with your whole hearts O God I cannot be satisfied untill thou art pleased to become my God c. the Lord would certainly answer the desires of your hearts 2. If you would have God to be your God in Covenant you must then break Break your Covenant with sinne your Covenant with sinne There are two Covenants which are inconsistent with this Covenant of grace 1. One is the Covenant of good works 2. The other is the Covenant with bad works If one will set up his confidence on his own good works he makes void the Covenant of grace and if one will set his heart upon his sinne saying I will not leave my sinnes I love them I will not forsake them This man disables himself he doth debarre and exclude himself God will not be his God he will not make a Covenant with him and indeed this sinner will not make a Covenant with God There are three things which God stands upon if we will have him to be ours in Covenant 1. He insists upon your wills you must be willing to be mine saith God to be married unto me to take me for your Husband 2. He insists upon your hearts you must love me I must have your heart your love must be mine 3. He insists upon your service you must be willing to obey and serve me I must be your Lord and you must be my servants But â— one of these will be if you keep up a Covenant with sinne you will never be willing to be his if you resolve to keep your sinnes and you cannot love the Lord if you love your sinnes neither can you serve him if you will obey sinne as your Lord There is an absolute incompatibility for this both on Gods part and on your part and on the Covenants part 1. On Gods part for he cannot nor will not make any agreement with unrighteousnesse nor hold communion with any who will hold communion with darknesse he is of purer eyes than to behold sinne much more than to agree with sinne it is contrary to his nature it were dishonourable for him so to do to admit a competition with that which he so much threatens and which his soul doth hate and abhorre 2. On our part your hearts cannot be brought to hold up a Covenant with God and yet to hold up a Covenant with your sinnes you cannot love God and that which is contrary to God you cannot love sinne and that which is contrary to sinne at the same time for if you love the Lord you will hate sinne and if you love sinne you will hate the Lord. 3. On the Covenants part the Covenant of God is to change the sinful heart it is to subdue iniquity it is to cleanse us from all our uncleanesses it is to make us an holy people â—nto the Lord so that of necessity you must resolve on it to break off your Covenant with sin if you will have God to be your God in Covenant 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come one from among them and be ye separated saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you ver 18. and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Mark this place it shews expressely the way of coming into the Covenant you must not make agreement with darknesse nor with Idols you must separate from them you must have nothing to do with any uncleanesse that is you must resolve never to joyne your selves to any sinne never to love or serve it and then saith God I will receive you what 's that that is then I will be your God I will take you into Covenant I will own you for mine I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters Are you sure that you will be so yea for thus saith the Lord Almighty Ezek. 11. 18. They shall come thither and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof verse 19. And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them c. verse 20. That they may walk in my Statutes and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God Therefore examine your hearts what sinne lies there which makes a breach which keeps up enmity 'twixt you and God and put it farre away c. 3. If you would have the Lord to be your God in Covenant then judge your Judge your selves for your breach of Covenant with God selves for your ancient breach of the first Covenant with him and for your sins since that and confesse your absolute unworthinesse to be admitted and received into another Covenant with him O when a soul comes to be afflicted for sinnes and to acknowledge it self unworthy of mercies this soul is in a right posture for mercies God made a Covenant with us in Adam and stated life upon us in case of obedience but we presently brake Covenant with him and proved unfaithful and dealt treacherously with him fell off from him for a thing of naught and all the dayes of our lives have we been sinning and dishonouring and provoking of him so that had we our desert so farre might God be from accepting of us into a new Covenant that he might justly condemn us for our transgressing of the old Covenant if we did seriously and sadly review these things till our hearts were humbled within us and that we saw our life to be the free gift of God again and that we stood at his mercy only to spare us and pity us and accept of us and in this posture come to God and cry out O save me for thy mercies sake Lord I have undone my self I have left thee I have lost thee I have dealt unfaithfully with thee I have sinned exceedingly against thee I have gone farre from thee yet I come back to thee I hear thou art a merciful God though I am a sinful wretch I hear that thou art a gracious God though I am an unworthy sinner I hear that thou hast made a new Covenant to relieve and succour them who have violated the first Covenant I hear that this Covenant is full of grace and mercy and pity and help and happinesse I come to thee to make peace with thee to be reconciled unto me to shew me favour I perish if thou reject me I live if thou accept of me I can bring nothing I can challenge nothing only thou sayst That thou wilt have mercy on whom thou wilt have mercy and may not a poor miserable unworthy sinner be made capable of thy mercy may he not be received unto mercy why else didst thou give Christ why else didst thou set up a Covenant of grace O Lord receive me graciously and love me freely and for thine own sake become my God and make me to be one of thy people Verily this is a moving way and this is a taking way for
