are committed and it 's said Joh. 1.9 That he enlightens every man there is not only a supernatural light from Christ to all the Elect but there is some kind of light that even all mankind has from Christ by vertue of the second Covenant that it 's not destroy'd it is from him and that glorious freedom of Will is wholly lost that though man acts as a free-willer because he does it answerable to the dictates of Reason yet it is libertas adulterina an adulterine liberty and that which has a shew of liberty but is only bondage for surely that libertas contrarietatis velle bonum vel malum is not liberty for that 's a perfection and so is not the other neither can there be liberty in Heaven then but now the soul is wholly servile because it can will nothing else but evil Phil. 2.13 he must work the will c. Facit ut velimus praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati Aug. 4. The Soul has lost all fellowship and communion with God Adam could walk with God and enjoy fellowship as a friend with God and so do the Saints that have this image renewed but it 's grace only fits a man for fellowship Being made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 And so for glory also Col. 1.12 Ephes 4.18 Estranged from the life of God So call'd either because it 's wrought by God as the righteousness of Christ is call'd the righteousness of God it's God that lives in the soul by his spirit and it 's the life of God by way of eminency and excellency for things excellent are call'd the things of God and it 's the life of God because it does fit a man to walk with God and to live to God Now from this life men are strangers Isa 44.20 they live a natural life and they feed upon the carnal comforts that are below that nature desires and seeks after and they live a civil life they converse with men in civil affairs but for a godly life a life to God to walk with God converse with him in all their ways this they are strangers to this is only the life of Saints But men live the life of satan he lives in them being the spirit of this world and he acts them and with him they converse and his lusts they do As Augustin says of himself speaking of the lusts of his youthful time Hi sunt amici quibus acquievi consules quibus credidi aves quibus cohabitavi But for God they have no acquaintance with him in all their ways 5. The Soul is at enmity with God Col. 1.21 Enemies in our minds and this enmity is twofold either direct or collateral enmity as when mens lusts run out to the Creatures and the using of them loco mariti in the stead of an husband it 's an enmity unto God though we intend it not but Jam 4.4 only pleasure in the Creature carries us on and we prove adulterers therewith when mens spirits are carried unto several lusts for pleasure sake and profits sake c. and so it 's enmity against God but indirectly and men say they never meant God any evil I never intended it as they in Ezech. 8.3 They set up the image of jealousie to provoke me to go far from my sanctuary that was finis operis the end of the work though not operantis of the worker But there is a kind of direct enmity which carries a man on unto that which is simply evil and that for no cause but because it does displease and dishonour God as in swearing a sin wherein is neither pleasure nor profit there is no ground for it but barely because God is dishonoured by it We read Heb. 10.29 there is a despighting of the spirit of Grace there is an enmity to do evil for no other end but to despight the spirit of Grace which is the great transgression Psal 19.13 There is an inclination in our nature to this great offence unto which not only presumptuous sins but even secret sins are steps and degrees Men reject the Soveraignty of God and scorn his Laws and despise his power and judgments deny his being and exalt themselves above him saying there is no God 6. The Souls death lies in this mainly that it hates and is an enemy to all those ways that might bring him back unto God again resists whatever may reconcile God and his soul let but a good thought of God come into their head and they hate it Rom. 1.28 We naturally like not to retain God in our knowledge let any thing be offered unto us that exalts God and we reject it we are enemies to all righteousness Take but the offers of Christ and the grace of the Gospel there is nothing that the heart rises so much against and opposes because it 's the way that brings us to God they will find out another of their own they desire to be under the Law go about to establish their own righteousness and not submit to the righteousness of Christ This will be the great condemnation of the World Nay even in a godly man let but a little of God be set upon his soul presently flesh lusts against it Gal. 5.17 and would
righteousness and life 2 Men are naturally ignorant of the spiritual meaning of the Law Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the law once Here the Apostle speaks of a double state in which he was 1 In times past in the state of unregeneracy without the Law not in the letter for he was bred up at the feet of Gamaliel and one that knew the Scripture from a child but without the Law in the spiritual sence of it in its glory power latitude spirituality and holiness which are the wonders of the Law that men by nature have not eyes to see which David prays for Psal 119.18 and which unto men by nature are accounted strange things 2 But there is another state and that is when the Lord was merciful to Paul in his Conversion The commandment came i. e. in a lively vigorous and spiritual manner having a spirit of life accompanying it whereas before it was but a dead letter and it brought in such a light as did discover the secret thoughts and intents of his heart and laid the whole inward man open even the inward parts of the soul And whereas before he was alive in performances able as he conceived to perform all the righteousness of the Law without blemish and therefore full of self-justification and conceits of his own righteousness and high expectations of Salvation Now sin revived that is in the guilt of it in his Conscience and he begins to see his own misery and sinfulness and lost condition which before he thought was very good Now he saw all his own righteousness which before he so highly esteemed and so much set by to be nothing but dross and dung And natural Conscience looks upon obedience to the Law as consisting only in the outward act and if that be performed Conscience is satisfied if men pray and hear they are not solicitous for the acceptance of their persons before their services can be accepted nor for the light manner of performance and the curing of their inward man towards God therein which doth plainly shew that though they understand the Law in the letter and stick to it therein yet they are not acquainted with the spirituality of the Law 3. Men are ignorant of their miserable condition under the Law Gal. 3.10 as many as are under the Law are under the curse Gal. 4.21 You that desire to be under the law do you not hear the law that is hear it you do but you understand it not Si Deo obtulisset putamen nucis in fide opus bonum etiamsi adeó parvum adeò vile ut culmum tollere si verò desit fiducia opus bonum non est etiamsi omnes mortuos suscitet homo sese comburendum permittat Luth. neither consider that being sons of the bond-woman you are bond-men for your Covenant being broken genders unto bondage and there is a spirit of bondage that will follow upon this state of bondage and as bond-men you shall not abide in the house for you have no part or share in the inheritance because the inheritance is not by the law but of promise Men under this Covenant stand before God in their own names they bear their own sins and must be justified by their own righteousness for this Covenant admits no Mediator there is none to represent their persons or bear their sins or pay their debt or endure their curse but all must needs be done in their own persons if they do any duty they expect it should be accepted of God for the goodness of it and it is rejected of God for the failings of it because whatever is born of the flesh is flesh and in their Covenant God requires perfect obedience and will accept none other and yet there is not the meanest service of the Saints under the second Covenant performed in faith but it is accepted if they offer but a cup of cold water Now men perform duties because they are commanded and they think that they have done good service and look that they shall be accepted and rewarded but never consider that if their persons be not accepted their services cannot be but that their best services are sins in Gods account and rejected and that all the promises of pardon and grace repentance and acceptance upon repentance all these belong not unto them for their Covenant admits no such thing Some may see the defilement of their nature and their misery because of the image which they bear but very few are apprehensive of their misery by reason of the Covenant of bondage under which they stand 4 Men know not how to distinguish between the doing of duties and the right manner and method of doing them for all men are ready to look upon them as duties required by God and if so he will accept them because he has required them And therefore when Luther did bid men not only take heed of their sins but of their duties for these might destroy them as well as the other and called them base and beggarly elements and dung and dross presently they said he spoke against good works Now here men distinguish not of the doing and of the method in doing for the duties of the Law must be performed by the graces of the Gospel and in the way of the Gospel and therefore we say that believing must go before any other of the great works of God e're a soul can be accepted Luther de bonis operibus primi precepti and therefore Luther gives this rule Whatsoever a mans conscience and faith toward God is such are his works which flow from the same principle but where there is nothing of faith the edge is wanting to good works and the whole life erroneous and all goodness as nothing I say that good works are accepted if faith which gives a man an interest in Christ and a change of a mans Covenant goes before We should bring naked Christ and a naked soul stript of all things else together we would have you take Christ for your husband and duties for the servants of Christ While faith is to deal with Christ in the business of Justification and acceptative works should be shut out and there sponsus cum sponsa faith and Christ alone but if faith walk abroad in the world works must stand at the door and follow as the handmaid and the necessary consequents of faith Now men hearing that duties are commanded by God they are apt to conceive that they must be done and being done shall be accepted though it be not according to the method of the Gospel and that when we speak against resting in them as duties of the first Covenant we speak against good works whereas we would have them performed but by a man whose person is accepted his Covenant changed and that by the principles of the Gospel the faith of Christ in his heart and also unto the ends of the Gospel 2. They are ignorant of the righteousness of Christ as
in point of Justification and Condemnation but in the two former as to Irritation and Coaction it is but liberty begun because sin in us is not perfectly destroyed therefore so far as there are remainders of sin in the Saints See Pareus in Rom. 7.5 they are lyable to an Irritation and a Coaction but yet in a far different manner from that which is in unregenerate men as will be shewed afterwards § 2. The Apostle having in the former Chapter spoken how sin entered into the world and death by sin and how righteousness and life entred by the Lord Jesus Christ that as sin reigned unto death so grace should reign through righteousness unto life eternal and shewing the fruits of this righteousness killing sin in us Therefore we are dead to sin and the old man is crucified and the body of sin is destroyed that we should not henceforth serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin for sin is a Lord and so long as the servant lives he is in subjection to his master but the servant being once dead is free from his master it 's a speech taken from all civil subjection which began with sin and ends with death Now sin is compared to a Master or a Lord to which a man is bound while he lives but being dead he is freed from the power and dominion of sin Rom. 6.11 12. Rom. 6.11 12 Therefore count your selves dead unto sin and let not sin reign in your mortal bodies any more Ver. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace Not under the Law as a Covenant and so irritating sin and exasperating it but under Grace that is subduing sin and hell Some refer these words to the dominion of sin and a mans freedom from that and some to the dominion of the Law and a mans deliverance from it as a Covenant but the main current of Interpreters make the Law the husband and the strength of sin to be by the Law unto condemnation and unto irritation as the Law does occasionally inflame the heart to evil and lust is enraged thereby and they say the Law is dead unto us as a Covenant it is a bond cancelled and taken out of the way Col. 2.14 and so we are dead to the Law by the body of Christ that is Christ as our surety having paid our debt satisfied the Law and received the discharge we are dead to the Law it has no more power to charge sin upon us See Ambros to Jerom. also Estius Calvin Par. c. nor to stir up sin within us they make the Law to be the husband the Soul the wife and the children to be the fruits of Sin which through the irritating power of the Law it does bring forth in us even all manner of concupiscence But other Interpreters as Beza Gomar and some others conceive that the husband is Sin the wife is every natural man that is in the flesh and the fruits are all sinful words and actions that do proceed from sin which are fruits unto death as the other husband is Christ the wife a Believing soul and the fruits all the fruits of Righteousness and Holiness which are called fruits unto God and therefore some have put them both together and so Reinolds in one place he calls Sin the husband Psal 130. the use of the Law p. 368. and in another place the Law the husband and the difference is not much whether we understand it of sin which takes occasion by the Law or of the Law as it does inflame and irritate sin for both of them may be truly said to be dead unto the Saints and they dead unto them though it seems by the ensuing Objections most probable that the Law is the husband Now the Apostle comes to answer a double Objection which ariseth hence For if sin take occasion by the Commandment and if it have a pollutive power by the Law and as he saith Verse the fifth The motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death then it seems there is a double evil that flows from the Law sin and death for by the Law the motions of sin work and by the Law men bring forth fruit unto death The words are an answer unto the first objection which lyes thus That which doth increase sin and sin works by it that is in it self sinful but the Law doth increase sin and sin works by the Law c. The Apostle answers it two ways 1 By Negation it doth not follow though the Law doth increase sin and sin works by the Law c. that the Law is therefore sinful Absit God forbid it is an abominable inference for the Law is holy and just and good and a beam of that infinite Holiness that is in God and by which Gods Holiness does shine forth upon us therefore the Law is not sinful for that which only does discover sin is not sin but it is the Law only that doth discover and forbid sin therefore c. 2 By a Translation of the guilt laying the blame upon corrupt nature and the sinfulness thereof which the Law doth forbid and discover for the Law entered that sin might abound and therefore of it self gives not occasion to sin Yet sin took occasion when none was given and did draw evil from that which is good in it self and suckt poyson from that which is holy For the Law is holy as well when it does by accident enrage sin as when by it self it discovers it Doct. Every man out of Christ is under a Covenant of works and under the irritating power of the Law The Law forbidding sin and discovering sin in him has no other fruits but to enrage it and increase it as Chrysostome says the flame of lust is increased thereby for without the law sin is dead that is ratione cognitionis it lyes dead man knows it not to be sin and comparativè ratione irritationis in point of irritation But the more clearly the law is discovered the more bitterly and violently does corruption work against it Whiles the law doth not come in a clear and convincing manner sin is quiet and a man does not sin with so much rage and violence against the law as he does after the discoveries thereof Sin was dead that is it did not put forth its utmost power to draw forth all manner of effects till the law came and by this means sin is made exceeding sinful as it is rendered by Erasmus sin is not only discovered but improved and so it is made exceeding sinful So that the fruits of the law to a man under the first Covenant is this Sin takes occcasion by the Commandment it does ripen his sins and improve them and it draws forth in him all manner of uncleanness 1 Cor. 15.56 The strength of sin is the law There is a
threefold power sin has from the law 1 Of condemnation and so the law saith Luther that is weak through the flesh for justification is through the flesh powerful to condemnation The law does strengthen sin by its condemning power 2 Of Conviction for the discovery of sin is by the law and it 's through the law only that sin does trouble the Conscience and convince the sinner Paul saith I was alive without the law once i. e. in his unregenerate estate but his sins were before alive only they lay hid as colours in the dark Now when the Commandment came sin did appear to be sin it being discovered thereby so that the strength of sin as to Conviction is by the law 3 As to Irritation By the law lust is drawn forth and improved and provoked and so sin receives a power from the law also and therefore they that have the clearest discoveries of the law their sins are improved and made stronger than other mens as it appears by the people of Israel Zech. 5.6 8. there was an Ephah Zech. 5.6 8. which is the greatest dry measure amongst the Jews and it is wickedness that is in it that sets forth the fulness of their sins and we see what it was that did fill it up sin taking occasion from the Commandment Jer. 1.11 as a rod of an Almond-tree their sins did ripen in the greatest colds that which a man would have thought should have been a means to have kept sin under that was a means to improve and increase it As a basket of Summer-fruits which is sooner ripe than other fruits Jer. 24.2 Amos 8.1 they were divided into two sorts the good figs very good but the bad very bad such as could not be eaten the rain does ripen the briers and thorns as well as the corn Heb. 6.7 8. therefore the law of God does improve mens sins and ripen them and hasten judgment for them 1. In every unregenerate man there is the seed of all sin Rom. 1.26 Act. 13.10 they are filled with the fruits of all unrighteousness full of all subtlety and all mischief a fountain of sin a treasury a bundle of folly Let Satan come when he will and he will find something that is in us Though all sins break not forth actually in every man yet vertually and seminally all sins are in every man 2. Lusts are acted and drawn forth by degrees as water out of a fountain it casts not forth all at once your experience teaches that the more it is drawn the quicker the spring is no man is suddenly very bad sin ripens as a child in the womb first lust is conceived Jam. 1.14 Ezek. 7.10 Isa 59.4 and then it brings forth sin and sin finished brings forth death It first brings forth the bud and then the blossom and afterward the fruit as Serpents do first the egg and afterwards the Cocatrice c. 3. Unto men in an unregenerate state there is nothing that is not a means to draw out and improve their lusts and this is the curse upon every thing unto them and therefore Tit. 1.15 To the unclean all things are unclean Rom. 8.28 To a gracious heart all things work together for his good because they are all means to subdue his corruption and improve his graces so to another man all things improve his corruption 1 All Creatures 1 Joh. 2.16 whatsoever is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye or the pride of life There is no Creature but draws out some lust or other and therefore the lust is put for the thing it self for every Creature shall improve his corruption there is nothing that he sees with his eyes but sin takes occasion by it to make the man more exceeding sinful If he look upon the Sun in its brightness his heart is enticed c. He cannot look upon a woman but to lust after her they have eyes full of adultery 2 Pet. 2.14 2 All opportunities draw out his corruption as Gehazi said As the Lord liveth I will go after him and get something of him And the Harlot Prov. 7. The good man is gone from home c. 3 All estates do draw out his corruption if in prosperity he does wax fat and kick and as the pasture so is his filling his heart is lifted up and he forgets the Lord and if afflicted with Ahaz he sins yet more so that sin takes occasion by all the ways and dispensations of God towards the man and as sin is improved and takes all occasion by all other things so it does by the law of God also and so as a godly man grows from grace to grace from faith to faith so does a wicked man from sin to sin from one degree of wickedness to another § 3. But the main thing in opening of the point is this How sin takes occasion by the Commandment and what improvement the law that forbids sin and discovers sin can give unto it There are several acts of the law by which sin is improved Rom. 7. 1. The law as a glass doth discover sins I had not known lust but by the law says the Apostle Paul Now in this sin takes occasion by the Commandment three ways 1 It does act many sins because they are forbidden that there is nothing in the sin that should else carry the heart to it but only we affect things forbidden In sins where there is neither pleasure nor profit yet how do the hearts of men run out to them even to new oaths and new-invented blasphemies as if they were the flowers of speech for which no man can give a reason but this because it is forbidden As Hyperius gives advice unto Divines not to revive ancient Heresies in their reproofs lest thereby they do teach men those errors they went about to refute For the very hearing of a blasphemy is enough to take the heart as we see by experience daily and the very speaking of some things as sins is enough to draw out the lusts of men towards them Thus sin takes occasion by the Commandment 2 The discovery of the Law makes sin the more exceeding sinful because it is against light which shews it unto his Conscience and yet the man does it and so sin takes occasion by the Commandment to become the more out of measure sinful 1 When the Commandment forbids and discovers a thing to be evil and sin takes occasion thereby to mince it and in a politick manner to conceal it self Sin would do the thing and yet elude the force and the spirituality of the Law as the Pharisees the Law said Thou shalt not swear but they said to swear by Heaven is lawful and it is lawful to swear by the Temple but not by the Gold of the Temple The Law saith Men should nourish their Parents but they said it is Corban a gift c. And so the discovery of the Law makes a
