light or a Man without reason which are no better than implicite contradictions I may as well call that a gift which is not given or that a promise where my word is not engaged as that a Covenant where there 's no mutual stipulation or conditions of agreement They are things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard of nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what they are No I cannot possibly frame the idea of a Sun in my mind without light Nor entertain any formal conceit of a man without including reason in that conception No more can I conceive of a Covenant without conditions since these are essential to the nature definition and common notion of a Covenant 2. The Gospel which is little more but a comment upon the New Covenant doth not only in general declare to us that there are conditions affixed to it but in particular acquaints us what they are And here I shall only instance in these three faith repentance and sincere obedience as inclusive of all the rest First for faith doth not the Gospel expresly tell us that we must believe and that this is the great command of God 1 Joh. 3.16 I but what if we do believe in the name of Christ according to his command What hath God thereupon promised to us What Why that then we shall not perish but have eternal life Joh. 3.16 I but what if we be defective in this particular and do not believe May we not yet hope to be saved by Jesus Christ No He that believeth not is condemned already Joh. 3.18 and the wrath of God abideth upon him ver 36. and he shall be damned Mark 16.16 Here 's one condition you see plain and evident in the New Covenant I but is not faith then the only condition And may not that alone serve the turn without any thing else to invest us in all the priviledges of the Kingdom No there must be also repentance towards God as well as faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 20.21 This is no less expresly commanded than the former Acts 17.30 Now God commandeth all men every where to repent And the very first doctrine that Jesus Christ himself preached after his most solemn consecration to his Prophetick Office was this of Repentance Matth. 3.13 14 15 16 17. compared with Matth. 4.17 From that time began Jesus to preach and to say Repent for the kingdome of heaven is at hand And as it is in terms no less than faith commanded in the Gospel so you have the same benefits of pardon of sin and eternal life annexed to it Repent saith Peter to the Jews Acts 3.19 and be converted but to what purpose Why that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And God is not willing saith the same Apostle that any should perish I but how may they then escape it How By repenting and turning to God and therefore he there adds but that they should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 And for this reason 't is called repentance unto life Acts 11.18 And repentance unto Salvation 2 Cor. 7.10 Yea but what though we fail in the performance of this duty May not our sins be pardoned and our Souls saved upon the account of Christ for all that No except we repent we must perish Luke 13.3 5. Faith in this case will not save us Well then faith and repentance are conditions that 's manifest from what I have now said I but is there any thing more yet required by the New Covenant as necessary to eternal life Yea we must not only enter in at the strait gate but we must also walk in the narrow way if we would enter into life Nor only be implanted into the true vine but abide in it and bring forth fruit to God Joh. 15. Nor only receive Christ Jesus the Lord but walk in him as we have received him Col. 2.6 By the former faith and repentance we enter in at the strait gate and by holiness and obedience we hold on in the narrow way By those we are ingraffed into the true vine and by this we abide in the vine and become fruitful By an humble faith we receive Christ Jesus the Lord Christ in all his offices and by a sincere obedience we walk in him according to the terms upon which we at first received him And therefore though our actual obedience and holiness which are the work of time be not required to our justification and initial instatement into life only our turning to God and hearty acceptance of Christ as Lord and Saviour to be taught and governed and saved by him in his own way yet is our obedience vertually therein included as all practical conclusions are in their first principles and in order to our actual and compleat fruition of eternal life our actual holiness and obedience is required in the Gospel The former gives us an initial right and this jus aptitudinale a legal fitness That puts us into possession as the delivery of the Key to the Tenant upon sealing the Indentures gives him a legal possession of the House and this continues us in it as paying the rent doth the Tenant afterwards And therefore in order to eternal happiness I know nothing that is said of faith or repentance in Scripture but the same is also said of holiness and obedience Are they positively commanded in the Gospel So is this we must deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and live godly righteously and soberly in this present world Tit. 2.12 13. we must be holy in all manner of conversation even as he that hath called us is holy 1 Pet. 1.15 we must walk after his Commandments 2 Joh. 6. we must perfect holiness in his fear 2 Cor. 7.1 c. 'T is commanded Again is the promise of eternal life made to them So to this also The obedient and holy and pure in heart they shall be blessed Mat. 24.46 They shall be happy Joh. 13.17 They shall see God Matth. 5.8 They shall have right to the Tree of life Rev. 22.14 They shall have eternal life Rom 2.7 8 9 10. And eternal Salvations Heb. 5.9 But what if we be wanting in point of holiness and obedience May not the righteousness of Jesus Christ here make supply and be accepted in the room of it and so Heaven had without it No no more than without faith and repentance For are the unbelieving and impenitent expresly excluded from having any interest in the eternal blessings of the Covenant and laid under an immutable sentence of eternal death So also are the impure and disobedient They shall die Rom. 8.13 They shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven Matth. 5.20 They shall not see God Heb. 12.14 They shall be cast into outer darkness Matth. 25.30 They shall have indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish Rom. 2.8 9. They shall be punished with everlasting
this assurance since God in Scripture hath expresly commanded it I here take for granted But how is it possible that this assurance should be raised in them any other way than by their certain knowledge that they have through Grace been inabled to discharge those duties of the Covenant to which these blessings and priviledges are therein promised As how shall any man know that he is secured in the quiet possession of the Lands he holds by lease but by knowing that he hath truly performed Covenants and discharged the Conditions of his Indentures by which his title to and possession of them were made over and secured to him This I am sure is the only foundation that Scripture lays whereon to build our evidence 1 Joh. 2.3 5.1 Joh. 3.18 19 20 24. 1 Joh. 5.18 19. Hereby saith the Apostle we know and hereby we assurâ— our selves Of what That we are in God and that he loves us But how Why 〈◊〉 we love him and keep his Commandments And if we do these things saith Peter we shall never fall 2 Pet. 1.10 And doth not the very nature of the thing it self no less demonstrate this For what is assurance Is it not a reflect act of the Soul upon it self and actions whereby it comes to kâ—ow that its state and actions are and have been such as God by the Law of the New Creature doth require and will accept Iâ— knows by the assistance of the Divine Spirit that it hath sincerely repented and that it doth believe and is regenerate and born of God and made obedient to the heavenly call c. And that consequently all the blessings promised to such a state as pardon of sin and acceptance with God and eternal life do now undoubtedly belong to him as his reward and portion This is properly assurance and not an unwarrantable perswasion that we are elected or that Jesus Christ died for us and rose again for our justification in particular or that God loves us we know not why c. For then the strongest presumption would be the best assurance 'T is therefore impossible that any Soul should be truly and with safety assured of its being saved unless it first be assured of its own sincerity in having acted according to the tenor of the Covenant Man may presume indeed and please themselves with pleasant dreams and delusions and fondly perswade themselves like drunken or distracted men that they are Kings and Priests to God and Heirs to a Crown of Glory and shall sit upon Thrones in Heaven with the Lamb and reign with him for ever They may thus fancy indeed but whatever they pretend they can never be thus assured till the truth of their repentance and faith and holiness be first assured to them The great business therefore of the Spirit in sealing and witnessing is to evidence and confirm the truth and reality of these Graces to the Soul and to raise it to a comfortable perswasion of its own sincerity For this is that which modest and humble souls do usually most question and concerning which they are not easily satisfied partly by reason of temptation and partly from a sense of their own daily failings and infirmities and partly also from the great importance of the thing it self their eternal woe or happiness depends upon it That they who sincerely repent and believe and are sanctified shall infallibly be saved that is not the thing they doubt of No this they will acknowledge they do believe I but their great doubt lies here whether their repentance and faith c. be true and sincere 'T is their own sincerity and not Gods faithfulness that they commonly call in question And here now properly comes in the witness of the Spirit They are Saints and Sons but they cannot discern their Fathers image upon their Souls they have Faith and Repentance c. they have Grace but they do not see it As a man that may have good Evidences for his Lands yet by reason of some weakness or distemper in his eyes he may not at present be able to read them The spirit therefore he comes and blows off the dust if I may so express it and draws the lines more clear he enables them more powerfully to mortifie those sins that weakned their evidences and stirs up those languishing sparks that are in them and makes them more quick and burning and so more visible or as the expression is in the Canticles he blows upon the Garden and makes the Spices thereof to flow out and their sweet Odors to be more fragrant and diffusive He invigorates their Graces and causeth them