Faith singled out to be the condition of the Covenant Why faith is the only condition of Grace Sol. 1. There is nothing whatsoever which doth so fit and answer a Covenant of Grace as Faith doth for in this Covenant God deals in promises and by a Mediatour Faith best answers the Covenant of grace And the promises are objects proper to faith As precepts are to obedience and threatnings to fear so are promises to faith And for Jesus Christ the Mediatour deale with him you cannot but by faith Object Indeed love deals with Christ as well as faith Christ is the object of our love and of our faith But then here 1. That love deals with Christ in the strength of faith first faith deales and then love deales with Christ 2. Though love deals with Christ yet it is another way than faith Love is bringing into Christ but Faiths work is receiving all from Christ and resting on Christ c. 2. There is nothing but Faith which will or can acknowledge a free Covenant And all as freely given unto us Set up any thing but faith and that will set up us Nothing but faith will acknowledge a free Covenant and pull down grace Any thing but faith must be something in our selves and something in our selves will deprive grace of the glory yea it will deny grace but faith will do none of this because faith is a meere gift of grace and faith receives all as free gift findes nothing in us at all but receâ—ves all and lives wholly on the grace of God in Christ 3. It is of faith that the promises might be sure so the Apostle Rom. 4. 16. It is of faith that the promise might be sure Adam had a Covenant as well as we and therefore some observe that he had one sacrament of death another of life to assure him of death in case he sinned as wel as to assure him of life in case he obeyed because it was made upon condition of works And truely if Adam who was so every wâ—y furnished could not hold up a Covenant upon a Condition of works much less should we do it being now utterly broken by him But now the promise of â—ife being made to us upon condition of faith it is therefore made sure for â—aith builds upon a sure foundation and faith hath a sure word of promise 4. The Covenant of grace excludes all boastings in our selves Rom. 3. 27. and Faith excludes all boasting in our selves therefore faith is necessary for us for boasting is excluded not by the Law of works but by the Law of Faith Ibid. If you should put in works for the condition then the sinner would be ready to boast All this I have kept from my youth This have I done and that have I done and I never offended thy will the wages is due debt to me O but this must never be c. 5. There are such things undertaken in the Covenant as nothing but faith can tell Nothing but faith can tell what to make of the things undertaken in the Covenant what to make of them I will forgive your iniquities and will give you a new heart and I will heale your back-slidings and I will love them freely and I will forgive your sins for mine owne sake These are absolute Mysteries without faith Before I proceed any further in this Point I would make some useful Application of what I have delivered already Is Faith the condition of the Conant SECT IV. 1. Use THen how are men mistaken How have they deluded themselves how To discover the presumption of many who plead their interest in the promises without the performance of the condition must they return ashamed who have nursed up their fancies and presumptions about the mercy of God and the many promises of God about salvation and other blessings yea and about God himself what a good and gracious and merciful God he is and so will be to them O but sirs There is a condition in the Bond. God makes many sweet and comfortable promises O but there is a condition And God saith he will be such a gracious and merciful God c. O but there is a condition and he saith that he will save and give eternal life O but there is a condition a condition that you think not of a condition that you never attained unto Faith is the condition of the Covenant You must be believers in Christ and then and so you must claim the promises you must have an interest in Christ or else you can never have an interest in the priviledges of the Covenant you have owned the promised mercy and the promised salvation in the Covenant O but you have not all this while owned Christ by saith and therefore you have all this while deluded your soules The Apostle faith all men have not faith and the Prophet saith Who hath believed our report and Christ himself saith He that believeth shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned Why brethren If Faith be the condition of the Covenant If faith be necessary to bring us into the Covenant Then no unbeliever is yet in the Covenat for no unbeliever hath faith No no God is not the God of the dead but of the living and mercy is not the portion of unbelievers but of believers and salvation by Christ is interessed only on them who believe on Christ And thou art to this day an unbeliever thou art utterly destituâ—e of faith And there are six things which shew that thouÌ„ art so 1. One is the unsensiblenesse of thy sinful and wretched condition and of thy need which thy soule hath of Christ 2. A second is the exceeding ignorance in thy heart of Christ as the Mediatour of the Covenant 3. A third is the exceeding pride and confidence on thiâ—â— own righteousness and on thine own works 4. A fourth is the continual neglects and disesteeme of the Gospel of Christ 5. A fifth is the fruitless reception of the many offers of Christ 6. A sixth is the incomplyance of thy heart with the Lord Jesus and averseness and refusing of subjection unto Christ Thou wilt not have him to reign over thee Ah poor creature How hast thou befooled thy self and deluded thy soul with a vain presumption of interest in the Covenant whilst as yet thou hast not faith to interest thy soul in Christ 2. Use Is saith of union the condition of the Covenant Then as you have Look to your faith that it be a faith of union reason to look to your selves because all men have not â—aith so you have reason to look to your faith for you may have a faith which yet is not a faith of union That is a considerable passage of Christ in Joh. 15. 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away verse 6. If a man abideth not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is