even in all his temptations of the Saints as well as wicked men to touch them Jon. 6.7 Job 5.19 and to leave in them an impression and stamp of his own devilishness and therefore the more men sin against knowledg and with despight and disaffection unto God the more he is pleased with it for as God loves holiness in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes unto conformity to God the more God delights in him so Satan loves sin in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes in conformity unto Satan the more spiritual his wickedness grows and Satan delights to act that man of all other 2 The dearer any thing is unto God the more Satan delights to abuse it unto this end and the more God hath set up any thing against sin the more Satan does endeavour to make that a means to draw men unto sin sometimes he seeks to abuse the Creatures of God and stir up lust by them as when a man looks upon the Sun when it shines and his heart is enticed thereby sometimes he looks upon a Woman and lusts after her sometimes he looks upon the Wine when its colour looks red in the glass and thus the Creatures of God are abused by Satan to draw out the lusts of men and whatever is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the ey and the pride of life 1 Joh. 2.15 16. Sometimes he abuseth the servants of God he will enter into Peter and he shall become a tempter unto Christ that he saith Get thee behind me Satan and the woman that God gave man to be a help she shall by Satan be made a dart and sometimes the Law and the Gospel which specially God has set up as a remedy against sin shall act it and improve it and draw it forth Now God leaving a man under the power and dominion of Satan the God of this world who works effectually in the children of disobedience he is as a conquerour over them and triumphs in this that he has made use of the Law of God and the Gospel of God that is made against sin to increase and ripen it yea even the motions and common works of the Spirit of God the heart of man rising and making head against them are the great means by which Satan draws men to the great transgression even to sin against God with despight and revenge § 3. But here is a question Question Are believers who are engrafted into Christ and come under him as a father as the second Adam that is have their Covenant changed as well as their image are these wholly freed from the law in respect of the irritation of it Rom. 6.14 it is said Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law but under grace Which as has been declared is not to be referred unto a mans justification as being freed from the Law for righteousness and life and from the curse of the law for death and condemnation but it is spoken of a mans Sanctification a man is not under the Law as irritating sin and increasing it but under grace not only pardoning but sanctifying and subduing it and in this respect the dominion and the ruling power of sin is taken away in the godly though the being of it remain The Apostle speakes wholly in this place in reference to a mans state of unregeneracy Vers 5 When we were in the flesh the motions of sin that were by the law c. And he speaks this in reference to his own estate before conversion I was alive without the law once and I had not known sin but by the law nor lust to be a sin and the danger of it but that the Law of God discover'd it unto me and so in my former state Sin took occasion by the Commandment and wrought in me c. The word in the Greek signifies to work a thing throughly and effectually and to work it out Phil. 2.20 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling And Rom. 7.18 To will is present with me but to perform or go through with the work I find not a power to do it And so sin by the Commandment wrought in him effectually or wrought in him which we heard before all manner of Concupiscence all lust was thereby drawn out Hath the law of God no such work upon a regenerate man one that is a believer does not sin in a regenerate man take occasion by the Commandment Is a Believer as perfectly freed from the Law for irritation as he is for condemnation Answer Christ says If the Son make you free you are free indeed and the special part of our liberty with which Christ has made us free is in being freed from the Law as a Covenant Some as Paraeus and others do distinguish thus Liberty from the Law is twofold 1 Perfect in respect of justification and condemnation that their perfect obedience to the Law is no way required for the one neither shall any of the transgressions of the Law be imputed for the other 2 Inchoate which is but begun in the Saints and shall be perfected and so they are delivered from the Law only for irritation and coaction but so long as sin remains in them so long they shall never be perfectly delivered from the Law in either of these But to make this plain and bring it down in the particular branches of it unto the meanest understanding There are many things to be considered which I shall now proceed to lay down to make out this general and received Doctrine that is so commonly delivered by our Divines 1. There are remainders of corruption in the best of the Saints Grace destroys the reigning of sin but not the being of it You read how that Abraham the father of the faithful had his unbelief and Moses the meekest man in his generation had his passion and provocation and spake unadvisedly with his lips David a man after Gods own heart yet he complains of his secret sins and Paul that great Apostle had the law of his members rebelling against the law of his mind 2 Cor. 7.1 There is a filthiness of flesh and spirit that is to be purged out as there is something wanting in their Graces and therefore they have a daily growth in Sanctification so there is something remaining of their corruption which requires a daily growth in their mortification therefore they are compared to the Moon Cant. 6.10 which has some spots in it because not wholly enlightned by the Sun they do defile themselves and therefore had need daily to wash their feet Joh. 17.10 2. These remainders of sin in them as they are promoted by Satan so they give Satan an access unto their spirits and are as the seed for him to work upon they are to him a seminary and so much as Satan has in a man so much power he has over him says Christ
Sub gratia under Grace though many times in the flesh they serve the law of sin consuetudine paenali by a penal custome yet they do strive against it and they are not wholly overcome sin doth not reign in their mortal bodies 4 In pace in peace when the conflict is perfectly ended the victory is won and sin is perfectly overcome as it is in Heaven when they shall enter into rest and peace c. Every man out of Christ is in the first or the second rank either he is without the Law as Paul was and does go on in sin without controul because without the Law sin is dead or else he is under the Law in the condemnation of it and in the rigor and coaction of it They that are in Christ here are under grace and the souls of just men made perfect that are translated into Glory they are entred into peace each walking in his uprightness while they were here below The best way to open this rigor and coaction of the Law will be to shew wherein it does consist and how a man out of Christ is under it and how in Christ he is delivered from it The Law exacts of a man perfect obedience or else there is no acceptation either of his person or his works God had no respect to Cain and to his offering Gen. 4.4 because of the failing that was in it had he done well he should have been accepted and therefore see the glorious service of Jehu to which God gave so great a testimony 2 King 10.31 that he had done what was right in Gods eyes and according to all that was in his heart and yet Jehu had a by-end which blasts all his service and turns it into murder in Gods account for Hos 1.4 he says He will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu Bona opera non renatorum mortalia So in all the services of unregenerate men their good works are mortal sins God rejects them all for the least failing and there is nothing counted a prayer or an alms or hearing or any duty and this is a rigor and a great straight that every unregenerate man is in he must pray and yet because he cannot pray without sin therefore his prayer is an abomination to the Lord and there is nothing that he can do is accepted with the Lord. Now from this rigor a man in Christ is freed there is an imperfection in the best services of the Saints which they desire God not to enter into judgment with them for and Nehemiah can pray to be pardoned and yet to be remembred and rewarded for the same actions for there is flesh and spirit in the same man Terret me vita mea c. Anselm and they act and lust one against the other in whatsoever the man does which have made some of the Saints look upon their life with horror and yet if the man be in Christ the duty is accepted and the other rejected that is out of Christ Apparet mihi aut peccatum aut sterilitas tota vita mea Phil. 4.18 2 Cor. 8.12 because their persons and services are not accepted in the beloved and if found in him the meanest service is accepted if it be but giving an alms it is an offering of a sweet smelling savour and is well-pleasing unto God a willing mind is accepted according to what a man has but a man out of Christ is under the rigor of the Law for the acceptation of his services they must be perfect or else they shall be rejected of God for their least failings 2. The Law exacts duties of every unregenerate man but it gives a man no strength to perform them for Lex respicit hominem conditum the Law regards man created as having received strength from God to perform it and requiring strength gives it not Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy might not only with all the strength thou hast but with all that I gave thee in thy creation But the Gospel does respect man fallen and therefore requires not duty by a mans own strength The Law forbids sin and lays the burden of duties upon a man but gives no strength to bear it which because a man through sin has lost therefore he sinks under it for ever So that the Law to a natural man is like the Egyptian task-masters it calls for the whole tale of bricks but yet there must no straw be given The Law gives a man no strength and yet it calls upon every unregenerate man for perfect obedience though he be dead in trespasses and sins and cannot so much as think a good thought But to a man in Christ it is far otherwise the Law calls for duty and the Gospel gives the ability to perform it for there is a promise goes with the command if the Lord command you to cleanse your selves he saith I will pour out clean water and you shall be clean from your filthiness if he requires that you should be fruitful in every good word and work he does promise that you shall grow up as willows by the water-courses and as calves of the stall c. The desart shall blossome as a rose they shall bring forth fruits in their old age they shall be fat and flourishing their beauty shall be as the olive-tree and their smell as Lebanon He says Make you a new heart c. a new heart also will I give you Again saith he Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and he promiseth I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall never depart from me He saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and he promises I will circumcise your hearts to love c. It is in Gospel as it is in the body there are veins and arteries the blood is conveyed in the one and the spirits in the other if there were blood without spirits there would be nothing but weakness but the Gospel takes both together the spirits with the blood so that a man in Christ is free from the rigor of the Law also in this respect that it requires duty but gives no strength to perform what it requires 3. To an unregenerate man though it command duty yet it lays it upon him as a burden which he hates it commands duty but it gives him no inward love to it or delight in it and yet he must do it though he hates it a duty without is required but a principle of love within is not ingrafted so that a wicked man doth duties as a godly man does commit sins Rom. 7 That which I hate that do I. 1 Tim. 1.9 The law is not made for a righteous man Some place the emphasis in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not laid upon him as a burden which he hates and desires to be freed from but he has a law of love within him an
to the terms of the same Covenant and these are the grounds why the way of Translation must be a way of Union SECT III. What the difference in a mans state before and after his Translation is Q. 3. WHat is the difference in a mans state before and after his translation How is a a mans condition changed from what it was before 1. His state is changed in Gods account and the Lord looks upon him no more as the Son of Adam and as growing upon the old root though God has in his eternal Purpose chosen his elect in Christ and given them to him before the world began yet they are not actually in him according to the rules of the word till they be converted and ingrafted into him and therefore they as well as others are dead in trespasses and sins and are without God and without Christ in the World Rom. 4.16 Gal. 4. But being once converted Abraham is their Father and Sarah is their Mother and they are Children of the bondwoman no more 2. Being in Christ and their Covenant changed they are under the Law and the rigour of it no more For that requires perfect holiness to justification and life in a mans own person Rom. 10.5 Rom. 5.16 17. The righteousness that is of the Law saith This do and thou shalt live And therefore it 's said By the offence of one man death reigned and not only so but it 's also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one offence But now faith is imputed unto a man for righteousness not of him that works but of him that believes in him that justifies the ungodly 3. Before he was under the Curse of the Law and the condemnation of it For the Law says Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book But now Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ there is a Supersedeas for the Curse Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us 4. Before he had right to no promise to no blessing by promise but now he is become an heir of Promise Gal. 4.28 We as Isaac are children of the promise c. There is a double right unto blessings there is a right of providence and of promise a jus politicum a jus evangelicum a publick and evangelick right An unregenerate man may have a right of Providence to Blessings but it is only a man in Christ that has a right of Promise and though he possesseth nothing yet he has a jus haereditarum an hereditary right hereditary to all things All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.22 5. A mans covenant being changed God is reconciled for the Covenant is a Covenant of reconciliation so that the Lord does look on him as an enemy no more A man stands in no relation unto God before his Covenant is changed but as he is Gods creature but when there is a translation out of the first Covenant into the second a man is said to be in God and to dwell in God and God in him God is now Christs Father and our Father his God and our God whereas before they were enemies to God 1 Thes 1 1. Joh. 4.16 2 Cor. 6.16 and God to them 6. A mans Covenant being changed his sufferings and services are accepted as being Christs for Joh. 15.5 it is fruit in him and born by vertue of Union with him that only is accepted of God Gal. 2.20 says Paul Nevertheless not I but Christ liveth in me Hos 14.8 Our sins indeed are our own but all our duties are his because they are done by vertue of Union with him and all that is done by us is tendred unto God as his Rev. 8.3 And as his passive obedience after a sort is said not to be full till all the obedience of the Saints is filled up Col. 1.24 so it may be said of his active obedience also and all our sufferings are Christs Gal. 6.7 Heb. 13.13 7. All things work together for good unto him whose Covenant is changed Rom. 8.28 Whereas to a man under the first Covenant God does watch over him for evil and every thing proves but an execution of the curse of his Covenant his blessings become curses according to the threatning I will curse your blessings his Table is made a snare and the Ordinances of God are cursed to him and he is cursed in every thing that he puts his hand â—nto but to a man in Christ not only all the blessings but even what is in it self a curse is â—lessed to him death is yours as well as life 8. Sin has no condemning power in a man in Christ though it 's true sin remains in him 1 Cor. 3. â—hich is in its own nature damnable that is it does deserve damnation yet it can never infer â—â—mnation it can never bring it upon a man 1 Joh. 5.12 because he that is in Christ is passed from death 〈◊〉 life 9. A man is brought into a state of communion with God for all communion is grounâ—ed on union There can be no communion with God till a man receives the Spirit of God for regenerate and unregenerate men are of another Generation and there is no more a principle of fellowship with God in a man before conversion than there is in a beast to have â—â—llowship with a man natural parts and natural conscience cannot do it if we believe we â—â—ve fellowship with the father and not else 1 Joh. 1.3 10. A man then becomes one with all the Saints and of the same body with them Ephes â— 10 There is a gathering together under one head and being a member of the Church of â—he first-born whose names are written in Heaven for from the head all the members are â—tly formed and bound up in the bundle of the living SECT IV. The APPLICATION Vse 1 1. IF the way of Translation be by Union then labour for Union with Christ and be not satisfied with any thing else Truly the state of Grace does not lie in the change of a mans opinion or the change of his actions simply but in the change of a mans Covenant and his Image and the foundation of both are laid in a mans union this was the Apostles great aim to be found in him Phil. 3.7 8. For as the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine neither can you except you abide in me for without me or separated from me â—ou can do nothing And without this all a mans Religion is worth nothing before God Joh. 15.4 5. Here I will shew what is the ordinary and usual way of Vnion and what a man must or â—an do towards his own Vnion I will not now enter upon the grand controversie about â—ur preparatory works unto Faith and Union which is insisted upon from that Scripture Making ready a
sprinkled upon the Book and upon all the people and all things under the Law were cleansed and sanctified by blood Exod. 24.23 therefore the Law in the administration of it unto them was never intended by God to set forth a Covenant of Works but it was a Covenant of Grace and is usually called a Covenant Deut. 29.10 11. They stood to enter into Covenant with God that he might establish them to be a people to himself and that he might be unto them a God Deut. 26.17 18 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and he hath avouched thee to be his people So that the Law was given by Moses in Gods intention plainly as a Covenant of Grace unto all those that were able to look upon the intent of God therein 2 But yet the Lords intention was also that it should be a copy of the Covenant of Works that God made with Adam before his fall which was never wholly blotted out of the mind of man because God would not have that wholly to perish and be forgotten and therefore it was delivered after a sort in the form of the Covenant of Works and in this respect the Lord has made it a handmaid to the Gospel not that the Lord did intend it for a Covenant of Works as if men should attain righteousness and life thereby but as faedus subserviens a subservient Covenant as that which in this manner God would make use of to advance the ends of the Gospel and the new Covenant By all this you see that the Covenant of which Circumcision was a sign and a seal was not the Covenant of Works but was the same that was made with Abraham because the Covenant was the same Circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of Faith and continued amongst the Jews in this Covenant and that Covenant that binds to the observation of the Ceremonial as well as the Moral Law is not a Covenant of Works but the Covenant made upon Mount Sinai did bind to the Ceremonial Law also nor was the Covenant that God made with Moses a Covenant of Works for Moses was Heb. 11.23 a Believer but Exod. 34.27 it is called the Covenant which I made with thee and with all Israel when I stood before the Lord forty days and he wrote the words of the Covenant the ten Commandments But more particularly the Lord did intend to make the Law given upon Mount Sinai a copy of the Covenant of Works and to be materially and for substance the same that he did make with Adam and with all mankind in him in the state of his integrity 1. Death reigned from Adam till Moses Rom. 5. Gen. 4. ult and therefore sin came in and we see that murder was a sin in Cain and publick worship was a duty Men did begin to call upon the name of the Lord so that the Law was in the World before Moses and it was not only written in the hearts of men 2 Pet. 2.5 So Beza Gen. 6.5 but it was taught in the publick Ministery before Moses for Noah was the Preacher of Righteousness and in the Ministry of the Word we know that the Spirit of God did strive with men Gen. 6.3 The word in the Hebrew is to strive in judgment and by way of argument for conviction so that the Law was given to Adam and Noah and Abraham as well as unto Moses and was for substance the same 2. It is given in the form of a Covenant of Works with a this do and thou shalt live and so it was afterwards by Christ and by the Prophets also preached it was to the carnal Jews plainly a Covenant of Works not in Gods intention but by their own corruption they going about to establish their own righteousness Rom. 10.3 and not subjecting themselves to the righteousness of God it is set forth to them as a Covenant of Works Now if the Lord will not give it as a Covenant why does he not propound it as a rule and lay down the precepts without any such terms of a Covenant as if men should attain life by it when he did never intend to deliver it as a Covenant in which men should attain life by doing but by believing Thus the Lord did that the terms of the first Covenant might be promulgated to the World and that they that did still desire to be under the Law might not plead ignorance of the terms that God required in the Law if they did expect life and happiness thereby 3. Though I say it be for substance and materially the same yet in many circumstances it differs from Adams Covenant for this was a Covenant of such promises and sanctions annexed to it as were not in the Covenant made with Adam and a Covenant confirmed by blood and thereby sanctified which Adams Covenant never had and therefore though it did for substance agree yet in many things there was a difference This Covenant given unto Adam in a state of Innocency and for substance renewed upon Mount Sinai when it was by sin wholly obliterated and blotted out God has made a handmaid or foedus subserviens a Covenant subservient to the Gospel it is Hagar Gal. 4.23 but the Covenant of Grace is Sarah and it is given in the hand of a Mediator not only by Moses but by Christ also for Christ delivered the Law to them Act. 7.38 Moses was in the Wilderness with the Angel who spake to him in Mount Sinai and with our fathers and what Angel was it but Christ he that saith I am the God of Abraham and he that was also tempted in the Wilderness and the Apostle says We are come to Jesus whose voice then shook the earth in the giving of the Law 1 Cor. 10.4 Heb. 12.25 26. it was his voice and then by an enumeration of particulars how the Lord has made every part of the Law as it is materially the first Covenant a servant to the Gospel for the discovery of sin the Law entred that the offence might abound and the Apostle says Rom. 5.20 I had not known sin but by the Law and also for the conviction of Conscience and the imputation of sin Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no Law and for the condemnation of sin that it may be a Schoolmaster to bring the sinner unto Christ the avenger of blood Gal. 3.10 a killing letter and the ministration of death to kill them and hew them and it restrains sin and puts a bridle upon a man and is a means of conversion the curse of the Law is sanctified and the threatnings sweet when the curse is taken out death has no sting the grave has no victory and it is to all under the second Covenant a rule a companion and a counsellor The Law is to be considered as I told you two ways 1 Largely as containing all the Doctrine delivered upon Mount Sinai and all things that may
