come to possess it it is none other but what in the promise we had a right to it is the fiducial vision that we have of God in this life that as it prepares the soul so also gives us an interest in the beatifical vision which is only proper to the life to come 2. Divines say That the Saints have a threefold title unto Heaven and Glory in this life 1 in pretio as there is a purchase made for Heaven is as well a purchased possession as any thing that we do injoy in this life There are two things in the satisfaction of Christ there is debitum legale a legal debt so he paid the old debt and there is superlegale meritum a superlegal merit and so he made a new purchase answerable unto the two benefits by Christ which the Apostle speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 1.7 14. we have by him redemption and an inheritance c. 2 The Saints have another title and that is jus promissionis in the promise for it is a promise intailed upon them as it was made unto Christ before the world began Eternal life is made first unto him and it is that which he himself doth glory in thou shalt shew me the path of life Psal 16. in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore And by virtue of the same Covenant and promise the Saints do claim eternal life that Jesus the Mediator of the Covenant did though it belong unto him primarily and unto them only in his right and at second hand 3 They have a title in primitiis in the first-fruits as they have received the first-fruits of the Spirit So Israel had unto Canaan God did give them a promise many hundred years before but yet they were strangers unto their own inheritance that the Lord had promised them and many of them dyed in faith not having received the promise as Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarchs did but when the Lord had once brought them into the borders of the land and they had tasted the grapes of Eskol this gave them a further title because they had tasted of the good land that the Lord had promised them And so it is with the Saints who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit and in them tasted that the Lord is gracious for the first-fruits are a further pledge of the crop it is called an Earnest which is a further security than barely a promise therefore all the happiness of the Saints that they shall have in Heaven is a fruit of the promise and they do enjoy glory by virtue of the same Covenant that they obtain grace which is therefore called an everlasting Covenant not only because it shall never be broken as a Covenant of salt which stands for ever but because the fruit of it is to everlasting in a mans eternal inheritance § 2. The portion of the Saints lies in the very Essence of God which will appear to us by these demonstrations Psal 16. ult 1. By clear Scripture Psal 16. ult In thy presence is fulness of joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in faciebus in thy face is fulness of joy according to Gods own language thou shalt see my back parts but my face thou shalt not see and live therefore it is in the face of God that the fulness of the joy and the happiness of the Saints doth consist for in that the happiness of Christ as Mediator who is our head doth consist and when we come to Heaven we have not a happiness apart from Christ as if he had one happiness and we another for we do enter into our masters joy and 1 Joh. 3.3 it is see him as he is that is not as he does now discover himself pro captu humano according to our capacity in a glass and in a riddle rather as he is not than as he is but we shall see him with open face according to his Essence that is as he is 2. The ultimate object of faith is that in which the happiness of the Saints doth consist and that which is the highest thing in the promise in that doth the glory and the perfection of the creature lye Now there are many intermediate objects of faith but the ultimate is glory 1 Pet. 1.21 So 1 Pet. 1.21 Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God And the last thing in the promise is eternal life and that being once attained all the promises are at an end therefore it is in the Essence of God that eternal happiness lyes 3. Without this nothing can make the Saints happy 1 Nothing in this life can they have in this life four things 1 They have glorious promises but those are but of an inheritance to come and we believe that which we see not and therefore hope for it for faith and sight are opposed there is a fiâ—â—â—al presentiality unto faith in the promise but it is not beatifical and therefore an inheritance of promises will never make a man happy because it keeps the soul in a continual longing and in an hungring and thirsting condition and therefore is unsatisfied 2 Of graces but they are also imperfect because they do not make a mans soul perfect Heb. 12.24 till a man be actually united unto God the Fountain of all happiness and perfection he can never be happy it 's true Gratia electis infunditur ut actiones peragant ordinatas ad vitam aeternam Grace is infused into the Elect that they may perform actions ordinate to life eternal as Aquinas But these graces have respect unto an eternal reward they do but make us meet for a further mercy Col. 1.12 to make us meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light 3 In creatures a mans happiness does not consist in them because they are finite and the soul is ordained to be happy in an infinite good and therefore when a man shall be made happy by going to Heaven to enjoy God he doth take his leave of the creatures they were his inheritance in his way and were to him a viatick but afterwards God shall be all in all and a man goes to God with joy 1 Cor. 15. and is glad to see the Moon under his feet so the Saints of God in this life continue still longing for their future happiness 4 There is an inheritance of Attributes Rev. 12.1 and so the Saints have an interest in God here and a vision of him for they may behold him in his back parts and live as the Lord discovered unto Moses Now no man can be perfectly happy in this life and therefore the discovery of God in his Attributes being the way of Gods revealing himself in this life there is a higher way of manifestation in which the happiness of the Saints doth consist and that is a
quicken those that are dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.5 they are made alive unto God 3 There is a death in sorrow and under misery as the Jews were in their Captivity they were dry bones dead and their restoring of peace and comfort was a resurrection from the dead Ezech. 37.12 and so Heman is free amongst the dead as they that are wounded and lye in the grave c. and in opposition thereunto there is a life of consolation 1 Thess 3.8 1 Thess 3.8 Now we live if you stand fast in the Lord that is this will be one of the greatest comforts of our lives our happiness our glory and crown of rejoycing c. Rom. 7.9 Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the law once alive in performances and alive in presumption alive in comforts alive in confidences and that is the meaning of Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his faith Hab. 2.4 and in the same sense it is used Heb. 10.38 He that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.38 now the just shall live by his faith There is a double sense of these words 1 In matter of Justification Gal. 3.11 No man is justified by the law it is evident for the just shall live by faith 2 In matter of consolation in any affliction and so faith doth not only make a man live keep body and soul together but it makes a man live a comfortable and a chearful life also non est vivere sed valere vita c. 4 There is a death eternal which is an everlasting separation from the vision and fruition of God who is the fountain of life and so we read of the second death and so there is a life of glory Joh 3.36 He that believes not in the Son of God shall not see life but the wrath of God abides upon him and Heaven is commonly in the Scripture called everlasting life c. Now in all these respects the Son lives by the living Father and they that are one with him do live by him 1. Christ as Mediator receives from the living Father a life of justification he was made under the Law and under the curse 2 Cor. 5.21 it pleased the Father to make all our sins meet upon him he did bear the sins of many he did appear the first time of his coming into the world loaden with transgression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he shall appear the second time without sin Heb. 9.28 and this was by the Fathers imputation Hostilem incursum designat c. and his voluntary susception but when he arose from the dead he is acquitted by God the Father and therefore is said to be justified in the Spirit i. e. by his own Godhead and 1 Pet. 3.18 he is said to be quickned by the Spirit that is he raised up himself by the power of his own Godhead so being raised he is justified that is he is acquitted from the guilt of all the sins that he did before lye under and so he is taken from prison he did not break prison but he was released and had a fair discharge and the judgment that was past upon him he was absolved from Isa 53.8 Now as the sentence of his condemnation came forth from the Father so must also his justification and as he says Joh. 16.10 Ye see me no more to note that his death should fully satisfie and his sacrifice be perfectly offered as for other Priests they came often to present their Sacrifices which were imperfect and the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin off the sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. He received from the living Father a life of holiness and sanctification Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell What fulness is here meant Plenitudo gratiae habitualis an habitual fulness of grace Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we have all received grace for grace as he was anointed by the Father he received not the Spirit by measure Joh. 3.34 for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him It 's true that grace in the humane nature of Christ which is the subject of habitual grace is not infinite for that only belongs to the Holiness of God but yet there is all fulness in it because it 's laid up in him that he might dispence it and there is a sufficiency and there are supplies of the Spirit for all the Saints and therefore he is called Dan. 9.24 The most holy Dan. 9.24 or holiness of holinesses the humane nature is capable of more grace and therefore of greater glory by reason of its personal union than all the creatures in Heaven and Earth either men or Angels for he is the Son of Righteousness 3. He received from the living Father a life of consolation It 's true if we look to his condition amongst the creatures so he was a man of sorrows but if we respect his communion with the Father and the fulness of the consolation of the Spirit for where the Spirit is truly a Spirit of Sanctification there also he is in perfection a Spirit of Consolation so he is said Psal 45.7 To be anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows his blessed Soul had experience as of greater and higher priviledges so of far greater comforts than of the creature men or Angels and though it 's true that when he bore the sins of men and the wrath of God there was substractio visionis and therefore he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as extra confortium vivere Mar. 14.33 to live without society he was to be sequestred as in a wilderness and set apart unto grief and to nothing else yet it was but for a short time for as the Sun did recover its light again so did his Spirit also and his Soul was filled with unspeakable joys as he before under-went unutterable sorrows therefore he says Joh. 15.10 I kept my Fathers commandment and abide in his love my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth c. Psal 16.11 4. He received from the living Father a life of glory Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore and therefore Rev. 3.21 Rev. 3.21 He that overcomes I will grant to sit with me upon my Throne even as I overcame and am sate down with my Father in his Throne c. Jesus Christ has a Throne on which he now sits ruling the Nations having received a Kingdom from the Ancient of days and he has a Throne in the Church a Throne is set in Heaven Rev. 4.2 and there is a more glorious Throne to be erected at the last and great day when he shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory c. but all this while Heaven is the Fathers Throne and when the works of God are
because all the fulness of Christ he doth receive it from the Father Therefore whensoever we have recourse unto Christ for righteousness holiness and comforts and see him to live by the Father in all these and when we look up unto him who is our Head and see him exalted above all Principalities and Powers and that he lives by the power of God now say Christ lives by the power and the glory of the Father and the life that I live is by the faith of the Son of God 2 As by the Father he is made the fountain of life unto us for the Father did give eternal life unto us when he laid it up in the Son therefore it is said That they killed the Prince of life Joh. 5.11 Acts 3.25 as he is the King of Righteousness and the Prince of Peace it is said Moses was a man of peace but he could not command peace in the mutinous and murmuring people but if he had been a Prince of peace he could and so Christ as a Prince of life can convey life and dispense it Rev. 22.14 We having fallen and forfeited Paradise and the Tree of Life we were secluded from it Now God the Father hath appointed another Tree of Life which is the Lord Jesus Christ and he will give unto men a right or a priviledge to eat thereof also which they were formerly shut out of So that you see it is the Father that hath given him power to quicken whom he will to have life in himself and to give eternal life to as many as believe in him SECT IV. Our Covenant-Interest in Offices Acts and Relations of the Trinity applied Vse 1 § 1. HAving finished the doctrinal part and seen how God the Father makes over himself in the Covenant of Grace to the Saints for their portion lyes in God not only in the Attributes of the nature but in an interest in the persons also and we have an interest in all the actions that the Father appropriated whether they be eternal or in time and those whether terminated in Christ immediately or in us and we have seen how we have an interest in all the personal relations of the Father that in the same relations he stands to Christ in the same he stands to us also he is his Father and our Father his God and our God he is our Father our King our Friend our Husbandman and the Fountain of our life for he hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son Now we come to apply all this to our selves and it shall be 1. for Information that so in so great a truth as this we may not be mistaken And here we are to consider 1 that a man hath interest in all the persons at once they all be given together a man hath not first an interest in the Father and then in the Son and then in the Spirit but having an interest in one he hath an interest in them all he that hath the Son hath the Father also he hath the Father and the Son Joh. 2.23 Joh. 2.9 And by this we may see what a glorious change there is in a man when he is converted and made one with Christ he hath an interest in all the Attributes of God It 's true that they do all act for him afterwards successively and according to a mans necessity at several times they work for his good sometimes an act of mercy is put forth for him sometimes an act of power sometimes wisdom sometimes patience but yet the soul comes to have an interest in them all at once and at the same time and when he is intitled to the one he is intitled to the other even to them all and so it is with the Persons also the title Believers have to them begins at once As a man hath interest in Christ the Mediator it 's true that Christ doth exercise all his Offices for his spiritual good successively and he is now to him a Priest to offer his Sacrifice and to bear his iniquity now he is a Prophet to teach him now he is a King to govern him and there are distinct acts of all these offices but yet the soul hath an interest in them all at once As it is in all grace it 's true that the graces of Gods Spirit do all of them act in their places 2 Pet. 1.5 for we are to add to our faith vertue and to our vertue knowledge c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is taken ab iis qui choros ducunt from such as lead the dance in which every one keeps his own place and acts his own part for grace brings the most glorious order into the soul that can be but yet all grace is wrought together even the whole new man is begotten at once And so for all the creatures of God it is true that they do all in their places act for the Saints the Stars in their courses do fight against Sisera but yet a man comes to have jus haereditarium an hereditary right to them all at once And this is the glory of the change at a mans first conversion which a man may admire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man that had before no interest in any Attribute of God in any person in the Godhead or any of the Offices of Christ or any grace of the Spirit or any promise of the Gospel or in any creature of God yet at once in the very same instant he comes to have a title unto all these that though all the promises be fulfilled by degrees and in their time yet the soul hath a title unto them all and that as true and as great as he shall have when he comes to Heaven 1 Cor. 13.10 11. for it is by the same title that he shall injoy Heaven for this is but our nonage and childhood yet a child hath the same title to the land his father left him as when he comes to be a man only he hath not the possession of it and so the title by which you shall injoy God for ever is begun in this life only there are two great changes you must pass through the first is conversion the second is death by the one the soul is intitled to his heavenly inheritance and by the other he is fully put into possession 2. Though the interest of Gods people begin at once in all the persons yet the Lord would have us take notice that there is a distinct interest in them all to be attained unto for the more distinct our apprehensions are the more glory we give unto God and the greater will our own comfort be God delights not in generalities neither in general confessions nor in general apprehensions or thanksgivings As it is in the Attributes of the Nature of God though a soul that hath an interest in God in Covenant hath a title to them all at once yet they are all of them as so many
a seal of the Covenant which he had broken and in flying unto the seal of this Covenant he might still seek righteousness and life thereby if not in a natural way as a Creature yet in a spiritual way as a Sacrament And he might think the same Covenant remained of which he did still enjoy the seal therefore to shew that there was no way to attain life by that Covenant broken God shuts him out from the seal of it also because he had appointed a way to life for man by Christ a far more glorious tree of life who is therefore said to be in the middle of the Paradise of God And this is a more glorious way for God because in it his justice shall be seen and satisfaction given and a safer way for man also wherefore seeing that to the first tree of life he had still access and the Lord perceiving in man this disposition to depend on it he not only forbids it but placeth an Angel with a sword drawn to keep him from it that he might have no hopes of life in this way either by it as a Creature or by it as a Sacrament Afterwards Cain was a son begotten in the image of his father he offered Sacrifices but it was not in faith or with an expectation to be accepted in the promised seed Heb. 11.4 and yet he expected to be accepted and when he saw he was not his pride was turned into rage and great discontent Gen. 4.5 and his countenance fell But upon what ground did Cain expect acceptance it was for the work done only and therefore all unregenerate men that come to God in a legal way Luther calls Cainistas Deo offerentes non personam sed opus personae Cainists offering to God not the person but the work of the person Which shewed plainly that he expected to have been accepted and rewarded for his work done alone according to the tenure of the first Covenant without a Mediator and therefore God speaks to him according to the rules of his own Covenant as Divines commonly observe If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted This being the great difference between the two Covenants in the first Covenant the person is accepted for the works but in the second the works are accepted for the persons sake And when the Lord took the people of Israel unto himself as a peculiar people of all the Nations of the Earth and entered into a Covenant with them though God did not intend to set up this Law alone as a rule by which any man since the fall should attain righteousness and life but as a Covenant of Grace with Evangelical offers of Grace to bring them to Christ and therefore gave it in the hand of a Mediator yet the Lord kept it in the form of a Covenant of Works that it might be the more effectual to drive men to Christ and so serve Gods ends But they stuck to the Law as a Covenant of Works even the generality of that people and did seek righteousness and life by the obedience of it and it grew even the common sense of the Nation as we see it in the young man Mat. 19.16 What shall I do to inherit Eternal life Eternal life he thought must be got in a way of doing and it was the error which prevailed amongst the Pharisees the most learned amongst the Jews Phil. 3.6 7. Paul counted his former legal righteousness gain to him pro merito that which should bring him in a great revenue of glory at last And it is recorded by the Apostle as the great sin of their Nation Rom. 10.4 to go about to establish their own righteousness and not submit to the righteousness of God not to look upon Christ as the end of the Law for righteousness unto every one that believes And when the partition-wall was broken down and God had lifted up Christ as an Ensign to the Nations the Law went forth of Zion and the waters issued out of the Sanctuary these were the first tares which the envious man did sow to put men upon setting up the Law as a Covenant and to seek life upon impossible conditions as by their perfect fulfilling of it and therefore they must do as the Pharisees did when they could not come up to the Law they must by their own interpretations as well as their traditions bring the Law down to them and enervate the Law And therefore the Apostle takes much pains to confute it and to perswade us against seeking righteousness and life by the works of the Law Rom. 3.4 Gal. 2.3 4. and Satan being beaten out of this then his next design is to seek to join both Covenants together and perswade men to seek righteousness and life by fulfilling the Law and believing in Christ also And so partly by our own obedience we shall be justified and accepted and wherein we come short Christs righteousness comes in to make it up We read in Act. 15.5 that there were some of the sect of the Pharisees that did believe and had received Christ as Mediator and acknowledged him that yet said It was needful and they ought in duty to be circumcised and to keep the Law of Moses Which Doctrine afterward the Apostles and the Church of Jerusalem disavow as a thing they had no warrant for to preach So in Act. 21.20 there were many thousands that believed and yet were leavened with this error they were all jealous of the Law which made the Apostle speak so exclusively as he does Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law And since the Primitive times we see what Doctrine has been found out by the Papists that good works do justifie a man in the sight of God and Christ has merited this that opera renatorum good works after conversion shall be the matter of their righteousness and Christ will supply what is wanting And hence it 's taught That they may fulfill the Law nay do more than the Law requires in works of Supererogation c. And others turn Faith into a work and say That it's faith that 's accepted of God as the matter of our righteousness instead of the righteousness of the Moral law and not the righteousness of Christ made ours by imputation And he that shall observe what confidence men do place in their works how they labour for life and rest in the duty done and expect acceptance for it and how they boast themselves of their own performances and how far most men are after a duty from a humble looking up to Christ for acceptance of it as if they had done nothing for a man should indeed work as if he expected to be accepted for his works and yet rest as perfectly in Christ for acceptation as if he had done nothing he shall see that it is a disposition that is deeply rooted in men to expect justification by their works § 2.