more special to shew unto you what that Covenant is which God makes between himself and his people There are who do distinguish of a twofold Covenant 1. There is Foedus absolutum which is such a promise of God as takes in no stipulation or condition at all that There is an absolute Covenāt runnes altogether upon absolute termes such a Covenant was that which God made with Noah that he would never drown the world any more Gen. 9. 11. and such a kind of Covenant is that when God promiseth to give faith and perseverance unto his elect Heb. 8. 10 c. Both these Covenants are absolute and without any condition there is nothing in them but what is folded up in the promises themselves 2. Foedus Hypotheticum which is a gracious promise on Gods part with an obligation to duty on our part for although it be natural to God to recompence And an Hypothetical Covenant any good as it is to punish any evil And although man doth owe unto God whatsoever God covenanteth with him for yet it so pleaseth his Divine Will thus to deale with us that in binding of us to duty unto himself he binds himself in reward unto us and promiseth such and such a recompence upon the condition of such and such a performance Now this kind of Covenant is twofold The Covenant is either The Covenant of nature 1. Foedus Naturae as some stile it or Foedus operum the Covenant of works as we usually call it the Apostle calls it the Law of works Rom. 3. 27. This is the Covenant which God made with man in the state of innocency before the fall wherein God promised unto man life and happinesse upon condition of perfect and personal obedience and it is summed up by the Apostle Gal. 3. 12. Do this and live God having created man upright after his own Image and so having furnished him with all abilities sufficient for obedience thereupon he made a Covenant with him for life upon the condition of obedience I say he made such a Covenant with Adam as a publick person and as he promised life to him and his posterity in case of obedience so he threatened death and a curse unto him and his posterity in case of disobedience In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2. 17. Cursedis every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3. 10. 2. Faedus Gratiae the Covenant of Grace the Apostle calls it the law of faith Or the Covenant of grace Rom. 3. 27. and it is especially expressed thus He that believes shall be saved Mark 16. 16. The just shall live by faith Gal. 3. 11. This is that Covenant of which the Text speaks and of which by Gods assistance This is stiled I intend to discourse This Covenant which is sometimes stiled the Covenant of life life is restored The Covenant of life and life is promised and life is setled by the Covenant no life for a sinner out of it And sometimes it is stiled a Covenant of peace Numb 25. 12. Behold I give Covenant of peace unto him my Covenant of Peace Peace is the comprehension of all blessings and prosperity our good is in this good Covenant of grace and all peace flowes out of it peace with God and peace of cosncience And sometimes it is called a Covenant of salt Num. 18. 19. 2 Chron. 13. 5. A A Covenant of salt firm sure uncorruptible Covenant which lasts for ever Sometimes it is stiled the promise Psal 105. 42. He remembred his holy promise The promise and Abraham his servant It is called the promise by way of eminency it is made up altogether of promises all on Gods part which he will do is under promise and all on our part which we are to do is likewise under promise Sometimes it is called the mercy and the truth Mic. 7. 20. Thou wilt perform The mercy and the truth the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham The Covenant is called mercy because mercy only drew this Covenant It was meer mercy which moved God to make new bonds with us yea all mercy is wrapped up in it And it is called Truth because the Lord God who makes this Covenant will certainly and truly performe all that good and mercy which in it he makes over unto his people Hence also it is called the oath Luke 2. 73. The oath which he sware unto The Oath our father Abraham You do not read of Gods Oath in the Covenant of works that Covenant wanted a Mediatour and was not sealed with an oath but in this Covenant of grace there is the oath of God to declare unto us and to confirm us as touching the immutability of his will and purpose for the accomplishment of all that good mentioned in this Covenant And it is called a Testament and a new Testament Matth. 26. 28. My A Testament and New Testament blood of the New Testament Heb. 9. 15. He is the Mediatour of the New Testament A Testament is Testatio mentis that which we commonly call a mans Will about the bestowing of his estate amongst his children c. The new Covenant is called a Testament because it is ratified and confirmed by the death of the Testator and because it is as it were his last Will written down There are precious Legacies bestowed and setled by God the Father in this Covenant upon all his children and all of them are confirmed and ratified to them by the death of Christ This Covenant of grace thus gloriously set out in the Scripture wherein God proclaimes all his goodnesse to us which is the foundation of all our lives and comforts hopes and happinesse which is the foundation of all godlinesse and holy walking which is a sure and our only anchor I am now in a more distinct way to discourse of In the handling whereof I shall confine my self to these six particulars 1. The differences of this Covenant of grace from the Covenant of works 2. The proper nature of this Covenant in the absolute consideration of it 3. The adjuncts and properties of this Covenant 4. The condition of the Covenant of grace 5. The Mediatour of this Covenant 6. The special gifts and legacies that are bequeathed in this Testament CHAP. III. Differences of the Covenant of grace from the Covenant of works THe differences of this Covenant of grace from that Covenant of works Although there are some things wherein both these Covenants agree As 1. In the general end which is the Seven things in which they agree glory of God 2. In the persons contracting and covenanting which are God and man 3. In the intrinsecal forme there is a condition and restipulation in both 4. In some things promised in them both and required as to the matter of them in both 5. In the Authour God is the Authour of