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an encompassing sin vvhich he cannot cast off Heb. 12.1 vvhich he has no povver to resist it so besets him in every faculty that he cannot take it avvay 4. The Lavv discovers the filthiness of Original sin that it is mire it is vomit 2 Cor. 7.1 Jam. 1.21 it is filthiness it self nay that it is the excrement of naughtiness it has defiled the soul it defiles all creatures that are for a mans use Hag. 2.11 as the Leper whatever he touched is unclean To the soul of man the Sun in his glory was not to be compared if a man had been cast into Hell as a Diamond into the dirt it could never have defiled him his Holiness like a Diamond would have shined bright notwithstanding but since the soul is defiled with sin the defilement is so deep that nothing can wash it out it is a stain that will remain to eternity upon all that are not washed in the blood of Christ as spots in scarlet and crimson much soap will not serve turn to take them out the fire of Hell will not purge sin and therefore when men have been there millions of years they are as black and filthy and as unpurged as at the first entrance into that place of darkness and horrour c. 5. The Law discovers that Original sin is the seed of all sin and it contains virtually all sin in it Jer. 6. Jam. 1.14 it is sin in the fountain an evil man out of the treasure of his evil heart casts out evil things murder and adultery A man is tempted by his own lust it is his father and it is his mother lust conceives and brings forth sin all actual sins are much more in the heart there is a beam in the eye and a dimness in the heart and I conceive by all occasions also sin is drawn out and he can look upon no creature but he conceives sin from it 1 Joh. 2.15 whatever is in the world is the fuel of lust there is nothing but is the object and draws out some lust in the heart 6. The Law discovers the deceitfulness of Original sin that all the lusts of a mans heart are deceitful lusts Ephes 4.24 Jer. 17.9 Jam. 3.15 Heb. 3.13 and the heart is deceitful above all things who can know it that a man can never fathom the bottom of it for there is a devillishness in it that whatever policy there is in Hell all this is in sin the wisdom of the flesh will take all opportunities to sin and make provision for the flesh and by often sinning mens hearts are hardned and they use much policy also in drawing others to sin and to keep them off from that which is good to set them upon things that are unlawful or else to pervert and poyson them in those things which are lawful to make an improvement of every occasion and to grow upon the sudden beyond what a man could have imagined as we see it in Peter from lying he proceeded even to cursing and damning himself Hab. 2. Deut. 25. Ephes 4.19 Jud. 11. Isa 56. 7. The Law discovers the unsatiableness and unweariedness that is in Original sin and the infiniteness that is in it it is compared to drunkenness the more men drink the more they desire and it is like Hell that is never satisfied the pleasures of sin enlarge the soul but never fill it there is a greediness in sin men pour out themselves they are greedy dogs that can never have enough there is such a dog-like appetite after sin they do evil with both hands earnestly always modo modo non haberet modum and therefore eternity of punishment is reserved for it God dealing with the creature not according to his actions but intentions the sinner would have it infinite extensively and intensively and therefore peccat in aeterno suo c. he sins in his eternity and God punisheth in his eternity 8. It discovers the demerit and effects of Original sin that it brings a man under the curse which is all evil and the wrath of God in Hell all the curses in Gods book and all the plagues of Gods Justice all the torments of Hell which either infinite wisdom can find out or infinite power inflict and that to eternity and that not only upon himself but upon all the creatures for his use Cursed is the ground for thy sake and cursed shalt thou be in thy house Rom. 8.20 and the curse enters into the timber and there is a vanity of corruption brought upon them all it turns a land into barrenness makes the Stars fight against them and the Clouds to drop vengeance and there is the desert of sin written in the drops of rain it hinders the influences of Heaven binds up the influences of the Pleiades which no man can do c. 2. The Law sets before a man and discovers his actual sins and that in many particulars It shews a maâ—â— what dishonour every sin does unto Gods glory a man gives not glory to the God of Heaven but debases him as much as in him lies by casting dishonour upon him saying The way of the Lord is not equal Is God unrighteous I speak as a man says Paul he despises his Justice turns his Grace into wantonness and gives the glory of God to any thing else for in every actual sin a man sets up a new God and serves the Devil in it who is the God of this World The Idols of mens hearts as well as of their hands strike at the very Being of God and also at the excellency of Gods rule the Law being the Septer by which the Lord rules and that by which his Soveraignty is seen in the world Rom. 7.12 it is the glorious royal Law the perfect Law it is holy just and good infinitely surpassing all the Laws of men I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad And not only the holiness of the Law but the harmony of it is opposed he that breaks one is guilty of all he that neglects any one command willingly is undoubtedly an hypocrite and he disobeys all for sincerity is accompanied with universality Then the Law opened in its spirituality shews a man the intention of his heart much more than it does in his actions and the intent of the sin goes beyond that of the sinner it shews also the infection of it upon others for evil words corrupt good manners it is as rottenness a plague a gangrene there is an infection in them all This one act of sin would defile the whole man as we see it has done in Adam and the Angels that fell the act defiles the nature and the nature defiles the man the least vain thought deserves death and the least idle word qualifies a man for Hell and therefore there is more evil in the least act of sin than there is good in all the
creatures because they cannot all expiate it Chrysost and make satisfaction for it These things the power of nature can never discover no though a man hath the letter of the Law but the Spirit of God makes use of these ends that the â—race of the Gospel may be the more glorious and the blood of Christ the more precious â—hich can purge such hellish stains as these and take away that evil that else were impossible 〈◊〉 be done away § 2. The Law is a Judge it has an accusing power as it is a witness against a man Joh. 5.45 Ezek. 22.2 and as a Judiciary power Wilt thou judge them son of man wilt thou judge them So that Miâ—â—sters pronouncing the sentence of the Lord in the Law are said to pass a sentence upâ—â— the actions and states of men he is convinced of all and he is judged of all 1 Cor. 14.24 And therefore â—â—e Apostle argues from the word and the judgment thereof unto God whose word it is and â—â—o shall be our Judge at the last day The Word is a curious discerner Heb. 4.12 As a man that is skillâ— in any Languâ—â—â— and able exactly to judge of the idiome and properties thereof and can â—â—â—cern any absurdity impropriety and incongruity in speech we say he is a Critick and â—â—t which one man may think an elegancy he thinks to be an impropriety so it is with the â—ord of God and the reason is because all things are naked unto that God that Judge with â—â—m in this Law we have to do and therefore when this Word is brought home to the â—â—nscience in a convincing way that the soul cannot deny it it is said to be a receiving of â—â—gement in a mans own heart before that great and dreadful day come Heb. 10.27 Now 〈◊〉 judgment of the Law is seen in these three Particulars 1 It revives sin 2 It conâ—â—â—ns the sinner 3 It does make a man stoop to and own this condemnation and lye â—â—n under it as his portion from which no man no power on earth can acquit 〈◊〉 1. The Law has this use as a Judge to revive sin Rom. 7.9 Rom. 7.9 Here is a double state that â—â—e Apostle mentions that he was in 1 He was alive I could do any duty and I thought â—tept the Law perfectly and also in presumption I thought my self in a good estate Phil. 3.7 and all â—â—y duties I counted gain such as should bring me in gain such as should bring me in great 〈◊〉 comes of glory at the last day and all this while sin was dead it was to me in respect of â—y present sense and sting as a dead thing and I was no more troubled at it nor affected â—â—th it than if there were no such thing sin was in its proper place and therefore seemed â—â—t heavy as Philosophers say That Elements are not heavy in their proper place though in â—â—â—mselves they are so So also whilst the strong man armed keeps the house all that he â—â—ssesses is in peace 2 But here is another state of Paul that is sin revived in the guilt and 〈◊〉 condemning power thereof the Law shewed him that there was a sting yet in it that â—â—â—ld be his ruin if it were not taken out of the way and that though the door was shut yâ—â— sin lay at the door of his Conscience Conscience is a door that will open Gen. 4.7 and being once opened either by the Ministry of the Word or by death and the presence of the Lord sin which now seems to be dead will in the guilt of it break in again What a miserable thing 〈◊〉 it to have such a door-keeper And then I died that is I saw my self to be a dead man Luther and 〈◊〉 a state of death wrath and condemnation and that death was my portion and Hell my â—roper place How was this change wrought that sin was thus revived that was dead when 〈◊〉 â—aul was without the Law and yet was alive when the Commandment came Paul was â—â—rn a Pharisee and therefore never without the Law in the literal sense of it he had the â—â—ter of the Law and he was according to that in the righteousness of the Law blameless â—â—â—t the Commandment came in the life and power in the spiritual sense and in the efficacy thereof set on by the Spirit of Christ making it a servant to the Gospel by this it was that sin was revived For without the Law sin is dead Rom. 5.13 Rom. 5.13 Before the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no Law The meaning is not that men were not esteemed sinners and punished as sinners or that all men were righteous before the Law was â—iven upon Mount Sinai for death as well as sin raigned from Adam till Moses but it must be either understood comparatively in respect of God that is God did not impute it so much or as so great a sin because they sinned against a dimmer light and a darker discovery of the will and mind of God or else which I rather conceive not imputed by their own Consciences they did not lay it unto their own charge as so great and so hainous because the abominable nature thereof was not so clearly discovered and therefore the Law entred that the offence might abound as the light discovers spirits as Index peccati non genitrix the Index of sin not the parent So that though men be sinners Ambros and very great and hainous sinners yet they do not charge themselves with it nor impute it unto themselves neither are they affected with it but walk cheerfully under the burden of it as if it were nothing Satan has by nature in every man a Kingdom and he does there most of all desire a peaceable and a quiet government and therefore he sets up that lust as Prorex and the Vice-roy in the man that is most affected in the soul in which the man takes most satisfaction and contentment that thereby he may keep the whole man in peace and therefore Mat. 12.45 though he go out of the man and be not cast out and does it for a further end going out in some bodily lust yet he walks in some dry places seeking rest and finding none he loves not to be disquieted in his government though he does many times make an improvement of it to bring into the man seven worse spirits And it is strange for a man to consider what a power the Devil has over men in this particular to keep all quiet There is a deceitfulness and a bewitching nature in every sin that a man is hardened by it there be strong holds Heb. 3.13 Isa 28.15 2 Cor. 10.5 strong reasonings for it and there are thick bossed bucklers for resistance Job 15.26 that men may not feel it there is a hardness of heart a feared Conscience there is a custom in sinning and
under the sense â—reaking the Law The Law holds a man under this conviction and self condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a man cannot 〈◊〉 off from it that a man shall say with David Psal 51. My sin is ever before me And 〈◊〉 3.2 3. here we are all compared unto prisoners I am shut up under the Law it is my 〈◊〉 and if that be not enough to manifest that our bondage under it is sure and there 〈◊〉 way to escape he says we have a garrison to attend us as the word signifies 1 Pet. 1.5 the same â—â—d is used of Gods keeping of us to salvation So that the soul is kept under by it and alâ—â—â—s poring upon its misery and cannot look off it it is shut up under it and this is meant â—he spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word in the Greek is used partly for the Holy Ghost self and partly for the inward dispositions that it works in the hearts of men as a spirit â—â—ve and fear and joy that is such a temper and frame of soul wrought by the Holy â—â—â—ft and foâ—t is the Spirit of God by the Law working upon a man such a frame of heart â—â—â—r of sorrow or fear Hos 4.12 A spirit of whoredom is in the middle of them c. â—â—s they were bent to backsliding So when a man cannot cast off his fears and the bondage 〈◊〉 own heart then a man is said to be under a spirit of bondage and a spirit of fear and â—â—â—e sinners are all their life long by fits Heb. 2.15 The soul of man desires nothing 〈◊〉 than the pleasure of sin and peace in it and therefore it does as a Deer when it is wâ—â—â—ded it runs and leaps and does all that possibly it can but haeret lateri lethalis aerundo â—â—â—â—â—rtal arrow sticks in the side A man runs to the pleasures of sin to his old companions as â—â—re to King Jareb for help and if that will not do then he runs to Duties and the man â—â—ys and crys and all will not heal the man and he cannot cast the sight of his sin behind back and it is as gastly and as unwelcome even as Hell it self A man is under Conviction 〈◊〉 a wild Bull in a Net full of the fury of the Lord and he beats every way but the â—â—e he strives the more he is ensnared till at last his soul lyes down under the apprehensiâ—â— of it and does possess the sins of his youth Joh 13.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the thoughts of a mans heart called the possessions of his heart for all that a man does possess is by thoughts and that 〈◊〉 which a mans thoughts dwell most that a man is said to possess most Job 17.11 Now the man crys 〈◊〉 What fruit have I now in those things whereof I am ashamed Oh wretched man that I 〈◊〉 who shall deliver me from the body of this death And his soul lyes down in his shame and â—â—ths and abhors himself continually is afraid at the shaking of a leaf expects daily when â—â—e instrument and messenger of vengeance shall come for him and Job 31. His life draws â—â—er to the destroyers and he doth seem to smell the savour of death and of unquenchable fire Lex est carcer spiritualls verè infernus Luth. â—â—d his soul is continually filled with horrour and amazement the terrors of the Almighty set him round about he is so fast in prison that he cannot get forth he is under the wrath 〈◊〉 God as Christ is said to be in prison and David so speaks of himself also § 4. Now how doth the Law in all this advance the ends of the Gospel how is it as â—agar added because of transgression 1. It prepares the soul and the Spirit thereby works those qualifications required to be 〈◊〉 the soul that comes to Christ for Christ will not come into an unprepared soul his subâ—â—cts are a people prepared for the Lord. He sent John Baptist before to prepare his way for there are valleys to be filled Mat. 11. and there are mountains to be laid low Come all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you take my yoke having had experience of the iron yoke of sin 2. The Law prepares the soul by making the opinion of a mans own righteousness die and letting him see a perishing need of Christ Phil. 3. that what was before gain he may now count loss therefore there is hereby wrought in the soul a longing for Christ and an instinct of Union with him the Law is as the avenger of blood unless it did pursue many men would never regard to fly to the city of refuge 3. It will make the Grace of God the more glorious and the blood of Christ the more orient and Salvation the more acceptable when in such a time of extremity the Lord brought light out of darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 and then a man says I thank my God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And therefore there be several dispensations of God some have less of those breakings by the hammer of the Law than others have for the Lord is a free agent but there are no men in the world that prize Christ and exalt his righteousness and relie more upon his Grace 1 Tim. 1.13 14. than they do that have lain under most of these breakings and have been longest in this wilderness 4. It makes a man fear sin ever after that which he hath had so great a smart for when he was under the hammer of the Law Psal 85.8 he will speak peace to his people and to his Saints but let them not turn again to folly Hos 3. ult When a man shall remember the bitterness of his spirit in times past and call to mind the gall and the wormwood then sin is loathed by him David commits Adultery no more Paul Persecutes no more Peter denies Christ no more c. 5. It makes a man pliable to do whatever God would have him Lord what wilt thou have me to do A little child shall lead them Isa 11.6 Disobedience is grounded in pride My soul shall weep in secret for your pride Jer. 13.17 And there is nothing breaks a mans pride and make a man walk more humbly with God than this does Mic. 6.8 6. This makes a man to set a high price upon the spirit of Adoption that enables him to cry Abba father after he has had experience of a spirit of bondage The bread in his fathers house had never been so pleasant to the Prodigal had he not been in want and tasted husks Heaven is never so sweet as it will be after the trials of this life when men have comâ— out of great tribulation and made their garments white in the blood of the Lamb then to be gathered into Abrahams bosom it is much the sweeter to rest from
the hearts of wicked men for ever 3. The Spirit of God does make use of the Law as a glorious instrument in this work for he works in restraints partly by the Law of God within and partly by the works of God and afflictions without but all his aim is that men may not find their hope Rom. 1.16 The Gospel is the power of God to salvation that is the great and glorious instrument of the power of God so is the Law also an instrument in the hand of the Spirit for the Spirit of God does work by the Word and answerably to the Word and not above it or without it It is so called by the Lord Jam. 3.2 If any man offend not in word Jam. 1.26 Jam. 3.2 he is able to bridle the whole body to put a bridle to any thing in Scripture does signifie to moderate that thing and restrain all the rage and exorbitances of it Isa 37.29 I will put a book in his nostrils and a bridle in his lips Now what is the bridle that does restrain the enormities of the tongue see vers 15. It is the perfect law of liberty and this also is the bridle for the whole man Psal 149.8 9. Psal 149.8 9. To bind their Kings in chains and their Nobles in fetters of Iron and this honour have all his Saints To be bound in chains signifies two things Subjection and Restraint now how do the Saints of God do it the fire goes out of their mouths Rev. 11. that is Rev. 11. it is partly by their prayers and partly by their words setting the the Law of God before them and by this means they bind them for they bind up their lusts they restrain their sins and they bind over their Consciences unto wrath and all the Judgements denounced in the Word of God they do as it were execute them by their bringing them upon them as Zach. 1.6 Hos 6.5 Glass Rhet. Sacr. Ezek. 20.37 Psal 2.3 So that they do by the Law of God lay chains upon their Consciences and they execute judgements upon their souls and for that cause it is conceived that the Law is called the bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 because 1 as a bond it doth bind to obedience and all disobedience it does restrain 2 The Law is counted a bond by men Psal 2.3 Let us break their bonds and thick weighty cords it is meant the Law of the Lord which brought them into subjection and they count it cords and bonds which are a token of three things 1 Of bondage 2 Of burden 3 Of baseness and that also may be the meaning of that expression Gal. 3.22 For the Scripture has concluded all under sin c. And thereupon Luther says Lex carcer est c. the law is a prison for it does restrain mens lusts they cannot walk at large as they desire to do in ways of evil and he says It is with unregenerate men under the restraints of the law as it is with wicked men in prison he that is shut up does not hate his sin but hates the prison and the thief is grieved at heart that he is not free nor at liberty to steal § 2. How does the Spirit of God make use of the Law for the restraining of sin The Lord has a working upon the hearts of both regenerate and unregenerate men and he has mighty acts of restraint upon them both and they are the wonderful workings of God in the world a man that shall consider the rage and malice of wicked men may wonder that the earth is not more filled with violence there being so many Nimrods mighty hunters of men in the earth that men are not made as the fishes of the Sea the greater to devour the less without controul breaking forth into all excess of riot and blood touching blood Yea he that shall consider the rage and madness that is in the hearts of the Saints themselves as we see it in Asa he put the Prophet in prison when in a rage and David caused them to pass under axes and sawes and harrows and that of Peter who did curse and damn himself and that of Theodosius by whose command seven thousand men were slain in the City of Thessalonica he would soon conclude truly the very mercy and grace of God in restraint is great And he that shall see the horrible abominations that men break forth into from day to day and the strange Apostasies that are come into the world he must conclude even restraining Grace is a great mercy and that this is a glorious and an excellent use of the Law 1 Tim. 1.9 wherein it is wonderfully serviceable to the Gospel Indeed the Apostle says 1 Tim. 1.9 that a man uses the Law lawfully when he knows and considers that the Law was not given for a righteous man There is a double interpretation of it that is most common 1 The Law is not given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not laid upon a godly man as a burthen for he has not only a Rule without but he has also Grace within that dictates to him a living Law within himself So that a godly man lives above the Law for he has a Law within as well as a Law without to restrain him from sin he has an inward principle that makes him hate every false way and what should an obedient and well managed Horse need a bridle for 2 The condemning power of the Law is not for the righteous man against such there is no Law the Magistrate should be nothing else but Gods Vicegerent and he is not a terror to good works but to evil but yet while the Saints of God do live here and are sanctified but in part they need the Law to restrain their lusts and corruptions afterwards when their Graces shall be perfected they shall need to call in no external help of a Law either to restrain from sin or keep them in duty or to quicken them to it but now corruption gets the head many times of the Law within that a man is induced to call in the force of the Law without also and the best of the Saints make use of many legal considerations and motives to constrain and restrain them in this world 1. The Law does restrain sin when the Lord sets before a man the perfection of it It is therefore called a perfect law of liberty this was the perfection in which man was created this was the perfection of the human nature of Christ a perfect conformity unto this Law in nature and life for he was a living Law And this is the perfection in Glory when the Saints shall have a conformity unto this Law and from hence the soul stands in awe of it the Lord shewing a mans abasement and imperfection so far as he comes short of the Law 2. The Law restrains sin so far as the Lord demonstrates its Authority Jam. 2.8 The Royal or Princely Law