to act with more sensible life and strength and after all he shines upon his own Graces and strengtheneth their visive and discerning faculties and so enables them to see the truth and reality of those Graces which before they doubted of And thus by witnessing together with our spirits Rom. 8.16 He raiseth the Soul to a comfortable assurance of its being in a safe and happy state As when a Man is under any apprehensions that his Estate is forfeited for breach of Covenants and that thereupon he may be liable to arrests and actions if upon reading his indentures and viewing his acquitâ—ances he conceives that the rent hath been paid and the rest of the conditions have been kept his fears are in a great measure allaid but if the owner himself now come and â—oint him to that particular acquittance which was before over laid and acknowledge that 't is his own hand-writing and that he hath faithfully discharged the several conditions of his Lease the Man is now fully satisfied and sufficiently assured that he may still have and hold his Lands without any let or molestation This is as I apprehend the true Scriptural notion of the spirits sealing which you plainly see presupposeth our repenting and believing c. according to the tenor of the Gospel Covenant For can you imagine that the Spirit seals to a blank Or witnesseth to a lie What teach us to cry Abba Father before we are born of God Or perswade us we are justified when we are in a state of unbelief and the wrath of God abides upon us Or assure us we are Heirs of the promise when we are strangers to the Covenant Or that our estate is safe when a curse and death and hell are denounced against us Is this the Spirits witness do you think or way of sealing No he first works Grace upon the heart and then gives testimony to his own work He sanctifies first and then he seals to the day of Redemption Eph. 1.13 6. The personal performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant is therefore necessary because the promise of pardon and acceptance and eternal life is only made to our personal performance of them This I have often hinted before and presupposed as a foundation to several of the preceeding arguments but now it may be necessary to enlarge a litte farther
trembling Phil. 2.12 He then will work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure ver 13. Must we be stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 holding fast our confidence firm to the end Heb. 3.6 being faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and not drawing back lest his soul should have no pleasure in us Heb. 10.38 He therefore hath promised that he will establish us 2 Thes 3.3 and make us fruitful Joh. 15.2 and perfect his own good work in us untill the day of the Lord Jesus Phil. 1.6 and keep us by his power 1 Pet. 1. that we may not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 10.28 From first to last you see we are indebted to Divine Grace for what we do All our works if good are begun and carried on and perfâ—cted by the assistance of the Sacred Spirit And therefore when we have done all we cannot plead desert or merit from any of our actions but still are bound to make Paul's humble acknowledgment 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God I am that I am And not I that laboured so abundantly but the grace of God that was with me Not I that repented and believed and became obedient and holy and fruitful in every good word and work continuing stedfast and unmoveable to the end Not I that did this by vertue of my own natural abilities no but by the aid and assistance of Divine Grace not by might nor by power from nature and reason but by the spirit of the Lord. And in this sense I suppose we are to understand that saying of some Divines that God stands engaged for both parts of the Covenant Engaged first by promise to justifie and save sinners if they repent and believe c. and next also to give repentance and faith by assisting them thereunto that they may be justified and have eternal life And so it may be no contradiction to say that the same thing may be both a benefit and a condition of the same Covenant As he that in the same Indentures wherein he binds his Tenant to repairs may also promise to furnish him with Brick and Morter and other materials for the work Thus faith and repentance are here commanded in the Covenant of Grace and so they become conditions on our own part to be performed But withal strength and assistance is promised enabling us to repent and believe and so they become benefits on Gods part to be given and on ours to be received But still it is to be remembred that Gods promise doth not null our duty nor his assistance supersede our endeavours but necessarily suppose and more strongly enforce them For as we can do nothing without God so he will do nothing for us without our selves 'T is he saith the Apostle that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure in the place before mentioned Phil. 2.13 What then Must we therefore sit still and do nothing Only take our ease and stretch our selves upon beds of Ivory and dream our selves into Abrahams Bosom No we must therefore so the Apostle in the same place argues work about our own Salvation with fear and trembling As 't is still the Tenants duty to repair the ruines of his house though his Landlord hath and indeed therefore the rather because he hath been so kind as to promise sufficient supplies for the building Thus much I thought necessary to add upon this argument that I might vindicate the conditionality of the Covenant from such exceptions as have been made against it and evidence the amicable agreement there is betwixt this doctrine and that of free Grace and sufficiency of Christs righteousness and satisfaction And would Men but be perswaded to lay aside their prejudices and to weigh things in an even ballance Would they as now instructed rightly state their notions of Christs righteousness and free Grace according to the rules and measures of the Gospel and not by the imaginary and unwarrantable sentiments of the carnal and uncatechised world Would they duly distinguish betwixt the causes and conditions of their Salvation which are vastly different and ought not therefore to be confounded that Jesus Christ may still be owned as the sole cause and Author of it and faith and repentance c. only as the necessary means without which it cannot be had Would they observe the order in which the several conditions of the Covenant are to be applied first faith and repentance for the obtaining of pardon and then holiness and obedience for the compleating and continuing our right to eternal life according to the order in which they are dispenced to sinners Would they also duly inform themselves in the nature of true happiness and what a near alliance holiness and obedience have to it that formally consisting in our likeness and conformity to God and these being that whereby we become actually like and conformable to him Would they in the last place to all add the assistance that God by his holy Spirit affords us for the performance of all these duties he requires of us Nothing being done in our own but all by his strength and agency Would Men I say thus distinctly weigh and consider things before they pass sentence upon the Doctrine herein delivered their objections against it would I am confident soon be answered and their scruples removed and their judgments convinced that there is nothing said that doth in the least either contradict or prejudice the Doctrine of Gospel free Grace or derogate from the sufficiency of Christs righteousness Nothing that doth as some have said speak the language of Bellarmine or Socinus or any way favour the opinions of any other who are justly censured as enemies to the Grace of God in Christ Jesus It is true the Church of Rome pretends much to good works and cries them up as the Ephesians sometimes did their great Goddess Diana and muchwhat upon the same design But alas what are those works they so zealously contend for A little bodily exercise and superstitious will-worship Masses and Dirges and Pilgrimages and Ave-Marys and abstinences and whippings and the like But for that which the Apostle calls the power of godliness and life of God that is little preached and less practised by them And yet these works as inconsiderable as they are they call by the name of satisfactions and make them both the matter of their justification before God and the meritorious cause of their own Salvation For according to their Doctors we are justified by works confession charity giving of alms c. as well as by faith in Jesus Christ and may be saved yea and by I know not what redundancy of desert in our good works help to save others too by our own merits The improvement say they of our own natural abilities deserves Grace ex congruâ— and the improvement of Grace so gained merits glory ex condigno This in short is the
again treats with Israel both for the main upon the same account and you will there find that there 's somewhat more than a meer granting or bequeathing of Blessings and Mercies only by way of Legacy or absolute Donation Doth God first promise to Abraham to give him a Numerous Issue a Blessed Seed a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and under these Shaddows blessings of an higher nature Grace and Glory Yea. But what must Abraham now do nothing in order to his fruition of them Yes He must walk before the Lord and be upright Gen. 17.1 He must keep the Covenant v. 9 10. and he must circumcise every Male Child in his Family v. 11 12 c. and he must command his Children and his Houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment Gen. 18.19 and the reason is there also given that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he had spoken of him which is again more expresly declared Gen. 26.3 4 5. Whence 't is evidently manifest first that there were Commandments Statutes and Laws annexed to this Covenant made with Abraham and then in the next place that he must keep and observe them that the blessings promised might come upon him Again Doth God engage to Israel to put them in possession of the Promised Land and to bless them there Yea but then they must come before the Lord and publickly declare their consent to the Covenant and engage to be obedient to it Exod. 24.3.7 8. Deut. 28.1 2.15 3. The several acts that are expresly either required of or ascribed to Man with reference to this Covenant speak it to be somewhat more than a Testament As for instance we are said to enter into Covenant with God Deut. 29.12 And to make or as the original there signifies to cut a Covenant with him Psal 50.5 And to join our selves to the Lord by Covenant Jer. 50.4 5. And to be brought into the Bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 and to keep or observe his Covenant Psal 25.10 and