them both 6. In the forme of inscription as in that the Law of works was written in the heart of Adam so in this the Law of grace is written in the heart of every one confederated 7. In the unchangeablenesse both of the one and of the other both of them are immutable Although that Covenant of works as it is a Covenant for life ceaseth unto believers yet it stands in force upon and against all unbelievers I say notwithstanding all these general concordancies correspondencies and agreements between them they do yet differ in nine particulars which I Nine things in which they differ shall the rather mention that you may understand the infinite goodnesse of God in making this Covenant of grace and his infinite mercy in it and your own happinesse by it if any of you be brought into the Covenant And also to affect your hearts that you may press the more after a personal interest therein Thus then the Covenant of works and of grace do differ 1. In their special end The end which God aimed at in the Covenant of works was the declaration and magnifying of his justice and his end in making In their special end the Covenant of grace is the declaration and magnifying of his mercy In the Covenant of works it is Do this and live if you sinne you dye for it Here is no place for Repentance no place for mercy In the Covenant of works when Adam had sinned there was no commission of enquiry whether he repented or not of what he had done the enquiry was only of the fact What hast thou done Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I said unto thee Thou shalt not eat and being found guilty death and curse are pronounced against him Gen. 3. 11 19. Thus it is in the Covenant of works The soul that sinnes shall die 〈◊〉 18. 4. In this God reveals his wrath from heaven against all unrighteousnesse and ungodlinesse of men Rom. 1. 18. And thus he makes his power and justice known in that Covenant But in the Covenant of grace his intention and purpose is to glorifie his mercy to proclaim his glory The Lord The Lord merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity transgression and sinne Exod. 34. 6 7. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes c. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more Heb. 8. 10 12. In this Covenant there is place for repentance and mercy for the penitent Repent that your sinnes may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. He that forsakes his sins shall have mercy Prov. 28. 13. So that as to the Covenant of works you must be altogether perfect and alwayes so if you sinne at all you are cast and condemned But as to the Covenant of grace the sinner being penitent is received to mercy and spared This is one great difference betwixt the Covenant of Works and of Grace 2. In the condition of man with whom God doth Covenant The Covenant In the condition of man with whom God doth Covenant of works was made with man as perfect upright innocent and then sinlesse and therefore it is called by some Pactum Amicitiae a Covenant of friendship because before the fall there was nothing of variance or enmity betwixt God and man that estate was an estate of love and kindnesse and friendship God was Adams friend and Adam was a friend to God they agreed together and conversed as loving friends But the Covenant of grace was made with man as breaking friendship as fallen off by sinne as under the estate of emnity when his sinnes had separated betwixt him and his God and therefore this Covenant is called Pactum Reconciliationis a Covenant of Reconciliation an agreement made betwixt parties who had fallen out The Lord was pleased to look after man again and to take pity on him and to propose new Articles of life unto him 3. In their foundations The Covenant of works as to our part was founded In their foundations upon the strength of that righteous nature which God gave unto Adam and in him unto us so that his standing was upon his own bottome upon the sufficiency of his own power and will with which he was created But the foundation of the Covenant of grace is Jesus Christ not our own strength but the strength of Christ who is the Rock the Corner-stone the foundation-stone upon which you are built And this is one reason why Adam fell and lost that life promised in the Covenant of works and why such as are brought into the Covenant of grace fall not so as to lose that blessed life promised unto them Adam had more inherent strength of grace than we have he at his first creation was without all sinne yet he being left to the strength of his own will willingly brake with God willingly transgressed and lost all But we though weaker in our selves than he yet being brought into this Covenant of grace though we meet with as great temptations as he yet fall not as he did because the foundation of our strength is greater than his Jesus Christ holds us in his own hands Joh. 10. 28. And we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. 4. The Covenant of works was made without a Mediatour There was no The one made without a Mediatour dayes-man betwixt God and man none to stand between them There was none and needed none because there was no difference then betwixt God and man Man was then righteous perfectly righteous A Mediatour is a third person betwixt two different parties to make up the breach which ariseth betwixt them but when the Covenant of works was made betwixt God and man all was righteousnesse and therefore all was peace there was no use of a Mediatour to bring them into peace and set them at one who were hitherto in perfect love and union But in the Covenant of grace there is a Mediatour The other with a Mediatour Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant Heb. 12. 24. Man being fallen there is now a necessity of a Mediatour to satisfie Gods Justice to destroy enmity to make peace to bring us neare to God again and to gain us confidence and acceptance with God The Covenant of grace could not have been drawn up without a Mediatour God would never have treated with sinners but by a Mediatour who should satisfie him for the wrong and injury done unto him and who should set mercy as it were at liberty to showr and fall down on sinful man and who should undertake to see all Articles performed Objection It may be objected that the Law given at Mount Sinai was a Covenant of works and yet that was delivered by the hand of a Mediatour Gal. 3. 19. Sol. I shall say no more to this at present but that the