sprinkled upon the Book and upon all the people and all things under the Law were cleansed and sanctified by blood Exod. 24.23 therefore the Law in the administration of it unto them was never intended by God to set forth a Covenant of Works but it was a Covenant of Grace and is usually called a Covenant Deut. 29.10 11. They stood to enter into Covenant with God that he might establish them to be a people to himself and that he might be unto them a God Deut. 26.17 18 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and he hath avouched thee to be his people So that the Law was given by Moses in Gods intention plainly as a Covenant of Grace unto all those that were able to look upon the intent of God therein 2 But yet the Lords intention was also that it should be a copy of the Covenant of Works that God made with Adam before his fall which was never wholly blotted out of the mind of man because God would not have that wholly to perish and be forgotten and therefore it was delivered after a sort in the form of the Covenant of Works and in this respect the Lord has made it a handmaid to the Gospel not that the Lord did intend it for a Covenant of Works as if men should attain righteousness and life thereby but as faedus subserviens a subservient Covenant as that which in this manner God would make use of to advance the ends of the Gospel and the new Covenant By all this you see that the Covenant of which Circumcision was a sign and a seal was not the Covenant of Works but was the same that was made with Abraham because the Covenant was the same Circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of Faith and continued amongst the Jews in this Covenant and that Covenant that binds to the observation of the Ceremonial as well as the Moral Law is not a Covenant of Works but the Covenant made upon Mount Sinai did bind to the Ceremonial Law also nor was the Covenant that God made with Moses a Covenant of Works for Moses was Heb. 11.23 a Believer but Exod. 34.27 it is called the Covenant which I made with thee and with all Israel when I stood before the Lord forty days and he wrote the words of the Covenant the ten Commandments But more particularly the Lord did intend to make the Law given upon Mount Sinai a copy of the Covenant of Works and to be materially and for substance the same that he did make with Adam and with all mankind in him in the state of his integrity 1. Death reigned from Adam till Moses Rom. 5. Gen. 4. ult and therefore sin came in and we see that murder was a sin in Cain and publick worship was a duty Men did begin to call upon the name of the Lord so that the Law was in the World before Moses and it was not only written in the hearts of men 2 Pet. 2.5 So Beza Gen. 6.5 but it was taught in the publick Ministery before Moses for Noah was the Preacher of Righteousness and in the Ministry of the Word we know that the Spirit of God did strive with men Gen. 6.3 The word in the Hebrew is to strive in judgment and by way of argument for conviction so that the Law was given to Adam and Noah and Abraham as well as unto Moses and was for substance the same 2. It is given in the form of a Covenant of Works with a this do and thou shalt live and so it was afterwards by Christ and by the Prophets also preached it was to the carnal Jews plainly a Covenant of Works not in Gods intention but by their own corruption they going about to establish their own righteousness Rom. 10.3 and not subjecting themselves to the righteousness of God it is set forth to them as a Covenant of Works Now if the Lord will not give it as a Covenant why does he not propound it as a rule and lay down the precepts without any such terms of a Covenant as if men should attain life by it when he did never intend to deliver it as a Covenant in which men should attain life by doing but by believing Thus the Lord did that the terms of the first Covenant might be promulgated to the World and that they that did still desire to be under the Law might not plead ignorance of the terms that God required in the Law if they did expect life and happiness thereby 3. Though I say it be for substance and materially the same yet in many circumstances it differs from Adams Covenant for this was a Covenant of such promises and sanctions annexed to it as were not in the Covenant made with Adam and a Covenant confirmed by blood and thereby sanctified which Adams Covenant never had and therefore though it did for substance agree yet in many things there was a difference This Covenant given unto Adam in a state of Innocency and for substance renewed upon Mount Sinai when it was by sin wholly obliterated and blotted out God has made a handmaid or foedus subserviens a Covenant subservient to the Gospel it is Hagar Gal. 4.23 but the Covenant of Grace is Sarah and it is given in the hand of a Mediator not only by Moses but by Christ also for Christ delivered the Law to them Act. 7.38 Moses was in the Wilderness with the Angel who spake to him in Mount Sinai and with our fathers and what Angel was it but Christ he that saith I am the God of Abraham and he that was also tempted in the Wilderness and the Apostle says We are come to Jesus whose voice then shook the earth in the giving of the Law 1 Cor. 10.4 Heb. 12.25 26. it was his voice and then by an enumeration of particulars how the Lord has made every part of the Law as it is materially the first Covenant a servant to the Gospel for the discovery of sin the Law entred that the offence might abound and the Apostle says Rom. 5.20 I had not known sin but by the Law and also for the conviction of Conscience and the imputation of sin Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no Law and for the condemnation of sin that it may be a Schoolmaster to bring the sinner unto Christ the avenger of blood Gal. 3.10 a killing letter and the ministration of death to kill them and hew them and it restrains sin and puts a bridle upon a man and is a means of conversion the curse of the Law is sanctified and the threatnings sweet when the curse is taken out death has no sting the grave has no victory and it is to all under the second Covenant a rule a companion and a counsellor The Law is to be considered as I told you two ways 1 Largely as containing all the Doctrine delivered upon Mount Sinai and all things that may
connaturali in a connatural way so in the same way he glorifies him as it is in this life vision doth increase grace and answerable to the degrees of vision such are the degrees of grace so it 's perfect vision that doth perfect grace in the same way that Satan brought sin and death into the soul 1 Tim. 2.14 namely by the understanding for the woman was deceived as it is in 2 Cor. 11.3 so the same way will the Lord bring in grace and life into the soul it comes in by the understanding the eyes of our understanding being enlightned by a spirit of revelation Eph. 1.17 18. and the same way doth glory enter into the soul namely by the understanding also and therefore it must be in a way of vision 2. Divines do commonly conclude that the main and essential part of glory doth consist in contemplation This is life eternal to know thee the only true God Joh. 17.3 Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God And Heb. 12.14 For without holiness no man shall see the Lord. It 's the happiness of Christ in thy presence or in thy face is fulness of joy it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Plural Now the manner of the Hebrews is to put the Plural Number when the excellency and transcendency of a thing is expressed as Cant. 1.3 Thy love is better than wines or else to set forth the great variety of the glorious discoveries of God which the Lord gives unto his own people in Heaven and in this is the fulness of the joy of Christ after his Resurrection from the dead and so it is with the Saints Psal 17.15 Psal 17.15 I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness The Saints sleep in the grave and they do awake unto the vision of God and they shall see his face in righteousness and they shall be satisfied with his image the which in the original doth signifie full and perfect satisfaction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that there is no place to receive any more There is a great satisfaction in the discoveries of God to the soul here in this life in the joy of the Holy Ghost they do rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious but yet there is still something to be added they are not in such a condition but their faculties may be enlarged and their satisfaction increased but there is a full satisfaction hereafter unto which there can be no addition But what is meant by his image and likeness Here some do understand it of the image of God created in us which shall then be perfectly restored when they come to glory the good work that is begun in this life shall not be perfected till in the day of the Lord. Phil. 1.6 Though I do not find the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any where used in Scripture for the image of God created in man or renewed in him but two other words yet this word I find in Scripture to be put either for a corporeal or an intellectual image Exod. 20.4 Thou shalt not make a graven image or the likeness of any thing in heaven above not make unto thy self a corporeal or visible representation of an invisible God 't is said Num. 12.8 the image or the similitude of God shall he behold it 's spoken of an intellectual image and representation of God in a glorious manner unto the understanding full of glorious excellencies though under no shape and this was a priviledge that the Lord would give Moses a further discovery of himself beyond what he would do to any man upon earth And so I should take the meaning to be here it 's not the image of God in us but the discoveries and manifestations of God unto us that is unto our understanding in which our fulness of joy and satisfaction doth consist Cùm tenebrae mortalitatis transierint manè astabo contemplabor When the darknesses of mortality have passed away in the morning I shall stand and contemplate Austin In contemplatione divinorum maximè consistit beatitudo Beatitude consists in the contemplation of divine perfections Aquinas It 's true that this shall be the greatest torment in Hell the contemplation of their misery and the reflexion upon their own lost and irrecoverable condition it 's concluded that poena damni the punishment of loss is the greatest part of the torments there and that can no otherwise afflict or be a torment but by the contemplation thereof and surely in this doth the blessedness of God consist namely in beholding of his own perfections and the glorious persons delighting themselves in each other for the Lord is blessed for evermore and from everlasting when there was no creature but his blessedness lay in himself and the contemplation of himself was his blessedness and if this do make the Lord blessed surely then in the contemplation of him much more must the blessedness of the creature consist therefore happiness must consist in vision 3. Because the understanding is the leading faculty by which all good is brought into the soul it 's true that the souls in Heaven are called souls made perfect Heb. 2.3 Beatitudo cùm sit summa perfectio perficit totum Beatitude seeing it is the highest perfection perfects the whole soul in all the faculties thereof There are three things wherein the happiness of the Saints doth consist 1 A perfect Vision or perfect understanding 2 A perfect Fruition which is nobilissima operatio voluntatis the most noble operation of the will Medina 3 Perfect Joy and exultation joy unspeakable and glorious everlasting joy upon their heads Psal 16. ult in thy face is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore and by this means the whole soul is made perfect but yet the leading faculty still is the understanding and for this cause seeing blessedness comes in by the understanding Psal 17. ult satisfaction also comes into the whole soul by those revelations manifestations visions and discoveries of God made unto the soul Aquinas saith of blessedness that it is in intellectu primariò in voluntate per consequens secundariò In the intellect primarily and in the will by consequent and secundarily Seeing therefore that this vision doth carry with it Fruition Delectation and whatever may make the whole soul to become perfect therefore it 's no wonder if the Lord is said to be the portion of his people by way of vision and the blessedness of the Saints be said to consist therein Quest 2 § 2. Shall the Vision of God in glory be corporeal or shall it be intellectual only discoveries of God unto bodily eyes or unto the eyes of the understanding only Answ 1. The Essence of God in glory cannot be seen with bodily eyes it cannot be a corporeal vision which is manifest 1 from Scripture 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwells in light
is in the Saints from the beatifical Vision 5. We shall have perfect communion here while we are at home in the body we are strangers to the Lord it 's true we have here a fellowship but it is with much imperfection and frequent interruptions dulce commentum sed breve momentum Joh. 17.24 I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me that they may behold my glory This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luk. 23.43 And they shall be ever with the Lord. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ The communion that we have here is but begun but it shall be perfected for ever Our communion here has much imperfection in it partly because of sin which separates between us and our God for answerable to our conformity such is our communion amor complacentiae love of complacence is grounded thereupon and partly through our weakness there is much that we are not capable of the manifestation of there is much that we cannot see and live Now that being taken away and healed by the beatifical vision we are able to take in what we cannot of God here though as our weakness and imperfection is begun to be healed here in this life we are so far capable and we shall be fully capable when it shall be fully healed Here also is much interruption 1 by sin we provoke God to hide his face from us 2 For our tryal the Lord doth many times hide his face to exercise our graces but neither of them shall be hereafter we shall sin no more and the time of our tryals will come to an end the Lord will never turn away from us but he will cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us without a cloud for ever 6. There shall be fulness of Fruition Austin says Frui is more than uti frui finis est usus mediorum frui est cum gaudio uti Fruition is of the end but use of the means c. Fruition is the delight and satisfaction that the soul has in the possession of the thing that it has attained Psal 17. ult satisfied with thy likeness there are pleasures for evermore such pleasures as the men of this world never tasted nay the joys of the Holy Ghost are such as eye hath not seen but the joys of Heaven are such as the Saints have not tasted when there is no place left for desires hunger and thirst have an end the soul thirsts for God no more In Heaven they cannot pray Austin because they stand in need of nothing to perfect their happiness all is enjoyed in God and they see all to be theirs and that they are out of danger of losing their happiness and even in this life there is much sweetness in the sealing work the work of assurance because a man sees all is his and that there 's no danger of miscarrying as to his eternal state much more is it there when he is in possession of all those glories that the Lord gave him the first-fruits of here SECT III. Application Vse 1 § 1. FIrst see here the folly and the misery of all unregenerate men who place their happiness in any thing else that is not God and forsake God and the happiness that is to be had in him for the creatures sake 1. See their folly sin is never seen aright unless it be seen to be a foolish and an unreasonable thing Psal 14.1 The fool has said in his heart that there is no God and this fool is every unregenerate man and the great folly of a man lies in his utmost end or else his great wisdom for he that doth erre in that is a fool though he have all the wisdom of the world beside all his wisdom without this tends to no other end but to deceive and undo himself and therein doth the wisdom of a godly man properly consist that he doth never miss his utmost end and therein the meanest Saint is wiser than all ungodly men though they may be counted the wise men of the world Consider 1. What a folly is it for a man to frame to himself a happiness for he that gave him a being he only can appoint him to an end he only can prescribe him a rule therefore he that will be faber foelicitatis the framer of felicity unto himself he doth make himself a God and create his own Heaven which will prove but a fools Paradise in the end for God hath appointed for man no other happiness but in himself in his Essence lies his portion and without this nothing in this world should satisfie neither doth it a gracious heart that is truly wise Tua non satiunt nisi tecum omnis copia quae non est Deus meus egestas est tolle Deum nullus ero c. Thy good things satisfie not unless with thy self All abundance which is not my God is want Take away God and I shall be nothing These are the speeches of grace and godliness that carry a man directly towards God Now for a man that is Gods creature to create to himself a happiness and an imaginary Heaven is the greatest folly in the world because it consists only in imagination the excellency of all things here below as a mans portion being but a fancy only as the word is Act. 25.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with much fancy And as a dreaming man that dreams he is full and when he awakes his soul is empty so it is with them on whom the Lord pours out a spirit of slumber and though they dream of Heaven yet they awake in Hell There are several ranks of creatures as the Lord has pleased to set them in the world all being in his hand as clay in the hand of the potter Now a man may as rationally chuse to himself another shape than God has given him and degenerate into a beast as chuse to himself another end and fancy another happiness and perfection in that condition in which he is created This is certain he that will walk by his own rule and will be his own master he must look to be his own Saviour and he that will appoint to himself an end and will create his own Heaven must expect that shall be his Hell in the end 2. When you forsake your happiness in God you turn unto creatures that have no worth or sufficiency in them and therefore Jer. 2.13 they are called broken cisterns Jer. 2.13 1 They are cisterns comforts they have none in them but what they put into them for a cistern has not a spring the water doth not arise out of it what therefore if God put no comfort into the creatures the cistern is but empty it will have no water all the comfort that is in the creatures God puts into them there is none of them can hurt us apart from God nor comfort us apart from God and therefore the Saints in all
is more abundant in them 1 Cor. 15. ult 2 When he doth exercise more grace in them and there is more of the inward man in them Rev. 3.2 though he doth the same duties yet it is more fruit to God than formerly when he doth it with more pleasure and the commandments are none of them grievous to him it is his meat and drink to do it his comforts do come in by his duties as well as by the promised rewards and he is also more constant in the performance of them and doth not perform duty only by fits inconstancy in any man is an argument of weakness 't is a reproach to have it said a mans righteousness is but as the morning dew and as the early cloud that passeth away § 5. We come now unto the last particular of the personal and appropriated relation of God the Father as he stands unto Christ and in him unto us as he is his Father and our Father our God and his God his friend so he is the fountain of the life of Christ and in him the fountain of spiritual life to us also 1 Joh. 5.11 and that is set down 1 Joh. 5.11 God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son we see of what person it 's spoken it is the Father that hath given us this life and laid it up in his Son as in a common Treasury Joh. 6.57 that from him it might be conveyed unto us So Joh. 6.57 As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Here in the opening of it I must shew 1 Whether this be spoken of Christ as he is God or as he is Mediator 2 How Christ as Mediator is said to live by the Father 3 What the life is that we have from Christ 4 That all this life that we have from Christ and is in him is from the Father he that is the fountain of the life of Christ is also the fountain of our life 1. Whether it be spoken here of Christ as he is God or as he is Mediator God manifested in the flesh That it 's not spoken of Christ as he is God there are three things do clearly make it manifest 1 It 's spoken of Christ with respect unto his Office for he speaks of himself as sent by the Father and sending is a term of office Now as he is sent by the Father so he lives by the Father but he is sent as Mediator and it wholly relates unto his Office in which he is by the Father imployed and therefore it is as Mediator that he lives by the Father 2 It 's spoken of Christ as he is fed upon by the faithful I live by the Father so he that eats me shall live by me which refers to him as he is made man for so he saith vers 34. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath eternal life c. Now the Father is the fountain of life unto Christ in the same respect that Christ is the fountain of life unto us but it is as Mediator that he is so to us as he hath flesh and blood for so he becomes unto us a natural head and therefore suited to be an object of our faith fit both to be our surety here and our Advocate in Heaven our surety here as having our nature and therefore being able to pay our debt and our Advocate hereafter as having our nature still upon him and therefore knows how to have mercy and compassion the same nature in him will incline him thereunto 3 I conceive that it were dangerous to say that as he is God so he lives by the Father though I often find that Divines writing of the eternal generation of the Son do speak of the Fathers begetting of the Son by the communication of the same Essence that he is God of God c. But surely he that is God must be without cause he must have his Being from himself he must be the first and the last he that hath his essence from another must have his sufficiency from another and he that is from another must be unto another for he that is the first cause he must also be the last end Rom. 11.36 For of him and to him and through him are all things c. and therefore he that is not God of himself is not God at all I dare not therefore say that he hath the Divine Essence communicated by eternal generation Calv. Institut l. 1. c. 13. §. 25. but rather he is à seipso Deus à Patre filius essentia ejus principio caret personae verò principium est ipse Deus it 's spoken of Christ therefore not as he lives in himself as he is God but as he is Mediator made by the Father the fountain of life unto us 2. What is the life which as Mediator Christ receives from the living Father There are two words in Scripture unto which commonly all things excellent or desirable are compared and those are Light and Life and so all misery is set forth under the two contraries and they are Darkness and Death as Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous in thy light we shall see light c. And so life also Psal 30.5 In his favour is life Psal 36.9 With thee is the fountain of life Psal 63.3 thy loving-kindness is better than life life is that which doth comprehend in it all good things as the lesser is comprehended of the greater for the life is more worth than meat and the body than raiment and so it implies that Jesus the Mediator doth receive all things that are good excellent and desirable from God the Father he doth live by the Father c. he is unto him the fountain of all good things But this is but general I find life in Scripture used four ways as standing in opposition unto a fourfold death in us 1 There is a death in reference to the guilt of sin a man being under the sentence of the Law dead and in opposition thereunto there is a life of Righteousness in Justification therefore it 's said Rom. 5.17 18. For if by one mans offence death raigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gifts of righteousness shall raign in life by one Jesus Christ therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification to life 2 There is a death in reference to the dominion of sin and thus we are said to be dead in trespasses and sins and so there is a life of Holiness and Regeneration when the Lord saith Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead Eph. 5.14 Joh. 5.25 When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear it shall live and so he doth
through him Have we then any thing to do with or receive from God in a covenant way but by this Mediator and union with him Did not God from all Eternity give his Son as the foundation of this Covenant to the Elect as also give them to him as a seed And is not this the true import of their being elected in him Is it not also hence said Tit. 1.2 That eternal life was promised to the elect before the world began How could it be promised to them but by this Covenant of Redemption with Christ their Head Did not the Church Christs mystic body lie hid in him from Eternity as Eve lay hid in Adam her head Are not all Believers by the Covenant of Grace in Christ as by nature we are all in the first Covenant And is not Christ in every Believer as Adam in all his natural seed How is the first Adam in us but as the original cause of our nature and its moral vitiosity which causeth death And is not Christ the second Adam in all Believers as the original cause of their restauration and life What is there good in man but what is first in Christ as the original Head of the Covenant and public Receiver Wouldst thou see Gods love and grace streaming towards thy soul Must thou not then first see it lodged in Christ as the Fountain of all Dost thou desire to see all thy sins wiped off Must thou not then see them first wiped off from Christ thy Representative Wouldst thou by a prevision of faith see thy self in a glorified state O then by faith look on Christ the Head of the Covenant as glorified for thee Alas if thou look on thy self in thy self growing out of thine own natural root what art thou but as a branch cut off from the Olive-root But O! how comfortable and sweet is it to see thy self crucified acquitted and glorified in Christ the Head of the Covenant Yea doth he not only become a surety for us to God but also a surety for God to us And O! how much doth this engage sinners to exalt this glorious Head and Mediator of the New Covenant Was not this the grand design of God in making this Covenant that his Son the Prince of it might be in every thing exalted Why are all the promises of the Covenant dispensed first unto him and all the duties of the Covenant required first of him and of us in him but that he may have the preeminence in all things and a name above every name That the Son of God and Lord of Glory should by his own consent in the Covenant of Redemption between him and the Father come under an act of Gods will and undertake in the fulness of time to take upon him the form of a servant to pay debts who never owned any that he that was Lord of the Law should be made under the Law that all the Elect should have their names transcribed out of the Fathers book of Election into the Lambs book of life Rev. 13.8 yea have their names written in his heart from all Eternity and thereby to have such a blessed Being in him so long before they had the least Being in themselves what an essential obligation are they hereby brought under to exalt this glorious Head and Prince of their Covenant 4. But let us discourse a little of the Nature of this second Covenant 4. The Nature of the Covenant as relating to Believers as terminating more immediately on Believers And here the Reader will excuse me if I studiously avoid the controversies of these times and touch only on that which is more essential to Faith and Godliness The Covenant of Grace as made with Believers has a twofold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habitude or regard the one externe the other interne (1) As to its externe Dispensation which is The Covenant of Grace as to its externe Habitude and Dispensation admits some Variety Generality and Conditionality which is not applicable to the interne spirit and mind thereof [1] Various It admits of some Variety It has pleased the infinitely wise God out of his rich mercy and condescendence to the condition of his people in all Ages to suit the externe Dispensation of his second Covenant to their infirm capacity albeit as to the spirit and substance thereof it hath been ever the same Thus in the first promulgation of it to Adam after his Fall God expressed it by the seed of the woman and its bruising the serpents head c. Gen. 3.15 which was a form most agreeable to their present state introduced by the Serpents subtility and craft So in the second promulgation of this Covenant unto Noah after the Floud Gen. 9.17 God expressed it by the Ark and Rain-bow c. as it 's repeated Esa 54.9 which were symbolic Images very apposite and agreeable to their preservation newly obtained The like Variety God manifested in the repetition of this Covenant unto Abraham Gen. 17.2 to 16. where God promulgates his Covenant as to its externe Habitude under the symbolic forms of multiplying his natural seed the sign of Circumcision c. which were â—ll lively figures very much adapted to his present state he having no children So again when God renewed this Covenant with the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt what variety doth he use Is not the very Prologue to it touching their deliverance out of the house of bondage an illustrious Symbol to mind them of their miserable state by the first Covenant What were all the Sacrifices but federal Symbols representing to the life mans sin and misery under the first Covenant and reconcilement to God by the second So also for the moral Precepts with which this Mosaic Covenant was ushered in of what use and intendment were they but to make way for the promulgation and advance of free Grace as John Baptist made way for Christ It 's true some of late from this variety have started a Notion of a threefold Covenant one natural another legal or Mosaic and the third Evangelic but this Notion was the figment of the old Origenistic Monks to establish their Antichristian merits as Melancthon Chron. lib. 4. assures us The true Idea of the Mosaic Covenant seems this it was indeed as to its interne spirit mind form and essence Evangelic albeit as to its externe form and dispensation it was mixed and composed of moral Precepts and symbolic Types or shadows and O! how agreeable was this to the infantile state of the Israelitic Church Did not the wise God herein act like a curious Limner who first gives an adumbration and dark shadow with a rude Pencil and then adds lively colours to compleat his Picture What were all the Types but Evangelic shadows whereby the Grace of the second Covenant became visible and sensible [2] Indifferent and general The Covenant of Grace as to its externe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dispensation admits of some