to obey the words of the Covenant Jer. 11.2 3 4 5. and to perform and stand to the Covenant 2 Kings 23.2 3. As also to transgress it Josh 7.11 and to break Esa 24.5 and not to continue in Heb. 8 9. or be stedfast in the Covenant Psal 78.37 But are these expressions any way applicable to a Will and Testament or what tolerable sense can we possibly make of them if so applyed To make or enter into Covenant with another is proper language which every one understands But to join our selves to another by Testament or to enter into and make and cut a Will with him or to be stedfast in it is a mode of speaking no where to be found No all this necessarily implies somewhat of engagement and duty on our part to God and not only his bequeathment of Mercy to us by way of absolute Grant and Donation 4. But suppose we should after all admit that 't is a Testament Will it therefore follow that its Donations are so absolute as to be without all Conditions not so much as requiring our actual consent to them that they may be ours May not a Father by Will give and bequeath his Lands or Moneys to his Children or Friends with these or the like Priviso's That they discharge the Debts he owes and pay the several Legacies he hath given and allow such Pensions and Annuities for charitable uses as he hath therein appointed and set apart for that purpose And are not the parties hereupon obliged in case they expect any benefit by his Will to assent to and perform the Conditions thereto annexed And if not performed according to appointment do they not thereby forfeit their claim to the whole or rather they never had any legal plea or title to it since they accepted not of the terms upon which it was given to them Why all for the main that I am arguing for is no more but this viz. That the great Blessings of the Gospel are by the Father through Christ made over to sinners not by any meer absolute Grant or Bequeathment but upon certain Terms and Considerations which on their part are to be consented to and accordingly to be performed that they may be actually interessed in them And that whoever refuseth to accept of these Terms and shall not sincerely endeavour the performance of them they can neither be instated in or have any lawful claim to any part of that eternal Salvation which is the fruit of Christ's Satisfaction and Purchase In this sense if any one will call the Gospel Grant a Testament there 's little to be said against it since though the name be different yet in reality 't is but the same Which formally comprehendeth in it all the essentials of a Covenant 'T is therefore if you will a Testament in a Covenant form or a Testamental Covenant It partakes of the nature of both but principally of the former But all this will yet be more amply made to appear by that which follows in the next Proposition PROPOS IX Of the Parties with whom the New Covenant is made THIS Evangelical Covenant by which repenting and believing sinners are readmitted to the favour of God and the fruition of eternal life 't is made not immediately with Christ for and in the behalf of Believers but with Believers themselves in their own persons through the mediation of Jesus Christ with the Father That there is indeed an eternal Covenant established betwixt God the Father and God the Son in order to Man's Redemption hath already been asserted but besides this Covenant of Redemption as 't is now fitly called by our Divines there is also another Covenant that I mean which the Author to the Hebrews calls the New and Second Covenant which being of a far different nature from the former ought accordingly to be distinguished from it and this is that which I say is made betwixt God and Believers In short The Covenant of Redemption was made with Christ The Covenant of Grace with Believers in Christ To make this more evident 't is to be considered that in every Covenant there must of necessity be two or more persons mutually stipulating and engaging to each other One promising to give or grant somewhat that may accrue to the benefit of the other and another also that may not only accept of what is so granted but further engage to return somewhat by way of homage or acknowledgment Thus in the Legal Covenant the Persons engaging were God and Adam In the Covenant of Redemption God and Christ In the Covenant of Grace God and Believers Not that our consent was required or is any way necessary to the framing and drawing up this Covenant as before was hinted No that was made without us Only to the Conditions therein propounded 't is necessary Betwixt Man and Man indeed supposing them to be equals and each to be sui juris there no Covenant
Lord I am thine I am thy servant All relations we say are mutual and so are also the respective duties appropriate to them And therefore whoever puts himself into any relation he doth by that very act at least implicitely bind himself to the performance of all the duties of that relation He that sincerely owns any man to be his Father or Master doth thereby oblige himself to all the duties of a Son and Servant 4. I might add that since the pirviledges and immunities of this Covenant are not equally and alike imparted unto all 't is necessary that some conditions should be affixed to it as marks and evidences whereby those to whom they do belong might be assured of their legal interest in and title to them and all others excluded that wilfully reject the tender of them and unworthily prefer their carnal delights and pleasures and worldly interests before them If the question be asked why have not all an equal share in or rightful claim to pardon and life The only answer must be the one sincerely perform the conditions upon which they are promised i. e. they repent and believe c. but the others continue in their impenitence and unbelief But of this I shall have an occasion to speak more fully in the following proposition 5. The everlasting benefits of the New Covenant are either promised conditionally or else absolutely and without conditions If absolute then may all equally lay claim to the promises of pardon and life and alike partake of all the blessings of the Covenant Then Esau as well as Jacob and Judas as well as Peter and Pilate that condemned Christ as well as those that became his Disciples and suffered for him might hope to be justified and made Heirs of the Kingdom For what should hinder or exclude them What you will say their impenitency and unbelief I but if the Covenant be absolute and there be no such condition or proviso added to it how can their not repenting and believing in Jesus Christ be legally pleaded against them or become any bar to their Salvation 'T is absolutely promised without reserve that they shall be saved and God is obliged by his own faithfulness to make good his promise to them And if so what becomes of his threatnings and comminations against the impenitent and unbelieving world And where is the truth of Christs doctrine that strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life The entrance into Heaven is then wider than the gates of Hell and many there be that enter in thereat Publicans and Harlots Scribes and Pharisees and Hypocrites and Infidels as well as Saints and Believers None are excluded Suppose a King to set forth a Proclamation wherein he positively declares that all such as have rebelled against him or such a number of them as he therein mentions by name shall be pardoned and accepted to favour and accordingly that he doth hereby fully pardon and accept them can any thing possibly in this case debar them from reaping the full benefit of this Proclamation No but if the proposals of his Grace and Favour be conditional and therefore only to such as shall lay down their Arms and come in and humble themselves and engage to own him as their Soveraign and to submit to his Laws and Government otherwise to be proceeded against as Rebels and Traitors against his person and Soveraignty Here as whilst the door is held open to all that shall submit themselves and return to their Alâ—egiance so 't is by the other hand shut against â—ll obstinate and resolved offenders They â—ave no plea or claim to any benefit by his â—roclamation of grace and acceptance Why Because they submitted not to the â—erms upon which it was propounded But will any one say that God hath made any â—uch Declaration of Grace to Sinners as that â—ll or any particular number of them shall â—e pardoned and admitted into his favour â—nd received into eternal Glory though they â—ever repent or believe in Christ but obâ—tinately continue in their infidelity and acts â—f hostility against him If so to what purâ—ose hath God appointed an Hell or day of â—udgment For if the impenitent and unbelieving and â—isobedient have an absolute promise to be â—â—ved there is none then can be damned Baâ—am might then have spared his prayer Numb 23.10 Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his â—â—nce as dies the righteous so dies the wicked iâ— sure and certaine hopes of a resurrection unto eternal life The Covenant then you see 't is not absolute 't is not to all alike without exception 't is not to the obstinate and resolved sinner that continues in his impenitâ—ncy and unbelief And if it be not absolute iâ— necessarily follows that 't is conditional for the opposition betwixt these two terms is contradictory and so cannot admit of any medium That which hath no conditions is absolute that therefore which is not absolute must have conditions PROPOS XI Of our necessary obligation to perform the conditions of the Covenant AS the Covenant of Grace is made with conditions so these conditions they must actually be accepted and performed by us before we can be admitted to any actual interest in or have any lawful claim to the blessings of it The Covenant as before was said is made up of priviledges and duties Those are promised and these commanded Now the duties commanded must first be performed before the priviledges promised can be enjoyed since the promise is only made to the performance of them Plainly thus We are not first pardoned and then repent first justified and then believe first glorified and then made holy But we must first repent and believe before we can be pardoned and make good the sincerity of our resolutions in both so far as we have opportunity by obedience before we enter into life Which is no more than what is commonly said by Divines viz. That faith goes before justification and holiness before happiness This is the unvariable order in which the benefits of this Covenant are to be dispensed and in which they are only to be expected by us I do not say that these duties or conditions are to be performed by us in our own natural strength but yet they must be performed by us in our own persons The work is properly ours but the strength to do it is from the Lord. He by his spirit inables us to repent and believe and obey the Gospel I but still so that it is our act we are the persons that must actually repent and believe and obey or else we cannot receive the remission of our sins and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified And shall I need to say much for the proof of this which is so manifest partly from what I have already said and partly from the evidence of reason it self For first 1. Hath not God positively and in plain terms commanded us to