Law given on Mount Sinai though materially it respected works yet formally and intentionally it was not then given and established as a Covenant of works by which we should be justified and live this I shall afterwards make evident and therefore shall say no more unto it at the present 5. The Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace do differ in the condition In the condition of life promised of life promised in both Life is promised in both Covenants but upon different conditions Do this and live saith the Covenant of works Believe on Jesus Christ and live saith the Covenant of grace The condition of the one consists in giving The condition of the other consists in receiving The condition of the one is to give in a perfect righteousness of our own unto God and the condition of the other is by faith to receive a perfect righteousnesse from Christ In the Covenant of nature or of works there is forum justitiae where the sentence of absolution passeth if we be found righteous and the sentence of condemnation if we be found unrighteous the question is not then about faith but love not whether you believ'd but whether you obey'd But in the Covenant of grace there is forum misericordiae and the sentence of absolution passeth not upon our doing but upon our believing and the sentence of condemnation passeth upon all unbelievers Now here fall in two notable questions 1. Question Whither faith were not required in the Covenant of works Whether faith were not required in the Covenant of works How faith was rerequired Sol. To this I answer three things 1. Faith was required in the Covenant of works as Faith may be taken either for a dependance on God the only Authour of being and blessing or for an expectation of that good of life which God promised with a reliance upon God for it or for a perswasion of Gods love to him and acceptance of his obedience whil'st continuing upright with God As to these considerations of faith Adam who lived under the Covenant of works had faith and did exercise it for he was bound to acknowledge God as the only fountaine of his good and to depend upon him as so And he was bound to believe the possession of that life which God promised to him whil'st he should continue perfectly obedient and likewise he was bound to be perswaded of the love of God unto him in that course of obedience and also the acceptance of his obediential services unto God 2. But that faith which respected the Covenant of works was different from that faith which respects the Covenant of grace and is now required For 1. How not required That faith was such as looked on a promise of life made by God to a perfect creature and as so continuing but that faith which respects the Covenant of grace looks upon the promise of God in Christ made in respect to us sinners and lost in our selves 2. That faith looked on God as a creatour and preserver but this faith looks on God as a Redeemer and merciful Father 3. That faith was natural concreated with Adam not raised nor infused in a Gospel-way but this faith is now promised and infused in a supernatural way by the Spirit of Christ through the dispensation of the Gospel 4. That faith could not be at all in any but so long as he was perfectly righteous and therefore it ceased upon the cessation of that righteousnesse it was principally grounded upon inherent Righteousnesse But this faith is in a sinner who hath no righteousnesse of his own but relies upon the righteousness of another even the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ 3. Although there was a kind of faith in Adam under the Covenant of works Faith not required in both for the same end yet that faith was not for this end and purpose to be the condition of that Covenant There it was a part of his righteousnesse but was not stipulated as the condition of life as that upon which his life and justification did depend But the faith required in the Covenant of grace comes in purposely as the condition of life and justification for the sinner 2. Quest. Whither the Covenant of grace doth not require works as well Whether the Covenant of grace requires works Works are required in both as the Covenant of nature or of works If so what difference is there then between them as to doing Sol. Questionlesse the Covenant of grace requires good works This is a faithful saying saith Paul Tit. 3. 8. and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which believe in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Matth. 5. 16. But yet there is a vast difference betwixt the good works as required in the Covenant of works But with a difference and as required in the Covenant of grace They differ in their spring and fountain and they differ in their manner of Wherein this difference lies working but herein especially they differ as to these Covenants that in the one they are a condition of life but in the other Testimonies and Evidences of life in the one they are the matter of life and justification in the other they are nothing at all they are no part no reason they have no intrest or hand at all in the justification of a sinner Faith therein wholly excludes them and fixeth only on the righteousnesse of Christ Although they are alwayes present in the justified man yet they are never present in his justification before God 6. The Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace do differ thus The In the one the least sin undoes the sinner least sin undoes the sinner under the Covenant of works but it doth not so in the Covenant of grace The Covenant of works passeth sentence against you upon the least obliquity Cursed is every one that continueth not in every thing to do it and you have no remedy against this sentence in the Covenant of works But it is not so in the Covenant of grace This is a Remedy and a Sanctuary and a City of Refuge against the sentence passed in the Covenant of works In the other there is a remedy If the condemned and distressed sinner can fly unto and reach to the Covenant of grace Christ will satisfie for him and make his peace and procure mercy for him Nay the Covenant of grace deals more favourably with us It doth not cast us out for every transgression but as a father pities his child that serves him so doth the Lord pity them that feare him Psal 103. 13. Unlesse we utterly violate the Covenant of grace we may yet find grace and mercy If any man sinne we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes
of his grace and mercy unto his people Now there are foure things which magnifie God in these First his graciousnesse freely to make us to be his people A second is his goodnesse in the plentiful blessing of his people And thirdly his faithfulnesse that he will surely blesse his people And fourthly his everlastingnesse that he will never forsake his people and never will turn away from doing of them good Why this exalts his mercy indeed that it endures for ever and his love indeed that it continues for ever and his grace indeed that as it is free so it is everlasting In respect of his people The everlastingnesse of the Covenant is a just reason of perfect thankfulnesse 2. There are reasons for this in respect of his people I will mention a few of them 1. The everlastingnesse of the Covenant is a just reason of full and perfect thankfulnesse Psal 100. 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise Be thankful unto him and bless his Name Verse 5. For the Lord is good his mercy is everlasting Psal 136. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord for hâ— is good for his mercy endureth for ever 2. His people have cause now to trust on him for ever Isa 26. 4. Trust ye in His people have now cause to trust in him for ever the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Psal 62. 8. Trust in him at all times ye people pour out your heart before him God is a refuge for us Selah Vse 1 Is the Covenant which God makes with his people an everlasting Covenant then that opinion is very false which delivers out unto us such a Covenant of grace as is mutable and alterable and may be broken off and cease between God For confutation of that opinion that the Covenant is mutable and alterable and his people That a man may be made a child of God and yet may become the child of the Divel that he may be graffed into Christ and yet may be broken off from Christ that he may have true faith and grace and yet he may lose true faith and grace that he may finde love and mercy from God and yet may so sinne as actually to forfeit and that for ever all the love and mercy of God Certainly this is a very sad assertion that any person should be translated from death to life that he should be delivered from the power of Satan and translated into the Kingdome of Christ that he should be effectually called and become a believer and thereupon a Sonne of God and heire of glory that he should for a while believe and rejoyce in his God and be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise and yet upon a sudden notwithstanding all the love and promises and engagements of God unto him in Covenant his Sun should set at noon-day he and his God should part and be utter enemies again that he should cast off God from being his God and God should forsake and cast him off from being any of his people and as it is a sad opinion so it is an opinion utterly inconsistent with this truth of the everlastingnesse of the Covenant of grace A relation which ceaseth to be that relation is not everlasting and that agreement or Covenant which is broken and frustrated that Covenant is not everlasting to be temporary and to be everlasting are questionlesse inconsistent neither will that evasion of a temporarinesse on our part and everlastingnesse of the Covenant on Gods part any way patch up the businesse because there is no such Covenant of grace which God hath made with his people Jer. 31. 31. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Ver. 32. Not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord Mark the place God makes no such Covenant as shall be broken on our part but such a Covenant as shall hold and be kept on our part as well as on his part verse 33. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people c. And cap. 32. 40. I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me The principal if not the onely ground of this breaking and falling opinion is a supposition of a power in the will of man according to the pleasure and use whereof the Covenant of Gods grace must stand or fall must continue or break off And to speak plainly according to the Arminian doctrine all the stability and state of a sinners salvation is made to depend upon the will of a sinner the election of God the conversion of a sinner the beneficial Redemption by Christ the perseverance in Christ and grace all of these do lie at the mercy of the will of a poor sinner and truly I must confesse that if the Covenant of grace had no surer foundation then mans wâ—ll it may quickly cease to be an everlasting Covenant But we read of other and better foundations for the perpetuity of this Covenant thâ—n mans will we read that it is grounded on the immutable counsel of God and on his absolute promises and on his Oath and on the blood of Christ confirming and establishing of it and on his power and intercession and presence and love and Spirit and faithfulnesse But as to the opinion of these men which indeed is none other but that of the To state the stability of the Covenant upon the will of man Pelagians and Papists and Arminians Give me favour to speak a few words 1. It is very improbable that God would make a new Covenant with us and state the stability and everlastingnesse of it upon the will of us sinners for hereby 1. There should be no difference as to the ground of safety and certainty Is very improbable 'twixt this Covenant of grace and that of works for if Adam had improved the power and liberty of his will he had continued and had enjoyed the life which God promised unto him Now wherein doth the grace of this Covenant exceed the other of Works if eternal life be left unto the pleasure of our will as formerly it was to Adams 2. Nay it should be harder and more unsafe for us to be in the Covenant of grace than it was for Adam to be in the Covenant of works because in that condition Adams will was created with a perfect righteousnesse and conformity and sufficiency to have continued in that Covenant but we are fallen with him and