of Creation and stipulation the one is natural and necessary and the other voluntary Thus God binds the Creature to himself by all imaginable engagements to prevent future Apostasie By the one we are bound to God and by the other God is bound to us God as a Creator has absolute Soveraignty but yet that man might not think much to yield obedience God is pleas'd to engage himself to a recompence The Covenant God made is double according to the twofold state of Man 1 In his state of Integrity And this was faedus amicitiae a Covenant of friendship between persons never at variance 2 In his state of Corruption When man by sin had broken the first and brought himself under the Curse thereof then God brought in the Covenant of reconciliation and that was faedus misericordiae that is a Covenant of mercy And these Covenants were made with two representative heads the first and the second Adam for in them the Lord looks upon all mankind and it is a mans being in either of these that brings him under either Covenant for God will deal with men both in a way of Sin and Righteousness by way of imputation and the ground of all imputation is union In the first Adam all sin and all die because by their union they stand under his Covenant so in the second Adam we are made the Righteousness of God in him We are in him therefore we are righteous in him we live in the Lord and die in the Lord and hence it is that to all those who are in the first Adam the first Covenant stands in force to this day for Adam was a publick person a head that represented all Mankind The Commandment belong'd to the Nature the Tree of Life was not a personal Sacrament but given to the Nature and the curse of the Covenant doth not seize upon Adam's person but the nature of man in him Gal. 3.10 And the duty of the Covenant must be as large as the curse of the Covenant and so large must the Covenant it self be Now the curse comes upon all Mankind therefore to them the duty did belong and they are federates in this Covenant all that are the Sons of the first Adam are all under Adam's Covenant And this will appear from the conveyance of Adam's sin in the guilt of it Rom. 5.12 for upon whom the curse is inflicted unto them the sin is imputed death came in by sin But how is it that they die who never sin'd Though they never sin'd in their own persons yet in their head they sinned Men are in Adam two ways Legally and Naturally now seeing his sin is imputed to us because we stood under the same Covenant then so long as a man stands guilty of Adam's sin which he does till he be ingrafted into Christ so long he is under Adam's Covenant 2. Every man that is under the curse is under that Covenant that inflicts the curse but all Mankind by nature are under the curse therefore the curse is the curse of the first Covenant Joh. 3. ult and the Gospel does not make men miserable but leaves them so He that believes not on the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him that is only by accident as the mercy of it is contemn'd so indeed it heightens the sin and aggravates the condemnation but the curse is properly the curse of the first Covenant the Gospel in it self speaks nothing but blessing As a Physician that is sent to cure a man if through the malignity of the Disease and the frowardness of the Patient he cast away the Potion the Balm that would cure him he dies of the Disease not of the Physick Christ came voluntarily under a Covenant of Works Gal. 4.4 and submitted to all the obedience of it and he was made a curse for us that is in our stead to redeem us that were under the Law It cannot be meant of the Ceremonial Law for that the Galatians were never under and it cannot be meant of the Law as a rule for direction and as a bridle for restraint therefore it must be meant with respect to the Law in some way as a Covenant not as a Covenant of Grace therefore as a Covenant of Works 3. To be freed from the Law as a Covenant is a special fruit that the Saints have by Christ and by his Death Gal. 3.13 He delivers us from the curse of the Law now a man can never be freed from it as a curse that is not freed from it as a Covenant we are not under the Law condemning but under Grace pardoning justifying and accepting or else as Beza and others have it under the Law irritating as the dam makes the waters swell the higher but under Grace not only pardoning and justifying but healing and sanctifying And this follows upon the Law as a Covenant broken and if this be a special priviledge that men have by being in Christ then they that are out of Christ are under the Law as a Covenant still for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness The righteousness that the Law requires is to be found in Christ alone therefore Moses Law was to be laid up in the Ark Christ came not to abolish the Law but by his obedience to fulfil it and establish it 4. From the dealing of God with all men answerable to the Covenant under which they stand and his different dealing with them shews their different Covenants 1 He exacts perfect and personal obedience in their own persons There is indeed in the Gospel commutatio personae a commutation of the person but non Justitiae not of the righteousness but no unregenerate man can attain to this his Covenant admits no Mediator So that Christ's obedience goes not to perfect his Ephes 2.12 Without Christ c. 2 He rejects their best works for the least failing Isa 1.11 12. but under the Covenant of Grace if there be but a willing mind it 's accepted 2 Cor. 8.12 2 Chron. 30.18 19. 3 He hates the persons for the works sake Gen. 4.7 Gal. 3.10 but under the New Covenant he loves the service for the persons sake He had respect to Abel and his offering the weakness of the service did not cause the person to be rejected He never hates their persons when he is angry with their works but he deals with unregenerate men under another Covenant 4 All things are turn'd into a curse for this Covenant being broken speaks nothing but curse as we shall see when we come to speak to the Sanction or the appendix that which is added unto the Covenant to inforce obedience which is but accidental in case of disobedience and that is in the day thou eatest thereof dyâ—ng thou shalt die § 2. But before we speak to this particular let us note these things by the way 1. Why doth God add this threatning unto Adam surely it was that he might by it be
And therefore the Sun was withdrawn at the death of Christ not that it could not behold such a horrible sight as some do express it but it was in wrath to shew that he was under the displeasure of God to whom he crys out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and all his Disciples forsook him and fled and not an Angel lookt out of Heaven to comfort him 3 The Creatures that men have in their possession are cursed there is a curse upon them which blasts them that they are subject unto vanity and are become vanity of vanities Eccles 1.2 There is an universal decay by reason of Gods curse come on all things that are for mans use but many times there is also a particular curse that does haâ—â—en their decay sooner than else it would have been as it is in Estates Hos 5.12 á moth and rottenness and a lion enters into families And we read of a flying Roll Zach. 5.2 3 4. that 's the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth and it enters into the house of the thief and the swearer and consumes the stones and makes holes in the bottom of the Bag Job 20.28 the substance of his house shall depart his honour and memory shall be gone and so their names are written in the earth the name of the wicked shall rot God does many times rot mens names presently that they perish they are consumed as in a moment 4 Whatever they have by the Creatures shall be with much toil labour and weariness In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread We see how much toil and labour the Husband-man has to put some life into the dead earth all things are full of labour Eccles 1.8 man cannot utter it and how much weariness there is in every calling and condition of life nay even in our very Recreations how much pains there is to extract a poor small contentment that even the pleasure of it does nothing recompence the labour to get it God having made the Creatures even like to Paracelsian Physick a little spirit mixt with a great deal of unprofitable matter a great deal of dross with a little gold and much chaff with a little corn and a great deal of labour before a man can beat it out Every condition of life is full of labour 5 Even those Creatures that a man is acquiring for his good become instruments of vengeance for his destruction for all the Creatures are arm'd against a man The Stars in their courses fight against him Exod. 23.25 the Heaven that sends down destroying influences the Sun that scorches the Earth and destroys all the labours of man and the Rain that drowns the World and the Earth that opens its mouth to swallow him up and the meanest of the Creatures flys and lice destroy him and a mans meat and drink become his bane God curses his bread and water and it shall bring diseases on him The Angels they keep you out of Paradise with terrour Gen. 3. destroy whole Armies meet men with a drawn sword as they did Balaam Sometimes a man is eaten with worms as Herod was and sometimes God fights against us as he did against Cambyses and the Devil doth possess our bodies and destroy our goods as he did Job and he waits but for a commission to hurry us to Hell and to be the instrument to convey us thither upon all occasions as being Satan our adversary § 2. The curses upon a mans body are various and great As 1 Continual weariness and wasting and sickness and a disorder and jarring between the humours of a mans body Deut. 28.21 and old age which is a continual disease though indeed it 's true as Solomon says Gray hairs are a crown if found in the way of righteousness And it 's an honour with Mnason to be an old Disciple but yet it is in it self a fruit of the curse that bringeth with it the decays of nature for man if he had not fin'd should never have waxed old nor had any deformity for he was created at first a very glorious Creature and had no blemish from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot but now there is not the fairest face but it has some blemish and there is a strange ugliness and deformity come upon men though upon some more than others The botch of Egypt the Itch the Scab that shall not be healed c. We read in Eccles 12.2 3. a description of those evil days wherein all the comforts of a mans life are taken away a man cannot say he has any pleasure in them in which he is much disabled for service to God and man by reason of his weakness and infirmities All things that are comfortable in this life do decay and it is with a man as in Winter-weather when a shower or two does not cleanse the sky but the end of one misery and disease is the beginning of another And there is a more particular description of the miseries â—hat attend man in his age in the third verse of that Chapter The keepers of the house the 〈◊〉 and hands are weak the defence that God has given this house of clay they through â—â—â—â—ness and palsie do tremble and the legs and thighs the poor pillars and supports of 〈◊〉 house do buckle through weakness and bow the grinders cease because they are few and the eyes that look out at the windows are weakned and the doors shut in the streets and the mouth closed And he desires not company because he is unfit for it he keeps home and sits alone and his sleep does easily depart from him at every noise he rises up at the voice of a bird c. and desire fails to any of the pleasures of this life We see a Comment upon much of it in the 2 Sam. 19.35 and then death comes and there is a dissolution of this house of clay and after death the dust returns to the earth as it was and this glorious body of man so curiously fed and so sumptuously cloath'd must become food to the worms and rot in its own filthiness and putrefaction and in all these respects the body is become a vile body corruptible mortal a body of death and it lies down in dishonour in the grave 2 And there is this great curse also upon the body of man it is become an instrument of sin to the soul and so an instrument for the devil to use Sin indeed is not properly and formally in the body but in the soul Mich. 6.7 and therefore it is properly call'd the sin of the soul for it 's the soul that is the arch-rebel sin is formaliter in corde redundanter in corpore formally in the soul but by redundance in the body But yet there is this curse come upon the body and the members of it that it 's imploy'd as a servant to the soul in sinning and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies 1 ye that covet earnestly or vehemently desire so the word is used Mat. 12.38 16.24 Mar. 10.35 12.38 2 Ye that demand or make it your petition so Mat. 15.28 20.21 3 Ye that study contrive labour with all your might so Mat. 16 25. Mar. 8.10 43 44. Luk. 23.20 4 Ye that consent to this as best determine as Mat. 13.28 Joh. 9.54 Mat. 17.4 5 Ye that delight or take pleasure Mat. 9.13 12.7 Heb. 10.5 8. It follows to be under the Law The Apostle Paul speaks of being under the Law in divers senses 1 There is a being under the Law for justification and life Gal. 4.4 5. that is under the Law as a Covenant Christ was made under the Law to redeem us that were under the Law 2 There is a being under the Law for condemnation Gal. 3.10 Rom. 6.14 As many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse 3 There is a being under the Law for irritation that is stirring up a mans corruption Sin taking occasion by the Commandment became exceeding sinful Gal. 5.8 4 There is a being under the Law by compulsion If you are led by the spirit you are not under the Law that is the Law as only inforcing and compelling as an unregenerate man is as a slave and having the spirit of a servant not of a son who does all he does from an inward principle and disposition suitable to the Law in whatever it does command But it will appear that being under the Law in all these senses are grounded on being under it as a Covenant as we shall see hereafter and that he that is freed from it as a Covenant is not under the Law in any of these respects but by vertue of the second Covenant is delivered from it Only here I think Pareus and others say that to be under the law and desire so to be is the same with Gal. 3.10 They that are of the works of the Law that is that seek righteousness and life by the works of the Law and this is properly to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works which was the natural sin of the Jews and with which error and heresie they endeavoured to overspread all the Gentile Churches going about to establish their own righteousness and therefore typified by Hagar which the Apostle makes Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem above the Christian Church is Sarah that did receive the Doctrine of the Gospel without any mixture of their own righteousness but did trust perfectly in the Grace that was revealed to them by Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 10.3 So here to be under the Law is to seek to be justified by the works of the Moral or Ceremonial Law as being works of righteousness that we have done For though the whole Ceremonial Law were Gospel under a veil yet they not being able to look to the end of it as the Apostle says they did perform it as works of righteousness 2 Cor. 3. in which they did expect justification and life for their obedience to them and performance of them without looking into the things shadowed in those types Now the Apostle says not only that men were thus under the Law but so they did desire to be Therefore looking upon these as being a patern of all mankind and in whom the dispositions of all men may be read I do hence observe Doct. That to be under the Law as a Covenant of works is unto every natural man a very desirable condition He is not only born under the first Covenant but under that Covenant he does desire to continue In the handling of it I shall first prove it and give the grounds of it and answer some Objections that may arise in the hearts of men against it and then make the application of it There is in the fall of man a double misery come upon him 1 His being under Adams Covenant 2 His bearing Adams image And in this state all men by nature desire to live and die And that men do still desire to bear the image of the Earthly Adam is plain because they resist the image of God in Christ that blessed image that by the holy Spirit is offered to them in the Gospel And we find how much they do hug the image of old Adam in themselves Now though their desire to be under his Covenant be the foundation of all their misery yet men apprehend it not so much The offer of the second Covenant they hate and reject the Covenant of Christ as much as they despise his Image yet they perceive it not Therefore to prove it we must take the most convincing course we can First this was the evil that God saw Adam's nature to be prone to and therefore he not only cast him out of Paradise as a just reward of his apostacy but also in a particular manner forbad him the use of the tree of life Gen. 3.22 Gen. 3.22 God having made for our first Parents coats of skins now he saith Behold the man is become like one of us it is an Ironical exclamation wherein God derides the falshood of Satan and the folly of man This is the Godship that Satan promis'd en Divinitatem promissam Behold the promised Divinity And the knowledge of good and evil was nothing but a miserable and shameful nakedness which before man knew not And now here follows exilii decretum ratio decreti the decree is Gods will to cast man out of Paradice and the ground of it is lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of Life But why must not man after the fall taste of the tree of Life seeing before the fall it was not forbidden It is answered Non in esse sed in intentione futurum erat peccatum not in the action but in the intention it was to be reputed sin And Interpreters give this as a reason that thereby God might take away occasion of sinning from him and God doth not only aim at keeping us from sin by his Word but by his Rod also And they observe that there was by the fall a double corrupt disposition in Adam's heart which the eating of this tree would have drawn forth 1 Looking upon it as a Creature which he might conceive to have a vertue in it to preserve life he might put forth his hand which notes a voluntary act and so he might conceive though God hath threatned death yet here is a tree that can preserve life and of this I will eat and live And so he might have sin'd wilfully and out of contempt of the threatning of God by deifying a Creature and setting it in his place and giving it Gods power and so the life that was denied him by God he might think to make up in the Creature as men commonly do 2 Looking upon it Sacramentally as it was a Creature and
But here it may be men will wonder that time should be spent amongst us in beating men out of this being under the first Covenant and getting life upon impossible terms to undertake perfectly to keep the Law and to seek justification by works seeing we are neither Jews nor Papists We know we cannot fulfill the Law but that there is iniquity in our holy things and we are so far from resting in our duties that we acknowledge our righteousness is as filthy rags that if God should look upon them as they are he must needs abhor them and us for them and therefore surely there are none amongst us that do so all this labour might be spared for we are so far from desiring it that we disclaim it and abhor it But I answer to this Answer that a man ought to read in other mens practices his own inclination this was a desire in Adam 1 Cor. 15.49 and in his Posterity who do all bear the image of the earthly for as face answers to face in the water so sin is alike in all men and that man perfectly likes an example of sinning in others that does not reflect upon himself and see that there are seeds of it in him that doth not read his own nature in another mans life 2. If there be the seeds of it in thy own heart then though it never should break forth into act yet there is just cause that God should loath thee for it as we do Toads though they hurt us not And indeed the main part of our enmity against God and Gods against us lies in the contrariety of our nature to him Col. 1.21 we are naturally enemies to God in our minds and this is the top of all a godly mans humiliation this is but a part of all that evil treasure that is within Psal 51.7 and there is more in the Ware-house than in the Shop And that Christian is never kindly humbled for any sin if his humiliation ends in the sin it self and ascend not to the fountain that is within him that raging sea that always is casting out mire c. We know that in the Saints there is no lust perfectly mortified in this life Rom. 6.6 for sin dies a crucified death and therefore though in a Saint it be still upon the Cross and dying daily yet it shall never be perfectly destroyed till this corruptible shall put on incorruption The Saints have the seeds of this sin of trusting in themselves in them also and this lust will not lye idle in them the flesh will lust against the spirit Gal. 5.17 and it shews how prone the nature of man is to it and the actings of it because it has shewed it self so in all ages And therefore one being asked why Pelagianism did spring up in all ages answered Because there were Pelagianae fibrae in the hearts of all men So if this be asked you Why this lust of carnal confidence always breaks forth into sinful acts c. you may also answer There are fibrae of it in the heart of all men Therefore if God have kept this lust from acting in thee so much as it has done in others O be thankful for so great a mercy but be careful that thou say not that it is not in thee because God has restrained the lust from acting for then it may be just with God to give a man over to the power of it and he shall see by experience that it 's a mercy to have it restrained seeing he cannot be wholly freed from it in this life It 's a great evil when God preserves men from sin for them to think there is no such danger in it Take heed lest God let out such a lust upon thee that will make thee a mourner all thy days and remember how presumptuous Peter was against his denial of Christ yet how soon he was guilty of it And how apt are Christians for not prizing a preservation from gross sins to walk fearlesly and then God often leaves them to the power of lust and shews them the mercy of his former restraint Indeed all lusts in the heart of man do not act alike some lusts do work directly and press men to sin as that of Whoredom and Drunkenness a man has distinct thoughts about them but there are some that do work indirectly and in a secret way to guide men in their practise and yet never come into distinct thoughts but work as principles that lye low and a man acts in the power of them and yet observe them not as in a Watch every one may observe the wheels that move but every one does not observe the spring from whence their motion proceeds as a Scholar that speaks and writes Latin he does not think of the rules of Grammar every sentence he speaks and yet those rules have an influence into every word and his whole discourse is framed after those rules so there are some sins as Atheism c. a man it may be never says in actual thoughts that there is no God and yet this principle sways with a man and is at the bottom of every sin And so it is with this sin it may not come into actual thoughts that there is Eternal life to be had by our works and we will exclude the righteousness of Christ and yet it may have a very great influence upon the man in his whole course as being a fundamental and mother-sin 1 So far as any man does desire to establish his own righteousness so far he desires to be under a Covenant of Works for justification and life but this is the disposition of every man by nature therefore every man by nature desires to be under the first Covenant still this was the great fruit of it amongst the Jews Rom. 10.3 and the words are very significant Going about to establish their own righteousness i. e. seeking or studying for it as students use to do It signifies to labour for a thing with a mans utmost endeavour even with all his might as Mat. 6.32 After these things do the Gentiles seek and it answers to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.31 Rom. 9.31 They followed after the law of righteousness but they attained it not The law of righteousness is the righteousness of the Law that is justification by it for the righteousness of the Law to be fulfilled in them by their own personal obedience not by faith but by works this they followed after with all their might And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imbecillitatem propriae justitiae denotat denotes the imbecillity of their own righteousness that it could not stand alone but they must set it up and support it and make it stand by their own opinion and presumptions Now you see this all along how men expect acceptation with God for their services Isa 58.1 Wherefore have we fasted and thou regardest not Men do think to be heard for
threefold power sin has from the law 1 Of condemnation and so the law saith Luther that is weak through the flesh for justification is through the flesh powerful to condemnation The law does strengthen sin by its condemning power 2 Of Conviction for the discovery of sin is by the law and it 's through the law only that sin does trouble the Conscience and convince the sinner Paul saith I was alive without the law once i. e. in his unregenerate estate but his sins were before alive only they lay hid as colours in the dark Now when the Commandment came sin did appear to be sin it being discovered thereby so that the strength of sin as to Conviction is by the law 3 As to Irritation By the law lust is drawn forth and improved and provoked and so sin receives a power from the law also and therefore they that have the clearest discoveries of the law their sins are improved and made stronger than other mens as it appears by the people of Israel Zech. 5.6 8. there was an Ephah Zech. 5.6 8. which is the greatest dry measure amongst the Jews and it is wickedness that is in it that sets forth the fulness of their sins and we see what it was that did fill it up sin taking occasion from the Commandment Jer. 1.11 as a rod of an Almond-tree their sins did ripen in the greatest colds that which a man would have thought should have been a means to have kept sin under that was a means to improve and increase it As a basket of Summer-fruits which is sooner ripe than other fruits Jer. 24.2 Amos 8.1 they were divided into two sorts the good figs very good but the bad very bad such as could not be eaten the rain does ripen the briers and thorns as well as the corn Heb. 6.7 8. therefore the law of God does improve mens sins and ripen them and hasten judgment for them 1. In every unregenerate man there is the seed of all sin Rom. 1.26 Act. 13.10 they are filled with the fruits of all unrighteousness full of all subtlety and all mischief a fountain of sin a treasury a bundle of folly Let Satan come when he will and he will find something that is in us Though all sins break not forth actually in every man yet vertually and seminally all sins are in every man 2. Lusts are acted and drawn forth by degrees as water out of a fountain it casts not forth all at once your experience teaches that the more it is drawn the quicker the spring is no man is suddenly very bad sin ripens as a child in the womb first lust is conceived Jam. 1.14 Ezek. 7.10 Isa 59.4 and then it brings forth sin and sin finished brings forth death It first brings forth the bud and then the blossom and afterward the fruit as Serpents do first the egg and afterwards the Cocatrice c. 3. Unto men in an unregenerate state there is nothing that is not a means to draw out and improve their lusts and this is the curse upon every thing unto them and therefore Tit. 1.15 To the unclean all things are unclean Rom. 8.28 To a gracious heart all things work together for his good because they are all means to subdue his corruption and improve his graces so to another man all things improve his corruption 1 All Creatures 1 Joh. 2.16 whatsoever is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye or the pride of life There is no Creature but draws out some lust or other and therefore the lust is put for the thing it self for every Creature shall improve his corruption there is nothing that he sees with his eyes but sin takes occasion by it to make the man more exceeding sinful If he look upon the Sun in its brightness his heart is enticed c. He cannot look upon a woman but to lust after her they have eyes full of adultery 2 Pet. 2.14 2 All opportunities draw out his corruption as Gehazi said As the Lord liveth I will go after him and get something of him And the Harlot Prov. 7. The good man is gone from home c. 3 All estates do draw out his corruption if in prosperity he does wax fat and kick and as the pasture so is his filling his heart is lifted up and he forgets the Lord and if afflicted with Ahaz he sins yet more so that sin takes occasion by all the ways and dispensations of God towards the man and as sin is improved and takes all occasion by all other things so it does by the law of God also and so as a godly man grows from grace to grace from faith to faith so does a wicked man from sin to sin from one degree of wickedness to another § 3. But the main thing in opening of the point is this How sin takes occasion by the Commandment and what improvement the law that forbids sin and discovers sin can give unto it There are several acts of the law by which sin is improved Rom. 7. 1. The law as a glass doth discover sins I had not known lust but by the law says the Apostle Paul Now in this sin takes occasion by the Commandment three ways 1 It does act many sins because they are forbidden that there is nothing in the sin that should else carry the heart to it but only we affect things forbidden In sins where there is neither pleasure nor profit yet how do the hearts of men run out to them even to new oaths and new-invented blasphemies as if they were the flowers of speech for which no man can give a reason but this because it is forbidden As Hyperius gives advice unto Divines not to revive ancient Heresies in their reproofs lest thereby they do teach men those errors they went about to refute For the very hearing of a blasphemy is enough to take the heart as we see by experience daily and the very speaking of some things as sins is enough to draw out the lusts of men towards them Thus sin takes occasion by the Commandment 2 The discovery of the Law makes sin the more exceeding sinful because it is against light which shews it unto his Conscience and yet the man does it and so sin takes occasion by the Commandment to become the more out of measure sinful 1 When the Commandment forbids and discovers a thing to be evil and sin takes occasion thereby to mince it and in a politick manner to conceal it self Sin would do the thing and yet elude the force and the spirituality of the Law as the Pharisees the Law said Thou shalt not swear but they said to swear by Heaven is lawful and it is lawful to swear by the Temple but not by the Gold of the Temple The Law saith Men should nourish their Parents but they said it is Corban a gift c. And so the discovery of the Law makes a