prison to save aâ— Apostate Lucifer and his Angels Yea a Beâ—â—zebub the Prince of Devils But will yoâ— yet say that the unbelieving Jews anâ— Turks and damned spirits and Apostaâ—â— Angels shall or can be saved Or that theâ— have any sufficient reason hence to believe it This is much what as if when a poor man 〈◊〉 arrested for a debt he should say the King Exchequer is full and abundantly suâ—ficient to pay what I owe and therefore go to him and my debt shall be paiâ— But will the Creditor do you think acceâ—â— of this as sufficient If the sufficiency of Chrisâ—â— satisfaction and merit as to its intrinsick value were a sufficient warrant for our Faith and hopes of Salvation then I see no reason but why the Devils might as before was hinted not only as James speaks believe and tremble but also believe and hope For they may also argue thus Christs merit is infinite 't is sufficient and therefore we believe and expect to be freed from these chains of darkness and to be readmitted into eternal mansions and enjoy those pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore And thus men miserably delude themselves first by their mis-understanding and then by misapplying the sufficiency of Christs satisfaction and all by their not rightly distinguishing betwixt its intrinsick value and it s stated â—nd intentional sufficiency That indeed is â—he foundation of the New Covenant but â—his only of our Faith and hopes But secondly by the sufficiency of Christs satisfaction and righteousness we are here â—o far as 't is of concernment to us to unâ—erstand its fitness and efficacy with respect â—o it s designed and intended end For whatâ—ver is taken up only as a means or medium â—o any end its sufficiency is no otherwise to â—e judged and determined but by its fitâ—ess and ability or its unfitness and inaâ—ility to the production of that end for â—hich 't is made choice of and unto which it is appointed This is the only rule and standard by which the sufficiency of all means is to be measured and decided That therefore which is not fit and able to effect its end we properly say 't is insufficient But that which is every way suited to and doth â—ffectually in all points obtain its end that is truly to be deâ—med sufficient As suppose to make it yet more plain to every capacity that one who is possâ—ssed of a great and liberal estate mortgage some part of his lands to another for his security upon consideration â—ithâ—r of moneys borrowed or some Annuities to be paid c. What 's that which a wâ—se Man would here look after for his security What the intrinsick value of this Mans whole Estate and incomes No that 's not engaged to him nor intended as a means for his satisfaction and therefore he hath no sufficient ground from this to expâ—ct to be satisfied only the mortgage and what of his lands are therein mentioned being intended as a means for his security the value of that he considers and whether there be enough thence arising to pay the moneys owing and to discharge such annuities if so 't is judged a sâ—fficient estate and sufficient security and he â—ests satisfied with it Now to apply all this The satisfaction of Christ 't is designed by God as a means for the accomplishment of certain divine ends which have already been declared in the precedent discourse as the vindicating of his wisdom holiness justice faithfulness c. and maintaining his authority and laws and government in the world And laying a sure foundation for the readmission of fallen Man to the favour of God and eternal life upon his returning to God and accepting of the redemption offered and living in a due acknowledgment of and subjection to his Maker and Redeemer c. These are the great ends as hath been shewn more at large in several propositions for which God intended his Sons satisfaction And to these 't is every way sufficient though not to all those ends that wicked men may fancy and imagine to themselves for their greater encouragement to vanity and presumption 'T is sufficient to evidence the holiness and purity of Gods nature and his irreconcileable hatred against sin sufficient to declare his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus sufficient to vindicate the authority of his Laws and Government to the world sufficient to obtain a New Covenant from God with his Creature for the pardoning of his Rebellion and taking him again into friendship and bestowing eterâ—al life and Glory upon him provided he will but humble himself and submit to God â—nd live in obedience to his righteous Laws and Government To these wise and holy ends for which God hath designed it it is sufficient Yea but yet not sufficient for the redemption of fallen Angels or for the Salvation of the damned now in Hell because not designed and intended for their Salvation and Redemption And for the same reason we may also say without detracting any thing from its sufficiency that 't is not sufficient to save the impenitent and unbelieving and unholy here on earth Why Because it was never intended for this end As I may without offence say that the Kings treasury is not sufficient though in it self more than sufficient to discharge my debt or satisfy my creditor because it was never appointed for that purpose but for higher and more worthy ends and therefore the asâ—â—rting the Covenant to be conditional requiring our personal repentance and faith and obedience without which we cannot expect to be pardoned or saved by it can be no diminution or prejudice to the sufficiency of Christs satisfaction and righteousness unless it be shewn that God did purposely design it for the Salvation of such as would neither repent nor believe nor obey that is such as lived and died in open rebellion and defiance against him Such as rend their pardon and throw away the Physick that should cure them and spit in the face of their Phisician Such in a word as blaspheme God and do despite to the Spirit of Grace and trample under-foot the blood of Christ and put him again to open shame If it can be shewn indeed that God ever intended the satisfaction of his Son for this end to save such Monsters of iniquity whom he hath by an unchangable degree sentenced to eternal torments then 't is true to say that Men cannot be saved by Jesus Christ without repenting and believing and being holy is to argue it of weakness and insufficiency since it falls short of obtaining the end for which it was appointed I but if it be evidently manifest that the satisfaction of Jesus Christ was never intended for this end only to save such as humbly believe and obey then 't is no derogation to the sufficiency of his righteousness to say it is not sufficient for their Salvation since otherwise acknowledged sufficient to
they are still truly distinguishable in themselves as to their formal notions vocation being one thing and justification another and also in the order in which they are given out to sinners For first they are effectually called then justified then adopted and last of all glorified Betwixt the three former there is at least a priority of nature as the Sun we say is before its light and the fire before its heat But betwixt them and glorification there is a priority of time Thus Enoch we know walked some years with God in a justified state before he was translated And Paul fought long after he was called before he received his Crown This is the unvariable order that God hath fixed wherein to dispense the great blessings of the Covenant to such who are the objects of his elective love He justifies none but the called and adopts none but the justified and glorifies none but the adopted Rom. 8. In the next place the order in which the priviledges of the Covenant are dispensed being stated we must consider in what order the several conditions of the Covenant since â—ot to all alike nor at the same time to all are to be applied for our being actually inâ—eressed in them And first in order to our â—ffectual calling no more is required of us â—han an humble and diligent attendance upon all such means as God hath appointed for that end Our waiting by the pool for the Angels moving upon the waters Isa 55.6 Prov. 2.4 5. Heb. 2.1 Luke 11.9 10 11 12 13. Joh. 5.25 Act. 10.33 Acts 13.44 48. Our actual faith and repentance and holiness cannot here be supposed as a prerequisite to our effectual calling only our attendance upon the means since these are the very things to which we are called Act. 26.18 Rom 10.14 Rom. 1.7 Gal. 1.6 And he that is called to believe and be holy is upon that very account supposed before to be both unbelieving and unholy But then in order to our being justified and adopted there both faith and repentance as hath already been proved are antecedently necessary Or which is all one our humble and penitential acceptance or receiving of Jesus Christ in all his offices as Prophet Priest and King and consequent upon this our reliance upon him for pardon and Salvation Gal. 2.16 Joh. 1.12 and lastly in order to our being actually glorified and made eternally happy in the immediate fruition of God 't is further requisite that we be not only penitent and believing but also actually holy and obedient as hath been said Math. 5.20 Rev. 22.14 First God in the use of means calls sinners to repent and believe and then upon their repenting and believing in answer to his call he justifies and adopts them And then upon their being further purified in obeying the truth as 't is exprest 1 Pet. 1.22 and so made meet to be partakers with the Saints in the inheritance of light they are as the consummation of all their happiness eternally glorified So that you see our repenting and believing necessarily presupposeth our effectual calling and our justification and adoption our repenting and believing and our glorification not only our being justified and adopted but also our being personally holy and conformable to Jesus Christ When therefore 't is said that obedience as well as faith and repentance is a necessary condition in the Covenant of Grace if we understand it as we ought according to the order before explained the great doctrine of justification by faith in Christ which the Apostle so much contends for with the Jews especially in his Epistle to the Romans and Galatians this doctrine I say is hereby secured and preserved inviolable since our obedience is made a condition only with reference to eternal life and not to our justification being in order not â—ntecedent to but consequent upon that We are still justified by faith in Christ without works as the Apostle speaks but yet not saâ—ed by faith alone without works There is more required to make a Soul fit for Heaven than meerly the pardoning of his sins and justifying of his person But is it not often affirmed in Scripture that we are saved as well as justified by faith Joh. 3.16 Eph. 2.8 Mar. 16.16 It 's true and so also we are said to be saved by hope Rom. 8.24 And by calling upon the name of the Lord Rom. 10.13 And to be blessed and have a right to the tree of life by keeping of the commands of Christ Rev. 22.14 If then the argument will hold good that we are saved by faith alone without holiness and obedience because 't is said he that believeth shall be saved we might also by the same rule argue that we are saved by hope without faith or by calling upon God without hope or by our obedience without all the rest since Salvation and blessedness is ascribed to each of these to hoping and calling upon the Lord and obeying as well as believing All therefore that can justly be inferred from hence is only this that faith as well as hope and obedience is necessary to our Salvation And because there is an inseperable connexion betwixt them and a joint subserviency of both to the same end therefore it is that eternal life is sometimes ascribed to one sometimes to the other Sometimes 't is said blessed are they that believe Joh. 20.29 Sometimes blessed are the pure in heart Matth. 