grace and salvation shall never part 2. The second thing which I would shew unto you about the comparison of the This Covenant is a better Covenant than that old Covenant under which the Fathers lived Covenant is this That the new Covenant of grace under which we do live is a better Covenant then that old Covenant of grace under which the Fathers lived and the people of God of old time For the managing of this mighty and intricate Point I shall deliver unto you three particulars 1. That none of the people of God in any age of the world since the fall of Adam had a Covenant of works given unto them by God for life but the Covenant which God made with them for life was a Covenant of Grace 2. Wherein that Covenant of Grace under which the people of God of old lived consents or agrees with the Covenant of Grace under which we do now live 3. The pre-eminency or betternesse of this New Covenant in a comparison with that old Covenant 1. That none of the people of God in any age of the world since the fall had a Covenant None of the people of God since the fall had a Covenant of works given them for life but a Covenant of Grace as of works given unto them by God for life but they had all of them a Covenant of Grace given unto them for life Let us if you please calculate the several Ages or times of the Church of God and then you shall clearly see the truth of what I speak 1. As soon as Adam fell God was pleased to set up the Covenant of Grace in the form of a promise for he made a promise of Christ as a Saviour and deliverer Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele Here is an express Immediately upon Adams fall promise of Christ who is called the seed of the woman because he was to take our nature upon him And the work or Office of Christ is to bruse the head of the Serpent that is Jesus Christ was to conquer and destroy him and surely the conquest and destruction of of Satan imports our full deliverance from him and restoration of us into the estate of freedom and grace and happinesse The which Christ doth by having his heel bruised that is by dying and suffering for us and hereby procuring life and salvation The Apostle calls it His putting to death concerning the flesh 1 Pet 3. 18. And in this respect Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. because the death of Christ by which our deliverance and salvation is wrought was published and promised from the beginning of the world Now there is no Covenant wherein Christ comes in on the behalf of sinners but that Covenant is a Covenant of Grace 2. Again pursue this from Adam to Abel and from Abel to Enoch and from From Adam to Noah Enoch to Noah it is evident they were not under a Covenant of works but of grace And I will give you one reason for it or rather the Apostle will do it for me who speaking of Abel and Enoch he doth commend the one for his more excellent sacrifice Heb. 11. 4. and the other for his pleasing of God verse 5. and both of them and Noah also for faith for he adds in verse 6. But without faith it is impossible to please God whence I argue thus That those persons who enjoyed such a faith by which their persons and services were pleasing unto God and graciously accepted of him those were not in a Covenant of works but in a Covenant of Grace Nay look on the words once more verse 4. By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice then Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous And verse 7. Noah became heir of the righteousness which is by faith verily a righteousnesse by faith is no righteousnesse in a Covenant of works but of grace It is that righteousnesse through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3. 9. 3. Let us advance one step further from Noah to Abraham where we shall hear From Noah to Abraham of the Covenant again Gen. 17. 2. I will make my Covenant between me and thee and verse 7. I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generation for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee Here is a Covenant expresly made twixt God and Abraham but what Covenant was it Surely not a Covenant of works but a Covenant of grace And that I shall clear unto you by four particulars which I pray you well to consider and observe 1. In this Covenant you have Jesus Christ promised unto Abraham so the Apostle in Gal. 3. 16. To Abraham and his seed was the promise made he saith not to thy seeds as speaking of many but of one who is Christ 2. Abraham In relation to this Covenant is stiled a believer yea the Father of all them that believe Rom. 4. 11. And the Gospel was the means of his faith which was a justifying faith Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed 3. He received the signe of Circumcision a seale of the righteousness of faith Rom. 4. 11. 4. Moreover it is said of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that they are in the kingdom of Heaven Matth. 8. 11. And of all the Elders with Abraham that they did desire a better Country that is an heavenly Heb. 11. 16. And this also proves that neither he or they were under a Covenant of works which never brought any to Heaven but under a Covenant of Grace for by grace ye are saved Ephes 2. 5. 5. Let us go forward from Abraham to Moses and there let us consider whether the Church were under a Covenant of works or of grace That From Abraham to Moses God set up a Covenant in Moses time the Scripture doth clearly teach us Exod. 19. 5. If ye will obey my voice and keep my Covenant Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people verse 6. And ye shall be un to me a kingdom of Priests and an holy nation Exod. 34. 27. After the tenour of these words I have made a Covenant with thee and with Israel Deut. 4. 13. He declared unto you his Covenant which he commanded you to perform even ten Commandements and he wrote them upon two tables of stone Quest Whether the Law given upon Mount Sinai were a Covenant of works Some things premised But here it is earnestly objected What was not the Law which was given upon Mont Sinai a Covenant of works what was it else but a plain