a principle of life within or else a principle from without either weights or springs as it is in Clocks or Watches which makes the motion so many men may move to duty and abstain from sin not from an inward principle of life in the one or the other but from a weight without 5. There is in every unregenerate man a sinful and unrenewed heart deceitful above all things Jer. 17.10 and desperately evil a heart fully set in him to do evil and because this is natural therefore his heart is fully bent to go this way so that let him be constrained to do duty yet he will hate the duty that he does and count it a weariness and look upon it as a burden Mallet non facere si posset impune and say When will the Sabbath be gone And let him be kept from sin yet he will love it still if you chain up a Beast from the prey yet his inclination will be after it and keep the stone from the Center and force it up into the air as often as you will it will still return and when it comes down to the earth and can descend no further yet it will have a tendency thereunto So Conscience thâ—â— is meerly natural counts it its misery and affliction to be kept from sin for restrain it from sin never so much it will at last break these bounds and will be carried on with the greater fury greediness and violence because of the former restraint that was put upon it and the Devil will enter with seven worse spirits the dog will return to his vomit and the latter end will be worse than the beginning it had been better that man had never known the way of righteousness for he will be more wicked than if he had never known it Thus let the man have a heart set upon lust and let the power of the Law come into his Conscience acted by the Spirit it 's no wonder if it so far over-awe the man as to restrain him from sin and constrain him to duty § 2. But is a godly man that is under the Covenant of Grace wholly freed from the Coaction of the Law Answ This distinction was laid down in the beginning that though the main part of our Christian Liberty consists in being freed from the Law yet this liberty is in this life either inchoata or perfecta in respect of justification and condemnation A godly man is perfectly freed from the Law as a Covenant but in respect of Irritation and Coaction he is freed from these effects of it only in part We have seen how far the Irritation of the Law remains even in the regenerate and it is like lime which does quench those fires sometimes kindles 〈◊〉 Sin while it does remain and is acted by Satan may take occasion by the Commandment and produce woful effects even in the Saints so for the Coaction of the Law they are not wholly freed from it so far as they are unregenerate and the law of the flesh remains in their members the Law is of use to them and a handmaid to the Gospel and they do and ought to make use of legal motives to constrain to duty and to restrain from sin and the Law is to be preached to the regenerate to this purpose Heb. 11.25 1. To constrain to duty many times The Saints are to make use of the Law and the good things thereof so did Moses he had respect to the recompence of reward and the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5.9 We labour whether present or absent that we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Again Heb. 12. ult Let us have grace to serve him acceptably for our God is a consuming fire These be the helps that the Lord has given us and it were our sin not to make use of them there is no man but he finds so much deadness and backwardness in his flesh that he shall be forced to call in this help many times Mark 9.44 2. And to restrain a man from sin also Christs exhortation is Cut off your right hand and pull out your right eye for it 's better to go to heaven maimed than having two eyes to be cast into hell where the worm dies not c. And if Adam in the state of Innocency had need of the threatning of the Law to deter him from sin much more a godly man that is holy but in part Yet there is a great deal of difference 1 in a godly man this is not the only principle that acts him as it is in the unregenerate for an unregenerate man would never do duty while he lives were it not from this Coaction of the Law out of a principle of self-love and natural conscience for he does duties as a godly man commits sins and he must say that which I hate do I but in a godly man there is another principle also there is a law of his mind an inward disposition the law written in his heart a new and divine nature and his obedience to God is natural to him as it is for a tree to bring forth fruit in its kind and a fountain to cast out mud and to work out any thing that is contrary to it 2 As this is not the only so it is not the main principle that works in them but there is the Spirit of Christ that dwells in them and leads them and there is a law of love that does mainly act them in all they do 1 Joh. 5.3 they abstain from Sin as from Hell and that which they see all evil in and as that which is dishonourable to God and defiles their own beauty for Sin is the souls deformity as Grace is the ornament of the soul and he does duty from an ingenuous and free spirit And therefore Christ says Take my yoke upon you for it is easie Whence so far as a man is regenerate he is a law unto himself and he would be kept from sin and carried on to duty if neither of these were but only from a principle within 3. The more a regenerate man is acted by legal principles and the less love he has to spiritual duties the less spiritual he is and therefore his desire is always to be led by the Spirit of God and he always prays to God for his free Princely Spirit SECT III. The APPLICATION § 1. WE may hence learn what a miserable estate a man is in being under the first Covenant every thing is a burden to him because it is a constraint upon his spirit the thing he does he hates he has a contrary principle within him which he would indulge and gratifie Now there being in a man the same nature and the command of God lying upon a man this may and this does commonly put a force upon him to perform duties of the law but that
of his native soil as they do that plant Colonies from one Country to another and such a Translation is here meant that whereas before a man was under the Kingdom of Satan and the condemnation and dominion of death now his state is changed that is by the change of his Covenant and he is translated or transported into the Kingdom of Righteousness and Holiness This is the Translation that is here meant a change of a mans state through the change of his Covenant upon which follows the change of his image and the change of his nature also A man is translated into it 1 As a Kingdom of Righteousness by the change of his Covenant 2 As a Kingdom of Holiness by the change of his Image Doct. All those that are in Christ have a change of their state they are translated out of their former Covenant Here are two things to be spoken to 1 That the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant 2 The necessity of such a change and the reasons and grounds thereof Rom. 11.24 § 2. First the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant Says the Apostle Rom. 11.24 For if thou wert cut out of the Olive-tree which is wild by nature and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good Olive-tree how much more shall these which be the natural branches c. Abraham is called the root because after a sort the Covenant began in him and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful and all that grew by nature upon this root they were the children of God and the natural branches unto whom the sap and sweetness and fatness of the true Church all the Promises and Priviledges of the Covenant of Grace did belong and those that were truly under this Covenant they were not broken off but some of them that were under it by profession only they were for their sins in judgment broken off and the Gentiles that were wild Olives strangers to Abraham's Faith and Covenant they were grafted in that is taken into the Covenant of Abraham which is the root upon which they were ingrafted and are made partakers of all the Promises and the Priviledges of the Covenant of Abraham as if they were the natural branches Therefore here are men that are wild Olives that are ingrafted here are branches broken off that are ingrafted in again So that in Conversion there is an Ingrafting a Translation of a man from one stock to another from one root unto another and that is by changing of a mans Covenant for it is by his Covenant only that Abraham is his root c. Some indeed are ingrafted only by an outward profession some by inward implantation into the inward and spiritual part some into the outward priviledges of the Covenant only but some partake of the sweetness and fatness of the true Olive-tree Joh. 5.24 c. Christ says He that believes in him that sent me shall never come into judgment but is parted from death to life The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a passage from one place to another And Joh. 3.14 He is passed from death to life There is a twofold state of death and life and there is answerable a double passage a relative mutation as to a mans Covenant and a physical mutation as to his Image Rom. 7.1 2 3 The law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth the woman is bound to her husband as long as he liveth but if her husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband c. It is a dying or a being divorced from the former husband that gives her liberty All the Ancients do generally make the Law the husband from which a man being dead unto the Law is divorced and some Modern Divines as Beza and others make sin the husband as being irritated by the law but the thing is much the same and a man being ingrafted into Christ is freed from the law of the husband It is also a being redeemed and the main of our redemption lyes in it Gal. 4.5 as Christ was made under the law so we were under it now he was under it as a Covenant to fulfill the precept and to satisfie the curse and he did this that he might redeem us that were under the law in both these respects so that looking upon the law as a Covenant Christ is said to redeem us from being under it changing a mans father and his mother Mich. 7.20 Luc. 1. Gal. 4. and growing on another root and belonging to another stock as it is said Rom. 4.15 Abraham the father of us all that were before strangers unto Abraham therefore it is said to be his mercy unto Abraham and his oath unto our forefathers and Sarah the mother whereas before we were the children of Hagar All men by nature are under the law children of the bond-woman for the two Mothers are the two Covenants and so long as a man remains under the first Covenant he is the son of the bond-woman but we that believe are as Isaac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of the free-woman being discharged of the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and contrary to us which Christ took out of the way nailing it to his Cross c. This â—lotting out of Ordinances Chrysostome and Oecumenius understand not only of the Ceremonial Law given by Moses but also of the Moral Law and the Law of the forbidden fruit given to Adam c. and so Zanchy and others c. Though some other late Divines will understand it of the Ceremonial Law only which I conceive it cannot be because it is spoken for the consolation of the Gentiles that they were delivered from this hand-writing of Ordinances under which they never were So that this change of Covenant is in Scripture set forth by being cut off from the former root and ingrafted into another a change or passage from a mans former state a being dead to a former husband a redemption from a former bondage an alliance to another father and having a bond cancelled that was against a man by its exacting and condemning power SECT II. The necessity of a Translation from the first Covenant 1. THE necessity of this Translation is manifested several ways 1. From the nature of the Covenant as it is broken and mans misery under it for the Covenant in self is unchangeable and eternal as well as the Covenant of Grace and it says for ever This do and thou shalt live it still says Gal. 4.4 5. Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them the soul that sins shall die And to establish it Christ was made under the Law that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and what the Law saith it saith unto them that are under the Law still So that while men continue under it their
nor under the curse Now hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit if any man has not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Now wheresoever the spirit of Christ is it is a spirit of mortification as Rom. 8.10 for Christs Spirit had the same end that Christ had 1 Joh. 1.8 1 A mans darling lust is mortified for a man converted hates every sin but especially these as a Deer that is shot is not quiet till the Arrow that has wounded him be taken out Psal 18.23 Hos 14.3 and the Psalmist says I was also upright before him and I kept my self from my iniquity There is no greater sign that a man is acted by the spirit of the Devil than indulging this way of sinning 2 A man conflicts specially against spiritual sins for those sins make a man most conformable to the Devil as for gross sins restraining grace and a natural conscience will go far to keep them under all sins are from the Devil either per modum servitutis or imaginis in a way of servitude or image Pride and contempt of God and drawing others to sin and delighting in it hating godliness in others obstinacy and impenitency c. these sins argue whose children we are That we are of our father the Devil for his lusts we do c. Spiritual lusts are his image 2. Where the Spirit of Christ dwells the spirit of the second Covenant he is a spirit of Sanctification Joh. 3â—6 there is a renewing of the inward man that which is born of the spirit is spirit the spirit of God is not only water but fire which turns all into it self it is a spirit of Wisdom and a spirit of faith love meekness and of a sound mind conforming the outward man making him follow the Lord fully he is willingly ignorant of no truth he does not hide his eyes Numb 14.24 nor stop his ears from hearing of it nor does he imprison any truth in unrighteousness he will walk up to his light in every thing though duties be difficult to honour God and own his people before the world as we may live to see it a crime to countenance a profession of godliness yet this man that has received another spirit as Caleb had can let the world see that all his delight is in the Saints and though he should be reckoned singular and go alone with Athanasius and Luther yet he still keeps on his way notwithstanding all opposition and lays out all that is in him and dear to him for Christ and if he perish in a way of duty he perishes Luk. 11.21 he will venture life and all for God as Nehemiah and Hester did Vse 2 § 2. Hence we may see the sinfulness of an unregenerate state in this That all of you that are so are strangers to the Covenant of promise and this is set forth by the Apostle as that state of sin in which the Gentiles lay before their conversion Chrysost Chrysostome says that they were not only separated from this Covenant and without it but wholly strangers to it and though as to the terms of the Covenant we be not so great strangers now because the Gospel of Grace is made known to us yet all they that do not accept of the terms of the Covenant but do stand out in their unbelief and do not imbrace the Lord Christ offered in the Gospel they are as truly in Gods account still strangers unto the Covenant of Promise as the Gentiles were before the Gospel was preached unto them and let no man say What are we all Heathens will you put us into the same condition with them Let me tell you the Covenant of Grace has been offered unto you and the terms of it plainly set before you And they are 1 God will be yours if you will be his he will be wholly yours so as you must be wholly his Cant. 6.2 I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Bernard says Mea non placent nisi mecum Christ will neither marry a Widow nor a Harlot Lev. 21.14 he will have the first Love and the whole Love Hos 3.3 Thou shalt be unto me alone and unto none other 2 Thou shalt give all that is thine unto him and he will give all that is his unto thee thou shalt have an interest in what is his but so as Christ will have an interest likewise in all that is thine He â—hat does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple thou must follow the lamb whithersoever he goes thou must forget thy own kindred and thy fathers house forsake yea hate thy â—wn life if it come in competition with thy duty and love to Christ for a man to be willing 〈◊〉 reserve any thing at his own dispose that he may enjoy a-part from Christ it is a token 〈◊〉 a false heart and the Lord abhors it To do as Ananias and Saphira did keep back part 〈◊〉 the price reserve something that they would not give up and yet pretend to give up all â—is abominable to God and that man that does not consent unto the Covenant upon these â—â—rms does not give the hand unto the Lord and subscribe with his hand unto the Lord 〈◊〉 2 Chron. 30.8 he that is not willing to come and take of this water of life Isa 44. Rev. 22. his name shall â—e blotted out of the book of life c. If he do not accept of nor consent to the Covenant â—â—at man though he live in the Church he is in Gods account as a Heathen and a stranger 〈◊〉 the Covenant of Promise as truly as they that live at the furthest ends of the earth to â—hom the offer of a second Covenant never came and in some respects are worse than they â—â—erefore we read that David calls the Ziphims though they were the Inhabitants of Judah Ezek. 16.3 Hos 12.7 Amos 9.7 Isa 1.10 â—â—rangers and Sauls Courtiers that were wicked men and persecutors of him he called Heathens and Saul himself he calls Cush and that as one well observes not without some â—llusion unto his fathers name Cush an Ethiopian Psal 7.1 and it 's said Rev. 11.2 The â—utward Court shall be trodden down of the Gentiles which is meant of those that receive the â—ark of the Beast and bear his image for Popery is nothing else but Paganism under a â—orm of Christianity and therefore such are Gentiles in Gods account and the Lord meaâ—â—res all with one line He will punish all them that are circumcised with the uncircumcised Jer. 9. ult 8. 9. â—gypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moah and all that are in the â—â—ermost corners that dwell in the wilderness for all these Nations are uncircumcised and all 〈◊〉 house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart c. The misery of not being translated into the second Covenant has been
wherein the Authority or Soveraignty of the Great King does appear for wherein does the authority of Princes lye but in their Laws and he is counted a rebell that does disobey them and that of the Apostle Rom. 2. Through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God and the Nomothetick power is that wherein the greatness and the height of Majesty lyes and this Law we are subjected to by bond of Creation as having received our being from the Lord and by a bond of Stipulation having given up our consent to the Law having given the hand unto the Lord c. and as being the rule by which the Lord will judge men at the last day and this kept Joseph in awe against the importunity of his Mistress How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God the Majesty and Authority of God is despised in it and the Soveraignty of the Law being exalted in his heart carried with it a kind of moral impossibility for there be natural and moral impossibilities as the Apostle in the 1 Cor. We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth And sometimes the people of God in the violence of a temptation have been forced to fly to the Commandment as in the point of self-murder one was fain to do the temptation was so impetuous that he was forced to repeat the Commandment for some hours together Thou shalt do no murder thou shalt do no murder 3. Sin is restrained from the Curse of the Law and the Judgements that it does denounce against offenders and the several examples of the executions of them says Job Chap. 31.23 Destruction from God was a terror to me and because of his highness I could not indure And 2 Cor. 5. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men And observing the several examples of Judgments and the Curse of the Covenant upon wickednesses which are wrought that others may see and fear and do no more wickedly When a man looks upon the Judgements that are abroad as the Curse of the Law executed a man should say I will not transgress It was the sin of Judah that at the Captivity of Israel she would not be warned and would not receive correction for that man that has the Law against him has God against him 4. Sin is restrained from the Harmony of the Law he that breaketh one is guilty of all c. This makes men stand in awe of the Divine Commands 5. From Gods love to the Law it being that which is so dear unto God Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not an iota of the Law which is dearer to God than Heaven and Earth The Saints are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they have a conformity unto God in all things they love what God loves and they hate what God hates Says the Psalmist I hate them that hate thee Psal 119.10.4 yea I hate them sore as if they were my enemies Through thy precepts I get understanding He says He did love the Law as his portion and inheritance as that which was sweeter to him than honey and his obedience unto which did bring him in all his comfort and therefore I have refrained my feet from every evil way this is my life and this is my wisdom in the sight of the Nations Lastly What authority and command the Law of God has in the hearts of men is that that Gods eye is much upon and with such men he is pleased and the power of Gods Grace is seen mainly in the awe of the Law upon their hearts and lives which other men despise and cast behind their back says the Lord To him will I look that trembles at my word Isa 66.2 And there is a man that fears an oath My heart stands in awe of thy Word else I had broken forth and given way to corruption but I durst not Isa 11.6 A little child shall lead him that which is most easily done and 2 Chron. 32.12 see the charge against Zedekiah for he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. If a man come to us from God and in the name of God if we despise him we despise the Lord. § 3. How is the Law from its restraint upon lust a servant and a handmaid unto the Gospel This will appear also in these Particulars 1. The great end of the Gospel is to establish the Earth and to continue the World for by sin an utter destruction should have come upon men and upon all the creatures for mans use only there is a stop put upon Justice for a time the change of the Covenant bringing in a change of the Government and the Kingdom that was before the fall administred by God immediately is now committed into the hands of the Son as he is God-man our Mediator So Psal 8. He has put all things in subjection under his feet Isa 49.8 and he has given him as a Covenant to establish the earth And it is upon this ground that those expressions are Psal 93. The Lord reigns he is clothed with Majesty the world is established that it cannot be moved And Psal 97.1 The Lord reigns let the earth rejoice All this is spoken of the Kingdom of Christ and his Government that is committed to him by the Father under the second Covenant and by vertue thereof since the fall And this the Lord doth by the restraint of the Law two ways 1 Hereby the lusts that are in a mans heart are kept under that they destroy not one another for lust is cruel see it in the second man that ever was in the world and he that first actually brought murder into the world and Nimrod a hunter of men before the Lord and as cruel to men as if they were beasts nay they are themselves Beasts and have the cruelty of Beasts and men would be as the fishes of the Sea the greater would devour the less they have no King over them and are acted by the spirit of the Devil and his name is Abaddon the destroyer his delight is wholly in destruction and if the Lord did leave men to the violence of their lusts and the impetuosity of temptation they would overflow as water over-running all banks and bounds and blood would touch blood where either as some say by blood is meant murder Hos 4.2 or all manner of horrible wickedness and so some take it so there is all manner of cruelty and all manner of unnatural wickedness even to the destroying of one another as we see it in Egypt every mans sword shall be against his brother and in the cruelty at the destruction of Jerusalem Now how comes it to pass that it is not so every where Only from the restraint of the Law laid upon the spirits of men and by this means the world is quieted as Luther in Gal. 3. hath observed Diâ—bolus regnat in toto orbe terrarum impellit homines
consist of Promises they are many Promises of this life and of the life to come Promises absolute and conditional Promises of Grace and to Grace and they are therefore called better Promises and so because in respect of the Fathers their good things were even wholly contained in Promises as the Ceremonial Law was contained in Ordinances and they saw nothing in the one but in the Type and nothing in the other but in the Promises they did salute them afar off and imbracing them died in the faith of them but they never received the thing promised Heb. 11. Joh. 8.57 only as Abraham desired to see my days says Christ and he saw it and was glad And it is sometimes called the promise because they are all one in Christ being in him all yea and amen as lines in a Center are one follow any promise to its Original as rivers unto the head and rise of them and they will all lead you unto Christ and yet they are Promises in themselves many as the lines are in the Circumference though but one in the Center Ephes 2.12 the Apostle Paul useth a quite different expression Strangers unto the Covenants of promise he doth as it were make the promise but one for substance and the Covenants many the Covenants are many because of their manifold delivery being severally renewed and yet in all these in several ages the promises the same as if but one promise 2. How and in what order is Abraham to be considered in this Covenant and in receiving this promise In this Covenant Abraham stands as a publick person as a common root Rom. 11. or as a common Parent unto all the faithful unto the worlds end as one that did receive the Promise not only for himself but for all those that should after his example believe in Christ and become his Children and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful Rom. 4.16 and they that do believe are Abrahams seed and also heirs of the Promise For as Austin hath observed there are three sorts of Fathers and of Sons some are according to nature and others are secundum Doctrinam according to Doctrine so Paul was father to Timothy having begotten him by the Gospel others secundum imitationem according to imitation as filii Abrahami nos sumus cujus fidem imitamur we are Abrahams children if we imitate his faith And this the Lord doth for a double end 1 To put an honour upon his servant as a great reward of his faith and therefore he changed his name calling him the Father of many Nations as one that was the root and first in the Covenant and they all coming in at second hand under Abrahams Covenant and therefore Mic. 7.20 it is mercy to Abraham Mic. 7.20 and truth to Jacob because in Abraham after a sort the Covenant did begin not that to him the Covenant of Grace was first revealed for it was made known unto Adam and Abel was justified by faith Heb. 11.3 but because unto Abraham was the clearest discovery of the Covenant and the Lord did in the most solemn manner enter into Covenant with him therefore it is mercy to Abraham that being the foundation of making the Covenant as his truth and faithfulness is of keeping the Covenant 2 The Lord does it thereby to make Abraham as it were a Type of Christ that it may be continued unto posterity that the way by which God intended to dispense the Grace of the Covenant was from one common head or root as the first Covenant to the first Aam and all his posterity so the second Covenant with the second Aam of whom first Abraham and afterwards David were the fullest Types and resemblances Thus that the Lord might honour Abraham his friend with the highest honour as the root of all the Faithful and that this manner of conveyance of the Grace of the Covenant from one common root might be made known and thereby mans heart led unto Christ the root and Prince of the Covenant therefore it was made with Abraham as a publick person and the father of us all 3. What is meant by Christ here the seed of Abraham not seeds as of many Here Interpreters are divided There is a twofold seed of Abraham to which they have an eye according unto these two promises In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Gen. 22.18 Christus in individuo Christus in aggregato and Gen. 17.7 I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee and answerably unto these they observe in Scripture a twofold Christ Christ Personal and Christ Mystical so 1 Cor. 12.12 the whole Church is called Christ and the sufferings of the Church are called the sufferings of Christ Ephes 1.23 and the fulness of the Church the fulness of Christ as Col. 1.18 Here some say is to be understood Christ personal for two reasons 1 The person to whom the promise is made is the same in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed but this is by Abraham in reference to this seed It 's true all the faithful as they are the seed of Abraham they are blessed with faithful Abraham but they are not that seed in whom all the Nations of the world shall be blessed Rutherf Triumph of Faith p. 51. Gen. 22.18 that is in Abraham as this seed should come out of his loins and it refers us only to the person of Christ which cannot be understood of Christ Mystical therefore Ambrose saith of this promise Impletum est in Christo ideoque non in multis sed in uno firmata est promissio 2 Because it is said verse the 17. the Covenant was made before of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erga Christum or ad Christum in or to Christ speaking of the same seed that he had spoken of in the verse before now this promise and Covenant was not confirmed in Christ Mystical but Christ Personal in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen And hence Pareus and divers others do conclude it to be understood Individuè de uno Christo ex quo omnis spiritualis benedictio in fidelem diffluit c. Individually of Christ from whom all spiritual benediction flows Others do conceive it is to be understood of Christ Mystical 1 From the order that is here mentioned the promise is made first unto Abraham and then unto his seed therefore the seed here spoken of must be such a seed as comes to have a right to the promise as second Bulkley of the Gospel-Covenant p. 37. in order unto Abraham but this cannot be Christ Personal for he has not a right unto the Promise from Abraham but Abraham from him and therefore it must be understood of Christ Mystical who are to look upon Abraham as the root and themselves as branches 2 They argue from the Apostles scope in this place which is to prove that