5.8 Sometimes blessed is he that feareth the Lord Psal 112.1 Sometimes again blessed are they that keep his testimonies and are undefiled in the way Psal 119.1 2. All which 't is evident must be taken inclusive of each other faith of fear and fear of purity and all as joined with actual obedience That is he that believes and acts sutably to his faith in purifying his heart and keeping the commands of Christ he shall be saved And so again on the other hand he that obeys supposing also that he repents and believes in Jesus Christ he shall be blessed But we cannot possibly without making Scripture to contradict it self appropriate happiness to any one of these conditions not to faith any more than to obedience either by way of opposition to or separation from the rest The plain English of that would be this that a disobedient faith or an unbelieving obedience might be sufficient to qualify us for eternal life Even in justification it self though our actual obedience be not there required yet 't is vertually included in the very nature of that faith by which we are justified But as to our being eternally glorified there our actual obedience together with faith and repentance are alike necessary to give us a perfect and compleat right to it faith and repentance alone as to this are not sufficient A compleat right I say for there is I grant a certain right to life that doth immediately result from faith it self But then we must here distinguish of a double right There is first a primary and
distinguished should ever really be separated Faith without works saith James is dead Jam. 2.26 That is in truth 't is no faith as a dead Man properly is not a Man but a meer carcass and an apparent resemblance only of a Man 'T is little better than an implicite contradiction at the best but an ens rationis a meer figment and Chimera that is no where to be found existing but in the wild imaginations of some such whom the Apostle calls absurd and unreasonable men An impenitent faith and disobedient faith an unholy and unjust faith What a strange conjunction would this be Can any Man think this to be a justifying a saving faith It 's true if we do humbly and sincerely receive and give up our selves to Jesus Christ upon Gospel termes God doth not suspend our pardon and acceptance till our holiness be compleat and our obedience grown to its full stature but upon that very act acquit us from our obligation to the Old Covenant and admit us to an incipient right to all the priviledges of the New As he that hath before witness sealed to Indentures is thereupon immediately though the things therein required are not yet discharged admitted to the possession of the premises And he that humbly submits himself to his Prince upon his Proclamation of grace and pardon is at the same time pardoned and taken under the protection of his government though he have not yet demonstrated his loyalty by any signal acts of service to him But then as sinners are thus justified upon their first solemn and serious believing in Jesus Christ or else it will be hard to say when 't is done so they must and if sincere in the first act they will otherwise in truth they never did believe and consequently never were justified they must I say and will continue in all due obedience to him according a they then promised and resolved or else their first act stands only for a cypher and signifies nothing in Gods account nor in mans neither could he as God understand our hearts There is no pardon sealed nor right to life conferred nor the least spiritual advantage to be expected from the Covenant of Grace unless our faith be such as is justified by obedience As he that seals to any Covenant must also pay his rent or he cannot expect â—o be continued in possession and â—reap the profits of it And he that is pardoned upon submission must also live in a dutiful subjection to his Prince or otherwise hâ— cannot hope to enjoy the benefit of his pardon By the former I mean our believing and submission to Jesus Christ we are as I have already said justified and obtain an initial right to eternal life And by the latter i. e. our holiness and obedience our right is continued and compleated But fourthly 4. It may contribute somewhat to our better understanding the consistence of free Grace with the conditionality of the Covenant and the necessiâ—y of our personal performance of the conditions of it in order to our eternal Salvation a little to consider the nature of Salvation and happiness and how nearly holiness and obedience are allied to it Happiness Salvation they are pleasing words As light to the eye musick to the ear Every one is delighted with the sound of them How beautiful are the feet of them that bring these glad tidings But alas how few are there of those that desire it that rightly understand what it is Ask them what they mean by being happy and they will tell you Oh! to be freed from sin they mean no the sinfulness but the punishment of sin thâ— curse of the Law and the wrath that is tâ— come And to have all tears wiped froâ— their eyes and burdens taken from theiâ— shoulders and to rest for ever from their labours To be delivered from Hell and eteâ—nal burnings and to live in the midst of joy and delights in another world In a word not to be everlastingly miserable but to be at ease for ever without care and trouble and anxiety But what is there in all this more than in Mahomet's Paradise or the Poets Elyzium If freedome from misery were properly happiness then non-entities might be happy and the readiest way to make us so would be â—o annihilate us and turn us into our first nothing For that which is not is at ease and cannot be miserable And if meer sensitive pleasures and delights were sufficient to create beatitudes then the brute creatures might be numbred amongst the blessed and the most effectual means to make Man so were to change his nature and turn him into a beast since they are observed to have the quickest sense and so most capable of enjoying the pleasures of it And yet this is all that the generality of the world understand by happiness and indeed all that they desire And according to these false conceptions of happiness are also their notions of free Grace framed and modelled To be created over again in Christ unto good works and be pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation To live the life of God and be righteous as he is righteous and be followers of him as dear children c. These things are seldom instanced in or taken notice of either as any much less as the most essential parts of our happiness or any fruit and evidence of free Grace But when they would set forth this arraied in her richest robes of glory and greatest Majesty they instance in God pardoning sinners and blotting out their iniquities and justifying the ungodly and casting their sins into the bottom of the Sea and scattering them as a thick cloud and redeeming them from the curse and freeing them from Hell and condemnation c. This they cry is Grace and wonderful Grace to sinners And so indeed it is and wonderful beyond what 't is possible for any finite creature to express or comprehend And therefore my design is not to shadow or eclipse any part of that unspeakable glory that ariseth hence to the free Grace of God But yet let me add is there no free Grace but pardoning and justifying Grace to be admired And may not men without offence be minded of it and be desired to consider it Tell me what greater favour and kindness and that is properly Grace as hath been shewn can God possibly manifest to any creature than to make it eternally happy And what greater happiness can he possibly bestow upon him than to make him like and conformable to himself The true and formal notion of happiness lies not in negatives but positive fruitions Not in being freed from misery but in the enjoyment of all possible perfection of which a created nature is capable And all the perfection competible to a creature consists formally in his conformity and assimilation to God the original fountain of being and perfection That creature that hath all excellencies and perfections proper and competible to its own