wherein the Authority or Soveraignty of the Great King does appear for wherein does the authority of Princes lye but in their Laws and he is counted a rebell that does disobey them and that of the Apostle Rom. 2. Through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God and the Nomothetick power is that wherein the greatness and the height of Majesty lyes and this Law we are subjected to by bond of Creation as having received our being from the Lord and by a bond of Stipulation having given up our consent to the Law having given the hand unto the Lord c. and as being the rule by which the Lord will judge men at the last day and this kept Joseph in awe against the importunity of his Mistress How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God the Majesty and Authority of God is despised in it and the Soveraignty of the Law being exalted in his heart carried with it a kind of moral impossibility for there be natural and moral impossibilities as the Apostle in the 1 Cor. We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth And sometimes the people of God in the violence of a temptation have been forced to fly to the Commandment as in the point of self-murder one was fain to do the temptation was so impetuous that he was forced to repeat the Commandment for some hours together Thou shalt do no murder thou shalt do no murder 3. Sin is restrained from the Curse of the Law and the Judgements that it does denounce against offenders and the several examples of the executions of them says Job Chap. 31.23 Destruction from God was a terror to me and because of his highness I could not indure And 2 Cor. 5. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men And observing the several examples of Judgments and the Curse of the Covenant upon wickednesses which are wrought that others may see and fear and do no more wickedly When a man looks upon the Judgements that are abroad as the Curse of the Law executed a man should say I will not transgress It was the sin of Judah that at the Captivity of Israel she would not be warned and would not receive correction for that man that has the Law against him has God against him 4. Sin is restrained from the Harmony of the Law he that breaketh one is guilty of all c. This makes men stand in awe of the Divine Commands 5. From Gods love to the Law it being that which is so dear unto God Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not an iota of the Law which is dearer to God than Heaven and Earth The Saints are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they have a conformity unto God in all things they love what God loves and they hate what God hates Says the Psalmist I hate them that hate thee Psal 119.10.4 yea I hate them sore as if they were my enemies Through thy precepts I get understanding He says He did love the Law as his portion and inheritance as that which was sweeter to him than honey and his obedience unto which did bring him in all his comfort and therefore I have refrained my feet from every evil way this is my life and this is my wisdom in the sight of the Nations Lastly What authority and command the Law of God has in the hearts of men is that that Gods eye is much upon and with such men he is pleased and the power of Gods Grace is seen mainly in the awe of the Law upon their hearts and lives which other men despise and cast behind their back says the Lord To him will I look that trembles at my word Isa 66.2 And there is a man that fears an oath My heart stands in awe of thy Word else I had broken forth and given way to corruption but I durst not Isa 11.6 A little child shall lead him that which is most easily done and 2 Chron. 32.12 see the charge against Zedekiah for he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. If a man come to us from God and in the name of God if we despise him we despise the Lord. § 3. How is the Law from its restraint upon lust a servant and a handmaid unto the Gospel This will appear also in these Particulars 1. The great end of the Gospel is to establish the Earth and to continue the World for by sin an utter destruction should have come upon men and upon all the creatures for mans use only there is a stop put upon Justice for a time the change of the Covenant bringing in a change of the Government and the Kingdom that was before the fall administred by God immediately is now committed into the hands of the Son as he is God-man our Mediator So Psal 8. He has put all things in subjection under his feet Isa 49.8 and he has given him as a Covenant to establish the earth And it is upon this ground that those expressions are Psal 93. The Lord reigns he is clothed with Majesty the world is established that it cannot be moved And Psal 97.1 The Lord reigns let the earth rejoice All this is spoken of the Kingdom of Christ and his Government that is committed to him by the Father under the second Covenant and by vertue thereof since the fall And this the Lord doth by the restraint of the Law two ways 1 Hereby the lusts that are in a mans heart are kept under that they destroy not one another for lust is cruel see it in the second man that ever was in the world and he that first actually brought murder into the world and Nimrod a hunter of men before the Lord and as cruel to men as if they were beasts nay they are themselves Beasts and have the cruelty of Beasts and men would be as the fishes of the Sea the greater would devour the less they have no King over them and are acted by the spirit of the Devil and his name is Abaddon the destroyer his delight is wholly in destruction and if the Lord did leave men to the violence of their lusts and the impetuosity of temptation they would overflow as water over-running all banks and bounds and blood would touch blood where either as some say by blood is meant murder Hos 4.2 or all manner of horrible wickedness and so some take it so there is all manner of cruelty and all manner of unnatural wickedness even to the destroying of one another as we see it in Egypt every mans sword shall be against his brother and in the cruelty at the destruction of Jerusalem Now how comes it to pass that it is not so every where Only from the restraint of the Law laid upon the spirits of men and by this means the world is quieted as Luther in Gal. 3. hath observed Diâ—bolus regnat in toto orbe terrarum impellit homines
liberty and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word and therefore Jam. 2.8 we are exhorted to fulfill the royal Law and to keep the precepts of the Law and to walk in them The whole Law as to its second Table is fulfilled in this one word Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and for this cause Christ in his first Sermon frees it from its corrupt glosses and interpretation of the Pharisees and restores it unto its spiritual sense because it was to be of a perpetual use in the Church of God and it is so perfect a rule that Christ added no new precept to it but only interpreted and expounded the Law and restored it unto its primitive and original glory 3. Christ has left us an example and he is unto us not only the principle of holiness from whence it is derived Mat. 11.29 Phil. 2.5 but also the pattern to which it is conformed Joh. 13.15 Now the acts of Christ were of two sorts 1 Acts of Office as he was a Mediator by which he merited of God the Father pardon and acceptation for us and so we cannot imitate him but there are 2 acts of Moral obedience which he did as our Mediator and as our Pattern and in these we are to follow Christ unto this day for his whole life was nothing else but a spiritual Commentary upon the Law of God and herein we must be followers of all men as they follow Christ because there is a defect in all mens conformity to the Law but so there was not in Christ Joh. 4.3 4. So far as we come short of it even the best of the Saints we sin for what is sin but a transgression of the Law therefore to the Saints the Law is a rule of obedience or else they should never transgress it and if a man would try and examine his ways he must bring it to the rule for it is a rule for examination Adam was bound to the Law and therefore his least transgression was a sin and we are bound as strictly as Adam was and so far as a justified person comes short of universal obedience unto the whole Law he sins as well as Adam in the state of innocency only in the Gospel by the Mediation of Christ the sin is pardoned Therefore under the Gospel there is no other rule of obedience but the Law of God and every sin is a transgression thereof Christ came into the world to be made a curse for sin but not a cloak for it the Saints are bound to the Law under the danger of committing sin though not under the danger of incurring death and therefore sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression and Christ when he would shew a sin has recourse to the Law and also in all his temptations and so Act. 23.5 some expound that of Paul I wist not brethren that he was the high Priest because it is written Thou shalt not curse the ruler of thy people c. 5. The Law hath all the properties of a rule 1 It is recta right the Law of the Lord is holy and perfect Psal 19. 2 Nota known it is promulgated and made known in the authority of God himself I have written to them the great things of my Law and they have counted it a strange thing 3 Adaequata answerable unto the thing to be measured by it and so is this Law spiritual Rom. 7. and gives laws to the spirits of men and to their words and their actions there is no case can fall out that there is not a rule to be found for it in the word Psal 119.96 were our eyes opened to behold the wonders that are there I have seen an end of all perfections but thy law is exceeding broad In all the laws of men we can look beyond them but there is a latitude here Psal 119. that we cannot reach it was to David his counseller and it is such a counseller that you cannot put that case to it that it cannot resolve and fully clear if thou give ear unto it when thou walkest by the way it shall lead thee and when thou risest up it shall walk with thee as a friend and counseller 6. That is the rule of obedience to a man in this life by which God will judge him in the life to come and according to which he will reward him Rom. 2. They that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the Law as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse Joh. 12. There is one that judges you even Moses in whom you trust And Paul says The Lord will judge men according to my Gospel And the greater Grace there is rejected the greater shall their judgement be but the curse that is executed upon wicked men in Hell is the curse of the Law which the Lord Christ did undergo for those that are his and the reward both here and hereafter is very great in keeping of them there is great reward in this life the fruit is unto holiness and in the end everlasting life And though the Law be to all unregenerate men a Covenant of Works and a curse of the same Covenant made with Adam yet this is made a handmaid unto the Gospel and is the only rule of all Gospel or new obedience the strength to perform it is from the Gospel but the duties to be performed are from the Law the ability to walk is from the Gospel but the way in which we must walk is the way of the Lords precepts Objections answered § 3. There are some Objections against this that are necessary to be cleared not that I desire to enter upon a Controversie or a Polemical discourse but because it will help us to understand many Scriptures and so happily free us from many snares in which men are sometimes taken Object 1 Mat. 11.13 Luk. 16.16 It is said That the Law and the Prophets were till John since the Kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it therefore the Law was to last no longer and is not therefore as you say to be preached as a servant unto the Gospel because its service and its prophecie is ended for in John Baptists time it did expire it lasted so long and no longer Answ 1. It cannot be the meaning that the Law and the Prophets were to cease Luc. 16.17 and to be wholly abolished for Christ immediately confirms them and says Heaven and earth shall sooner pass away than a tittle of the Law shall pass which words are added as Interpreters generally observe to prevent that objection against or misinterpretation of this Doctrine of Christ the Law and the Prophets were till John but yet mistake me not as if I would be understood acsi post haec lex in ecclesia exauctoratae esset as if henceforward the Law should be abrogated Cartwr for Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass than
both these 1 In reference to the precept of the Law and the Remunerative justice of God so God did require of his Son that he should perfectly obey that Law that man had broken and this obedience of Christ consists 1 In this That it must proceed from a nature perfectly answering the Law Heb. 7.26 he was holy and harmless c. 2 Holy actions Matt. 7.3 Joh. 8.29 Rom. 8.2 5 19 he did fulfill all righteousness and it is becoming him so to do He knew no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth 3 Herein he did continue and persevere unto the end He doth always the things that do please him and these go unto Gods satisfaction and to our justification as by Adams actual disobedience many are made sinners so by Christs active obedience many are made righteous Rom. 3. last Dan. 9.23 Rom. 8.3 And he saith he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it And the way of the Gospel doth not make void the Law but establish it and there are two parts that Christ must act to finish transgression and make an end of sin and to bring in an everlasting righteousness and therefore the righteousness of the Law is said to be fulfilled in us and it is the righteousness of the Law and that which doth exactly answer the Law in all things Ambros It is fulfilled in us while it is imputed to us 2 In reference to the curse of the Law and the vindicative justice of God and herein are four things 1 He must represent our persons and therefore he is called a surety that must stand instead of the debtor as the sacrifice did dye instead of the man And he is said to bear our names in his heart as the High Priest did upon his breast-plate as one that represented all these before God and therefore he is said to be made sin for us and a curse for us and to suffer the just for the unjust for us that is in our stead Therefore we need not say how can one person make satisfaction for so many thousands Truly there is a worth and an excellency in the person of Christ equivalent to the persons of all the elect and he did as their surety represent them all before the Lord. 2 He must bear their sins and all the guilt of them 't is all charged upon him 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us that knew no sin The greatest sinner says Luther Christ was because he bore the sins of all the elect of God God did make to meet on him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.6 Psal 40.12 Gal. 3.13 He did confess our sins as his own Mine iniquities have taken hold of me God did impute sin to him 3 He must suffer our Curse He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us the chastisement of our peace was upon him when God made his Soul an offering for sin 4 He must pay the utmost farthing and that he did John 16.10 of righteousness Because I go to my father and you see me no more It was an argument that the debt was paid for the High Priest entred into the most holy place once a year but I go to the Father where I should never have come if I had not discharged the debt and I have done it once for all and therefore you see me no more He is gone into Heaven he was taken from Prison he was put into the Grave as a Prison and as a Malefactor but to shew that our debt was satisfied the Lord sent an Angel as a publick Minister of Justice Psal 110. last and did open the Grave and gave him a release he did lift up his head having drunk of the brook in the way And all this Christ did perform not of his own will meerly and of his own accord but he did it in obedience to a command John 10.18 I lay down my life and take it again for this commandment I received of my father Thy law is in the midst of my bowels Psal 40.7 8. it is the law of dying to be made a sacrifice And he saith Psal 40.7 8. In the volume of the book it is written of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some do understand it of the Book of Gods Decrees and so this of Christ was first the Lord priviledging him to be the Churches head in the first page of this Book it was written of him that he should do his will others understand it of the Book of the Scriptures the Prophecies and Predictions of Christ in them and the Lord in them did foretell what past between the Father and the Son at the Council Table of Heaven before ever Christ came into the World the Lord Christ said Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldest not it would not satisfie him but thou hast told the World of me that it was thy will that I should do it and I am ready to obey Gal. 4.4 c. Thus was Christ made under the Law as our surety and laid down an answerable price unto whatever the Law and Justice of God could expect of us 2. Christ did whatever is required unto mans sanctification 1 He gathers them Other sheep I have that are not of this fold them I must bring in Joh. 10.16 Joh. 8.39 it is spoken as a duty that lay upon him which God required of him I must do it it is the will of him that sent me that of those that thou hast given I should lose none but raise them up again 2 He must govern them and erect a throne of grace in their hearts and rule in them Isa 40.10 11. His arm shall rule for him and he shall feed his flock as a shepherd gathers the lambs with his arm 3 He sanctifies them receives the spirit for them and dispenseth it unto them Isa 42.1 2. He is my servant I put my spirit upon him and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles And therefore he went to Heaven as a publick person as the second Adam and having himself received the Holy Ghost he doth send forth the gifts and graces of it more abundantly for Christ is in Heaven by vertue of Office and it was necessary in that respect that he should depart from us because by Covenant he was to perform some acts of office in Glory he was to go before and prepare a place for you 4 To be their Advocate and plead their cause and the word as Cameron observes is in opposition unto an accuser 1 Joh. 2.1 Rev. 12.10 Satan is the great Accuser of the brethren he doth accuse the brethren before God day and night And we see Zac. 3.1 2. Satan stands at his right hand as the manner of accusing was in antient times as we see in Jobs instance but Christ makes answer for them there is a difference between Christ as a surety and as a publick person who
and good will for his Purposes and Decrees are immutable as himself is and there can nothing arise de novo that should cause him to change his purpose but more that he proceeded herein to a treaty with his Son about it to be his Servant in this great work to bring Jacob again unto him Isa 49. and made a solemn Covenant pass between these glorious persons about it and that those thoughts should delight them before the World began and that the Lord should bespeak his Son with all the terms of dearness that can be to undertake this service Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and therefore being his Son it was only an office fit for him and as being his Son there was all fitness in him so there was all dearness to him and by this Christ did upon this motion of the Fathers undertake this service and there was a solemn Covenant passed between them Jer. 30.21 And thus the Lord did as it were bind himself and his Son unto this great work of your Salvation before the World was not only laying his love but also his faithfulness to pawn though not in a Covenant to you before you were yet in a Covenant to his Son and therefore there was a promise of eternal life given us in him before the World began 3 When he doth Covenant with Christ to be a Priest Tit. 1.2 it is a Covenant that he confirms by an Oath to shew that he doth never intend to alter and change his resolution Psal 110.4 The Lord has sworn and will not repent c. Psal 110.4 Heb. 7.21 This Priest was made by an Oath by him that said unto him Thou art my Son the Lord swore and will not repent and this was from everlasting for then it was that Christ was first appointed or set apart to become a Priest Now all this shews how much the heart of God was in it For the Word of God is as true as his Oath and as infallible and therefore if he had but said it it had been enough for there is a greater stability in his Word than there is in Heaven and Earth but yet it is observed by Divines that between the Word of God and his Oath there is this difference though the Lord speaks the word yet there may be some secret and tacite condition or some subsequent declaration of the mind of God As for Nineveh God said Within fourty days Nineveh should be destroyed yet there was an implyed condition of repentance which being performed the Judgement was not executed And so to Ely I said that thy fathers house should walk before me for ever but now I say Be it far from me and so the promise is reversed and it may be that is the meaning of the expression in Numbers You shall know my breach of Covenant But if God swears it shews the unchangeableness of his counsel an absolute act that nothing can arise de novo and nothing can be supposed that can cause God to change it he will never have a relenting thought for the pardon of sins and saving of sinners for ever and therefore he swore and made him a Priest by an Oath and this Oath some conceive to be the seal of God by which he did in a solemn manner set apart his Son for this great office and designed him to it from everlasting Joh. 6.27 John 6.27 Him hath God the father sealed So that as he has sealed up his decrees concerning you that they can never receive an alteration or change more how changeable soever you be 2 Tim. 2.19 as 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God remains sure having this seal the Lord knows who are his so he hath sealed up also his Covenant with Christ and that by an Oath Now if it were but a Kings Seal who could reverse it But this is the King of Kings 4 We see that their hearts were much in it for neither of these persons ever repented of it to this day 1 If God the Father would have repented a man would have expected that it should have been when he came to make his Son an offering for sin Oh! what relenting thoughts and rolling of bowels had Abraham when his Son must dye and he himself must have a hand therein and become the executioner So it pleased the Father to bruise him Matt. 26.29 and Matt. 26.29 there is a necessity or an impossibility spoken of and it lay wholly in the will of God for so he adds not my will but thy will be done If God could have changed his Will Christ might have lived and the Cup passed away but God had covenanted to make him a surety he had made him a Priest by an Oath and his will could not change he could not repent of it therefore this Cup he must drink Thus Isa 53.5 the same word is used and it signifies to beat a thing to pieces as in a Mortar and God was pleased with it Ephes 5.2 The offering of Christ was to God a Sacrifice of a sweet savour What made it so Only the end Finis dat mediis amabilitatem the end gives sweetness to the means Had it not been for that the Lord must needs have abhorred it 2 And Christ accepts of the Covenant and never repented he did never call back his word or change his ingagement he had the law of dying written in the middle of his bowels as it was the pleasure of the Lord so it was his with desire have I desired it and I have a baptism and I am straitned till it be fulfilled Vse 3. Thence we see the ground of the pardoning of all the sins of the ancient Saints under the first Testament Rom. 3.25 Heb. 9.15 The debt was not paid and the Sacrifice was not offered and yet their sins were pardoned and their souls saved it was by vertue of the Covenant and ingagement of Christ unto God the Father there was blood of Bulls and Goats and that could only signifie Christ but could not satisfie God but when Christ came and performed the Covenant now he satisfied for the transgressions under the first Testament and in this respect he was a Lamb slain from the beginning though offered in the latter days of the World because the Covenant immediately from the fall of man took place and God looked upon him by virtue of this Covenant as our surety and required all of him Vse 4. It is a mighty ground of Faith that all shall be performed for if these glorious persons could break Covenant with you yet they will not break one with another therefore surely 1 on Gods part all his promises unto Christ shall be made good every knee shall bow taken him all his enemies shall become his footstool all the persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down and the stone without hands shall fill the earth and the Mountain of the Lord shall be exalted upon the top of all the