all the Faithful are justified by faith in the same way that Abraham was for the Covenant was not only made with Abraham but with his seed also and that seed is not many for then the Covenants must be many but whether they be Jews or Gentiles if they do believe they are all of them the seed of Abraham one seed and therefore come under the same Covenant and must expect justification and life the same way by vertue of the same Covenant The reason seems very plain on both sides and I do conceive that they have the truth between them and that it is to be understood both of Christ Personal primarily and principally and afterward Christ Mystical Gomar and Mr. Perkins and so many Divines do expound it and that the Covenant made with Abraham was confirmed unto Christ and that herein the strength and stability of the Covenant stands this is plain in the next verse and that it is in this seed that Abraham is blessed as well as all the Nations of the Earth for he is the root of all the Patriarchs Rev. 5.5 called therefore the root of David he did come out of Jesse but yet he is the root also upon which David did grow and we see that Abraham was justified by faith and that was in this promised seed Gal. 3.15 called the seed of the woman before he was called the seed of Abraham and therefore it was in him that the Covenant vouchsafed to Abraham was confirmed and established And for the order here no man will wonder if he look upon Christ as the Son of Abraham that he is set first with him and his seed it is no more derogatory from Christ than that the mercies of the second Covenant should be called Isa 55.3 Psal 89.4 Luk. 1.32 Hos 3.5 The sure mercies of David or that the Covenant should be made with David and that he should sit upon the Throne of David and succeed David in his Kingdom and that he should plead the Promises made unto the Fathers as if he did come under their Covenant in the actual ministration of it they being types of him though he himself was the root and foundation of the Covenant as the Psalmist speaks of Christ Psal 22.4 Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou deliveredst them As the Son of David he is said after a sort to enter upon Davids Kingdom as the Son of Abraham upon his Covenant and yet he is the root and foundation of the one as well as of the other From all this it is plain here are three sorts of Persons with whom the Covenant is made 1 Here is Christ Personally with whom Abrahams Covenant is confirmed the seed in which Abraham and all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed 2 Here is Abraham the Father of the Faithful 3 Here is another sort of seed the faithful and they are taken into the Covenant at second hand and from hence we do learn that the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ Personal the Mediator Gal. 3.3 and then there being none in this Covenant but they that are one with him they that are Christs are Abrahams seed therefore the Covenant is made with all the Faithful in the second place as they are one with him and with their seed § 2. Thus the first person with whom the Covenant of Grace is made is the Lord Jesus Christ as God and man and so the observation is this Doct. The Lord Jesus Christ as the second Adam is that person with whom primarily and principally the Covenant of Grace was made and to whom primarily and principally all the promises of that Covenant belong This Covenant made with Christ we see Isa 49.8 As the first Adam was the head of the first Covenant so whatever is done in the second Covenant it is by Christ Ephes 1.9 and therefore he is said to be our Covenant as he is our peace for he is Caput Confoederatorum the Head of the Confederates not only by purpose in himself Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 Rev. 13.8 but by promise there was Grace given us before the world began it could not be unto us in our own Persons before we were and therefore it must be unto another as one that undertook for us and therefore we read Rev. 13.8 there was the Lambs book from the foundation of the world the Lord gave the souls unto Christ that he should save and Christ did write them down in his book as the persons that God the Father had given him and he had engaged to save and this Covenant of Christ took place immediately after the Fall and by vertue thereof God pardoned all the sins of the ancient Saints Rom. 3.25 Christ did keep the thing that he did Covenant to pay the debt that we owed to God and all was viz. transacted by God the Father and Christ in a Covenant way so that as now Christ trusts God for the performance of his Promise so God did trust Christ for the payment of his Debt and therefore as the first Covenant was made with Adam Gods friend so the second Covenant was made with Adam Gods fellow and I know not what else can be the meaning of Prov. 8.22 To be set up or anointed as a King before the foundations of the Earth were laid The same word is in Psal 2.6 in reference to the Covenant and the transactions that were between the Father and the Son before the World was And this Covenant made between God and Christ hath two parts 1 There is a Covenant with Christ as Mediator ratione muneris in regard of his Office 2 There is a Covenant made with Christ as the Churches Head ratione Corporis as his body there is a Covenant made with him alone though it was made for us yet not with us and there is a Covenant made with him and with us in him but with him primarily as the Head and with us as the Members as we come under his Covenant 1. There is a Covenant made with Christ Personal Ratione muneris in respect of his Office as Mediator that he hath undertaken and this we shall see is plain Here is God the Father entring into Covenant with Christ he did lay upon him an Office and he made him a promise thereupon an Office he did ordain him 1 Pet. 1.18 Isa 42.1 Joh. 6.27 Joh. 10.18 he chose him and sealed him add sanctified him set him apart for this work and laid a commandment upon him to execute it Joh. 10.18 This Commandment I received of my Father and to this the Lord added a promise 1 Of assistance Isa 42.4 6. He shall not fail nor be discouraged I am by thee and I will hold thee by the hand and I will keep thee 2 A promise of acceptance I go to the Father says Christ Mat. 3.17 Jer. 34 2◠Gen. 8. Psal 53.8 Isa 50.8 3 Of deliverance Isa 53.8 Taken from prison and from
your right Hand and pluck out your right Eye deny your selves that nothing shall be exalted in the heart but Christ and nothing must be dear to a man in comparison of Christ he must sell all to buy the Pearl Matt. 13.45 and part with it with joy not only part with a mans sins but his righteousness and priviledges and take them up by a new title as Paul he suffered the loss of all things Phil. 3.8 9. but found them all in Christ and attained them by a far better and more glorious title A man must do it as you do in Copy-holds a man must bring in his old Copy into the Court and there must be a surrender made and then you shall take it up again and have a new and a better state in it c. A man must part with sin as a snare and with self as a sacrifice and lay them all down at Christs feet he must be his utmost end that gives order and measure to all the means tending thereunto c. 3. The will of man is desperately shut against Christ and against this way of closing with him partly from a mans ungodliness because it is the highest way in which God will be honoured and partly because a man hates the terms and conditions that Christ must be received upon a man cannot give up all unto Christ sin is sweet and self is dear and the great God of the world the Idol that a man has worshipped all his life time now for a man to come and change his God it is that which the will of man is hardly brought unto and therefore Christ puts it upon the will John 5.40 You will not come to me who ever will let him come and take of the water of life freely Rev. 22. I would have gathered you but you would not The Lord does knock at this everlasting door and men bar the door against him and harden their hearts and will rather cleave to the Law and seek to patch up a broken Covenant and will venture their eternal estates upon it nay if they be convinced that there is no life to be had elsewhere they will venture to sit down in a state and way of death rather than they will come unto Christ that they may have life 4. When the Lord brings a man into the bond of Christs Covenant and he becomes an heir of Promise there is an almighty power put forth upon the will to perswade it and to open the heart to accept of Christ and to be subject unto him upon his own terms Gen. 9.27 The Lord shall perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Sem which all the rhetorick of the Angels in Heaven and Ministers the Angels upon Earth could never do none but the Spirit of Christ can open the heart it is alone in his power that has the Keys of Hell and Death Ut velimu sine nobis operatur cùm volumus nobiscum cooperatur August de Grat Lib. arb Chap. 17. Phil. 3.8 praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati giving power to the will to choose Christ and so determining a mans will upon this glorious object that a man seeing Christ to be the chiefest of ten thousands he also desires him and so by preventing grace he does work the will and by assisting grace he works the deed that a man chooses the Lord for his portion and as that which above all things he desires to injoy and place his happiness in and unto him he cleaves with full purpose of heart for ever Act. 11. 23. And thus a man looking upon Christ as the person in whom there is a Covenant and an Image laid up and seeing the glory of that Covenant and the beauty of holiness that is in that Image of both he desires to be made partaker but there is the greater excellency because the person goes with them there is an excellency in the dowry but there is more in the person the soul thus accepting of Christ and catching at the terms of the Covenant as a dying man does at any thing looks upon it as a golden Septer held forth to him by the law condemned and as the brazen Serpent exalted upon the Pole to a sin-stung soul and the heart does greedily and with all its might take hold of it as a man would do a Cord let down as the only means to pluck him out of a dungeon or to save him from drowning and perishing Now to give you some arguments to inforce this that men should take hold of Christs Covenant 1. He is given by God the Father as a Covenant to the Nations Isa 49.8 And it will prove a high act of unthankfulness not to accept of him as a gift from God their sin was much aggravated John 1.11 John 1.11 He came to his own and his own received him not a man does not receive Christ that does not take him in this manner as offered by God the Father as a Covenant our ends in taking of Christ should answer Gods ends in giving of him now God did give him as a Covenant and an Image and we should receive him for both those ends and the Lord has used all means to inforce you to it that you may lay hold of this Covenant he did so with Adam at first Adam still thought that his former Covenant continued and would have given life and therefore he still had a mind to the Tree of Life but God to let him see there was no hope by that Covenant sent an Angel there with a flaming Sword and all that man might come to Christ â—ev 2.7 who is the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of God and came in the place of the old Tree of Life and he hath taught men that by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified and that that way to Heaven is stopped and that door barr'd for ever God sets the guilt of sin and terrors of the law upon any man that would be justified by his works 2. It is Christs Covenant and therefore lay hold of it for Christ is the standard of all excellency and the more any thing relates to him or holds forth of him the more glorious it is The second Temple was more glorious than the first because of Christs presence in it and John Baptists Ministry the greatest of all that were born of women and yet the least in the Kingdom of God was greater than he and therefore to you that believe he is precious 1 Pet. 2.7 and when he shall raign over Israel and they be converted to him he shall be the glory of his people Israel How should we therefore lay hold of him and take him as worthy of all acceptation 3. Consider the glory of this Covenant 1. In it thou hast an interest in God in all the persons in Trinity for I will be thy God is the grand promise thereof Now to have the Lord for a
mans God is to have an interest in infinite mercy and power and grace the God of my mercy and the God of my strength c. and have the Lord thine in a way of communion and fruition that the Lord will impart himself so as to become my portion the Covenant of Grace being a Covenant of Friendship and this is much more if we consider it is not in our own but in Christs right and therefore I having naturally no distinct title unto God yet being under his Covenant he is become my God as he is Christs God John 20.17 I ascend unto my Father and your Father my God and your God 2. This Covenant brings in a righteousness beyond that of the Angels 1. It is the righteousness of God Dan 9.24 and not meerly of a creature 2. It is a righteousness that sin can never spend an everlasting righteousness it is a Garment that will cover all the sins of the Elect of God a Sun of righteousness that though it enlighten all the Stars and the Earth yet every day it goes forth as a Bridgroom out of his Chamber as full of glory as ever it was 3. It is a Covenant by which Heaven is opened which was before shut against all the sons of men Heb. 10.20 we have access with boldness into the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and a living way which he has consecrated through the veil c. when Heaven was shut by sin there was no way to open it but the Lord himself to descend from Heaven and to take upon himself a created nature so that the way to Heaven is by Christs Incarnation and Satisfaction in the Flesh and it is the way that Christ has made new because the old way was shut and man cast out of Paradise a Type of Heaven and it is a new way because it shall never wax old as the former Covenant did and a livingway because it gives life unto the Passenger that walks to Heaven in it and in the way of the Law there is no Life to be found but this is a living way a man finds life in it though the Law indeed was a way to Heaven but a man must bring life with him that will walk in it And by this opening of Heaven we have a double benefit 1 All good comes out of Heaven to us John 1. ult 2 We ascend up to Heaven to receive the mansions that are prepared for us and so Heaven is our home our House not made with hands and all by this Covenant 4 It is by this Covenant that a man hath the service of all the Angels and the inheritance of all the creatures it 's Christ whom the Angels serve and they ascend and descend upon the son of man there was no such thing under the first Covenant they were our fellow servants but our servants they were not till the grace of the second Covenant was made manifest it is first Christ that they serve the Lord bringing his only begotten Son into the world he saith Heb. 1.6 1 Cor. 3.21 Fidelibus est totus mundus divitiarum Jo. 5.22 and let all the Angels of God worship him and of all the creatures 't is said all things are yours for they are Christs Inheritance and ours only as we are in him there is dominium Politicum and Evangelicum a Politick and Evangelick dominion they have the use and the good of all the creatures 5 It 's by this Covenant that your Government of the World is changed and committed into another hand the Lord hath committed all judgement to the Son Christ is now King of Nations as well as of Saints and he has as Mediator a providential Kingdom as well as a Spiritual he is the Head over all things to the Church Ephes 1.22 a head of Guidance as well as of eminence the Keys of Hell and Death are committed to him the Government is upon his Shoulder as the great Officer that the Lord employs Esa 9.6 and it is our happiness that he that is our Head and Husband hath the rule of all things in his hand should the Lord have continued to have governed the world he must without a Mediator have destroyed it according to the first Covenant and the rules of his Government therefore the Lord saith I cannot go before you but I will send mine Angel take heed of him and obey his voice and it 's the happiness of the world that the Lord Christ raigns Let the earth rejoyce c. 6 It is by this Covenant that the world stands he upholds all things by the word of his power had not he put under his hand Heb. 1. the Earth had melted and come to nothing he establishes the earth for the curse of the first Covenant coming upon the creatures must have received them all Yet that 's not all but that the earth should stand firm and that by his word he shall raise the earth and elevate the creatures this is much more for there is an earnest expectation of all the creatures for a deliverance as well as of the Saints and hence we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth What change soever shall be made in the creatures at the last day whether in substance or in quality it shall be perfective not destructive for it is a promise that the Saints expect and pray for and all the creatures do groan and wait for when the glory of the Sons of God shall be made manifest Vse 3 § 3. It 's for consolation it is this in which the soul lives and the privation thereof is the death of the soul in Hell where it is utter darkness Now as in the first Covenant there is a life of Comfort in the duties of it he that doth them shall live in them Heb. 10.38 Gal. 2.20 so there is the second Covenant also and therefore the just is said to live by faith as the other by doing shall live in it so he shall by believing in believing he shall live not only a life of holiness but a life of comfort and therefore as the second Covenant is the better Covenant because it is established or founded upon better promises so the comforts that do flow from those promises are higher and more glorious consolations and therefore all the ordinances and promises of it are called the breasts of consolation Esa 66.11 Heb. 6.18 out of which a man may suck and be satisfied the comforts of the second Covenant are strong consolations that which is powerful and able to bear up the spirit in the greatest assaults of temptation either from sin or Satan 2 Thess 2.16 and it is everlasting consolation and good hope through grace and such were not the comforts and consolations of the first Covenant But the more immediate any mercy and comfort is and the nearer it is to the fountain of Consolation the sweeter it is now
heed lest any of us fall short of the grace of God and lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 For there is nothing that the heart of man is more prone to than backsliding and therefore we had need be often admonished to keep firm to the Covenant under which we stand for there is not the greatest cheat in the World that is in falseness and unstedfastness like our hearts wherefore we need many bonds upon it and should have regard to the cords of love that God ties us with to himself in this Covenant 2. We had need be exhorted to it from the slothfulness and heedlesness of our spirits in whatever is good though we be bound unto it by so many bonds the Lord hath always respect unto his Covenant and we desire he should do so now we had need to have respect always to the Covenant and to be continually minded that we forget not what the Lord our God requires of us as 2 King 10.31 it was a brand upon Jehu That he took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord his God Heedlesness in a mans carriage to God is a high provocation to walk with God at an adventure without respect unto the Covenants and great ingagements in which you stand to God Lev. 26.23 Hos 7.8 this is to be towards the Lord as a Cake not turned which is baked only on one side and no more therefore we had need have the more frequent admonition to take heed lest any man fall short of the grace of God we ought to give the more diligent heed lest by any means we let slip the things that we have heard and had need to be warned to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart and to desire of the Lord that he would fix and unite our hearts to fear his name as the Psalmist doth Psal 86.11 Let these things quicken any secure Soul that goes on in any way of disobedience unto God for thou wilt pay dear at last for all thy wanderings from the paths of this Covenant and thou shalt experience it an evil and a bitter thing to draw back from God 3. That you may be quickened to seek unto the Lord for Grace to keep this Covenant and may acknowledge before the Lord that the stability and eternity of the second Covenant lies not in us nor in the observation of it for as much as in us lies we do break it continually but from the eternal love of God and the inseparable union between Christ and us and the Lord having made him the surety of the Covenant therefore it stands but were we left unto our selves we should break it every day and every sin in us would spend all the grace of the Covenant as it did in Adam but there is without us a fountain for a supply for truly the stability of the Covenant doth not proceed from our part in the Covenant as the Lord says in Ezekiel Ezek. 16.61 that the mercies he would give them should not be by their Covenant but all proceed from his and therefore Hos 10.12 it is sow in righteousness and reap in mercy and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ore Hos 10.12 in the mouth of mercy that is according to the measure of mercy The mercies and blessings of the Covenant God doth dispense not according to the proportion of our righteousness and stability of the Covenant but according to the proportion of his own grace manifested there and there is no argument that is more effectual amongst men than this As one came unto a Prince and desired him to perform a Covenant and ingagement that he had made unto them which he refusing being in his Robes the Soldier touching his Purple said Imperator hac veste indutum mentiri nefas est O Emperor it is not lawful for him who his clothed with this Robe to lye 4. We had need be continually minded of the Covenant that we may fear those sins that do come nearest a Covenant-breaking It is true there is no sin of a Godly man that can break his Covenant as I have already shewed you but yet there are some sins that come nearer to Covenant-breaking than others do and in this respect are to be looked upon as sins of a very hanious nature and of a deeper dye c. This is a rule That which doth manifest the most unsoundness of heart that doth break the Covenant for the condition of the Covenant is that a mans heart should be perfect with God Gen. 17.2 And it is one of these sorts or I may say both these sorts of sinning that do come nearest thereunto 1 when a man doth sin against light and doth it deliberately and with a high hand for Eo magis peccatum quo magis voluntarium The will is the measure of all sins The more of the Will there is in any evil the greater the sin is and therefore it is made the measure of the sin against the holy Ghost Heb. 10.26 it is sinning wilfully after a man hath received the knowledge of the truth and in this David came nearest to breaking this Covenant 1 King 15.5 He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Vriah David had many other sins lay upon him and he says his iniquities were gone over his head and as a sore burden for him to bear but the Lord said he turned not aside from the Lord in any thing but this because it was a studied plotted sin committed against knowledge and therefore with a high hand thus to sin did manifest the greatest unfaithfulness of Davids spirit towards God that he did show all the days of his life 2 When a man walks on in a sin and lies in it a long time together unrepented of and can act it again and again and it is as a thread drawn through the course of a mans life it comes nearest to an unsound heart and that denominates a man an Adulterer or an Adulteress as James 4.4 as we see in Solomon he lived a great while in these evils and though he were beloved of the Lord yet his heart was turn'd away from following the Lord and he said to his heart Go to now and I will provoke thee with wine Now his lying and living in sin it is true did not break the Covenant between God and him yet it was the most dangerous step to an unsound heart and therefore came nearest to breaking the Covenant A godly man cannot lye and live and dye in any known sin but he may live in it long and be continually insnared and turn away to folly but the more it is thus with thee the nearer thou dost come unto Covenant-breaking with the Lord. But what shall I do to keep
another unto the end of the world thy seed after thee in their generations and therefore Abraham is call'd the rock out of which they were hewed Isa 51.1 and the hole or the pit out of which they were digged and he is call'd Rom. 11. the root upon which they did grow and out of which they did spring not onely in their natural estate but also in their covenant state the covenant did as it were begin in him And the next person with whom the covenant of grace was eminently renewed was David 2 Sam. 7.14.19 Psal 89.28 29 30. the Lord did not only speak of David's person but of his house for a great while to come and when the Lord took a whole Nation into Covenant as he did the Nation of the Jews it was not made only with them that were present and then alive or men grown up but with their seed also so that their children were taken into the same covenant with their parents though they were not able to understand the nature of the covenant nor to restipulate and not only they that were present but Deut. 20.15 with him that is not here with us this day Deut. 29.11 13 14 15. who are they that are hereby meant their Posterity unto whom this covenant did alike belong there was a foundation laid for them to come into this covenant as soon as they should be born into the world Ipsos Deus anteverterat gratiâ suâ multis antequam nati essent seculis Calvin Meaning thereby their Posterity in all succeeding generations and therefore Eezek 16.18 I entred into covenant with thee and thou becamest mine and then vers 20. Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me and hast sacrificed them to be devoured c. this is only spoken in reference to the covenant so they were children born unto God and so the Lord was their God Neither was this dispensation of the covenant of grace to the Jews only but also unto the Gentiles for Rom. 11. they were grafted in to be the seed of Abraham by vertue of the covenant of Abraham for he was the father of us all now as the natural branches were broken off so were the others grafted in but the Jews were broken off themselves and their Posterity disinherited for many generations therefore the Gentiles are grafted in they and their posterity and thence Act. 2.39 The promise is to you and your children and unto them that are afar off Ephes 2.17 i. e. the Gentiles also and their children the promise belongs to them whomsoever the Lord shall call it 's for themselves and for their seed after them Zacheus a Publican being converted Luk. 19.9 Christ tells him salvation is come to his house where by salvation coming to his house cannot be meant unto himself or his person but that his whole Family is taken into covenant with God thereby and the reason of it is given because that he himself is a son of Abraham that is he is brought under Abraham's Covenant the tenure of which Covenant is not only to a mans self but also unto his family and his seed Act. 16.31 c. and so Paul to the Jaylour Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine house the meaning is not that all of them should be saved eternally as if one man could be saved by another mans faith but salvation is commonly put for the ordinary means of salvation Acts 28.28 Now this Covenant-way is the only ordinary means of salvation Heb. 2.3 and when the Jews shall be taken in in the latter days of the world though it 's said that the Lord will make a new Covenant with them in those days yet it s but the old Covenant renewed they shall be taken into the Covenant of their fathers for so Rom. 11.24 the natural branches that were cut off shall be grafted in again to their own Olive-tree as they were cast off Parents and children disinherited so shall their grafting in again be so that 't is a part of the Gospel and a gâ—orious doctrine of the covenant of grace that children are taken into the same Covenant with their Parents and there is never a Covenant made with the Parents in the Scripture but the children are expressely mention'd as coming under it and therefore our faith is to receive it and rely upon it 2. The People of God have believed it and exercised their faith upon it and that both Parents for their Children and the Children for themselves 1 Parents for their Children it was this that Adam did rejoyce in immediately after the revelation of the second Covenant in behalf of himself and his Posterity when he Gen. 3.20 called his wifes name Evah Gen. 3.20 because she was the mother of all living and this is conceived by Interpreters to have a threefold respect 1 As an Expression of his own Faith in the Promise to shew that the woman that should have brought Death into the world and was first in the transgression and should have been the mother of none but dead children now he saith That she should be the mother of all the living the Covenant of grace and life beginning in her for life and immortality never saw light till the Gospel 2 An expression of thankfulness for so great a mercy that he might keep the mercy in memory and that was the ancient manner to give names sometimes to places Jacob call'd the place Bethel the house of God as the Altar Jehovah Nissi c. and sometimes the Monument of his mercy preserved in a child Samuel one asked of God and here Adam continues the memory of his mercy in the name of his wife it 's spoken by way of gratitude Merc. ut vel ipso nomine beneficium tantum agnosceret Merc. The Name is a Memorial of the Mercy 3 An expression of consolation the woman being first in the transgression was much affected with the displeasure of God from which they fled and of the misery that she had brought upon her self and all her Posterity if the Lord should prolong her days that they should labour in the sweat of their brows till they were turn'd to the earth c. Adam now comforts her and tells her Be of good cheer there is a seed yet that shall come from thee that shall overcome death and him that had the power of death that is the Devil and therefore he doth not call himself the Father of all living but her the Mother of all living and thus Adam did comfort himself with the Promise made unto his Posterity in the Covenant as soon as it was revealed And so did Evah exercise faith this way first in Cain as some conceive Gen. 4.1 Gen. 4.1 she said I have gotten a man from the Lord the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Vulgar answerable per Dominum by the Lord Trem. adds Ã