Doctrine of Rome in this particular And as to same others who also plead for the necessity of holiness and righteousness though they in great measure reject the Popish works and wholly disclaim any merit by them and possibly acknowledge Christs satisfaction though since they speak some of them so darkly and undervaluingly of it that may be questioned Yet the efficacious influences of the Sacred Spirit for their assistance in the performance of those acts of righteousness they plead for are not so much acknowledged by them the creature being thought sufficiently instructed with power from nature and reason to repent and believe and obey c. according to the pleasure of his own will And though they seem much to advance the Soveraignty of God over the creature whilst they ascribe to God nine hundred ninety and nine degrees of power and but one of an hundred only to Man yet in conclusion the matter comes to this that this one single degree of power in the creature may and doth at pleasure baffle and defeat and put to flight and triumph over those 999. which are in God i. e. The creatures weakness is stronger than Gods power In short if the question be asked them who made thee to differ The answer will be Ego meipsum But is there any thing said in this whole discourse that lays any foundation for these opinions or that doth so much as add one stone to the building Are our own works any where affirmed to be either the matter of our justification or the meritorious cause of eternal life Or that our duties are performed by our own natural strength without the effectual assistance of the Spirit of God Where is nature and reason advanced above Grace or our own righteousness set up to justle Christ from his Throne and rob him of his Crown Is it not more than once affirmed and proved that holiness and obedience are not the causes but conditions only of our Salvation And that 't is impossible for any creature much less one that is degenerate to merit any thing at the hands of God And that we are justified not by works not by our holiness and obedience which follow justification as the payment of the rent doth sealing to the Indentures but by faith in Jesus Christ receiving him in all his offices And that the several duties of the Covenant are performed not by the sole power of nature but by strength received from the Spirit of God and by the daily supplies of his Grace So that we are doubly indebted to God first to his command to obey that and then to his Grace for enabling us to obey And will â—ny one that is not profoundly ignorant call â—his by the name of Popery and Pelagianism or have so much confidence as to â—ensure and condemn it as a Doctrine inâ—onsistent with the Grace of the Gospel and â—hat righteousness that is by Christ Is not â—his in Judes language to speak evil of â—hose things which they know not And â—o proclaim themselves unskilled in the words â—f righteousness and that Doctrine which is â—ccording to Godliness But suppose the agreement betwixt faith â—nd works Christs righteousness and our â—wn free Grace and the necessity of obediâ—nce in the business of Salvation could not â—fficiently be evidenced to our present reaâ—on must they therefore be exploded as abâ—â—rdities and untruths and things absoluteâ—â— irreconcileable We must then throw aâ—ay not only some of the greatest mysteries 〈◊〉 our Religion but many of the most eviâ—â—nt phenomena and appearances in Philosophy The influences of the Load-stone the ebbing and flowing of the Sea c. musâ— be rejected as fables and our senses no morâ— be credited in what they see since the manner how these things are done is not yet sufficiently understood and explained Thingâ— themselves we know are evident but the modes and manners of things are almost every where latent and unaccountable Thaâ— therefore which we have to do in all matterâ— of Divine faith and practice is only this duly to inform and satisfy our selves whaâ— God hath certainly revealed and made knowâ— to us as his mind and will concerning 〈◊〉 which being done and our minds being satisfied that God hath said it and that 〈◊〉 is the plain meaning of his words we arâ— then without any further debate to believe and do according to his word though possibly at present we cannot so well discoveâ— that mutual accord and agreement whicâ— there is betwixt those several truths revealeâ— by him The positive and plain conclusion of Scripture are humbly to be believed thougâ— they cannot be reconciled by us For this suppose will easily be granted by all as unquestionable That the will of God if wâ— certainly know it to be his will is the uâ—doubted rule and standard both of faith anâ— practice We must believe what 't is certaiâ— he hath revealed And we must do whaâ— 't is certain he hath commanded For the will of God is not to be disputed but obeyed And doth not the Apostle expresly tell us that this is the will of God even our sanctification 2 Thes 4.3 He that hath said he will blot out our transgressions for his own sake and remember â—ur sins no more Isa 43.25 he hath also â—â—id thâ—t we must repent and be converted â—hat our sins may be blotted out when the days of â—efreshing shall come from the presence of the â—ord Acts 3.19 He that hath said that â—e are justified freely by his grace through the â—edemption that is in Christ Rom. 3.24 he â—ath also said we are justified by faith ver â—8 and that we must believe that we may â—e justified Gal. 2.16 He that saith we â—â—e made the righteousness of God in Christ â—ho was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 he also â—â—ith that except our righteousness speaking â—ere expresly of moral and personal righteâ—usness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes â—nd Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the â—ingdom of God Matth. 5.20 And he that â—ith we are saved by grace and not of our â—â—â—ves Eph. 2.8 and according to his mercy â—â—d not by works of righteousness which we â—â—ve done Tit. 3.5 he also saith that we â—ust work out our own salvation with fear and â—â—mbling Phil. 2.12 and that without hoâ—â—ess we shall not be saved Heb. 12.14 Is not all this plain and easy to him that will but understand God hath said it 'T is his will exprest in terms that we must repent and believe and be righteous and work about our own Salvation and follow after holiness that we may not perish but have everlasting life Who then shall shall dare to argue and dispute against it At least here is no ground you see for any humble and sober mind that is but sincerely willing to be governed by the Divine will so to do but rather seriously to apply himself to the performance of these duties that God hath so expresly injoined and made necessary to our Salvation The great reason therefore why men profess themselves so much offended with this Doctrine 't is not because it is or because they in truth believe it to be an enemy to the Cross and Grace of Christ but rather because it is an enemy to their lusts and passions and presumptuous neglects of God An enemy to their present ease and pleasure and worldly satisfactions the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life An enemy to their false and carnal hopes and empty professions of Christianity Therefore it is that they thus condemn this Doctrine because otherwise they cannot justifie their own faith and practice that are so manifestly condemned by it They must have a cheap Religion Faith without works pardon without the trouble of repentance an Heaven without holiness and a free Grace to save them without obedience or else they are miserable and undone to eternity But be not deceived saith the Apostle God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.7 8. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 For God will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile for there is no respect of persons with God Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. Be ye therefore steadfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 FINIS
repent and believe and be holy And that in order to our being happy And hath he not finally excluded from life and happiness all such that are impenitent unbelieving and impure Can there be any doubt concerning this to him that reads the Gospel and believes it to be of Divine authority And is he not do you think serious in all this What shall the unchangeable God that cannot lie be deemed like degenerate Man to speak one thing and mean another Or is he serious only in his promises and not so also in his commands and threatnings Why Are not both equally founded upon the same immutable nature and veracity of God And if you can perswade your selves to hope that God will revoke his threatnings and commands Why should you not also doubt whether he will make good his promises We have no other foundation whereon to build our faith and hopes but the declared will of God and if that be changeable our faith 's no better than opinion and our hopes presumption We can then neither be sure that the wicked shall be turned into Hell nor yet that the righteous shall be saved If this then be the fixed and unchangeable order and method of Salvation by the Covenant of Grace that either we must repent or perish return or die believe or be damned be holy or not see God be obedient or suffer the vengeance of eternal fire as hath been shewn how can we hope to be saved otherways than in repenting and turning and believing and obeying of the Gospel Otherways than in the actual performance of these duties 2. Have we not more than once by our own voluntary act solemnly engaged our selves to the actual performance of all these conditions When we were baptized when we after this approached to the Lords Table when we have at any time professedly humbled our Souls before the Lord in any solemn ordinance yea when we first entertained the tenders of Grace and Salvation did we not then promise and engage to amend our evil wayes and doings and turn to God and believe in Jesus Christ and receive him in all his offices and keep his Commands and walk in all holiness and obedience well pleasing in his sight Now either we were serious and in good earnest or not when we thus engaged If serious 't is morally impossible that we should indulge our selves in the wilfull neglect of these duties since an intentional and approved violation of our promise is inconsistent with sincerity And therefore the conscience of our own obligation will necessarily put us upon all possible endeavours to act conformable to our own engagements And since the thing to which we obliged our selves was not meerly the profession and acknowledgment but actual performance of these duties we shall accordingly study to perform them But if we say we were not serious in these solemn engagements we then plainly confess that our design therein was only to play the Hypocrites with God and to impose upon his omnisciency But is it possible that any reasonable creature should ever become so prodigious a Monster Or that ever it should enter into the heart of Man to imagine that the all wise and holy God He that requires truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 He that hath curst the deceiver Mal. 1.14 He that hath denounced so many woes against the Hypocrite Matth. 23. and hath sentenced them to the lowest place in Hell Matth. 