your right Hand and pluck out your right Eye deny your selves that nothing shall be exalted in the heart but Christ and nothing must be dear to a man in comparison of Christ he must sell all to buy the Pearl Matt. 13.45 and part with it with joy not only part with a mans sins but his righteousness and priviledges and take them up by a new title as Paul he suffered the loss of all things Phil. 3.8 9. but found them all in Christ and attained them by a far better and more glorious title A man must do it as you do in Copy-holds a man must bring in his old Copy into the Court and there must be a surrender made and then you shall take it up again and have a new and a better state in it c. A man must part with sin as a snare and with self as a sacrifice and lay them all down at Christs feet he must be his utmost end that gives order and measure to all the means tending thereunto c. 3. The will of man is desperately shut against Christ and against this way of closing with him partly from a mans ungodliness because it is the highest way in which God will be honoured and partly because a man hates the terms and conditions that Christ must be received upon a man cannot give up all unto Christ sin is sweet and self is dear and the great God of the world the Idol that a man has worshipped all his life time now for a man to come and change his God it is that which the will of man is hardly brought unto and therefore Christ puts it upon the will John 5.40 You will not come to me who ever will let him come and take of the water of life freely Rev. 22. I would have gathered you but you would not The Lord does knock at this everlasting door and men bar the door against him and harden their hearts and will rather cleave to the Law and seek to patch up a broken Covenant and will venture their eternal estates upon it nay if they be convinced that there is no life to be had elsewhere they will venture to sit down in a state and way of death rather than they will come unto Christ that they may have life 4. When the Lord brings a man into the bond of Christs Covenant and he becomes an heir of Promise there is an almighty power put forth upon the will to perswade it and to open the heart to accept of Christ and to be subject unto him upon his own terms Gen. 9.27 The Lord shall perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Sem which all the rhetorick of the Angels in Heaven and Ministers the Angels upon Earth could never do none but the Spirit of Christ can open the heart it is alone in his power that has the Keys of Hell and Death Ut velimu sine nobis operatur cùm volumus nobiscum cooperatur August de Grat Lib. arb Chap. 17. Phil. 3.8 praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati giving power to the will to choose Christ and so determining a mans will upon this glorious object that a man seeing Christ to be the chiefest of ten thousands he also desires him and so by preventing grace he does work the will and by assisting grace he works the deed that a man chooses the Lord for his portion and as that which above all things he desires to injoy and place his happiness in and unto him he cleaves with full purpose of heart for ever Act. 11. 23. And thus a man looking upon Christ as the person in whom there is a Covenant and an Image laid up and seeing the glory of that Covenant and the beauty of holiness that is in that Image of both he desires to be made partaker but there is the greater excellency because the person goes with them there is an excellency in the dowry but there is more in the person the soul thus accepting of Christ and catching at the terms of the Covenant as a dying man does at any thing looks upon it as a golden Septer held forth to him by the law condemned and as the brazen Serpent exalted upon the Pole to a sin-stung soul and the heart does greedily and with all its might take hold of it as a man would do a Cord let down as the only means to pluck him out of a dungeon or to save him from drowning and perishing Now to give you some arguments to inforce this that men should take hold of Christs Covenant 1. He is given by God the Father as a Covenant to the Nations Isa 49.8 And it will prove a high act of unthankfulness not to accept of him as a gift from God their sin was much aggravated John 1.11 John 1.11 He came to his own and his own received him not a man does not receive Christ that does not take him in this manner as offered by God the Father as a Covenant our ends in taking of Christ should answer Gods ends in giving of him now God did give him as a Covenant and an Image and we should receive him for both those ends and the Lord has used all means to inforce you to it that you may lay hold of this Covenant he did so with Adam at first Adam still thought that his former Covenant continued and would have given life and therefore he still had a mind to the Tree of Life but God to let him see there was no hope by that Covenant sent an Angel there with a flaming Sword and all that man might come to Christ â—ev 2.7 who is the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of God and came in the place of the old Tree of Life and he hath taught men that by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified and that that way to Heaven is stopped and that door barr'd for ever God sets the guilt of sin and terrors of the law upon any man that would be justified by his works 2. It is Christs Covenant and therefore lay hold of it for Christ is the standard of all excellency and the more any thing relates to him or holds forth of him the more glorious it is The second Temple was more glorious than the first because of Christs presence in it and John Baptists Ministry the greatest of all that were born of women and yet the least in the Kingdom of God was greater than he and therefore to you that believe he is precious 1 Pet. 2.7 and when he shall raign over Israel and they be converted to him he shall be the glory of his people Israel How should we therefore lay hold of him and take him as worthy of all acceptation 3. Consider the glory of this Covenant 1. In it thou hast an interest in God in all the persons in Trinity for I will be thy God is the grand promise thereof Now to have the Lord for a
up a full resolution or purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord to keep this Covenant Act 11.23 and to stick to the terms of it to perform all thy duties towards God by it and expect all from God according to it and this is properly to enter into Covenant with the Lord. 1. You are to hear the words of it and to know aright the terms of it for he that enters into Covenant with the Lord it must be by giving up himself unto God which must be a reasonable service Rom. 12.1 2. and therefore Christ when men enter upon Religion would have them sit down first and count the cost for if men enter not upon any duty with a right understanding their hearts will again draw back and they will forsake it so here if men understand not the terms of the Covenant aright they will depart from the living God the consent of the Covenant must be a consent without error or else it is supposed that if a man had known it before he would not have consented it 's said of a marriage Covenant Error circa ea quae sunt de essentia contractus vitiat contractum c. and a consent with error and when a man understands not what he doth is no consent Now what are the Terms of this Covenant They are these 1. That you take Christ and close with him in a work of faith believe in him and be unto him alone for Gal. 3. ult We that believe are Abrahams seed and it is by our following the steps of his faith that he becomes the Father of us all therefore the Gospel is said to be making a marriage for his Son Rom. 4.16 Mat 22. it 's Christ and the soul that are married in this Covenant or else now is the time of betrothing and the marriage is to come and therefore the Church of the Jews when they shall be converted and the glorious marriage of the Lamb is come she is said to be the Bride the Lambs Wife now that soul that takes Christ for his portion looks upon him as altogether lovely the chiefest of ten thousand and relies upon him alone for righteousness and life and accounts all things else as dross Phil. 3.9 with an exclusive resolution of looking to any thing else whatsoever I would win him saith Paul and be found in him alone not having mine own righteousness this is the first branch upon which God offers this Covenant 2. A man must deny himself Mat. 16.24 and forsake also thy own Kindred and thy Fathers house Psal 45. Now self is commonly considered by Divines three waies 1 As sinful 2 As natural 3 As moral self religious renewed self and all these must be denied 1 Sinful self that is the whole body of sin but specially that lust that thy heart is most addicted to thy peccatum in deliciis which the Scripture calls thine own iniquity and the stumbling block of thy iniquity there must be a reserve of no sin 2 Natural self all thy reason and natural parts wealth Father and Mother House and Lands yea and life for my name sake and that alwaies 1 Habitually in preparation of mind and resolution of heart to give them up all unto God when he shall call for them Act. 21.13 I am ready saies the Apostle not only to be bound but to dye c. 2 And actually whensoever the Lord calls for any thing thou hast if they be temptations to draw thee unto sin and a snare to thy soul or if the Lord call for them as oblations to himself if the Lord call thee forth to own him with them by resigning them up and we know not how soon the Lord may call to suffering if thou art a Moses thou must leave Pharaohs Court and suffer affliction with the people of God and if thou art a Daniel and canst not worship a false God nor the true God in a wrong manner thou must expect to be thrown into the Lyons den and if a Paul thou wilt resolve to preach a crucified Christ though Nero forbid it and the powers of the world threaten bonds and imprisonment to abide thee nay thou maiest expect to lay down thy life upon a block and if thou art a Mordecai and refusest to bow to unsanctified greatness or stoop to the lusts of men thou must expect to have a Gallows prepared for thee 3 Self renewed must be denied in the notion of duties we are to perform all but in relation to righteousness we are to deny all and account them all as dross and dung and menstruous rags Exod. 28.38 and if we would have acceptance we must look upon the forehead of the High-Priest wherein alone is written holiness to the Lord that we may find acceptance with him for our righteousness has such an ill savour that the Lord must abhor it there is iniquity in our holy things unless the Lord Christ does offer and present them mixed with his odours therefore we must deny our righteousness utterly there must be a perfect self-denial as the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. A man must bear his yoak Mat. 11.29 Take my yoak upon you the Lord does not set a man free in the Covenant of Grace that he should turn the grace of God into licentiousness he has a yoak of obedience for the neck of every Saint and what is that but all the duties of the Law aâ—â—en in the hand of the Mediator And this yoak is easie and profitable for a soul it brings in a revenue both of pleasure and profit in the keeping of the Commandments is great reward and there 's sincerity required which is everlasting evangelical perfection as the Lord saies to Abraham walk before me and be thou perfect the perfection in this life that is attainable under the second Covenant is sincerity of heart a suitableness of the will to the Law of God though a mans actions â—ome short of the Law yet he can delight in the Law in his inward man and has reâ—pect unto all the commandments when he is willing to put his neck under the yoak of Christ and neglect no known duty for it is dangerous to seek ease in the ways of God that the Lord would not have as we see Numb 7.7 8 9. the Sons of Gersham and Merari had Wagons to carry their burdens but the Sons of Coah were to carry the Ark upon their shoulders now they were not to take their ease and David brought the Ark upon a new Cart and the Lord was displeased and made a breach upon Vzzah for it c. 4. You must take heed you shrink not at the Cross but take it up for there is a Cross goes with the second Covenant and a man with all the blessings of it must expect affliction Mat. 19.29 Mark 10.30 He that takes up his Cross in losing any thing for Christs sake shall have a hundred fold more in this life but with
11.5 as the Lord says Obey my voice according to all that I command thee so shall you be my people and I will be your God and I will perform the oath that I swore to your Fathers and the Prophet did answer Amen O Lord c. so should our souls do take heed of the treachery that is in your spirits that you behave not your selves unfaithfully in the Covenant for though it is true that the Covenant cannot be broken by your unfaithfulness because the Lord hath laid help upon one that is mighty who is the surety of your Covenant yet remember that Covenant-breaking is a great aggravation of every sin on your parts and there is a quarrel of the Covenant that the Lord will certainly avenge and the stripes even of a God in Covenant are terrible even our God is a consuming fire Lev. 20.25 Vse 2 § 2. Having entred into Covenant with the Lord let me now exhort you to make Conscience to keep it let thy heart be faithful and stedfast in the Covenant It is that which the Lord requires of all those that do enter into Covenant with him Exod. 19.5 If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant you shall be unto me a peculiar treasure Mal. 3.17 my Jewels above all people in the world therefore being taken into Covenant he doth expect you should observe the breach of it and be careful to avoid it 1. From the nature of a Covenant and the ends thereof it is vinculum conservandae fidei the great bond and engagement that men lay upon themselves for the being faithful in the promises that they make each to other And therefore Ezech. 20.37 it is called the bond of the Covenant because by it a man is bound unto the terms thereof and therefore if men keep not their Covenants it destroys their end and makes them of none effect and it is an obligation that a man takes and lays upon himself by his own consent for every Covenant must be free and voluntary Voluntas est spontanea the will is most free And therefore it being free and voluntary afterwards for us to recede and go back is the greater abomination Ezek. 17.18 He despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant after he had given his hand and therefore they say Let us bind our selves in an everlasting Covenant Jer. 50.5 never to be forgotten And for a man to be unsteady and depart from his ingagement in which he hath freely bound himself is the greater evil but always Covenants have amongst men been counted sacred and nature has taught men to keep them inviolable if it had been but a mans Covenant Gal. 3.18 no man would disannul or add thereunto and it was looked upon as the binding that men could not go back from although it were never so much against their hearts to keep it it is sanctissimum humani pectoris bonum Seneca de benefic l. 5. to 10. and therefore perfidi lege Aegyptiorum capite plectebantur quòd duplici tenerentur scelere quòd pietatem in Deos violarent fidem inter homines tollerent Diodor. Sic. l. 1. to 6. Tholos de rep l. 8. Perfidious persons were by the law of the Egyptians beheaded because they were guilty of a double crime impiety towards God and unfaithfulness to man Now if there be so much respect unto Covenants between man and man how sacred should the Covenant be between God and man the holy Covenant 2. It is a Covenant made unto God and there is no going back for 1 God knows it if he falsifie the Covenant in the least God will find it out There is a great deal of falseness of heart within us this way Our righteousness is like unto the morning dew and as an early cloud we promise and go back from our purposes and promises and our purposes are broken off we repent and repent of our repentance we vow Prov. 20 25. and after our vows we make enquiry we come out of Sodom and yet with Lot's wife we look back we are brought out of Egypt and yet our hearts turn back into Egypt again Now our Covenant being made with God he will observe it though the treachery of our Spirits be carried never so secretly and therefore Psal 44.21 the Psalmist says God would search it out If we have forgot thy name and stretched out our hands to any strange God God will find it out for he knows the secrets of our hearts and this Covenant is a Marriage Covenant and therefore the Lord looks upon the breaches of it with a jealous eye which is exceeding quick-sighted there is no disguising of ones self from a true Lover he observes every motion and out-going of the heart and will not admit the least deviation from the royal Law of Love And our God is of purer eyes than to behold the least iniquity he trys the heart and the reins by him actions are weighed 2 God hath declared that he hates Covenant-breaking and unsteadiness of spirit therein and he will certainly punish it There is not only the mercy of the Covenant but there is the quarrel of the Covenant I 〈◊〉 â—eal with thee says the Lord as thou hast done Lev. 36.25 Ezech. 16.59 for thou hast despised the Oath in brâ—â—â—ng the Covenant That is he would deal with them in judgment as they had dealt with him in a way of sinning Quis miles a regibus hostibus stipendium captat nisi planè transfuga desertor Tert. de praescript c. 12. For a man that is a subject to one king to be a Pensioner to an enemy we judge it very hateful amongst men that wear the Livery and take the Wages of one Master and do the work of another A subject to Christ and a pensioner to Satan is exceeding hateful to the Lord. And therefore when the Lord would express the worse sort of sinners the Apostate Jews that did joyn with Antiochus the Vile Dan. 11.30 Jer. 34.18 he calls them those that forsake the holy Covenant God will surely avenge the breach of humane Covenants as we see in the story of Zedekiah because he falsified his oath he had sworn by God much more will he avenge the holy Covenant when that is broken by any and therefore it being a Covenant made unto God there is no dallying it is one of the great things of God and if we despise it and cast it behind our back the wrath of God will surely overtake us 3. We have the highest patterns for our imitation the glorious Angels they abide in the truth they never left their first habitation they have alwaies kept their Covenant and they stand before God to this day in the Covenant of their Creation And consider your own Prayers Tert. you do pray that the will of God may be done by you on earth as it is in Heaven do not therefore perseverante iracundia orationem perdere will you
our names to God in this Covenant given the hand to the Lord it is a duty often to renew it and to repeat unto a mans soul the same obligation and here I will show 1 That it is not enough that a man do enter into Covenant with the Lord but that he renew it often 2 I will give you the grounds why a man should renew his Covenant 3 Shew the times when in a special manner the Lord expects it and when it is a way to find mercy with the Lord. 4 Show you the manner how it is to be done 5 I 'le press it by setting before you the great benefits and fruits that do flow from a renewed Covenant with the Lord. 1. A man being once entred into Covenant with God is held and obliged by that Covenant for ever as we see the Devils entred into Covenant and this Covenant they have broken in respect of the precept yet they are all still under the curse of it and shall be for ever and that curse the chains of darkness in which they are held so man being once ingaged is for ever engaged therefore it 's his duty often to renew his Covenant and that will appear in these particulars 1. The Lord hath often renewed his Covenant with his people he made a Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15.18 and yet he renews his Covenant again Gen. 17.2 4 7. So the Lord did take Israel into Covenant with himself and his name was called upon them he doth take them into their Fathers Covenant he remembred his Covenant with Abraham and Isaac Exod. 6.4 5 7. and he saith I will take you unto me for a people and I will be to you a God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God c. and yet this Covenant he renews in a publick and solemn manner upon Mount Sinai when out of his mouth went a fiery law Deut. 5.2 3. Deut. 5.2 3. He made a Covenant with us in Horeb he made not this Covenant with our Fathers some refer it unto all the Patriachs from Adam and so the Covenant was the same for they entred into Abrahams Covenant but it is spoken in regard of the publick and glorious way of revealing it to them beyond what it was to their Fathers which was not revealed with that solemnity and speaking with and seeing God face to face or else by the Fathers some do understand those that died in Egypt and in the Wilderness who had forgotten the Covenant of their Fathers and the Lord did not renew it with them and yet afterwards Exod. 24.7 8 10. Moses takes the book of the Covenant and reads it in the audience of the people and they ingaged themselves to do all that the Lord had said and be obedient to his requirings and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the people and said This is the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you and v. 11. They did eat and drink before the Lord and see the glory of the God of Israel and upon the people he laid not his hand c. and yet this is not enough but the Lord renews his Covenant again Deut. 29.1 The words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab besides the Covenant that he made with them in Horeb and v. 10. 12. You stand before the Lord this day that you should enter into Covenant with the Lord and into the oath which the Lord made with thee to establish thee this day for a people to himself that he might be unto thee a God as he hath sworn unto thy Fathers c. thus you see the Lord has often renewed his Covenant with his people 2. The people of God have often renewed their Covenant also with him it was not enough that they had in Moses time been taken into Covenant so often but before he died he renewed the Covenant with them and they did solemnly ingage themselves The Lord will we serve Josh 24.25 and his voice will we obey and he set up a Stone under an Oak for a witness against them 2 Chron. 15.12 2 Chron. 29.10 2 Chron. 34.31 if they should hereafter deny the Lord their God And this Covenant was renewed in the days of King Asa and Hezekiah and Josiah and Ezra 10.3 and Nehemiah 9.38 therefore renewing of the Covenant is a duty that we owe unto the Lord and that ingagement must be reiterated c. 2. But seeing that a Covenant once made doth alwayes bind a man and the force of it continues distance of time doth not wear it out why should it be needful for men to renew their Covenant so often The grounds of it are these 1. Because of the unbelief of our spirits and from the infirmity of our faith for the confirmation of our faith in the mercy and grace of the Covenant Therefore David made it the matter and ground of all his delight and his thoughts were wholly upon it Why did God renew the Covenant so often with Abraham but to strengthen and confirm his faith therein that it was a sure Covenant and should never be forgotten The mercies of the Covenant are great and the heart of man would fail and his spirit sink in the expectation of them but then he calls to mind his Covenant and renews his Covenant-ingagements with them and for this cause we receive the seals of the Covenant often and every time we do so we renew the Covenant between God and us Gods seals are set to our seals that this may be like unto Joshua's stones a testimony that we have entred into Covenant with the Lord. 2. To manifest the sincerity of our hearts that though we fail in the duty of it yet our hearts still stand to it we delight in the Law according to our inward man though we fall every day yet saies a soul in Covenant with God I love to think of renewing the ingagement that is between God and me as a loving and tender Wife loves often to renew her ingagement to her Husband and to have it much in her mind that she may not forget the Covenant of her God so to shew that a man doth not repent but his ingagement â—s still pleasing to him he renews it often and if it were to do again and again a man would do the same thing if it were every hour to let the world see he is not turned back from the Covenant of his God Phil. 3.9 saies the Apostle I suffered the loss of all things and do count them dung c. I have not repented of it I am of the same mind still there is not in me a principle to draw back and to depart from the living God I am willing to renew this â—ngagement still When there is an error in the contract that a man makes with another then â—f it were to do again the soul would not do it so