they have no interest in it in respect of the spiritual priviledges and saving Graces of the same Covenant 3. There 's a two-fold Faith that the Scripture speaks of there is true and saving justifying faith which is call'd the Faith of Gods Elect and there is a temporary faith or a faith which is in profession only Math. 13. Heb. 6.4 Act. 8. and not in truth as we see in the stony ground and the temporary Believers and in Simon Magus and as it 's true saving faith that doth give a man an interest in the graces of the Covenant and makes a man Abrahams seed in reference unto grace so there is a visible faith a profession only that which only men are able to judge of to whom the power of the Keys for the dispensing of Ordinances are committed and this gives a man a title to the visible and external Priviledges of the Covenant in for◠Ecclesiae as we see Simon Magus profession of Faith was ground enough for the Apostles to administer Baptism unto him the Seal of the Covenant though afterwards he did quickly manifest that he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Though therefore the Gentiles can never claim Abrahams Covenant as his seed according to the flesh nor many of them a spiritual right as not having the saving faith of Abraham yet they may claim relation to Abraham as an Ecclesiastical father and from a profession of the faith of Abraham may claim a true and a real interest in the external priviledges of Abrahams Covenant though they cannot pretend to his saving Graces and spiritual priviledges having never had any experience of a work of Conversion and Regeneration Quest 8 § 8. Why will the Lord have the Covenant run by way of entail in reference to the outward Priviledges of it and not in reference to the inward Graces of it The Covenant that was made with Adam was to convey the one as well as the other and the image that he had received he was to convey to his Posterity and the promise of Life spiritual and Life eternal was made unto his Posterity in case of their Obedience as well as unto himself and therefore as all dyed in him so all should have lived in him Nos omnes in Adam◠peccavimus in eo sententiam damnationis accepimus omnes Bern. S. 1. de Advent So that by the first Covenant Adam might have conveyed not only outward Priviledges but inward Graces also and whereas now by reason of the fall all Mankind do convey death to their Children Tertul. but not life and so they are become non tà m parentes quà m peremptores not so much parents as destroyers therefore seeing that the first Covenant is broken why doth not the Lord only take the Elect into Covenant and extend the Covenant of Grace unto none else and so make it with particular persons as the Covenant of the Angels did run or if he will make it to descend from Father to Son why doth he not convey the Graces of the Covenant from Parents to Posterity as well as the outward priviledges of the Covenant Why does not the Covenant run for all the Benefits of it as well as for some only the internals of the Covenant as well as the externals Answ 1. The Lord will not have the Graces of the Covenant entail'd from Parents unto Posterity 1 Because the Curse of the first Covenant is now become ex traduce by propagation and all the Posterity of Adam do now as naturally convey the Curse by reason of their broken Covenant as Adam should have conveyed life and blessing if he had stood in his integrity and therefore whatever the immediate Parents be Adams sin comes alike upon all whether they be godly or wicked and the child of a godly Parent is as truly and as deeply guilty of the sin of Adam in his birth as the child of the most wicked man that is that is an entail left upon all mankind that can never be cut off while there is a man born upon earth Rom. 5.12 for in Adam all dye because in him all sinn'd and therefore the children of godly Parents as well as others are born the children of wrath Gregor so that Timothy though there was faith unfeigned that dwelt in his Grandmother and his Mother yet he himself must be converted by the ministry of Paul or else he had no benefit by the faith of his Ancestors Rom. 3.29 and thence the Apostle saith We look upon the Jews as a people holy unto the Lord and the only visible Church upon earth and the Gentiles as strangers unto God who follow'd dumb Idols as they were led and yet in reference to their natural condition the Apostle says there is no difference for all men have sinn'd and come short of the glory of God and therefore all in their births are alike corrupted with the sin of Adam that being imputed but the personal sins of their Parents are not imputed unto them and therefore they are said Joh. 1.13 to be born not of blood that is Joh. 1.13 not by a fleshly generation so some or else as Calvin it is bloods ut longam generis successionem melius exprimeret though Grace has continued long in that line and has as it were run in a blood and comes upon a man by succession as it were for many generations as it was with Timothy c. nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man Idem significat c. If the parents be godly and they never so earnestly desire that their children might be godly also as it was Abrahams desire for Ismael that he might live in Gods sight it was spoken of living before God as in Covenant with him as it appears by the answer that the Lord returns unto him but yet for all that his desire is not granted as concerning him though he saith I will make of Ismael a great nation and many nations shall come from him yet in Isaac shall thy covenant-seed be called and with him will I establish my Covenant c. therefore the Covenant in respect of the grace of it can never be entailed upon posterity because every man begets a son in the likeness of the first Adam as he himself did immediately after his fall Gen. 5.3 and thereby conveyed the image that by sin he had brought upon himself and his posterity 2 Because under the second Covenant it 's the Election of God that takes place and puts all the difference between men and men between whom in themselves there is no difference It 's true that it 's a great dispute Whether the Lord in Election did consider man in massa pura or corrupta and I conceive it was an act of Soveraignty and therefore God respected ma◠in massa pura as a creature and not in massa corrupta as a sinner as the potter hath power over the clay of
God It was not enough for Jeroboam to say Ye shall worship the God of Israel but it shall be under the resemblance of a Calf and ye shall have the Ordinances of God every way as glorious and as rational at Dan and Bethel as ever you had at Jerusalem what can you desire more there is nothing for matter of worship to be had at Jerusalem but it may also be had here For every thing done in the service of God must not be ex arbitrio Tertullian sed ex imperio and if the reason of man in this perswade him and interpose whatever is set up so is an image of jealousie and will-worship as the Apostle speaks Ezech. 8.3 Jer. 17.31 Col. 2. and that which the Lord will one day return upon you and say Who hath required these things at your hands it's that which I never spake it never came into my mouth nor entred into my heart so far we are from setting up reason or the wisdom of men to have any place in the worship of God and to infer because this is rational therefore it shall be accepted For I know that as the power of Ordinances so the fruit and the acceptation of them come from the institution only and as it 's sinful in the things that God has commanded to dispute his commands in matters of obedience and to examine them by the rule of reason and bring them unto that Bar so it 's also to impose any thing upon God in matters of worship that he has not commanded It 's said Hos 11.14 Israel hath forgotten his Maker and builded Temples Hos 11.14 a man would think surely he that builds Temples has God much in his mind but he that doth build many Temples when the Lord had appointed but one this is to forget God under a pretence of worshipping of God and in vers 11. 't is said Ephraim hath made him Altars to sin and Altars shall be unto him to sin they had multiplied Altars beyond the institution of God therefore that was their great sin as Drusius expounds it or else this was the sin that God did give them up in judgment unto till they had destroyed themselves for vain man would be wise and he loves to shew his wisdom in nothing more than in imposing in the worship of God and this is so far from bringing God near to the soul Ezech. 8. that it 's an image of jealousie that does provoke him to go far from him 3. As for Institutions meerly typical it 's not safe arguing from them that there must be in the externals of Worship something answerable to them in the Ordinances of the New Testament and it will be no good argument to say It was so under the Law therefore by way of Analogy and proportion it must be so under the Gospel and the reason is because they were shadows of good things to come and therefore when the substance came Heb. 10.1 the shadows were to vanish for Joh. 1.17 the truth of all those legal Types and all those shadows came by Christ as well as the grace of them and therefore when he came they were all done away and of this kind are all the fore-mentioned instances the legal holiness upon the people and land was typical in the Priests and high Priests and their ornaments and vestures typical and their Temple a type and their Altar a type all fulfilled in Christ and so abolished he having taken down the partition-wall and taken the hand-writing that consisted in Ordinances out of the way by nailing it unto his Cross Col. 2. of all these Types we may lawfully argue that there remains something spiritual in the days of the Gospel there is a spiritual Temple and there is a great High Priest and there are inferiour Priests that are made Kings and Priests unto God and we have an Altar of which they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle Heb. 13.10 we have even under the Gospel a Circumcision without hands putting away the body of the sins of the flesh the inward workings of the Spirit of Christ circumcising our hearts and we have a spiritual Passover also for Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us The Apostle has a distinction Col. 2.11 Heb. 9.23 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 figures and shadows of the true and there are shadows of heavenly things themselves the one remains when the other are done away therefore it is confessed that arguments drawn from typical institutions are not valid so far as that there must something remain to answer them in the days of the Gospel they may justly be denied and rejected because they were shadows of spiritual and heavenly things and nothing external was to come in the place of them But I suppose no man will say that Circumcision was a type of Baptism nor the Passover a type of the Lords Supper they are all of them seals of the same Covenant under different administrations and therefore there may arguments be drawn from these in reference unto the externals of worship which cannot be from the other they being shadows only of heavenly things and spiritual under the Gospel 4. Though no institution of the Old Testament can be the ground of any institution of the New but barely the will of the Law-giver yet in many things the institutions of the Old Testament may give rules and in several particulars afford arguments to regulate those of the New As though I do not say that the Jewish Sabbath was institutive of the Lords day as some do and that it was no new institution but remained by virtue of the fourth Commandment and though the day be changed yet it hath the same institution still yet I suppose that many arguments may be drawn from the Jewish observations as directions for the Christian Sabbath as 1 The Jews in their Sabbath did consecrate to God the whole seventh day that is a natural day consisting of 24 hours and therefore were derided by the Heathen in losing the seventh part of their lives so it 's the duty of Christians to give the same time unto God as great a proportion in their Sabbath as the Jews did 2 The Jews in their Sabbath were to do no servile work only our Lord Christ lets them see that works of piety and of charity and necessity might be done upon that day and so are the Christians to celebrate their Sabbath also by doing no servile work 3 The Jews were not only to take care of the observation of the Sabbath themselves Nehem. 13.19 but also that all that were under their charge the Magistrate in his place as Nehemiah did give forth a commandment he did set his servants to observe that it was done and he did threaten even the strangers that if they did not reform he would lay hands on them which he would surely have done had the sin been continued in
to perform the promise is Gods part and to press God with his promise is our part I will do it for you says tne Lord yet I will be inquired of by you that I may do it for you ask and you shall receive knock and it shall be opened and there is no way that ever any creature could attain any thing of God but this way Upon this very ground Christ himself if he will attain from God he must ask and so 't is with the Angels and so 't is with the Saints in Heaven Dan. 4.17 they cry How long Lord How much more is it to be with dust and ashes 3. That the Lord may honour his own Ordinance and testifie how much he doth delight in the worship of a creature and that thereby he might make it a double mercy For ungodly men to receive blessings as a fruit of Providence unto them it comes always single that is in the thing only but unto a godly man that has it as a fruit of the promise it 's always a double mercy mercy in the thing and mercy to the man not only an accomplishment of Gods promises but the return of the mans prayers the exercise of Gods faithfulness unto us and of our graces towards God and there are no mercies so sweet as those that come in with the exercise of grace in the attaining of them Deum orationibus ambiamus coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus as Tertullian says of the power of the Saints prayers because of his delight in the exercise of their graces And there is no duty wherein the graces of the Saints do act with more life and power than they do in prayer there is magna conjunctio a great concurrence of grace in them as we see it in Abraham in his prayer what strong acts of grace he puts forth Gen. 18. The nearer the soul draws to God the fountain of its life the more lively it works and moves the swifter the nearer the centre and there is no duty in which the soul draws nearer to God than it doth in prayer and hath more immediate communion with him than when he is upon his knees before the Throne of grace 4. And lastly the way to attain promises is a patient waiting for them till the Lords time come for it 's true of promises as it is of prophecies though the vision be for an appointed time Hab. 2.3 yet wait for it for it will come and will not tarry It 's a speech like unto that in Luk. 18.7 8. though he bear long with them yet he will avenge them speedily it may tarry long in respect of the time prefixed by us and may seem long to us but it shall not be long when the time comes that is appointed by God The Lord commonly does in the answering of prayers as he does in the fulfilling of Prophecies it 's a great while before the Prophecy seems to speak or to give any hope of its accomplishment as it was in the deliverance out of Egypt and Babylon but yet when once it begins but to dawn its day immediately in a manner it strangely and suddenly breaks forth that the Saints of God can scarce believe their own eyes they are like unto them that dream And so it is in the return of their prayers also as in the calling of the Jews they are as dry bones and they are scattered here and there all the world over but the bones shall come together and it shall be so suddenly done that the Lord saith A Nation shall be born at once and before Sion travelled she brought forth and so it is in the answer of Prayers as it was with Elijah he prayed seven times and his servant looked and there was nothing and yet he continued praying at last there appeared a Cloud like unto a mans hand and by and by the Heavens were covered over with Clouds and then the rain fell when it begins once to appear that the Clouds do break away a little the Lord doth strangely hasten the work and there is a glorious concurrence and falling in of all causes to its accomplishment there is a time of the Promise's accomplishment Acts 7 1◠and a great part of the Mercy is in the season of it the Lord doth not delay because he is unwilling to bestow it or because the Mercy comes hardly off for he knows that to our hasty Nature bis dat qui citò but the Lord doth defer it that he may improve the Mercy by the season of it for Gods time is best and not ours my time is not yet come though your time be alwayes ready all Christs Miracles were so much the more glorious by the seasons of their putting forth and so are Gods Mercies also the more magnified in coming to us in the fittest time he does wait to be gracious that is that he may bestow the Mercy when we are fittest to receive it and our hearts are best prepared for it As in judgement to a wicked man the Lord does watch over him for evil and he shall be ensnared in an evil time as a Bird in an evil snare judgement shall come upon him when he least expects it and is least prepared for it he shall be cut off as the foam upon the waters Hos 10.7 sicut aquae superiores ferventis ollae Jerome for the word spuma doth signifie a bubble that does arise from heat c. when they are swelled up and hold up their heads on high and be lifted up above the rest of the waters then they shall suddenly be cut off As I say there is a time for judgment that Justice doth watch over men for evil so there is also a time for Mercy that Grace does watch over men for good there is a time for the Promise to bring forth as well as the threatning and therefore it 's said That by Faith and Patience the Saints have inherited the Promises and there is as well a Patience in waiting as in Suffering Zeph. 2.1 2. let Patience have its perfect work in you in this respect also that you may be intire and perfect wanting nothing Hebr. 10.36 But the Soul will be ready to say I could be willing to wait Gods time if I could be sure to attain the Promise at the last but what grounds are there to support and underprop my heart that I shall receive the Promise and not miss of it in the end Now the grounds to assure the Soul thereof are these 1. The faithfulness of God the Promises are therefore confirmed by an Oath Heb. 6.17 that by two immutable things wherein it 's impossible for God to lye we might have strong Consolation Quid est Dei juratio nisi promissi confirmatio Aust. infidelium quaedam increpatio An Oath amongst Men puts an end to Controversie much more should the Oath of God put an end to all Controversie and Disputes in the Soul and
might cause his power to be acknowledged 2. God hath made over his attributes to his people that they may take from them all grounds of faith with an assurance that they shall be all exercised for them according unto their necessities Psal 13.5 so the Mercy of God I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation Here is mercy the object of faith and an assurance that this attribute shall shew forth it self in a work of salvation and deliverance for him I have trusted in the mercy of God for the bringing me out of this and another affliction and I have been delivered Psal 52.8 therefore I will always exalt the mercy of God So for the Power of God the soul can argue from thence Dan. 3. when men threaten and Devils rage and the fiery furnace may be heated seven times hotter to consume the soul that has no help amongst creatures yet says Daniel and the three Children the God whom we serve is able to deliver us And the Lord encourages the soul from the assurance of his power Is my arm shortned that I cannot save is any thing too hard for the Lord is there any restraint to omnipotence And so also Christ puts them upon it in this With man it 's impossible but with God all things are possible it 's spoken in reference to a work of Sanctification when the Disciples said Who then can be saved Esay 26.4 Esay 27.5 So for the Eternity of God Trust in the Lord for ever for the Lord Jehovah is a Rock of Ages and so men are said to take hold of the strength of God And so of the Holiness of God I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David and therefore Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life And so Abraham believed God was able to raise him up again from the dead if it might stand with his glory he did not question his will but that his power should be put forth for the accomplishment of his promise We know that the ultimate object of faith is God through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 our faith and hope is in God now the highest object of faith in God is the attributes of God that he has discovered for we can believe in him no otherwise than we know him and as he has revealed himself and the way of Gods revealing himself unto his people in this life is only by his back parts which are his attributes and therefore this is the way of the acting of faith in this life and all the promises of God and the precepts and the threatnings of God are all of them founded on his attributes and in these doth the strength and stability of them lye because the Lord Jehovah is a rock of ages As it is in ends all intermediate ends work in the strength and the power of the utmost end so it is in objects also Objectum mediatum fidei movet in virtute objecti ultimati ab eo perfectionem accipit The mediate object of faith moves in the virtue of the ultimate object and receives perfection from it Eph. 4.18.23.24 3. That from these the soul may receive all principles of grace grace is called the Life of God and the Divine Nature the Image of God created in the soul it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according unto God Now in an image there are two things required 1 Proportion or similitude and resemblance 2 There is a deduction or a derivation it must be taken from it As there is a resemblance of the nature of God so there is a derivation of it from God Now though the incommunicable attributes of God are so called because there are in the creatures no footsteps or resemblances yet there are of the attributes that are communicable from them the image of God is derived unto us and we are made partakers of his holiness holy as he is holy Heb. 12.10 Jam. 1.5 and merciful as he is merciful and wise as he is wise If any man want wisdom let him ask it of God as all of them shall be employed for man without him so all of them shall work in man an image or a resemblance of himself within him that a man beholding the glory of the Lord is transformed thereby into the same image And this is to be made the rule to judge the measure of our graces by for primum est mensura reliquorum c. The first is the measure of the rest in that kind So far as they do come short of bearing a resemblance with the communicable attributes of God I say of bearing a resemblance for they are in God by nature but in us by grace and by new creation they are nature in him they are not so in us so far we are to bewail the defects of our graces and so far grace is the image of God in us but in part a good work begun and no more and it is a discovery of his attributes which are the original pattern that doth perfect his image in us which is but the counterpane and therefore we shall be perfectly like him when we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 4. God hath in Covenant made over his Attributes that from these the soul may take all rules of duty and as the highest objects of faith are in God so from him are the highest rules of duty and therefore Eph. 5.1 the exhortation is Be ye imitators of God 1 Pet. 1.15 and be you holy in all manner of conversation because he is holy and so from the Soveraignty of God it 's the ordinary argument thou shalt do thus and thus for I am Jehovah thy God And David takes his rule from this in the preparation he made for the Temple the house must be exceeding magnificent and therefore all his preparation though the wealth of a Kingdom was but an act of his poverty for it is for the Lord who is a great God and dwells not in Temples made with hands c. And it 's the argument that he himself useth as the rule unto them in their performances Mal. 1.13 I am a great King and my name is dreadful amongst the Heathen As the soul is never rightly bottomed upon a promise till it is carried out into that attribute upon which the promise doth depend so the soul is never grounded in duty till it looks beyond the precept and sees the attributes in God which are the foundation of the duty and this is properly to walk worthy of God Col. 1.10 That ye may walk worthy c. It doth not note exactam proportionem Daven sed quandam decentiam convenientiam not an exact proportion but a certain decence and convenience when a mans duties are done by rules taken from so great a God and proportionable unto the nature holiness and excellency of that God God is a Spirit
is not a God of confusion he loves to have every thing done distinctly he cannot delight in a general confession of sin because generals do not affect nor afflict neither can he take pleasure in a general thanksgiving and blessing of his Name but he delights to be honoured by distinct apprehensions in the soul and as it brings the greatest honour unto God so it will surely bring the sweetest consolation unto the creature Eph. 4.24 4 Get a resemblance of every Attribute stampt upon thy heart There is a double image that we read of that of God after which we were created and that of Christ according to which we are renewed Rom. 8.29 Now as we must get an impression of all the graces that be in Christ receiving of his fulness grace for grace that we may be conformable to the image of Christ so we must also of all the Attributes of God that we may be made conformable to the image of God there is something in grace that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make us God-like as Nazian And he that is a Christian saith Ignatius is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man that carries God with him wheresoever he goes he has an image of the Omnipotency of God and may say I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me and also of the Eternity of God he doth all things upon eternal principles and unto eternal ends and of the Immutability of God his heart is established and will not shrink he is not changed with evâ—ry wind but he is steddy in his course as the Sun going forth in its strength 1 This is the only ground of assurance that thou hast an interest in that attribute for if it work no resemblance of its self in thee 2 Cor. 3. ult it is none of thine For beholding would transform thee into the same image if thou wouldst know whether thou hast an interest in any of the graces of Christ look into thy own heart and on the prayer of Christ in Heaven look into the workings of thy own heart and see if there be any resemblance between Christ and thee and then thou maist conclude it so it 's here also if thou hast an interest in any Attribute there is a resemblance wrought in thee 2 This will give thee a ground of assurance that it shall be put forth for thee or else it will be exercised against thee he that shews mercy shall attain mercy and on the contrary he shall have judgment without mercy that shews no mercy and therefore it 's of great concernment to the Saints that they may have in themselves an image and resemblance of every Attribute for though their portion lye not in that but in God yet in that is a great ground of their assurance that it 's theirs and shall be acted for them in its season CHAP. III. The Beatific Vision of Gods Essence explicated and applied SECT I. What the Saints Happiness in the Vision of God is § 1. WE now come to the second particular in this great Promise and that is The Lord doth hereby make over his Essence to his people In the Essence of God there are two things which the Lord himself distinguishes his face and back parts Exod. 33.23 Similitudo ab hominibus sumpta quos non agnoscimus nisi ex parte Calvin si aliò conversa sit eorum facies c. The similitude is taken from men whom we know not but in part if they turn their face from us It notes to us that weak and imperfect knowledge that we have of God or can have in this life which is but as if a man should see a mans back and no more whereas ex oris vultûs intuitu perspicua est cognitio The perfect knowledge we have of a man is by his face only so here the one of these is agreeable unto the state in this life and that is in the attributes and the other is agreeable unto the state of the life to come for here we do behold God non sicuti est sed sicuti vult Bernard not as he is but as he wills In the opening hereof there are these particulars to be spoken to 1 That all the happiness that the Saints shall have for ever is nothing else but a fruit of the promise which they have here a right unto 2 That their portion lyes in the very Essence of God 3 The manner how this becomes happiness unto them and that is by way of Vision 4 The nature of this Vision as it conduces unto happiness is to be opened also and how the creature can be said to see God in his Essence or as he is 1. All the happiness that the Saints shall have in Glory for ever is nothing else but that which is in the promises here made over to them Godliness has the promise of the life that now is 1 Tim. 4.8 and that which is to come and therefore the life to come and all the glory and happiness of it is in nothing else but a fruit of the promise Heb. 6.12 and so the Saints are said through faith and patience to inherit the promises and therefore eternal life is said to be promised before the world began so that eternal life is but a fruit of the promise Tit. 1.2 and Heaven is but a promised inheritance though it 's true that refers unto a promise made unto Christ and not unto us for a purpose there might be concerning us before we were but a promise doth suppose the partie to whom it is made subsisting This promise therefore was made unto Christ as representing our persons as standing in our stead as being our surety one that received a Covenant and a promise for us and therefore Heaven is a Kingdom which he has promised unto them that love him Jam. 2.5 and so Chap. 1.12 and this is the promise that the Lord has shewed us even eternal life 1 Joh. 2.25 Hence there is a double distinction that is commonly used by our Divines 1. That the Saints have a double right to Heaven There is 1 Jus ad rem a right to the thing as an Heir has to his Land in his nonage which as yet he enjoys not because he is not meet for it he is not able to manage it and therefore is under Tutors and under Guardians till the time appointed by the Father and so it is with the Saints till they be made meet Col. 1.12 2 There is jus in re when a man has a right to it as being in possession of it It 's true that we have not so a right to Heaven because we look on it but by an eye of faith 2 Cor. 5.7 and we rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. and it is by faith that we walk and not by sight and that argues that we have not the thing in possession but in expectation only but when we