24.51 That he I say should bind himself by Covenant to such Miscreants to pardon them and bless them and admit them to the best and choisest priviledges of his Kingdom What such as design to mock God and play the Hypocrite with him and to be treacherous and unfaithful to him Be not deceived saith the Apostle God is not mocked Gal. 6.7 Besides if our stipulating with God in the Covenant or as the Prophet expresseth it our subscribing with the hand to the Lord be necessary as hath been demonstrated in order to our recâ—iving the blessings of it then our actual performance of what we stipulated and subscribed to must needs be much more necessary since our solemn engagement to the Covenant is râ—quired not meerly for it self but only as a means to this end that is to bind us to a more punctual performance of the conditions of it 3. How else shall we distinguish betwixt the righteous and the wicked the Heirs of Glory and the Sons of perdition They may all be baptized They may all subscribe with the hand to the Lord. They may all eat and drink at his table They may all be professors in Religion and make a fair shew in the flesh as the Apostle speaks Gal. 6.12 These things are common to both and therefore can be no mark of distinction betwixt them No but herein lies the difference The one break off their sins by repentance and turn to God the other not The one come to the foot of Christ take his yoak and bear his burden and sincerely believe in him the others not The one keep his Commandments and obey from the heart his Laws and Doctrine the others not The one love the Lord with all their Souls and thoughts and strength the others have not the same love of the Father in them but love the world and the things of the world as John speaks 1 John 2.15 In a word the one perform the Oath of the Lord and act conformably to their Covenant engagements but the other they draw back and are unfaithful Like the Pharisees they say and do not But the others they say and do And thus they are mutually described and distinguished by the Apostle 1 Joh. 3 7 10. Little children let no man deceive you he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous ver 7. But whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God ver 10. And herein he tells us the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil Herein they are differenced and hereby they manifestly may be distinguished And the same Character and mark of distinction we have from Jesus Christ himself Job 8.31 15.8 But if the actual performance of these conditions be not unchangeably necessary all distinction betwixt good and bad Holy and Prophane is taken away and we cannot say of any â—owever visibly different in their lives and conversations this Man is wicked or that Man is righteous since one is not this in observing nor the other that in neglecting the observance of them if not neceâ—sary to be observed and so we have no Standard left whereby to judge of either The obedient and disobedient are alike if obedience and disobedience be the same For whatever elective love God may have for any particular person more than for others amongst the degenerate Sons of Men yet since that is only an immanent act in God and that which had an existence from all eternity before we had any thing and wholly lies hid in the secret counsel of Gods
upon it to make it more clear and evident This is certain that whoever receives an estate by grant or Covenant from another he can have right to nothing more than what is therein by name expressed nor upon any other terms than those therein specified Nor any longer maintain his claim to it than those Conditions are done and performed by him So that if either he did not consent to and accept of the terms or not duely perform them when accepted he is no more de jure to be deemed the lawful possessor of it The case is thus here betwixt God and Man God makes a grant of pardon and acceptance and eternal life to sinners This grant is by Covenant This Covenant is with certain terms and conditions and these conditions they must be accepted and performed or else no right to any of the priviledges of this Covenant is conferred upon us For since we have here no right as was said but what is given us and since that right is expresly affixed to the personal performance of the conditions of the Covenant therein mentioned where there is no such performance there can be no right That this right is thus affixed to the personal performance of the Conditions of the Covenant is evident for we have no right but by promise 1 Joh. 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life And therefore Believers are by the Author to the Hebrews called the heirs of promise Heb. 6.17.11.9 The promise then only gives us right to life yea but the promise is only made to the personal performance of these duties Acts 3.19 Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the days of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Rom. 10.9 10. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe with thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Rom. 8.13 If ye through the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live Joh. 13.17 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And Matth. 7.21 not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven From all these Scriptures it evidently appears that the promise of mercy and pardon and life and blessedness the great benefits of the Covenant they are expresly made to the actual and personal performance of repentance and faith and sincere obedience which are the main duties and conditions of the same Covenant 'T is our personal performance therefore of the conditions of the Covenant that gives us a formal and personal right to the blessings of it and our non-performance only by which our right is forfeited T is that which gives us right Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City Blessed are they who They that have eat and drunk in his presence and wrought miracles in his name No but they that do his will but why blessed Because they have right not only the favour and priviledge but right to the tree of life But what gave them this right Their subscribing and sealing and promising obedience to Jesus Christ No but their performing Covenants their keeping of his Commandments Therefore blessed are they that they may have right And this right since 't is founded in Grace and not in merit it may be humbly pleaded by Believers when their right to the promise is called in question or any accusations from the old Law brought in against them Through Grace they have been inabled to believe and repent c. And therefore they are freed from the curse and from condemnation And therefore the promise of pardon and life is theirs But because few are so well satisfied concerning their own sincerity as to be thereby enabled to make this Plea therefore the promises that are more absolute in this case are to be pleaded by them For as some promises are made to Grace the conditions of which being performed are the foundation of our assurance So there are other promises of Grace which are the immediate foundation of our encouragement to Faith and Prayer However the doubting Souls cannot alway plead their right because they question their own performances yet the sincere performance of the condition for all that gives an undoubted right and laies a good foundation for a legal plea and by such as are satisfied concerning their own sincerity may be pleaded against accusations from the Law and Justice without either asserting merit or retrenching the free Grace of God Since this right as was said ariseth from the gracious will and favour of God and not from our own desert or the intrinsick value of the duties we perform As suppose one to found a School or Hospital and to endow it with rich revenews and priviledges but with this condition that they upon whom 't is setled shall once or twice every year pay by way of acknowledgment some few pence or half pence to one of his own name that the memory of his name might be preserved and they constantly be made to acknowledge from whom they received so liberal a donation In this case as his making this the condition upon which they hold it shall not render it to be no act of Charity or blot out his name from amongst their Benefactors So neither shall their pleading that this acknowledgment if called in question hath accordingly been made and the conditions of the grant been constantly performed the pleading this I say shall not be deemed either any detraction from the freeness of the gift or a pleading of your own desert only an humble asserting of their own right which was by grant conferred upon them But as our actual performance of the conditions of the Covenant gives us an undoubted right because founded upon the faithfulness of God to all the priviledges of the Covenant so consequently on the contrary the non-performance of them must needs null our right and cast us out of possession and actually expose us and make us liable to all that wrath and vengeance to all those woes and penalties that either this or the Old Covenant hath denounced For since it is attended with double guilt it shall also be rewarded with double punishment Heb. 10.29 Nor will it be sufficient in this case to plead that we have subscribed and sealed and promised performance to the Gospel Covenant no all this if it be not actually kept will serve for no other purpose but to witness our own unfaithfulness and to condemn us for being false to our own engagements You know what answer Christ returned to such as
made the like plea Matth. 7.23 Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not But lastly to sum up all One of these three things must here be affirmed Either that God will dispense with his Laws and stated order of saving sinners and save them in some other way than what he hath declared or else that these duties and conditions are discharged and performed by some other person as surety for us and in our behalf or else that they are actually to be performed by us in our own persons But first what reason have we to imagine that God will change his laws and alter â—he fixed methods of his Grace and rescind his Covenant which is the contrivance of his infinite wisdom and goodness founded in the blood of his own Son and confirmed by his death and that every way so well secures the honour of God and the allegeance and comfort of the creature What Do you think he will thus offer violence to himâ—elf his wisdom are holiness which he so much delights to honour Or that he will contradict the great design of his Sons undertaking which was to reduce the creature to his duty and obedience to God Or that he will affront his own truth and faithfulness and impeach himself guilty of a lie What The holy and wise God do thus and only for this end that he may gratifie sinners in their wilfull neglects of him and of the duties they indispensably owe to him And open a door to licentiousness and all sorts of abominations which his Soul hates And all this to save the impenitent and unbelieving and impure and disobedient for all Men are so that do not actually repent and believe and obey and make them Coheirs with Christ and set them upon his throne and put Crowns of Glory upon their heads What those that are his enemies whom he hates and hath sworn in his holiness that they shall never enter into his rest or see his face or taste of his joyes but be thrown into outer darkness and suffer the vengeance of eternal fire and be tormented day and night and everlastingly drink of the wine