be as voluntary as it was in the making of it to make fair promises while men are under the rod as many do in sickness they promise to lead new lives but yet return to their old ways with the Dog and start aside from these purposes in their prosperity like a broken bow as when the Goths invaded Rome the Christians having some mercy granted them all the Pagans would then become Christians and after proved persecutors of them 5. A man must be willing to bind himself in the highest way unto obedience thereunto When the people did make a Covenant they did stand up to the Covenant and said Amen Amen and they swore to it and that in a publick way with a loud voice Duet 25. v. last Nehem. 9 v. last Neh. 10.29 with shoutings and Trumpets and they did write it down in a Book and it 's a further ingagement to have a mans own hand against him that is a great witness and lays him under more guilt than any witness can fasten upon him and he sets not only his hand but his seal to and binds himself with a curse and by fearful imprecations of vengeance upon himself if he did not perform it as they did Nehem. 10.29 desiâ—e God to avenge upon themselves their falshood in breaking of the Covenant and are content the threatning should take place upon them if they break it as well as the promise if they keep it and thereby they shew that they desire the Covenant should abide firm Jer. 50 5. as they say Jer. 50.5 Let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant never to be forgot 6. It must be with an earnest desire to God for grace to keep it and an acknowledgment of our own weakness and inability to perform anyone of the duties of the Covenant for Covenants that are made upon any self-dependance do not long continue as Peters did not when he said Though all men forsake thee yet will not I and though I dye with thee yet will I not deny thee Our promises of duty must be supported by Gods promises of grace or else we shall soon fail in them for God must perform the promises of grace before we can perform our promise of service for without him we can do nothing upon him is all our fruit found Hos 14.8 and therefore in all our Covenants we should have an eye unto the promise that gives grace as well as requires service and say with David I will run the way of thy Commnadments when thou shalt inlarge my heart Isa 38.14 and with Hezekiah Lord I am weak undertake for me The word in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies to become a surety and so should we consider the new Covenant is in the hand of a surety and to him we should look for strength for the grace of the Covenant is laid up in him so that there is in our Covenant with God a double bond laid upon us not only an obligation unto the duty injoyned but to have recourse unto God for grace to perform it 4. What are the times and seasons that the people of God have specially observed in renewing of their Covenant with the Lord that so a man may be able to say now God calls me unto this duty For there is a season for every duty and a godly man is to bring forth his fruit in the season Psal 1.3 I find in Scripture that the seasons of renewing their Covenant were commonly these 1. When a man hath eminently fallen into any great sin or hath relapsed into former sins that were repented of and that we have humbled our souls for and if being washed we have again defiled our selves and turned again to folly then is a season in which the Lord calls you to renew your Covenant Peter committed a very great sin it being that sin also which he was warned of and took up great purposes and resolutions against M tt 26 74. it was not a bare denial but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he denies with an Oath nay with cursings and damnings of himself as the word imports imprecating of the wrath of God and eternal separation from his presence if he knew the man Now how must Peter come from this fall It 's called a conversion Luk. 22.31 When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren Recovery out of sin committed is called a conversion There is a two-fold conversion 1 from a general state of sin 2 from a particular way of sin for the first of these Peter had past he was converted before and Christ had given testimony to his faith that it was true and that it should not fail but yet there is a conversion from this particular fall a renewing of his repentance and as it were turning unto God again a-new and that is seen in these two things 1 In renewed humiliation and godly sorrow 2 In a renewed Covenant and a solemn ingagement of reformation for the time to come and this is required in the renewing of a mans repentance after any great and eminent fall The same course doth Paul take Rom. 7.16 after his conflict he doth then renew his Covenant and saith I do break the Law yet my heart doth still cleave to the rule thereof and acknowledge the goodness of it and this consent of speaking the same thing that the Law doth is properly and formally the renewing of a mans Covenant and ingagement and so doth the Church after her great fall and backsliding Cant. 6.3 I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine he feedeth among the lillies which I conceive to be the words of one rejoycing and triumphing in the assurance of his interest in God but also they are the words of one covenanting and renewing the reconciliation of himself unto the Lord as when the Lord hath departed from us through our provocation when he doth return to his people he is said to elect them anew Zach. 1.17 The Lord shall yet comfort Sion and shall yet chuse Jerusalem his returning is as it were a second election So when we return to God after a special fall it is as it were a new conversion and this is a special testimony of the truth of a mans sorrow that it is according to God 2. In time of publick humiliation when men would divert and turn away judgement either from a nation or a person then is the time for them to renew their Covenant and this was the ground of the Covenant the Hezekiah made 2 Chron. 29.8 Our fathers have transgressed and done that which was evil in the sight of the Lord wherefore the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem to destroy them and he hath delivered them to trouble to astonishment and to hissing as you see with your eyes our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this now it is in my heart to make
the bond-woman shall be born of the free-woman then can a man that is under the Covenant of works while he does so remain unbroken off be also under the Covenant of grace Answ 1 1. Of the Covenant of Grace there are two parts answerable to the two sorts of Promises that belong unto it as there are the Promises of this life and that which is to come so there are in the Covenant spiritual Priviledges and there are saving Graces and a man may be in the Covenant for the one and not for the other All that are truely converted they come under the Covenant in both respects but they that are onely so by Profession and outwardly they have it for the external Priviledges of the Covenant onely And this is clear from two places Rom. 3.1 he had shewed before that nothing but true faith and holiness gave a man an interest in the spiritual part of the Covenant it was not those outward things that a mans eternal happiness did consist in he is not a Jew that is one outwardly and although they be members of the Church of God as they are visible Professors Austin yet they are not partes sed pestes non membra sed ulcera c. as our Divines generally maintain it against the Popish Doctrine Vt Ecclesia catholica quam credimus ex solis constat electis Daven determ 46. And therefore these outward things avail nothing to the inward and spiritual part of the Covenant as before God but thy circumcision will be uncircumcision and the Lord saith Jer. 9.23 he will joyn them all together the circumcised with the uncircumcised for one is uncircumcised in flesh and another in his heart and therefore the Lord call'd them Rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrhae and their outward priviledges will serve to encrease their condemnation ripen their sins and hasten their ruine for he onely is in Gods account a Jew that is one inwardly Rom. 3.1 in the spirit not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now he comes to propound this very question Rom. 3.1 What advantage then has the Jew or what excellency has the Jew more than others for so the word is used Math. 5. What excellent thing do you now he addes that unto them did belong the external priviledges of the Covenant who had nothing to do with the spiritual graces of the Covenant and he makes it not a small matter to be under or have a right unto these outward priviledges but much every way chiefly in that unto them is committed the Oracles of God that the Law of God was written unto them Hos 8.12 and that it should be call'd Your Law John 8.7 they had a peculiar interest in it above all other people of the world it was a Law written unto them and as a Depositum committed unto them to keep and so I conceive the word used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes namely credita vel concredita sunt not onely as Beza saith ut proprium ipsorum thesaurum notat As it notes their proper treasure but also as that which they were to be Stewards of Isa 2. and to convey and transmit unto other people for the Law was to come out of Sion and the Word of God from Jerusalem and in the latter days the water shall issue out of the Sanctuary also Ezek. 47.8 and from thence shall go into the East countrey into the desart and shall go forth into the Sea and thereby the waters shall be healed so Rom. 9.4 he doth recount the external priviledges of the Jewish Church and Members thereof and he doth reckon up eight very remarkable ones whose is the adoption not spiritual adoption Rom. 9.4 but the honour to be called the Sons of God and to be separated from all other people Deut. 14.1 1 Sam. 4.22 and Nations under Heaven by a Marriage-covenant Exod. 19.5 the glory the Ark was the special token of Gods presence and to them was given the Law the Worship of God Praesentiae Dei Symbolum the Promises of whom were the Fathers and of whom according to the flesh Christ came Now all these did belong to the body of the Nation as being taken into a Marriage-covenant and the external priviledges of it which did belong to them that should never have any spiritual and saving benefit by it It 's one thing to have an interest in the Covenant in reference to the spiritual and eternal mercies of it call'd the sure mercies of David by the Prophet and by the Apostle the holy things of David and another to have interest in the Covenant only in reference unto the temporal Promises and outward priviledges thereof and there is many a man that has interest in the one that neither hath nor ever shall have benefit by the other Therefore those that are the Elect of God when converted they are taken into the Covenant for both but all the seed of Parents in Covenant are taken into the outward Court the external part of the covenant the temporal Promises and outward priviledges of it and are to enjoy them and may claim them as their priviledge and right till by their sin they do deserve to be ejected and cast out of the Church and excluded from this priviledge which as a kind of a birth-right by grace does belong unto them * As there is a two-fold being in Christ so there is a two-fold being in Covenant with God Christ considered as a head in Heaven so he has none but living members but considered as a Vine spreading himself into a visible Church on Earth so he has many unfruitful branches 2. I do not only grant but teach that as there are two Covenants so all Mankind for the state of their persons come under one of these they are all of them children and sons of a covenant answerably to their union with the heads of the Covenants the first and the second Adam Therefore 1 Cor. 15.47 the Apostle Paul makes but two men in the world Adam and Christ for both of them are Heads of a Covenant they that are in the first Adam not yet translated who do yet bear his Image they stand under his covenant and they that are in the second Adam bear his Image they stand under his covenant Gal. 3.29 and if you be Christs you be Abrahams seed c. and it 's as impossible for a man for the state of his person to be under both covenants as it is for a plant to grow upon two roots or for a man to be born of two Mothers the heads of the covenants are so expressely contrary and the terms of these covenants so directly opposite that it can never be that a man can belong to them both he that is admitted into the covenant of Grace must of necessity first be cut off from the covenant of Works for he cannot live by
a Righteousness in himself and in another also But yet this is true also that a man who for the state of his person is under the Covenant of Works may yet have a title unto many temporal promises and outward priviledges of the covenant of grace and receive many benefits thereby for the benefits of the Covenant of Grace are of three sorts 1 Vniversal which all the creatures have thereby even the whole creation it is by this covenant that the Government of the World is changed and put into the hand of the Mediator and so by this Covenant the World is establisht Isa 49.8 the creatures are preserved in their being which else for the sin of man by the curse of the first covenant should have been destroyed and by this means the patience of God is exercised towards wicked men and he doth spare them and even the Devils themselves by reason of the Dominion of Christ and the Covenant of Grace and the employments the Lord hath to use them in as Vessels of dishonour in this great house the Church therefore they have not the fulness of their Torment but there is a time of greater torment by them expected and at which they tremble by this means the Sun does rise and the Rain does fall upon the just and unjust 2 Tâ—â—re are some spiritual and eternal priviledges as Grace and Glory which belong onely to the Saints who are the onely proper heirs of the Covenant and for whose sake the Lord brought Light and Immortality to light through the Gospel 3 There are some evangelical priviledges or external Church-priviledges onely which belong unto some people whom God has by the calling of the Gospel separated unto himself where he will set up his Ordinances and make known his Name and many a man may have these who for the state of his person is under the Covenant of Works Quest 3 § 3. But if we should grant that children are with their parents taken into covenant yet you confess it 's but to the external priviledges of the Covenant and that many of them are never made partakers of the spiritual blessings thereof and therefore what do they gain by it seeing he is not a Jew that is one outwardly nor that circumcision that 's outward in the flesh but he is a Jew that is so inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter whose praise is not of man but of God What did Ishmael gain by being circumcised or Esau for if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision Rom. 2.25 and therefore it will but bring a further Judgment upon them Jer. 9.25 Jer. 9.25 I will punish all that are circumcised with the uncircumcised and it 's observed by the Learned that the Nations there mentioned with Judah did use Circumcision but yet being out of Covenant with God their circumcision is made uncircumcision and so it was with the Jews also that did break the Covenant and behave themselves unfaithfully therein therefore as the Gentiles converted are called Jewes Psal 87.4 5. and said to be born in Sion and to be the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 so the Jews though circumcised yet living impenitently are called Gentiles Cananites Amorites Ezek. 16.3 Hos 12.7 Amos 9.7 Ethiopians Sodomites Isa 1.10 c. therefore those outward priviledges may do them much hurt and may heighten their Judgment for there are none cast out with so great indignation as the children of the Kingdom and there are no mens Judgments that come up to that height as theirs and this is all the fruit that the greatest part of them have and for those that shall be saved they can have no spiritual and saving benefit in an ordinary and rational way till they be converted and do themselves consent unto the Covenant and therefore it 's a small matter that will be granted if this should be granted that Children are for the outward priviledges taken into Covenant with their Parents for whoever doth plead it that doth not himself consent to the Covenant doth but bring forth as it were Vriahs letters against himself Answ Unto all this that has been objected I shall answer under two heads 1 That it 's a Priviledge both unto parents and children that they should be taken into their parents covenant 2 I 'le shew you the particulars wherein this great priviledge doth consist and in what respect the children are gainers by it that never have any spiritual and saving benefit by the Covenant 1. That it is a special priviledge for parents and children that they are taken into their Parents Covenant will appear by these Arguments and Demonstrations 1. It will aggravate their sin if they abuse it therefore it 's a mercy and a priviledge in it self for what is not a mercy and a priviledge in it self that cannot add to a mans sin and Judgement Now as it is in Riches and Honours and all the Blessings in this Life they will be unto a man Judgements if they are abused therefore they are blessings in themselves blessings in the thing though a snare to the man so this very argument that 's brought to prove that they are no blessings and give no benefit doth clearly prove that the thing it self is a priviledge and a blessing 2. For a Child to be disinherited and cast out of his Fathers Covenant is a very great Judgement and the forest of all outward afflictions that can befall a man as we see it in Cain Gen. 4.14 Thou hast cast me out from the face of the Earth and from thy face I shall be hid it 's the Sentence of Excommunication that the Lord passeth upon Cain and so upon Ishmael Cast out the bond-woman and her son It 's sad for children to be cast out of their Parents inheritance but it 's a far greater Judgment to be cast out of their Parents Covenant and they to be deprived of that Birth-right which doth belong unto them by the second Covenant as being born of confederate Parents now if it be a great judgment to be cast out surely it 's a great Priviledge to be taken into their Parents Covenant 3. It 's promised as a special Blessing for the visible Church of God to continue in any mans Posterity and therefore we are to look upon it so Gen. 4.25 it was so in Seth God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew Gen. 9.27 and so it was promised to Shem that the Church of God should be in his Posterity continued and that in due time the Lord should enlarge Japhet to dwell also in the tents of Sem that is either of the Gentiles that should become a surrogated Israel when the Posterity of Sem were cast off and should be ingrafted in their room or else of the fulness of the Gentiles that should in the last dayes come in unto the Jews and so make up but one