it can rest in thee as Austin The happiness of the blessed God consists in himself and in the perfect vision and fruition of that blessedness consists our blessedness also § 3. But what is the manner how the Lord becomes the happiness of his people in his Essence That is by way of vision We shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 We shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 1 To this end the Lord will discover himself unto them as he is and he will shew unto the Saints his face then as now he doth his back parts while they live here he dwells in light inaccessible that no man doth or can see but he will make himself visible then to compleat their happiness and that not only to the eyes of the mind though it shall be chiefly there Job 19.26 and therefore glory is not only radicaliter in corde but redundanter in corpore but yet he will discover himself unto their bodily eyes also as in my flesh I shall see God 2 There shall be a glorious light by which the soul shall not only be enlightned as his eyes are by the light here in this life but it shall be elevated and enabled to see that which else it could never see as it 's in the light of grace here the pure in heart do see God Heb. 11.26 Psal 36.9 Mat. 5.8 and Moses saw him that was invisible c. The Psalmist says In thy light we shall see light There is a double light the Saints have there is a light of faith here and there is a light of glory that is reserved for hereafter Lumen quo divinam essentiam tanquam objectum beatificum visione intuitivâ recipere posset Synop. purior Theolog. pag. 807. That light whereby the soul can by an intuitive vision receive the Divine Essence as a beatifick object Whether this shall be by a light immediately created of God or whether it shall be per naturam humanam Christi glorificatam veluti instrumentum Divinitatis conjunctum by the humane nature of Christ glorified as a conjunct instrument of the Deity we will not now inquire or dispute But 3 this vision of God though it shall be of his Essence yet not of it unto perfection for so it 's infinite and therefore cannot be perfectly understood or comprehended by a finite understanding as that of the creature must still be though it be glorified There shall be enough unto our perfection but we shall never be able to know God unto his perfection and therefore the School-men do affirm that though all the Saints for the substance of their happiness shall see God in his Essence as he is yet quoad mensuram ex sola Dei voluntate pendet ex arbitraria dispensatione as to the measure it depends wholly on the Divine Will and his arbitrary dispensation And this is the ground of the degrees of glory in Heaven that as there are different discoveries of good here which are the ground of the different degrees of grace here so it shall be in glory also § 4. Now follows the Nature and Properties of this Vision as it conduces unto the blessedness of the creature 1. Here we see God by Negatives only and speak of him rather as he is not than as he is viâ negationis by denying to him the imperfections of the creatures it 's one of the highest ways that we have here and therefore we say he is invisible incomprehensible and eternal c. that is he hath neither beginning of days nor end of life but we shall then see him in all those Positive excellencies that be in him and we shall come to the knowledge of him in that low way no more Joh. 3.12 2. Here we know God but by way of Resemblance and Metaphors taken from the creatures he doth speak to us heavenly things in an earthly manner he is said to be the Lord of Hosts a man of war and he is said to be a Rock a Fountain a Father an Husband and he is said to have a face and back parts to be the ancient of days to have a garment white as snow and the hair of his head as pure wool and his Throne as a fiery flame Dan. 7.9 And so we see him Discursively as we can gather something of God from these similitudes but we shall then see him Immediately and Intuitively as he is in himself and not through the glass of the creatures any more not by Ideas taken in by the weak and imperfect collections of our understanding but by the glorious pure and perfect representations of himself 3. They shall see God as their own and all the excellencies that are in him as their own portion It 's but a little the Saints do see here of God in this life a small portion is known of him but yet there is this difference between the sight of the Saints that they have of God here and other men as the Apostle says Col. 1.27 It has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to the Saints to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory They read it as they do the Scripture as their own evidence but other men they read over all the mysteries of godliness and Heaven as the evidences of other men and not as their own portion they cannot say as the Saints do Christus in Evangelio tuo meus est Christ in thy Gospel is my Christ as Tertullian to Marcion There is a great difference between a strangers looking upon the glory and excellencies that are in a man and of his wifes looking upon them the one looks upon them and admires them and is affected with them and will talk of the fine sight he has seen and there 's an end he lets the discourse fall again it 's not his concern to be thinking of it ay but his wife looks upon them with another eye as being hers and because she has an interest in his person she has a setled esteem of them and the thought of it is always her contentment So do the Saints look upon the fulness of Christ here with delight and so they behold the glory of God with satisfaction for their soul says unto the Lord Thou art my portion 4. They see themselves in God There is indeed much of God discovered in all the creatures and yet they are but only vestigia Dei the footsteps of God and yet the Saints delight to behold them because they see something of God in them and the more of God is discovered in any creature or any passage of providence the more their hearts are affected with it Psal 8. When I consider the heavens the works of thy hands it 's the speech of Christ he is much affected with the creatures and the sight of God in them but there
is more of God discovered in the meanest Saint than there is in the Sun Moon and Stars and in the most glorious creature Dan. 12. 't is said They shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their father the glory of the Sun is not to be compared unto them c. To see beauty is a great delight to the eye but much more for souls to see their own beauty to see the image of God in the Saints here is glorious and to see it in a mans self is more comfortable much more taking shall it be and more comfortable to see it hereafter when it shall be perfected 5. They shall see all things that concern themselves in God Adam had a Law written in his heart that was the guide of his way and the Saints have also in their hearts a rule as well as in the book but the Saints in Heaven have no other book but God Beati in Deo vident omnes actiones circumstantias ad se pertinentes The blessed see in God all actions and circumstances that belong unto them This is the book in which they shall read lectures in his face for ever the Dectatis speculum the glass of the Deity as their happiness shall be wholly in God for God shall be all in all so their direction shall come from him immediately and so shall their consolation and their acceptation they shall see that God is pleased with them for ever whatsoever they put their hands to and they shall be no more in doubt of the rule and go with their way hid no more as many of the Saints here walk uncomfortably because sometimes their duty is hidden from them the rule in some particular cases is dark to them and they droop many times because they know not what to do though their eyes be lifted up yet be of good chear poor soul it shall be otherwise when thou comest to enjoy this vision of God in glory 6. It shall be a vision that shall be everlasting we shall behold his face for ever here in this life in our greatest discoveries of God there is an interruption a veil that is drawn between us and our God and though now we are sometimes in the light by and by we walk in darkness again but in Heaven the discovery shall be perpetual we shall see his face so that he will never hide his face from us more we shall never lose the sight of God unto eternity God will never withdraw himself from us for he doth embrace you with everlasting mercy and sin shall never interpose or cause an Eclipse This is the extent of this glorious Vision which shall never be accomplished till thou come to glory here we are to have it in our eye continually and to exercise faith about it O walk in the hope of it for here is the happiness of the Saints and if the Attributes of God that are discovered to them and made over to them be not sufficient to make them happy yet surely there is enough in the very Essence of God himself know he is thy God in Covenant quantus quantus est and if there be enough in him to make himself happy surely there is enough to make thee happy also and therefore blessed is the soul whose God is Jehovah SECT II. Questions touching the Beatifick Vision resolved § 1. FOR the further opening of this point it being of highest concernment as that wherein the perfection of our blessedness lyes there are several Questions to be resolved 1 Why the happiness of the creature must consist in vision 2 Whether this vision can attain to the Essence of God to see God as he is in himself or no 3 Whether it be only an intellectual vision or corporal with the bodily eyes also 4 What is the happiness that doth follow upon this vision that we may see how this vision doth conduce to the blessedness of the creature Quest 1 It 's true that the happiness of the creature lyes in God who is the chief good but why should it consist in the Vision of God Answ 1. Our eternal happiness doth consist in vision because this is the way by which God doth dispense all things unto us it being the only way that is agreeable to the rational nature for as the Lord doth expect that all that comes from us should be reasonable service modo naturae rationali proportionato proportionate to our nature so all that he doth communicate unto us he doth it in a rational way this is the way of nature and this is the way of grace and therefore the Lord will make it to be the way of conveying all things to us in glory 1 This is the way of Nature the will of man is appetitus rationalis a rational appetite and therefore it can receive nothing unless there be a Dictamen of the understanding that goes before and answerable to the Dictamen such is the choice and election of the will and hence come such various impressions upon the will sometimes there is a good inclination and a good purpose or resolution the man is almost perswaded and by and by the will is off again because the understanding represents things otherwise not holding on in its former light and when there is in the understanding an ultimum dictamen a last dictamen then doth the will firmly and constantly close and therefore sin came in that way Satan knew that there was no corrupting of the will but by the understanding for an immediate access to the will there was not therefore the woman was deceived and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lyes in the understanding properly This is the way of nature there must be a light in the understanding and that brings resolution and election and all things into the will and acts it 2 This is the way of Grace also the Lord when he will change the will doth it first by a spiritual illumination of the understanding and from thence there doth by the power of grace come an effectual determination of the will to embrace that ultimum dictamen last dictate of the enlightned understanding and that makes a free and chearful choice of that supernatural good which is to the understanding by a spiritual and heavenly light discovered and clearly apprehended thereby there is a teaching that goes with the drawing of the Father Joh. 6.44 And so it is for all growth and increase of grace also for grace is improved in the same manner as it is at first created men grow in grace as they grow in knowledge 2 Pet. 3.18 as the Lord will enlarge the affections so he doth first raise the apprehensions of the man 3 Glory being in some respects but the perfection of the same grace for Divines commonly say that grace and glory differ but in degrees therefore the way that the Lord took in the one he doth take the same in the other also as he sanctifies the man modo
inaccessible whom no man has seen or can see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there shall be a vision of God that 's plain for we shall see him face to face therefore it 's spoken of bodily eyes when he says No man can see thee they can see him with the eyes of the mind but they cannot with the eyes of the body and 2 it will appear by reason drawn from the nature of a body for the body though it shall be made spiritual yet it shall not be made a spirit that is it shall not lose the essential properties of a body Now nothing can be seen with bodily eyes but bodily objects but God is a Spirit and therefore invisible Col. 1.15 i. e. in reference unto bodily vision c. The School-men indeed speak of the elevation of bodily subjects to work upon Spirits and so here they speak of the elevation of bodily eyes to behold a spiritual object but these are but the empty conceits of men for the body shall retain even in glory its essential properties and shall have a happiness suitable and proportionable unto them in objects fitted to the bodily senses for beatitude though it be radicaliter in corde yet it 's redundanter in corpore c. and this shall be either per lumen gloriae as in thy light we shall see light or else in natura Christi glorificata veluti Divinitatis conjunctum instrumentum And so is that to be understood Job 6.19 26. I shall see my Redeemer with these eyes And 1 Joh. 3.3 When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is it shall be in the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ but yet this cannot be a corporeal but it must in the essence of blessedness be an intellectual vision 2 Cor. 3. ult Rev. 22.4 2. That there is an intellectual Vision of God will appear three ways 1 By the visions of God that the Saints have here by an eye of faith they shall see his face Num. 12.8 The similitude of God shall he behold it 's a speech of visio mystica the mystick vision that the Saints have in the life that now is by discoveries made unto the eye of their faith for God hath given them new understandings Joh. 1.20 to this end that they may be able to know him that 's true and if there be discoveries of God and his glory unto the understanding of the Saints here how much more in glory in the inheritance of the Saints in light 2 It will be made appear by the Angels says our Saviour They do behold the face of your Father which is in heaven Mat. 18.10 and they are Spirits and have no bodies and yet in all their imployments about the creatures for Christ doth in the Oeconomical Kingdom govern all things by these the spirit of the living creatures is in the wheels they never lose the vision of God they carry their Heaven with them wheresoever they go though they are not always resident in loco beatorum as the Devils do carry their Hell about with them though they are not always in the place of the damned Now we shall be in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels and shall have like discoveries of God as the Angels have but theirs are to their understanding so discoveries of God will be according to ours also 3 It will appear in the souls of just men made perfect before the Resurrection they have the vision of God that 's plain because their souls are made perfect now nothing perfects the soul but the beatifical vision because nothing renders it impeccable but this and finis ultimus perficit agentem actionem the last end perfects the action and Agent therefore there is an intellectual vision of God in which the substance or the essence of happiness doth consist Quest 3 § 3. But can there be an intellectual Vision of Gods Essence Can the understanding of man immediately see the Essence of God or be made happy thereby Answ 1. There must be a vision of the Essence of God for 1 the promise is 1 Cor. 13.12 That we shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 and we shall know even as we are known The opposition is between the knowledge that now we have of God and what we shall have hereafter and they are compared in two things 1 in the manner of knowledge which shall not be the same now we see in a glass but then immediately we shall see without a glass but if we should see God per abstractam imaginem as Gomer hath a disputation of it in Joh. 1.17 part 1. pag. 328. though it were the purest glass more clear than crystal yet it were seeing in a glass still which is wholly denied we shall no more see in a glass but face to face 2 In the imperfection of our vision we now see darkly and the reason is from the manner of it because we see in a glass but then it shall be perfected because we shall see face to face so much is manifested to Moses thou shalt see my back parts the Attributes of God are discovered here in this life but there is the face of God discovered which must be something beyond what is called his back parts that shall be discovered to the soul which here he cannot see and live but hereafter he must see or he cannot live therefore there is a vision of the Divine Essence 2 It will appear by reason also the chief good of the creature is in God alone that which is called Beatitudo objectiva objective Beatitude which doth only satisfie and fill the heart of the Saints and it 's in the vision and fruition thereof that the soul rests Now any image of God or manifestation of God that is created cannot be our objective happiness for these are but creatures as the discoveries of God unto the soul by the Spirit in a way of Ordinances are therefore the soul can never rest in them can never look upon them as its happiness as the Saints receiving here the joy in the Holy Ghost they are exceedingly ravished with it it 's joy unspeakable Ego mihi visus sum tanquam unus ex illis beatis I seemed to my self as one of those blessed ones but yet the soul is not satisfied with it but when he sees Gods face he is satisfied with his likeness that discovery that there is of God in his own face but is never satisfied till then 2. Though we shall see God in his Essence yet we shall not see the Essence of God unto perfection There is a twofold knowledge 1 Apprehensionis of Apprehension when a man knows any thing truly 2 Comprehensionis of Comprehension when a man knows any thing perfectly secundùm modum cognoscibilitatis as it is knowable or to the utmost that it may be known Now the Essence of God being infinite cannot be
their own had not they neglected it by observing lying vanities it might have been truly their own whereas none of the things that they so observe could be for it is but this worlds goods if we are not faithful in that which is another mans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who shall give you that which is your own goods Now God may be a mans own but it cannot be said of any creature-comfort without God and therefore here is your folly to be observing these lying vanities and forsake your own mercies 4. God will set himself against all these things in which you do place your happiness apart from him and there is no such way to engage God against the choicest contentments as this is that thou shouldst place thy portion in them for thou makest that creature an Idol and the Lord will set himself against them in a special manner Esay 2.18 The Prophet Isaiah speaks of a Judgment that the Lord would bring against that people and the daughter of Sion should be left as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers and as a besieged city and what is that great inquisition that God makes at such a time it's only for the Idols and upon these he will suddenly stretch forth his hand the Idols he will utterly * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abolish he will utterly divide them or cut them in pieces The Lord said he would search Jerusalem with candles Zeph. 1.12 the meaning is that the Lord would make a diligent and a very exact search and therefore accensa lucerna quaerere is a Phrase for exactness in this kind and it notes not only things open that are discovered in the face of the Sun and may be seen by its light but the most secret things that are hid in the dark abstrusissima in tenebris latentia the Lord will in this manner search Jerusalem with candles and the great things that the Lord doth search for and discover are the Idols as appears in Ezech. 8. he doth shew the Prophet the things which are done in the dark in the chambers of their imagery and be sure if it become an Idol the Lord is engaged against it to destroy it for he will not give his glory to another nor his praise unto graven images 5. It 's a folly in this because there is no need of it for there is a sufficiency in Go◠you may be happy in him though you have nothing else for he is all-sufficient to himself and his happiness lies in himself he is God blessed for evermore and shall he not be sufficient unto thee He useth this as an argument to Abraham he will need no other Gen. 17.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 21.6 I am the All-sufficient God walk before me and be thou perfect He will need no other he shall inherit all things I will be his God If a man can be happy that has all things then surely he may be whose God is the Lord he is the happiness of the Angels and of Christ himself and of all the Saints after this life when all the comforts of the creatures shall be no more and therefore can you seek happiness in any other As I may reason it with you concerning Christ have not you need of a Saviour and is there salvation in any other has the Lord any more sons in his bosom to bestow and is there any defect in this Christ can you look for a better do you expect one that shall be able to save you more perfectly than he who is able to save you to the uttermost will you go away whither will you go if you depart from Christ So I say also concerning God as your happiness have you n◠need of happiness You are neither the fountain of your own being or well being can it be had in any other but in God who is Lord of all and is there any defect in him that he cannot make thee happy in himself as well as he has done the Lord Jesus Christ who says Psal 16. ult With thee is the fountain of life and in thy light we shall see light It 's a great folly for a man to go far and labour hard for that which may be had near home and at an easie rate it 's the folly that the Lord did reprove in Judah Esay 30. They went down to Egypt for help and they sent their Ambassadors and they were at Zonan and Hanes and they were at great cost they sent their gold and silver on the back of Asses and the bunches of Camels c. and they did trim their way turn themselves into every fashion and every shape abased themselves unto the dust and all to attain the favour of man whereas it might have been had from Gods protection at an easier rate for your strength or security is to sit still and rest upon the Lord for ever for he is a Rock of Ages so it is in point of provision as well as of protection we knock at every door of the creature and with great weariness and pains labour in the fire * Hab. 1.13 To labour in the fire is cùm operis nullus sit fructus c. sed igne statim ut confectum est absumpto and so by labouring in the creatures in this manner a man doth sustain duplicem jacturam a double loss 1 Operae 2 Materiae both of labour and matter a man doth lose the creatures and his labour about them also for the Lord of Hosts doth in judgment make them labour in the fire and weary themselves for very vanity whereas all might be had in God easily and at a far better rate surely Nimis avarus est cui non sufficit Deus He is too avaritious whom God doth not suffice 6. There will come a time when you will have need of God who did offer himself unto you to be your portion and you have refused him and then you can expect no other but as you have rejected him so he should also reject you Israel would none of me Psal 81. so I gave them up c. There will be a time when the chanels of all the creatures shall be stopped and your portion in them shall be no more but it shall be said Son remember that in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things they were given thee but they were only for thy life-time and in them thou didst place thy happiness and thy portion and therefore they are called thy good things for that which a man doth chuse to himself to place his happiness in that is his good things and then the soul must return to God that gave it and at this time will the Lord send thee unto those things wherein thou placedst thy happiness and thy portion Go now unto the Gods that you have chosen and let them deliver you When we come unto God in the day of our distress he will say Go to the
them all the good things that they enjoy below and all that communion which they enjoyed here with him where they see his back parts there they shall see his face for ever and therefore it 's beyond the hopes and the expectation of the Saints ◠Thess 1.10 He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe Now the ground of admiration is the over-plus of expectation they shall say as the Queen of Sheba did of Solomons glory We have heard of thee here below but the half was not told and this glory lies in God alone It 's true there is not the meanest reward but it is beyond the desert of the best of our services and it is meerly free grace that rewards them but if the Lord should give a man as he did Nebuchadnezzar Egypt for his hire Kingdoms and Nations as the reward of his services that he did in this life and yet say to him at the last day You have your reward you were herein for ever miserable 4. Thy portion in the creatures will fail thee for ever and deceive thee as a brook that passes by for all flesh is grass and the glory and the pride of it is but as the flower of the field and it will be said to thee In thy life-time thou hadst thy good things for as you brought nothing into this world so it 's certain that you can carry nothing out but the soul shall be stripped of whatever is dear to it here below for they are this worlds goods and given but as a viaticum in the way till a man come to his journies end and whether they be ad regnum or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad supplicium as Chrysost it 's all one they are not of any use in the life to come and therefore when all men have acted their parts here and are gathered into their own place then there shall be a general conflagration of the world when the earth and all the works of men shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3. for they are but for the present time of this life and they will afterwards be of no further use to a man for ever but hereafter God shall be all in all 1 Cor. 15.28 and God will work all things by himself immediately Here he doth comfort us by the creatures and rules us by Angels by Magistrates and Ministers but that shall not be in the life to come for he will work all himself immediately In this life we are to be taken up about God the knowledge of God and the love of God but we are busied with many things else cumbred about many things and we are to take care of the things of this life in our calling which interrupts our abiding with God but these imployments are but for the support of humane society in this present state that we might serve God and the good of Community but we shall be taken up with God and the things of God only in the life to come and with God immediately not God in the creatures as now we are In this life we take pleasure in many things besides God the works of God are sought out by his servants and we please our selves with the comforts that he has given us in our way for in this life God heaps variety of benefits upon us he loads us daily with his benefits but after this life there shall be but one great reward and a man shall go out unto creatures for nothing unto eternity there shall be a comfort in them but not out of necessity but variety all of them seeing God in themselves and in each other but if a mans portion be in any thing without God I tell thee thou must leave it behind thee Isa 50.11 when thou comest to lie down in the grave and so having kindled a fire you compass your self in your own sparks you shall lye down in sorrow All the comforts of an ungodly man in this life are compared to the light of a candle not only because they are maintained by creatures base matter here below but also because they will go out in the end for the longest candle will end in a snuff but now the light of the godly and their comfort being in God it shines as the Sun more and more unto the perfect day 5. It shall be unto you according to your desire you shall never have any part or portion in God for ever that which is thy sin shall be thy punishment as Christ made it to them that were invited they shall never taste of my supper so it shall be with you you will have no interest in God neither shall you have unto eternity depart from me you cursed cursed with eternal destruction from the presence of God and the glory of his power 2 Thess 1.9 and this is called utter darkness It 's true our Divines commonly say that the Torments of Hell are of two sorts 1 Poena damni something privative which is the loss of God and the happiness of the Saints 2 Poena sensus which is something positive a punishment inflicted by God immediately upon soul and body But it 's said commonly by Divines that it 's the first that is the greatest part of a mans torment and it 's that which makes Hell properly such which is demonstrated 1 from the meritorious cause of it which is sin There are in the Law two things 1 the precept 2 the prohibition Now the mind of the Law-giver was most in the precept and therefore the omission is a greater offence than the commission if they be apart considered now the punishment of loss is proportioned unto the omission of the precept as the punishment of sense is unto the commission of the sin 2 It will appear in this that the blessedness of the Saints in Heaven doth mainly consist in the vision of God that they shall see him face to face and in this is the happiness of the Angels and Saints yea of Christ himself Psal 16.1 therefore on the contrary doth the misery and damnation of the wicked lie that they shall be deprived of the vision of the face of God for ever Mille gehennae poenae at nihil est quale à gloria Dei excludi à Deo odio haberi c. Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil in oratione de extremo Judicio 6. He that has his portion in any thing below God and not in the Essence of God God will be ingaged against him for ever and his judgment shall flow from God immediately For either thou must have thy happiness in him immediately or else thy misery will come in immediately from him for ever for as after this life God will not govern by the creatures nor comfort by the creatures so neither will he afflict or punish by them but it shall be from his own immediate hand therefore the fire of Hell is not material fire as some