of his wrath poured out without mixture and lie for ever in an Hell of misery weeping and wailing and blaspheming because of their plagues and tormâ—nts where his eye shall not pity nor spare nor have mercy on them What Can any Man that hath not wholly lost his reason perswade himself to believe thus or to hope for Salvation in this way Or if you suppose it possible for any thus to believe will his fâ—ith this faith do you think save thâ—m For whom then is Tophet prepared Or for whâ—m is the blackness of darkness reserved if none be vessels of wrath and Sons of perditions And none are such if not the impenitent unbelieving disobedient and impure If these expect Salvation from God they must then shew us another Gospel another Covenant for by this I am sure 't is impossible that any should be saved that doth not personally perform the conditions of it Nor have we secondly any greater reason to believe or hope that these conditions should be discharged for us by any other person in our stead and behalf For are not the commands that require duty expresly spoke to us Ye shall repent and turn to God ye shall believe in Jeâ—us Christ ye shall be pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation and ye shâ—ll love God and keep his Commandments c. And are not the promises of pardon and life c. particularly made to us and to our personal performance of the conditions upon which they are made as hath been shewn And are not the comminations of death and wrath and eternal torments denounced against us in case of personal disobedience He that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 He that loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be an anathema maran-atha 1 Cor. 16.22 And except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 Now what foundation is here to imagine that these can concern any one but our selves Or if any of them be acknowledged to be appropriate to our selves why not the rest If the promises why not the commands and threatnings since we are alike spoke to in all Why should we charge these upon another and take the promises only to our selves May we not with as good reason say that another may be saved for us or damned for us as that he shall repent and believe for us And so Heaven should be ours only by a proxie and Justification ours by a subtitute c. That is in plain English 't is not we that are justified nor we that are adopted nor we that are admitted into eternal Glory but some one else for us But who is this that we suppose should perform these Conditions for us Jesus Christ our Mediator 'T is true he hath fully satisfied the demands of the first Covenant and taken Believers off from all obligation of duty to it And he hath also by his Mediation obtained another and better Covenant founded in his own blood and attended with better promises wherein pardon and eternal life are again offered and assured to sinners upon the equitable and honourable terms of repentance and faith and sincere though not perfâ—ct obedience Yea but yet we must not say that Jesus Christ repents and Jesus Christ believes for us c. No this must still be our own Act and 't is impossible it should be the act of Christ For consider but what is the proper object of these duties The object of repentance is sin and the object of faith and obedience is Jesus Christ we are to believe in him and to be obedient to him Heb. 5.9 and be conformable to him Rom. 8.29 and to keep his commands Joh. 15.10 and to walk after his example 1 Pet. 2.21 But can these any way be applied to Jesus Christ What shall we say that Christ believes in Christ Or that Christ is obedient to Christ Or that Christ is conformable to Christ Or that Christ walks in the steps of Christ What sence shall we then make of Scripture Or if any shall be so forsaken of their reason as to cant thus yet will any one say that Jesus Christ repents of Sin Or breaks off his sins by repentance and amends his evil wayes and doings as we are commanded If then it be not possible that either God should violate his own Covenant and contradict himself or that Jesus Christ should perform the conditions of it for us it necessarily follows that we our selves are personally obliged to the actual performance of them in order to our obtaining eternal life That is as I have often said we our selves are the persons that stand bound â—â—ch Man for himself to repent and believe and obey and be holy or else Salvation it self cannot save us PROPOS XII Of the consistence of a conditional Covenant with the sufficiency of Christs righteousness
nature that creature is truly and formally happy He is so well that he can be no better and therefore capable of no greater felicity But then since mans being and perfections are not originally from himself but borrowed and derived from God as rayes of light from the Sun and streams from the Ocean it thence necessarily follows that God as Original is the only rule and standard by which all perfection is to be measured and consequently the more or less any creature is approximate and conformed to God the more or less perfect As the excellency of a Picture lying in its exact resemblance to the face by which 't is drawn the more like thereto still the more excellent And this is that which gives Man the preheminence above the rest of the creatures in this visible world They are at a far more remote distance from him and partake less of him but Man is more nearly allied to him and admitted to a more full participation of the divine nature The rest as 't is commonly exprest have only some tracks and footsteps of God but Man his Image And by this resemblance of Man to God is his greatest happiness both as innocent and glorified described in Scripture Gen. 1.26 27. So God created Man in his own Image and after his own likeness There is the happiness of Man in his primitive state of innocency And 1 Joh. 3.2 It doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is There is the chief happiness of the Saints now in glory And indeed nothing less than this can be the happiness of a reasonable creature And to this all the duties of Christianity are so nearly related as that that they really become an essential part of it For either they are such wherein our likeness to God doth formally consist as the more patient and just and merciful and holy and righteous we are still the more like to God since he is so Or else such wherein we express our conformity to God as humility and reverence and faith and watchfulness c. which hold a suteable correspondence to his greatness Majesty faithfulness omniscience c. In the former we resemble God as the picture doth the face it represents And by the latter as the impression in the wax doth the stamp upon the seal that made it as a late Author hath well exprest it in his most ingenious and learned treatise concerning the blessedness of the righteous Did men therefore as they ought consider either what happiness is or how great a correspondence and affinity their present duties have to it they would be so far from thinking the performance of them any diminution of Gods free Grace as that they would rather esteem it as one of the most signal acts of his Grace and favour that he hath provided such effectual means and afforded them so powerful aids and assistances in order to the making them holy and obedient 'T is doubtless an act of kindness and bounty to heal the wounded and restore eyes to the blind and strength and beauty to the maimed and deformed no less than to forgive a poor Man his debt In justification our debt 's forgiven but in sanctification the ruines of degenerate nature are repaired and the Image of God restored And which of these two do you think is the greater kindness That frees us from prison and arrests from misery but this makes us truly and formally happy But lastly 5. Though our personal performance of the conditions of the Covenant be asserted as indispensably necessary to our eternal Salvation yet not by vertue of our own natural strength and power without the assistance of Divine Grace That is no where affirmed but the contrary What remainders of natural strength and ability there may be left in Man and how far they may be improved by him with reference to his own Salvation is not my business now to enquire or determine He is now 't is acknowledged in a state of degeneracy and by his fall the several powers and faculties of his Soul were impaired and weakened though not wholly lost But yet his obligation to duty is not thereby rescinded but remains intire and therefore he is still bound as much as ever to render love and service to his Maker For man's inability to obey cannot take away Gods right to command nor his Apostasie destroy the law of his creation Man is still Gods creature though degenerate and lives daily in a necessary dependance upon him and therefore 't is impossible he should ever be absolved from his engagement to love and honour and obey him since 't is impossible for a creature to become independent The great design therefore of Gospel Grace is not as some foolishly imagine to exempt us from duty and to dispence with our love to God or obedience to his Laws but to repair our strength and assist our faculties and every way to enable us to the performance of our duty That we may repent and return to God and live in all due subjection and obedience to him as becometh creatures Tit. 2.11 12. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world The same Grace here that is said to bring Salvation the same also teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts c. And both are alike called by the name of Grace Grace teacheth us this lesson and Grace also assists us both in the learning and practice of it For God is no hard Master he doth not gather where he hath not strewed nor reap where he hath not sown Though he gives not succors to all alike but to some more to others less according to the good pleasure of his will yet he is wanting to none but such as are wanting to themselves His promises are no less extensive than his commands No duty is required of us but God himself is engaged for our assistance in the performance of it Must we repent and turn to God Acts 17.3 He then will give us repentance unto life Act. 5.31 Must we come to Christ and believe in him that we may have life Matth. 11.28 29 He then will draw us Joh 6.44 and make us willing in the day of his power Psal 110.3 Must we cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in his fear 2 Cor. 7.1 He then will pour clean water upon us and cleanse us from our iniquities Ezek. 36.25 and sanctifie us throughout in Body Soul and Spirit 1 Thes 5.21 Must we run with patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 He then will increase our strength that we may run and not be weary and walk and not faint Isa 40.29 and 31. Must we work about our Salvation with fear and