Jews and Gentiles do grow 2 It is put for Abraham with whom this Covenant was first made and in whom after a sort the Covenant began and so I conceive Root is taken vers 16. If the root be holy so are the branches neither is there any inconvenience to say that the Covenant is the Root upon which Abraham and all the rest of his branches did grow and also that Abraham was the Root from which his seed did grow up into Covenant for he was the Root only by virtue of the Covenant which did in a manner begin with him and by virtue of this Covenant all his seed were as so many branches to grow upon him and were owned as a Church unto God 3 As the Olive-tree is the Church and that is but one and the Root is the Covenant and that is but one so the branches of this Olive-tree are to grow upon this Root and though many of the natural branches were broken off yet that does not make void the Covenant the Root still remains the same for others to be grafted in upon and some branches were grafted in that were taken out of another stock and that never grew upon this Covenant and their grafting in was being made members of the Church who were before strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel and the Covenant of promise and standing upon the Root was being taken into Covenant so that he that is taken into Covenant is thereby made a Church-member Whosoever therefore is taken into Covenant with God and hath a federal relation unto God that man is grafted into the Root and is made a branch of the true Olive-tree and grows upon the same Root that all the Saints of God do grow on and therefore to be taken into Covenant and to be made a member of the visible Church is in the notion of the Spirit of God and in the language of the Scripture the same thing Whence it appears that there is but one Covenant between Jews and Gentiles one Root that bears them both 2. Though the Covenant be the same in substance yet it is under different administrations In the Covenant three things are carefully to be distinguished for the external Ordinances thereof There are three things in the Doctrine of the Covenant that are carefully to be distinguish'd 1 There is a twofold being in Christ one by a Mystical Union so he that is in Christ is a New Creature and the other by an external Profession and so as Christ is a Vine spreading himself into a visible Church 2 Cor. 8.17 he has many unfruitfull branches 2 The Covenant has two parts 1 One inward and spiritual which is by Faith and Conversion and the benefits of it are Justification Adoption and Sanctification which is the Covenant spoken of Jer. 31.33 I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts 2 Another external which entitles a man to the outward priviledges only and this is the Covenant in regard of the outward administrations owning them for a visible Church of God thus God is said to break with the Jews for the Covenant of Grace in the spiritual part of it is everlasting Zach. 11.10 and cannot be broken 3 Answerable to this two-fold consideration of the Covenant so there are different Seals annex'd thereunto unto the spiritual part of the Covenant there is added the Seal of the Spirit which is secret between God and the Soul Eph. 1.13 4.30 and unto the external part of the Covenant there are added visible Seals before men and these visible Seals are different amongst the Jews and the Christians the Ordinance and Seal of Admission amongst the Jews was Circumcision but it 's Baptism amongst Christians therefore the administration is varyed though the Covenant remain the same Heb. 9.10 and for this cause the times of the Gospel are call'd the times of Reformation that is when all these weak and beggerly Elements though they were Gods Ordinances should be removed and new and more spiritual and unchangeable Ordinances stablished in their room for the Ordinances and Administrations of the Gospel are those that shall never be changed but continue the same to the end of the world as they are the best so they shall be the last as these Two places do clearly prove Matth. 28.19 Go teach and baptize all Nations and I am with you to the end of the world therefore that administration shall never be changed and 1 Cor. 11. Ye shew forth the Lords death till he come therefore that Administration shall last unto the second coming of the Lord. Heb. 8.7 There is a double time that the Saints of God in all ages have had a special eye upon they in the Old Testament upon the times or as it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the season or the fit time appointed by the Father for the reformation of all things and there is a time that the Saints in the New Testament are to have an eye upon and that is the time of the restitution of all things which referre to the same time 2 Pet. 3.13 and Revel 21.1 a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and Earth is passed away c. Heb. 8.8 and it is therefore commonly call'd a New Covenant because though it be the same yet it 's under new outward administrations and this was prophesied Dan. 9.27 Dan. 9.27 he shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week That is in the last seven years of that Provincial Kalender the Seventy two weeks which was the time of the continuance of the Jewish Church and Worship after their return out of Babylon in the last seven years thereof Christ the Messiah should establish the Covenant with many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's meant of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles and bringing them into the Fellowship of the Gospel and the New Covenant who were before strangers to it and it is said Multitudes should be converted and in three years and a half that is half the week by the Ministry of Christ the Jewish Sacrifices and Oblations and all their Ceremonies shall be disanulled and the administration changed and that shall make way for the destruction of their City and State 3. The administration being changed in reference to the new Administration the Jews and the Gentiles are upon equal terms and have an equal right one as well as another whosoever freely and voluntarily submits thereunto A mans external right to the Covenant comes from his subjection to the present administration under which God has put the Covenant the Covenant of Grace was the same which God revealed unto Adam immediately after his fall in that first Promise Gen. 3.15 and when the Saints did gather into visible Churches or Societies and thereby separate themselves from the world to worship God in a Communion of Saints it was the external Priviledges of the same Covenant Gen. 4. ult
heart hast thou done these great things that is of thy own free grace and unexpected Love because thou wouldst have mercy and yet it is Mercy to Abraham but it is Truth to Jacob c. Mic. 7. v. ult and therefore Austin calls the promise Chirographum Dei Gods Bond it is the bond or hand-writing that God has given the creature to assure him of Heaven so that as the Apostle calls the Law Chirographum contra nos Col. 2. a bond against us so are the promises the bond that is for us because they do speak God to be with us 4. All this is through Christ both making and performing 2 Cor. 1.20 so it is in him that the promises are Yea and Amen as all the precepts of the Law though given to us yet they are principally required of Christ as our surety and the transgressions of them are laid upon him so all the promises of the Gospel though they be made unto the Saints yet they be primarily made unto Christ as our head and representative for as we have heard he is the seed with whom the covenant is made and he is given unto us as a covenant so he is primarily the Heir of promise and as in respect of possession Esa 49.8 we enter into his inheritance called our masters joy so in respect of the promise and reversion we come under his covenant and so partake of his inheritance and have no further any promise made to us than as we are one with Christ and no promise is performed to us but by virtue of union with him and therefore it's Christus in aggregato Christ mystical that is the proper subject of all the promises and their accomplishment is to himself as the head and to the Saints as the body § 2. Why doth Gods part of the Covenant in this life mainly consist in promises It 's true that these promises shall end in performances and Heaven is the accomplishment of all the promises it is a promised as well as a purchased possession when the Saints are all gathered home all the promises shall be at an end and therefore in that respect faith shall cease for the object of it shall be taken away and therefore the acts of it must needs come to an end though it 's true that the habit of faith as well as all other graces being a part of the image of God and the new creation of Christ is of an eternal nature but yet the Lord does mainly dwell with his people in a way of promise and the covenant on his part doth run in promises 1 Cor. 2.5 7. 1. The life that the Saints live in this world must be a life of faith and not by sight there is another life though we live by faith and not by sight here that in glory is reserved for us and another manner of living and the main objects of faith are the promises Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4.19 21. He staggered not through unbelief He did not reason pro and con about it because faithful is he that has promised and he will also do it he is able to perform It 's true there is a faith that rests upon the whole Word of God as true and good and so the soul receives it but yet the object of faith by which the soul rests on God is mainly the promise so that as obedience is the Law written in the heart so also the object of faith is the promise written in the heart the Lord lets in the promise and the soul rests thereupon and if the Lord had not dealt so in a way of promises our life could never have been a life of faith 2. They are the great grounds of our hope and thereby the Lord will sweeten our obedience he doth not give forth a bare command as an act of Soveraignty but he adds thereunto a promise as an act of Grace Heb. 6.18 The Lord willing to shew the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that we might have strong consolation who are fled for refuge to the hope set before them which hope we have as an anchor to the soul And the Anchor is cast under water and takes hold of something that is not seen as yet for if I see it why do I yet hope for it Now though it 's true a godly man should not yield obedience meerly for reward yet a man may have respect to the recompence of reward and though it is true that this should not be the great thing that should launch them forth in duties of holiness yet this is a good wind to fill the sails the Lord letting him see that there is an inseparable communion of Gods glory and our good also duty and mercy 〈◊〉 hand in hand and that the Lord requires no duty but it is for our good always t◠he may perform unto us the promise that is annexed thereunto There is an amor merc◠〈◊〉 love of reward that is not mercenary Heb. 12.1 Christ had the joy set before him that did sweete 〈◊〉 sufferings he had a glory and a posterity promised him and Moses had respect also to the recompence of the reward Heb. 11.25 And the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.18 While we look at the things that are not seen that is the scope and the main aim of the soul in all our obedience active or passive and by this the Lord doth delight to sweeten our way 3. The promises are the great means of the souls purification 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us purge our selves having these promises and perfect holiness And by these great and precious promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature The promises are the Treasury of all that grace that God doth intend to bestow upon his people and from thence do the Saints fetch it Isa 12.3 for they are the wells of salvation and it is by this that the soul is fitted for the performance there is a being made meet and 't is the promise that made them so as a mans beholding of God in himself doth transform him perfectly into the image of God Col. 1.12 2 Cor. 3.18 so beholding God in the promise does transform a man by degrees into the image of that holiness that is in the promise A man looking upon himself sees his heart as a barren wilderness as empty of grace as the first Chaos was of form and beauty Now he says what is impossible with man is possible with God and the soul sucks a promise and is thereby changed into the image thereof 4. That they may be the rule of the prayers of the Saints for his will must be the rule of our prayers as well as of all other acts of our obedience the precepts of the one and the promises of the other we must ask according to his will if we hope to speed and therefore our prayers should be nothing else but pressing God with
is more of God discovered in the meanest Saint than there is in the Sun Moon and Stars and in the most glorious creature Dan. 12. 't is said They shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their father the glory of the Sun is not to be compared unto them c. To see beauty is a great delight to the eye but much more for souls to see their own beauty to see the image of God in the Saints here is glorious and to see it in a mans self is more comfortable much more taking shall it be and more comfortable to see it hereafter when it shall be perfected 5. They shall see all things that concern themselves in God Adam had a Law written in his heart that was the guide of his way and the Saints have also in their hearts a rule as well as in the book but the Saints in Heaven have no other book but God Beati in Deo vident omnes actiones circumstantias ad se pertinentes The blessed see in God all actions and circumstances that belong unto them This is the book in which they shall read lectures in his face for ever the Dectatis speculum the glass of the Deity as their happiness shall be wholly in God for God shall be all in all so their direction shall come from him immediately and so shall their consolation and their acceptation they shall see that God is pleased with them for ever whatsoever they put their hands to and they shall be no more in doubt of the rule and go with their way hid no more as many of the Saints here walk uncomfortably because sometimes their duty is hidden from them the rule in some particular cases is dark to them and they droop many times because they know not what to do though their eyes be lifted up yet be of good chear poor soul it shall be otherwise when thou comest to enjoy this vision of God in glory 6. It shall be a vision that shall be everlasting we shall behold his face for ever here in this life in our greatest discoveries of God there is an interruption a veil that is drawn between us and our God and though now we are sometimes in the light by and by we walk in darkness again but in Heaven the discovery shall be perpetual we shall see his face so that he will never hide his face from us more we shall never lose the sight of God unto eternity God will never withdraw himself from us for he doth embrace you with everlasting mercy and sin shall never interpose or cause an Eclipse This is the extent of this glorious Vision which shall never be accomplished till thou come to glory here we are to have it in our eye continually and to exercise faith about it O walk in the hope of it for here is the happiness of the Saints and if the Attributes of God that are discovered to them and made over to them be not sufficient to make them happy yet surely there is enough in the very Essence of God himself know he is thy God in Covenant quantus quantus est and if there be enough in him to make himself happy surely there is enough to make thee happy also and therefore blessed is the soul whose God is Jehovah SECT II. Questions touching the Beatifick Vision resolved § 1. FOR the further opening of this point it being of highest concernment as that wherein the perfection of our blessedness lyes there are several Questions to be resolved 1 Why the happiness of the creature must consist in vision 2 Whether this vision can attain to the Essence of God to see God as he is in himself or no 3 Whether it be only an intellectual vision or corporal with the bodily eyes also 4 What is the happiness that doth follow upon this vision that we may see how this vision doth conduce to the blessedness of the creature Quest 1 It 's true that the happiness of the creature lyes in God who is the chief good but why should it consist in the Vision of God Answ 1. Our eternal happiness doth consist in vision because this is the way by which God doth dispense all things unto us it being the only way that is agreeable to the rational nature for as the Lord doth expect that all that comes from us should be reasonable service modo naturae rationali proportionato proportionate to our nature so all that he doth communicate unto us he doth it in a rational way this is the way of nature and this is the way of grace and therefore the Lord will make it to be the way of conveying all things to us in glory 1 This is the way of Nature the will of man is appetitus rationalis a rational appetite and therefore it can receive nothing unless there be a Dictamen of the understanding that goes before and answerable to the Dictamen such is the choice and election of the will and hence come such various impressions upon the will sometimes there is a good inclination and a good purpose or resolution the man is almost perswaded and by and by the will is off again because the understanding represents things otherwise not holding on in its former light and when there is in the understanding an ultimum dictamen a last dictamen then doth the will firmly and constantly close and therefore sin came in that way Satan knew that there was no corrupting of the will but by the understanding for an immediate access to the will there was not therefore the woman was deceived and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lyes in the understanding properly This is the way of nature there must be a light in the understanding and that brings resolution and election and all things into the will and acts it 2 This is the way of Grace also the Lord when he will change the will doth it first by a spiritual illumination of the understanding and from thence there doth by the power of grace come an effectual determination of the will to embrace that ultimum dictamen last dictate of the enlightned understanding and that makes a free and chearful choice of that supernatural good which is to the understanding by a spiritual and heavenly light discovered and clearly apprehended thereby there is a teaching that goes with the drawing of the Father Joh. 6.44 And so it is for all growth and increase of grace also for grace is improved in the same manner as it is at first created men grow in grace as they grow in knowledge 2 Pet. 3.18 as the Lord will enlarge the affections so he doth first raise the apprehensions of the man 3 Glory being in some respects but the perfection of the same grace for Divines commonly say that grace and glory differ but in degrees therefore the way that the Lord took in the one he doth take the same in the other also as he sanctifies the man modo
c. Thou art Christ the Son of God it 's the confession of Peters faith and is also called the Foundation of the Churches faith 1 Cor. 3.11 And so there is Divine Worship given to Christ as Mediator they worship the Lamb this is by reason of union and yet it is evident Rev. 4. that the humane nature remains a creature after its union and therefore it is as he is the Son and so is coessential with the Father this is the formalis ratio the proper cause of this Divine Faith and Worship and so the Holy Ghost also he is to be believed for himself and his own testimony the Spirit is truth 1 Joh. 5.6 and the Scriptures are to be believed only for the testimony of the Spirit 2 Pet. 1.21 But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost therefore we are commanded to hear what the Spirit says unto the Churches he is called therefore the Spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4.13 4. That we may honour them in our prayers distinctly for whomsoever a man is to believe in him he may pray unto Rom. 10.14 How can they call on him in whom they have not believed And therefore in our prayers we are not only to go unto God but unto each of the persons with distinct petitions suitable unto the acts that they have undertaken and the offices in which they have made over themselves unto the Saints under the new Covenant Christ he prays to the Father Holy Father righteous Father I will that those that thou hast given me be with me sanctifie them by thy truth And Stephen at his death Lord Jesus receive my spirit And the Disciples Lord increase our faith And so doth the Church Tell me where thou feedest c. The Apostle commonly speaks of them all together The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Spirit be with you And Rev. 1.5 6. Grace from him that is and was and is to come and from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne and from Jesus the faithful and true witness And as it is a mans duty to believe in the Son as well as the Father so it is to pray to the Son distinctly as also unto the Father for as our faith must distinctly take in all the objects of faith or else it is imperfect for there are two things that tend to the perfection of any grace 1 When it takes in all the objects in their extent and latitude 2 When they do put forth compleat and perfect acts upon these objects thus I say as faith must take in all its objects or else there is something wanting in it as the Apostle speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wants of faith so must faith give unto each of these their due and proper glory and Christ being to be believed in he may be prayed unto nay it 's an honour that belongs unto him and therefore our faith must give it to him 5. That the soul may have a distinct fellowship and communion with them all and there is a fellowship with the Spirit 1 Joh. 1.3 we are by the Gospel brought into communion with God and it 's a distinct fellowship and communion that we are to have with all the persons our communion is as large as our relation and the soul is to look upon himself as reconciled to them all and therefore all of them are become our friends and we have a particular and distinct interest in them all Now how is a man said to have fellowship with God or to walk with God it is when the thoughts of a mans heart are taken up with God and he has an eye unto him and unto his glory from day to day As a man is said to have communion with the Devil when he walks with his temptations and the desires and thoughts of his heart do run out towards the unfruitful works of darkness a man has fellowship with the Devil in all things as it is said Prov. 6.22 The law shall talk with a man waking and keep him when he is asleep and lead him when he goes how is this is it is but in the thoughts and the meditations of a mans own heart by the suggestions and directions thereof where it doth richly dwell so it is in this also it is communion with God and Gods dwelling in the soul animus ascendit frequenter c. the soul frequently ascends there is gratiarum decursus recursus a flowing down and reflowing of graces and in this doth our communion lye Now a man having an interest in all the persons all of them having undertaken something for a mans good by way of office and a man receiving something from them all and returning praise to them all there is in the soul a distinct fellowship to be exercised with them all sometimes the thoughts of his heart being drawn out to the Father and sometimes unto the Son and sometimes unto the Spirit and observing the witnessing of them all and the sealing of them all unto the evidences of the Saints sometimes we walk with the Father and sometimes with the Son and sometimes with the Spirit and the more distinct a mans communion is the more sweet it is 6. That a man may draw arguments and motives unto duty and against sin from them all and a mans interest in them all We are said to be baptized in the name of them all Mat. 28.20 Mat. 28.20 Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Now what is it to be baptized into the name of the Father it's conceived to be taken from the manner of marriage wherein the wife doth transire in nomen in familiam c. into the name and family of the husband or of servants who had their masters name called upon them 1 Cor. 1.13 and therefore no man might be baptized in the name of a creature it is that which Paul detests that he should baptize in his own name and therefore the meaning is to be baptized in fidem in cultum into the faith and worship of God and so you are unto them all and give up your names unto them all and therefore unto each person we owe both faith and worship distinctly all manner of duty and obedience because we are distinctly baptized unto the faith of them all to believe in them and worship them and a man should draw arguments to keep him from sin from them all and his interest in them all the Father is greater than all and it is by his will we are sanctified If we call him Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1.15 And he says of Christ I send my Angel but take heed of him obey his voice provoke him not for my name is in him And grieve