charity look on them as bought and redeemed persons although afterwards the contrary doth appear as all those who have but a temporary faith and make a temporary profession these seem to us to be bought and perhaps unto themselves yet really they are not And truely such kind of persons were these who are said in this place to deny the Lord that bought them they were so far wrought on that they got the knowledge of the true way of righteousness verse 12. And escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ ver 20. and probably were numbred in respect of profession with the people of God so that they seemed to be bought in respect of their temporary faith profession and conversation yet really they were not so for they turned Apostates ver 22. and damnable Hereticks ver 1. denying the Lord either in his Person or in his Office who bought them as others and as themselves did think Thirdly Others do yet suggest one more answer unto this place who say that these Hereticks and so other wicked men were bought by Christ though not as to the effect and state of salvation for so only the Elect and true Believers are bought by Christ as their Redeemer and Saviour yet in respect of some common fruits and benefits for those upon that account their service and fidelity are duely and properly belonging unto Christ and their sin is the greater for denying him who is their Lord also by a right of Redemption as to Common mercies And some do conjecture had it not been for the Promise of Christ as Redeemer and Gods looking on him as so all the world had been presently destroyed upon the fall of Adam but Christ interposing himself he stayed that destruction and at least procured the cause of all those outward blessings which ungodly men do enjoy in this life for which reason he may be said to buy even the ungodly in that he delivers them from present ruine and their sin is therefore the greater to deny him but I adhere to the second answer as most proper to the place But having now many other Scriptures alledged by them to the same purpose aforementioned let us consider what Reasons and Arguments the Arminians produce to prove that Christ died for all and every man and by his death Arguments of the Arminians purchased Reconciliation with God Remission of sins and eternal life for them I shall briefly mention four or five of the chiefest which they bring Argument 1 1. That which every man is bound to believe is true but every man is bound to believe that Christ died for him Ergo it is true that Christ died for every man Sol. To this Sophistical Argument two answers are given by the Learned Answered 1. One unto the Major or first Proposition viz. That which every man is bound to believe is true a thing may be said to be true in a three-fold respect Either quia promittitur because it is promised Or secondly quia narratur because it is related or declared Or thirdly quia praedicitur because it is foretold so that whatsoever a man is bound to believe that same is true either as promised or as declared or done or as foretold Not alwayes true in one and the same respect or in every respect but either as promised or declared or reported or as foretold To apply this to the Argument in hand that Christ died effectually for every man If it be a truth then it must be so because God hath promised it or declared it or foretold it if it be a truth because promised then it is with condition of faith for though the very promise be true in it self yet it is not performed unto us without believing the same promise still requiring faith for the performance of it and then this will not prove that it is true that Christ died for all and every man absolutely but only for Believers or for all men only under the condition of faith If it be a truth because only declared or foretold then whether a man believes or believes not this is true that Christ died for him the reason is all things which are true by way of Narration or Prediction they are true upon their own account they are true before we believe them our faith makes them not to be so and if we believe them not yet are they true our unbelief cannot make the truth of God a lye But I suppose that no Arminian will say that Christ dyed effectually for every man whether he doth believe or doth not believe A second answer shall be unto the Minor Proposition But every man is bound to believe that Christ dyed for him to this I would say three things First It is a material disputable Point Whether those to whom the Gospel is not revealed are bound to believe that Christ died for them because the Precept of believing is a Gospel Precept only and the punishment for unbelief is threatned and inflicted in relation to the Gospel for slighting and refusing that Christ who is revealed and offered by the Gospel unto sinners who also are therein commanded to believe on Christ and if this be so then certainly every man is not bound to believe that Christ died for him Secondly When the Gospel doth come it doth not absolutely command that every one should believe that Christ dyed for him indeed it doth command every one to believe on Christ i. e. to receive him and trust on him alone for life But it doth not command him to believe without any more ado without any condition whatsoever that Christ died for him i. e. hath by his death made his peace procured his pardon and eternal life For the Gospel doth not reveale or command any such thing It doth reveale a Christ who died for sinners and it doth offer this Christ to sinners but with all it saith Whosoever believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned Doth the Gospel command every man absolutely to believe that Christ dyed for him which takes in the Application of all the fruits and benefits of the death of Christ which a soule can enjoy whether a man obey the voice of the Gospel or not receive Christ or not q. d. you are bound to believe that Christ died for you though you never by faith close with the offer of Christ though your heart never prize him or never are brought in unto him and though you still love your sins and persevere in them Tell me in good sadness did Jesus Christ ever sign such a Commission as this Go preach the Gospel and tell people that whether they receive me or will not receive me whether they become believers or continue unbelievers whether they repent or continue impenitent they are bound every man of them to believe that I dyed for them and reconciled them and have procured salvation for them Certainly if every man were bound to believe this he were bound