therefore being so highly advanced as to be enjoyers of communion with God be exalted 1 to grow in your conformity to Jesus Christ for that is the ground of all communion What fellowship hath light with darkness O 't is a blessed thing to have this testimony from God himself which David had I have found David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart which shall fulfil all my wills 2 Accustom your selves to communion with him Job 22.21 acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come to thee receive the Law from his mouth and lay up his words in thy heart we cannot have too much communion with God who is our life our joy our peace who is our all c. and the more communion we have with God the greater blessings we shall be to the Nation wherein we dwell not only to procure blessings for them but to divert Judgments CHAP. V. God in the Covenant of Grace makes over himself in his Alsufficience SECT I. The Alsufficience of God as made over to the Saints explicated and demonstrated § 1. HAving spoken thus far of the great Promise of the new Covenant which is called anima foederis the soul of the Covenant by Pareus and Musc calls it foederis caput the head of the Covenant unto which all the other promises are subordinate even the gift of Christ himself is but to bring us to God and that our faith and hope might be in God and though we have formerly seen that in this promise all the Attributes of the Divine Nature are made over unto the Saints and what we have further to say might be included under that head yet to be a God I find in Scripture doth in a special manner point us unto two things 1 To be a God notes one that has an alsufficiency unto his own Being and blessedness and an alsufficience to the Being and the blessedness of all the creatures 2 It notes him to have a Soveraignty and Dominion over all the creatures which are but the works of his hands the first they take from Gen. 17.1 I am God alsufficient and I will make a covenant between thee and me and the terms of that Covenant on Gods part are I will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee that as I am a God alsufficient so I will be thy God thy God in my alsufficiency and the other they do commonly take from that place Rom. 9.5 God over all blessed for evermore so that he that is God is over all as the first notes the Sufficiency so the other notes the Soveraignty of God 1. I am God alsufficient Gen. 17.1 I will in my alsufficiency be thy God Gen. 17.1 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shaddai which has a double notation or derivation amongst Interpreters some derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies vastavit spoliavit he hath destroyed and so it signifies the omnipotent one that is able to destroy all things as he made all things of nothing so he is able to reduce them unto their first nothing and according to this derivation the LXX render it sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esa 13.6 Joel 1.15 It shall come as destruction from the Almighty and sometimes it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that made all things Job 8.3 Doth the Almighty pervert judgment And some of the Rabbins conceive that he adds this unto it à vastatione mundi in diluvio c. from the destruction of the world by the floud others derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficience and they say it is qui sibi aliis sufficiens est he that is sufficient for himself and others and so the LXX render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 31.2 and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that has a sufficiency in himself and so they make it to answer unto the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-sufficient These and some other are the derivations of the word but I conceive they do all coincidere or fall in with these two 1 Some make it a title only given unto Christ as Mediator Lib. 3. c. 15. so doth Pet. Galatinus de arcanis Nomen hoc divinum propriè soli Messiae sit congruum which he proves from that place Job 3.4 anima Shadai vivificavit me and he saith the Father has not a soul animam solus Dei Filius habet the Son of God only hath a soul So Glass in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 33. which he proves from Gen. 48.16 The Angel Goel that redeemed me from all evil c. which though it be a notion that I shall not insist on yet it doth prove the Godhead of Christ having the glorious names of God given to him as he is called Jehovah our Righteousness and he is called God Heb. 1. Thy throne O God endures for ever and Esa 9.6 he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also But 2 we shall take it at this time as a term of alsufficiency and so it takes in Gods Omniscience and all his other Attributes I am God alsufficient and I that am so will be thy God in my alsufficiency Doct. The Lord who is a God in Covenant with the Saints doth make over himself unto them in his Alsufficiency In the opening whereof I must shew 1 What the alsufficiency of God is and why he is called Alsufficient and in what respect 2 That by the Covenant of Grace he makes over himself in his Alsufficience unto the Saints with the grounds thereof 3 That this Alsufficience belongs unto none but unto his Covenant-people 4 We must descend to the Application 1. What is meant by the Alsufficience of God or why is God called Alsufficient A perfect good is an alsufficient good Arist Ethic. l. 1. c. 7. Now that is a perfect good which supplies all a mans wants and does satisfie all his desires both in this life and in the life to come which only can do it if enjoyed alone and without which nothing else can if a man had all the enjoyments of Heaven and of Earth 1. There is in God enough to supply all a mans wants a man cannot stand in need of that blessing that is not to be found in the blessed God and that is not only efficiently as all good things come from him but formally as all good things are in him for he doth make use of the support of the creatures as he doth of all their operations not to supply any defect that is in himself and therefore sometimes he will make use of their assistance and sometimes he will do it without them to shew that they are but instruments and operantur ac si non operarentur and this will appear Psal 84.11 The Lord God is a Sun there is a double notion of a Sun in Scripture 1 Ob splendorem foelicitatem significat 2 Ob
as the Saints love God and they love grace for Gods sake so the Devil directly hates God and he hates grace as being that by which God is most honoured therefore his greatest designs are to pervert grace in the Saints he will keep men as long as he can to stand out against grace and resist it as long as he can that the strong man armed may keep the house but if he cannot keep grace out of the heart then his next design is to advance grace above a creature and set it in the place of God and Christ and make grace it self to be an Idol and the man to place his sufficiency in it and his dependence upon it and he knows that God is engaged against the habits of grace in the man though they be the works of his own Spirit the Apostle saith that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an occasion that sin will take from the Law of God written in the book Rom. 7. and so it will from the Law of God written in the heart also and therein the devillishness and the wisdom of the flesh in a great measure lies that as the wise God doth make advantage by sin and temper the greatest poyson into the most wholesom Cordial as we see in Viper-wine if it be not well mixt it presently kills so the richest Cordial even the grace of God Satan tempers with his ingredients into the strongest poyson that it may be occultum profundum malum quòd homo non malus bonis operibus sese vestiat alat sed ipsius fidei titulo sese palpet venditet c. Serpentis antiqui caput hoc est Luther Luther Tom. 2. Thus as the Lord works by contraries bringing light out of darkness and the greatest good sometimes out of the greatest evil so doth Satan also work by contraries and delights to do it to bring darkness out of light and to bring the greatest evil out of that which is the greatest good even grace it self for quò quis sanctior eò pejor the better the worse if he place his sufficience and dependence upon the grace he has received for that is Idolum speciosissimum the most specious evil Now that I may take the Saints off from a dependence upon their own graces and that their sufficiency may be placed in God alone consider these particulars 1. Though grace be the best of all the creatures and the image of God and a new Creation wrought by the Spirit of Christ which the Lord takes more delight in than he doth in all the creatures and without which he can take no pleasure in any of them yet grace is but a creature and therefore the common nature of a creature doth belong to it and that is to be defectible and subject in its own nature to decay It 's true Eph. 4.24 Col. 3.10 that it is the same image that is renewed in us which we lost in Adam Now as the image in Adam was subject to decay so in its own nature this is also As it is with the Angels though they be confirmed in grace and can never fall away so it is with the souls of just men made perfect yet being creatures there is a defectibility in them a possible folly though not actual Job 4.18 he charges his Angels with folly c. and so there is in grace it self it 's true grace cannot decay but it is not properly from any thing that is in it self but from a double ground 1 Ex foedere gratiae from the Covenant of Grace in which the Lord has promised that he will keep them it 's an everlasting Covenant to put his fear in their hearts Jer. 32.40 that they shall never depart from him For we are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. and so we cannot fall away not ex interna renatorum constitutione not from the intern constitution of the renewed but because the faithfulness and thereby the power of God is engaged for their preservation 2 Ex fonte gratiae from the Fountain of Grace for the fountain of it is not in a mans self it is of his fulness that we receive grace for grace 1 Joh. 5 1◠it is the image of the Son and so it is not from God immediately but as being laid up in him So there is a great deal of difference between the image of God in Adam and in the Saints Gen. 11. as Austin has well observed De Corruptione Gratia there is non solùm posse quod volumus sed velle quod possumus if the fountain of it were in our selves it might decay but it being laid up in Christ and he being by virtue of the personal Union impeccable so long as grace in Christ doth not decay it cannot decay in the Saints for he has said Because I live Luther you shall live also Joh. 14.19 Quà m hominibus impossibile est mixtum fermentum à pasta separare tam impossibile est diabolo Christum ab Ecclesia separare Luth. therefore place not your sufficiency in a creature for grace received is no more 2. It is contrary to the very nature of grace to be made the ground of a mans dependence for grace in its own nature is properly to be dependent upon another and the fountain of its sufficiency is in another therefore God is called the God of all grace and the Sprit is the Spirit of grace the Spirit of faith and love and joy for all graces are fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. Joh. 3. and a man is said to be born of the Spirit upon this ground Christ is the root and we are the branches he is the head and we are the members and therefore the fountain of the life of grace is in him and not in us the fountain of our life is Christ and we live by union with him a life of holiness as well as a life of righteousness all is by union with him And therefore some very learned men have maintained That there are no habits of grace in us at all but that we live by an immediate influence from the Spirit of Christ which dwelling in us doth act our spirits sometimes in a way of faith sometimes in a way of love sometimes in a way of godly sorrow c. which I cannot consent to as being an extreme on the other hand we are said to be new creatures and created in Christ and we are said to have faith and hope as fruits of the Spirit dwelling in us and therefore we are exhorted to stir them up and to act them and to grow in them and they are said to decay in us and to increase in us which cannot be in respect of acts meerly by the Spirit of God working upon us but we have truly a life within us that is an inward principle that puts forth vital actions Gal. 2.20 but yet it is
and this is the ambition and the endeavour of every child of God that the law within may fully answer the law without that the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished to every good work as well as every good word and may be ready in season and out of season always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that his labour shall not be in vain in the Lord this is our perfection to glorifie God always in our hearts and in our lives c. CHAP. VI. The Soveraignty of God made over to the Saints in the new Covenant SECT I. How and why Gods Soveraignty is made over to the Saints Doctr. § 1. I Now come unto the second particular implied in the fourth Head and that is the Soveraignty of God which is made over in this promise I will be thy God for God doth imply a Supremacy Rom. 9.5 He is God over all Eph. 4.6 There is one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all c. And hence the Observation is That God hath in the new Covenant made over his Soveraignty and Supremacy over all things to the Saints so that it shall be truly exercised as for his own glory so for their good also And for the handling of this point I must shew 1 What the Soveraignty of God is 2 That it is by the Father committed into the hands of Christ 3 That it was by the Father committed and is by Christ exercised in the behalf of the Saints in all the administrations of it 4 The grounds or the reasons of it why it was necessary that to whom he should be a God they should have an interest in him as he is Lord of all 5 The Application of all 1. What is the Soveraignty of God It is that absolute and universal Authority which he hath over all things as being the works of his own hands and so much Christ teaches his Disciples to acknowledge Mat. 6.13 Thine is the kingdom Psal 10.2 19. The Lord hath prepared his throne in heaven and his kingdom ruleth over all and therefore he is called a great King Mal. 1.14 King of kings and Lord of lords and therefore all things are said to be in the hand of the Lord Deut. 33.3 all the Saints are in his hand Esa 50.2 Is my hand shortned Isa 50.2 Now there is a hand-ruling a hand-providing a hand-protecting a hand-assisting a hand-inflicting and a hand-dispensing for all these are to be understood by the hand of the Lord in the Scripture And this Kingdom and Dominion of God 1 is universal there is no restraint or limitation of his Kingdom it doth reach unto all things in Heaven and in Earth his Kingdom ruleth over all he doth whatever he will in Heaven and in Earth and in the Sea and in all deep places and therefore he is commonly in Scripture called The Lord of Hosts The Lord of Hosts is with us and the God of Jacob is our refuge Jam. 5.4 c. Jam. 5.4 The crys of them enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath or Hosts all the creatures are under his power as their absolute Commander in chief all is but his Army and he is the General of them he doth order and marshal them all at his pleasure There are four respects why he is called the Lord of Hosts 1 propter numerum multitudinem they are many not a few but the whole army of them from the Angels in Heaven unto the meanest creatures the whole host of them is in his hand under his power and at his dispose 2 Propter ordinem dispositionem they are not barely a number but they are ordered and placed in their several conditions and ranks Joel 2.7 Joel 2.7 it is expounded of the Locusts and Caterpillars that the Lord did threaten and he saith They shall every one keep their ranks even in the most disorderly condition of things there is an order that the Lord doth set the stars in their courses shall fight Judg. 5.20 c. the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab exaltationibus suis from their Towers it 's a Metaphor taken from fighting from Castles or some high places of strength from their Towers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint renders it and so we also render it in their order and in their courses as God hath set them 3 Propter praeparationem they are an army and therefore prepared for the battel ready to go upon all services any design that the Lord would appoint them for they have their weapons in their hands Ezech. 9.1 Every man with his slaughter-weapon in his hand the very Flies and the Lice the Caterpillar and the Canker-worm they are all of them armed and all of them ready for service when he doth command them 4 Propter subordinationem obedientiam they all of them go at his commandment they continue to this day according to his ordinance for all are his servants they do dispatch his commands for he saith to one Go and he goeth c. as it is said of the Angels Ezech. 1.14 Their going and returning is as a flash of lightning with the greatest readiness and dexterity that can be every one of them moves in their own due order with all possible speed that can be 2 It is supreme his government is independent upon any other all other Authorities are from God and therefore they all hold of him Dan. 4.17 The most High rules in the kingdoms of mortal men c. deponit reges disponit regna à Deo sunt omnes potestates quamvis non omnium voluntate magnus est Caesar sed Deo minor he deposeth Kings and disposeth Kingdoms c. and therefore saith the Lord Ezech. 21.26 I will overturn overturn remove the diadem and take away the crown Yea the Lord Jesus Christ though he be King of Kings and the great and the only Potentate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he received the Kingdom from another Esa 9.6 Dan. 7.14 he gives a Kingdom and Power and great Dominion he doth commit all judgment to the Son he hath a government but it is given him and though he be our Lord yet he is therein but the Fathers servant c. and therefore he doth rule so as none other doth 1 He gives all what being he will according to his Soveraignty and therefore there are several degrees of beings they were all in his hand and there is an election unto being and unto the order of being 2 He doth appoint them to their end as he made all for his own glory and they shall be unto his glory so in what way he will glorifie himself by them some in mercy and some in judgment some vessels unto honour and some unto dishonour 3 He doth give them what law he will some have a law written in their nature there are ordinances of the heavens and some have a law
in all things written in the book of the Law to do them which cannot be meant of the Ceremonial Law but of the Moral Law and therefore if this Interpretation could stand the answer were easie that the subserviency of the Ceremonial Law was to end when the seed came and yet the Moral the copy of the first Covenant was still to remain and might be a servant to the Gospel and Gospel-ends but it must be understood of the Moral and that was the Law that was added till the seed came 2. Some by the Law understand the whole Pedagogy of Moses in the Ceremonial Judicial and Moral Law and so Beza and Pareus that way of discovering of the mind of God under the time of the Law which was to last only till the coming of Christ the promised seed and all these were added because of transgression that the Jews might thereby be stirred up to long for Christ to come and to pray and wait for the consolation of Israel being shut up under the Law and this darker and obscurer and less spiritual administration till Faith should come that is the dispensation of the Gospel which was afterward to be revealed as it is ver 23. for though the Saints were heirs of the Promises yet they were during that administration as it were under the morning twi-light the Sun not being yet risen as Beza has it and so by the Law he understands the same that before we understood in the continuance of the Law and the Prophets untill John and makes the sense of the words to be the same 3. Some do conceive the seed to be meant primarily indeed of Christ personal but yet in the second place of Christ Mystical Christ with the whole body of Christ and the Church the promise being made unto Christ primarily being primus foederatus the second Adam and the Head and Prince of the Covenant yet so that as the first Covenant was not made with the first Adam in his person only but together with him with all his posterity in him so the Covenant is first made with Christ the second Adam but yet not with him apart from his body but with them in him and so they understand the seed to be not only Christ in himself though he be primarily meant but also Christ in his body all the faithful and then the meaning seems to be this that so long as there are any of this seed to come or to be brought into the body of Christ and to be continued and kept there so long there will be this use of the Law Reinolds the use of the Law as given for the Seed discovering sin restraining it and condemning it that they may with the greater earnestness fly to the city of refuge And as for those places Rom. 6.14 and Rom. 7. it is spoken of Adam as under the Law as a Covenant and as a Husband irritating strengthning and stirring up sin in us sin taking occasion by the Commandment for so he saith Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law as a husband stirring up sin in you and thereby bringing forth fruit unto death but under grace as pardoning and so healing corruption and subduing sin and breaking the power thereof and so you are not under the Law provoking sin and strengthning it but under Grace healing sanctifying and subduing it Gal. 5.18 As many as are led by the Spirit are not under the law irritating sin and forcibly compelling unto duty Thus a man may be freed from the Law in these evil effects of it which are but fruits of the Curse even upon the Law of God it self accidentally as it meets with a corrupt nature and yet the Law remain unto those good ends for which it was given in the hand of a Mediator for our Salvation and to advance the Grace of the Gospel Vse 1 § 4. First then it is for Instruction in several particulars 1. It shews us the great end of God in publishing the Law it was for the Saints and for their good only The Law was published by Christ he was the Law-giver of him Moses received lively Oracles Act. 7. and Heb. 12. the end and giving of the Law was in reference unto the seed to whom the promise was made As there is a double end of the Gospel so there is of the Law 1 That which was intended principally and by it self and that only was Salvation both in the Law and in the Gospel to advance the ends of the Gospel 2 There is an accidental end Intentio principalis per se that which follows not from the nature of the thing but from the evil disposition of the subject and so unto all unregenerate men the Law doth discover their sins and make them out of measure sinful doth irritate and stir up their corruptions and so doth heighten and increase them and their condemnation for them as the Gospel doth but yet we may say of the Law as Christ does of himself That he came not into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved yet by accident he did condemn the world being despised and set for the falling as well as the rising of many in Israel but the proper and principal intent of his coming was salvation and not damnation so here I may say of the Law as it 's said of Christ had there not been some souls that Christ did intend to life he had never come into the world so had there not been a seed unto whom the Law vvas to be a servant the Lord had never given the Lavv never renevved it for there vvas condemnation enough in the vvorld before and death enough before and the vvrath of God did abound upon men the Gospel brings it not upon them but leaves them under it neither vvas it Gods intention in the Lavv to bring them under further condemnation though it does through their corruption prove so but had it not been for the seed the Lavv had never been added as a handmaid to the Gospel so that all the use of the Lavv and the discoveries of it to unregenerate men they do ovve to the Saints for it vvas for their sakes only that Christ did reveal it again to the vvorld 2. See the folly of those that cry dovvn the preaching of the Lavv it vvas published by Christ the foundation of the Gospel and the only Gospel Preacher the great Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gloss and Jerome do expound the vvord Isa 41.27 and yet the Lavv is dispensed unto the seed by and in the hand of this Mediator he that loved this seed so that he laid dovvn his life for it abased his glory and veiled his Godhead yet he did as a fruit of his love unto this seed deliver the Lavv unto them and in the days of his flesh interpreted it and vvill you slight his Love vvill you say it is