have fancied but it is Gods dispensing himself in wrath Heb 12. ult for our God is a consuming fire It 's disputed amongst the School-men Whether the Devils who were unto men incensores in culpa abettors in the sin shall be also tortores in poena c. tormentors in the punishment And it 's denied by some of them solidly upon these grounds 1 The Devils ministery shall last no longer than the time of the ministery of good Angels and that shall be but for the time of this life for Satan shall be the God of this world no more after this life and the good Angels shall be Principalities and Powers no more for all rule and all authority shall be put down whether good or evil and therefore what power soever Satan has over wicked men while they are here for he works effectually in them he shall have no power over them hereafter 2 The Devil himself being the greatest in sin shall be the deepest in torment for Hell is prepared chiefly for the Devil and his Angels Now who shall torment the Devils who can have power over them this must be by God immediately it must be done by his own hand Therefore man being appointed to partake with the Devil in the same torment and by the same fire look what it is that torments the Devil that also must be the torment of those that in a way of sinning have given themselves unto him 3 No creature can make a man perfectly miserable there is no creature that can deprive the soul of God and shut out all hope of mercy make it utter darkness if the soul did not apprehend it to come from Gods hand his hope in God would still be continued but as God hides his face in mercy sometimes here from his own people so he shall shew the wicked his face in wrath for ever and therefore as in Heaven he is immediately the happiness and the glory of the Saints so in Hell he is immediately the torment of the wicked and the Lord Christ as he is man shall pronounce the sentence against them but it is as God that he shall inflict the punishment As the sufferings of Christ here upon earth the greatness of them lay in this that God hid his face and it pleased the Father to bruise him so the same way will God t◠with all unregenerate men and therefore cursed art thou O man if thy portion be 〈◊〉 in the Essence of God for good and for blessedness it shall lie in the Essence of God for misery and torment for ever Vse 2 § 3. Therefore let your hearts and thoughts rise unto this height to seek God for himself and be satisfied with nothing else for all the creatures and the good things of this life are but given by the Lord to try men whether they will prove baits to them and to see whether they will rest satisfied in them without God and herein lies the power of godliness when a man is carried towards God for himself and when there is nothing that comes from God will satisfie without God for a regenerate mans happiness lies in the Essence of God and in the vision thereof and in this lies the happiness of Christ as Mediator Psal 16. that the Lord is the portion of his inheritance and of his cup. It 's true that Christ hath a great deal of satisfaction in seeing the travel of his soul and is satisfied in the Saints they are his friends and his Spouse and his brethren c. but yet the happiness of Christ as Mediator doth not consist therein but only in the enjoyment of God himself the vision of his Essence and in this is the sincerity of a mans heart made manifest when his heart is right with God and he can say Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee And truly in God a soul shall have all things he that gives himself will deny thee nothing Oh the height of the happiness of the Saints that that which is the happiness of Christ and the blessedness of God himself that shall be thy blessedness also and therefore we may cry out O the blessedness of that man whose God is Jehovah Now the ways of attaining of this blessedness are these 1 Pet. 2.21 1. By way of Vnion with Christ for God is first Christs God and then our God Christs end is to bring us unto God and it must be by entring into Covenant and there is no way of coming into Covenant but by Union be one with Christ and then God is thine in Covenant Joh. 3.3 2. By a work of Regeneration Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Grace is above nature and grace is a principle that doth qualifie a man for the enjoying of God there is no beatifical vision without a fiducial vision no seeing God without holiness no man shall see the Lord for it is by this that a man is made a meet inheritor with the Saints in light Rom. 12.1 3. There must be Self-resignation to God Give your selves unto the Lord for he that will have Christ to be his must be Christs he that will have the Lord for his portion must also himself be the Lords portion and therefore the Scripture speaks it reciprocally The Lord is the portion of his people Vse 3 3. See the riches of the Love of God under the second Covenant called the riches of his grace Eph. 1.7 Indeed it was great Love that the Lord was pleased to shew to man in his Creation when he did make over all his creatures to him for his use even all the works of his hands and great was his bounty therein but all this is nothing in comparison to the second Covenant for so bountiful is his love that he gives himself that he will not only act for you but he will be yours truly wholly entirely yours so as your happiness shall consist in him and not in your self he will be your chief good and your utmost end and the bottom of free grace lies in this the ground of his giving his Son and of all the great things in the new Covenant is this they were the men of his good will that should be happy in himself and he will bestow himself upon them And that he may do so he gives them his Son to bring them to God all tends but to this end Vse 4 4. It 's the highest ground of comfort and assurance unto faith in the world if God give his Son if he give himself therefore he will give them all spiritual and temporal blessings There is unto the Saints all things in God therefore when the Lord desires to give unto his people full assurance Heb. 6.17 as if he were in dispute about it it 's said When he could swear by no greater he swore by himself as if the Lord had been solicitous
not the holy Spirit by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption do not resist the Holy Ghost do not tempt him lest he forsake you and say I will strive with you no more A man should fear the evil aspect of any word of God and the estrangement of any promise of God that he should be in such a condition that he cannot go to it with boldness and comfort and be kept off from an Ordinance of God that he cannot eat the Passover with the people of God in the season of it how much more when a man shall look up upon the Father Son and Spirit and sees any of these estranged from him for they seek the glory one of another and delight to have each other honoured in the hearts of the Saints and if thou walk unworthily towards any of them they are all of them provoked and displeased thereby § 3. Let us now take a view of the particulars how and in what respect each person doth make over himself unto the Saints in the second Covenant that we may see how they have an interest in them all 1. God the Father makes over himself in Covenant unto the Saints as he is the Father Joh. 20. therefore Christ calls him My Father and your Father my God and your God The Saints also call him our Father 2 Thess 1.1 In God our Father c. Christ is his Son by nature as he is God and as Mediator he is taken into the same Sonship by the grace of personal Vnion Luke 1.35 That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God And we are also taken into the same Sonship by the grace of Adoption by virtue of the mystical Union even as the Manhood of Christ is by the personal Union Now what is it to have an interest in him as a Father that we can call him Abba Father The sweetness of that relation is very great unto the Saints for he is the Father of mercies and he is the Father of lights 2 Cor. 1.3 Jam. 1.17 by which Majesty Holiness and Perfection is intimated for so much Light doth signifie 1 Joh. 1.5 and therefore he is said to dwell in light and Heaven to be an inheritance in light and he is the Fountain and Father of all Light whether it be lumen fidei or lumen gloriae Col. 1.12 the light of faith or the light of glory and from hence Saints looking upon God the Father making over himself unto them are greatly affected considering 1 they have the honour of such a relation and truly the highest honour of the Saints is that of Sonship as it was the highest honour of Christ in his relation that he was the Son of the Father and we count it a high honour to stand in relation unto a Prince as David said Is it a small matter to be Son-in-law to a King It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a priviledge or prerogative to be called the Sons of God Behold what manner of love the Father has shewed us Joh. 1.12 13. that we should be called the sons of God! Now we are the sons of God in this life we have this title of honour put upon us though it is true our condition doth not seem answerable unto such a relation adoptionis fructus nondum apparet c. 1 Joh. 3.2 2 We may be sure to be acquainted with his secrets and see all his actings for the Father loves the Son and shews him all that he himself does he did so to Christ and in your measure he will deal so with you also for the Son is in the bosom of the Father and therefore he knows his mind and his purpose The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him Joh. 1. â—8 i. e. the secrets of his counsel with them and the secret of his providence over them his Law is in their hearts 3 He loves you as a Father My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And we know the bowels of a father to his son by Abrahams to Ismael for his everlasting state his love did rise so high though we are begotten not of the will of man but of God And though Absolom were a disobedient son yet David doth love him so that his heart went out to him even when he rebelled against him there is an efficacy in love 4 As a Father he 'l hear your prayers Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me I know thou hearest me always whatever you ask of the Father he will give it you also that are his children It is by our sonship that we prevail with God in prayer at any time we have an Advocate in the Father The Father himself loves you saith Christ and therefore whatever you ask the Father be sure you shall speed and Christ argues the case with us Why should you doubt this If you know how to give good gifts to your children that are evil how much more shall your heavenly Father give to them that ask 5 He will as a Father give you a supply for all your wants The Father loves the Son and has committed all things into his hand all judgment is committed to the Son so he will give you as a Father the greatest gifts he gives his Son his Spirit he will give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him he will give grace and glory he doth not think Heaven too dear for them because they are sons and his own Essence he will make their portion and happiness 6 He rejoyceth in your prosperity here in your well-doing when wisdom is justified of her children he rejoyceth in their well-doing a wise son maketh a glad father he loves to see them prosper to see their graces grow and their souls thrive that they may have all good things both here and hereafter 7 He spares them in their services as a father spares his son that serves him though they be weak he doth not reject their offerings and he doth accept the will for the deed does not deal with us as an enemy that watches for our halting but as a father we do not stand without as the rest of the world do but we come into the inner Court. 8 Lastly they have an interest in him for correction Whom I love I chastise says God and in all their afflictions he doth pity them as a father Eph. 3.12 he doth correct in judgment not in fury but in measure c. it is for their profit that they may say it was good for them c. But more particularly this must be premised How and in what respect each of the Persons have made over themselves to the Saints under the second Covenant that under the first Covenant all the persons had an equal hand in the same things and there were not opera propria but what the Father is said to do that the Son and Spirit also are said to do so
which he chose to himself out of both Creations and therefore 't is said Ephes 1.4 He has chosen us in him before the foundations of the world were laid He chose him as the head and the Elect as the body Eph. 1.9 10. He has made known unto us the good pleasure of his will according as he purposed in himself to gather together all things unto one whether things in heaven or things on earth There is a Mystery in the Gospel which is called the hidden Wisdom which God hath ordained before the world unto our glory it was free grace to mind the glory of the Elect next to the glory of his own Son 1 Cor. 2.7 and that as the Son shall glorifie him so also the glory of the Son shall come in by the glory of the Saints and the Son ingaged who was the Lord of glory to bring many sons to glory by this because therein should his own glory consist for at the day of Judgment the great glory of Christ shall be in his Saints He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and be admired in them that believe c. And if he did look upon man as fallen he need never have taken up such a purpose as this is for being enemies he had a prison that was large enough to have held them all Esay 10. ult for Tophet was prepared of old he hath made it deep and large and he needs not their service nor their friendship he could have destroyed them and as John Baptist saith Of these stones he could raise up children unto Abraham But yet it was the loving-kindness of the Father that did think thoughts of peace towards them and he had an eternal purpose of good will and as the Father will be glorified in the Son so shall the Saints also and therefore they are said to be elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father 1 Pet. 1.3 and the plot is in Scripture commonly attributed unto the Father 4 It was God the Father that made the motion unto Christ the Son who called him and appointed him unto this work Joh. 8.42 I came not of my self it was an honour that Christ did not take upon himself Heb. 5.5 But he that said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee he doth ingage him in the work by the highest relation and the greatest obligation that can be as he was his gift so he must be obedient unto the Father in this thing Heb. 10.6 7. and therefore In the volume of the book it is written of me that I should do thy will O God and this is intended in these two expressions Prov. 8.22 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he possessed me Prov. 8.22 23. for the servant is part of his masters goods and therefore it 's said That he is his money Exod. 21.21 Now as soon as the Son became in the purpose of the Father his servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately he possessed him and he is called the beginning of all the ways of God towards the creature The first step of all the good will that was towards the creature and all the goings forth of God towards him was laid in the Son he is the beginning of his way and it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was set up from everlasting it 's the same word in Psal 2.6 I was anointed from everlasting it is spoken in the purpose and intention of God for the efficacy of it took not place till after the Fall neither was he actually anointed till he in the humane nature received the Spirit without measure and was anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows 5 He proposed it unto the Son by way of a Covenant for the Covenant was originally made with Christ Esay 49. Gal. 3.6 and so 2 Tim. 1.9 there is a promise of eternal life not unto us but unto him and also in Tit. 1.2 eternal life that was given us before the world began he did appoint him the office that he should undertake him has God the Father consecrated and sanctified the service that he should do Joh. 10.18 I lay down my life and this commandment I received of my Father And to shew the intention of the Fathers Spirit in it he did swear that he should be a Priest and it was the word of the Oath made him so to be For him hath God the Father sealed Heb. 7.27 Joh. 6.26 And it was by this Covenant that most properly Christ became the second Adam 1 Cor. 15.47 As the Lord made a Covenant with the first Adam for an image and an inheritance which he was to transmit unto his posterity so also he did with the second Adam only here was the difference though the first Adams consent to the Covenant was voluntary yet he being a creature and subject to a Law when the mind of God was made manifest in a Covenant and to deal with him in a Covenant-way it had been his sin to withdraw his consent But now the Son being God equal with the Father it was every way free with him to have consented unto the terms of this Covenant or not but he did it freely Lo I come to do thy will O God 6 In this Covenant he did appoint unto his Son what glory he should have and what glory and grace the Saints should have He hath given us eternal life 1 Joh. 5.11 and this life is in his Son so that all the grace that ever should be communicated to the Saints here and their glory hereafter it should be all laid up in him as in a common Treasury It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge And when the Saints enter into happiness they do but enter into their masters joy all is laid up in Christ for them And God doth appoint Christ what glory he should have for his personal glory Phil. 2.10 That he should be exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on high and have a name given him above every name and that he should be glorified in the Saints and admired in them that believe Joh. 5. the Father has given him to have life in himself that he may quicken whom he will and hath given him power to execute judgment because he is the Son of man 7 The Father did appoint him the souls that he should save for Joh. 17.10 All thine are mine I pray not for the world but those that thou hast given me c. The Father and the Lamb have each of them a book of life and they do answer one another Rev. 13.8 for every soul that God would have saved he did give unto the Lord Christ by Covenant so that as he did measure out suffering to Christ and sins too for he had our sins unto a number laid upon him so he did souls also that he was to
perfected here below the Kingdom shall be given up into the hands of the Father again and thus Christ as Mediator as sent by the living Father so he received from him a fourfold life and therefore may be fitly said to live by the Father Joh. 5.26 But it may be objected from Joh. 5.26 As the Father hath life in himself so he has given to the Son to have life in himself How is it said that Christ hath life in himself when he receives his life from the Father I answer Christs meaning is this he did publish himself to be the fountain of life and he doth commonly tell you that there is a double fountain of life 1 there is the living Father but so life could not have been derived unto us being dead for there is no way to receive any thing from God but by the hand of a Mediator therefore the Father hath appointed another fountain of life and that is his Son and in him he hath laid up life as in a common Treasury though as Mediator the fountain of his life be in God yet in reference unto us the Father hath given him to have life in himself it 's not spoken of him as he is man but as he doth raise the dead by an Almighty power and they shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live as he is an everlasting Father and begets souls unto the Lord and as it is given unto him and therefore it must belong to him as Mediator and not as God and it is said He has given this power to him because he is the Son of man therefore the meaning is that God the Father being the fountain of life man being fallen and separated from God and dead in trespasses and sins now if the Lord will convey life unto us it must be by another hand and therefore he hath made the Son the fountain of life and the fulness thereof to dwell in him and so the Son has life in himself as the Father has life in himself the Father conveys it to the Son and the Son receives it of purpose to derive it unto us 3. Having seen what the life is that the Son receives from the living Father and how he lives by the Father let us in the next place consider how we that are members live by the Son also and it will appear that answerably to the life that Christ received from the Father so is he the fountain of life unto the Saints 1 A life of Justification for he is become Jehovah our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 2 Cor. 5.21 we are made the righteousness of God in him so that there is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus for the debt is paid and the bond is cancelled for the Lord hath brought in an everlasting Righteousness and such as sin can never spend Thus we live by him a life of Justification he is made unto us of God wisdom and righteousness 2 We have from him a life of Holiness and Regeneration we are dead in our trespasses and in the uncircumcision of our life till by him we are quickned and therefore 1 Cor. 15.44 it 's said The first man Adam was made a living soul that was his state in his creation and God did breathe into him the breath of life and he became a living soul that is such a nature as he had such he could propagate unto his posterity and so from the first Adam we are made living souls but if they were dead Adam could not revive and quicken them again and therefore that belongs to the second Adam he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in spiritum vivificum for a vivifick spirit we have the unction from the holy One 1 Joh. 2.20 and therefore the Spirit that we receive and that dwells in us is the Spirit of the Son he is the head from whence our influences come and he is the root from which all our sap is derived it is of his fulness only that we receive grace for grace 3 We receive from Christ a life of consolation for he it is that sends the Comforter the message is Esay 61.2 he is sent to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the captive and to publish the acceptable year of the Lord the year of Jubilee the time of rejoycing Isa 57.15 his work is to revive the spirits of the contrite ones he gives them strong consolation and good hope through grace Hab. 3.2 and that 's the meaning of that place Hab. 3.2 Revive thy work in the middle of the years The Church was then in captivity and in great affliction and they were as dead men under the hand of God it is such a reviving that they beg and all the incomes that the Saints have from the Spirit of consolation it is a life that is derived unto them from the Lord Jesus Christ from whom the Spirit of Sanctification comes from him comes also the Spirit of Consolation 4 We receive from Christ a life of Glory he is gone to Heaven as our Fore-runner and having prepared a place for us he will come again and fetch us we can never be received up to glory if Christ had not been first received and then he receives us also into the same glory we enter into our masters joy it is his by a personal purchase and propriety it is ours by our mystical union and fellowship with him only and therefore it is said That he doth raise us up at the last day And Phil. 3.21 He shall change our vile body that it may be like to his glorious body and when he shall appear we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.3 so that our life is hid with Christ in God but when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall appear with him in glory Col. 3.3 4. God the Father is the fountain of life unto the Saints and that two ways 1 as he is the fountain of life unto Christ and as he lives by the Father 2 As by the Fathers appointment and decree he is made the fountain of life unto us 1 As the Father is the fountain of life unto Christ for Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live if he did not give himself we could not live by him Now Col. 3.4 And when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in glory Christ is our life causativè non essentialiter c. and he gives us life because he hath life in himself but that is given him from the Father there is a righteousness in him by which we are accepted and the fulness of habitual grace in him by which we are sanctified all this is laid up in him by the Father it is upon this ground only that he is the fountain of life unto us because he himself lives by the Father therefore in all the glory of Christ Rom. 5.10 the Father should be honoured
c. which is to dispute and gather conclusions from false and corrupt premises because they were hearers of the word though they were not doers yet from this false principle they did reason and argue all their life time that their state was good and so did the foolish builders Mat. 7.22 Lord we have prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils we have eat and drank in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets therefore there is no doubt but we shall attain an entrance at his coming and so the soul is under a fallacy all his days and this is the great deceit of the old Serpent to deceive a man in reference to his eternal state for as Satan by his instruments doth endeavour to beguile you in the matters of truth Col. 2.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he deceives a man by false reasonings so also he endeavours to deceive a man in matter of his state that he might deceive himself by false reasonings also and upon this ground it mainly is that there is that extraordinary aversness in the hearts of men unto the duty of self-examination and a far greater aversness to the examination of a mans state than of his actions for there are many men that will make conscience to review their actions and consider their ways and yet these very men are willing to go upon a supposition in the matter of their spiritual states and to be content to take that for granted though it be the ground of all And here we are to consider also that many that are true Believers may not know that there is a distinct interest in the persons to be had they in general do believe in God and close with Christ who is offered them in the promise but as for such a distinct title unto all the persons it is a thing that they are not acquainted with it seems it was this that Christ reproved in his Disciples Joh. 14.1 Ye believe in God believe also in me their faith in the acting of it was not so distinct and particular as it ought to have been As it is in witnessing there is many a man that never knew that there was a distinct witness of all the persons in the hearts of the Saints and therefore they did never look out for any such thing so it is in the point of faith also but now this is a truth discovered to you and the Lord will expect the fruit of Gospel-discoveries he will come and demand fruit of his Vineyard and he doth expect it he it is with whom Heb. 4.13 in the word read or preached that you have to do he looks what power it hath upon your hearts after it is dispensed 1 We are to consider that the way by which we can come to have an interest in all the persons is by closing with the Son for it is our union with the Son that as it gives us a title unto all good things so it gives us in the first place an union with all the persons and it intitles us unto them all it is he that hath the Son hath the Father also 1 Joh. 2.23 and he that hath not the Son hath not the Father for it is only the blessing of the second Covenant and it comes upon none but those that are in Covenant as the promises come upon none but those that are heirs of promise therefore we should first inquire whether we be one with the Son or no. Now there is no union with him but by believing in him for it is the eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood that gives us life by him Joh. 6.54 Now though believing be an act of the whole soul for the subject of faith is the whole soul with the heart man believes yet it is specially seated in the will as unbelief also is specially seated there There is a double infidelity 1 Purae negationis of pure negation which some have said is no sin but yet if there is a command to believe then bare not-believing is a sin because it is the transgression of the Law 2 Pravae dispositionis of depraved disposition and that lyes mainly in the will Now when the will opens aright it is unto two things 1 It does consent to receive and accept of Christ upon his own terms not only Christ with his righteousness but Christ with his graces not only Christ with his priviledges but Christ with his inconveniencies Christ to all the ends for which the Father hath ordained him he would have him glorified in them all in his heart 2 With the same hand of faith that he doth receive whole Christ he doth give up whole self unto Christ again so that he is his own no more but put out of his own power for ever and he rejoyceth in this that I am my beloveds as well as my beloved is mine he would have his happiness in him and he would enjoy nothing apart from him for ever he would live in him and bear fruit in him and work for him and be into him and that to eternity for he saith to him as Ruth to her mother-in-law Where thou goest I will go where thou lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my people thy God my God and where thou dyest I will dye c. Where there hath been such an acceptation and such a resignation there the work of faith is wrought with power and he that is thus one with the Son is thereby madelone with the Father also for our union is by him as our access and communion also is all by him with the Father 2 If a man be intitled unto the persons there will be drawings out of his heart towards each person for there is an impression of the love of them all left upon the soul We love him because he loved us first and this love will warm our hearts with love again there will be the workings of it in the soul though there be not the witnessing 1 Joh. 4.19 for Phil. 1.6 there is a good work begun and it 's begun by all the persons and it is to glorifie the persons mainly in the hearts of Believers and therefore such workings the Lord will draw forth in them O that ever God the Father should give his Son to me Joh. 3. God so loved the world and that I should be called the Son of God that the Son should lay down his life for me should bear my sins and my sorrows that his Spirit should abide in me inlightning mine eyes renewing me in the spirit of my mind there will be such a spiritual warmth wrought in the soul towards all these persons because there is a principle of the love of them all kindled in the soul But yet 3 There will never be the fulness of assurance till the persons that have given you an interest in themselves do also themselves witness their interest 1 Joh. 5.7 and they will surely do
so to all those that wait for them the Father will say I am thy Father and the Son say I am thy Saviour and the Spirit I am thine therefore exercise faith upon your interest in all the persons and in particular upon your interest in God the Father and be much in communion with the Father seeing communion is personal and there is a distinct interest in all the persons therefore a distinct communion that which was the happiness of these persons communion and the infinite satisfaction that they took one in another that shall be thy happiness and thy portion for ever § 3. We are to exercise faith upon all the persons in this manner made over under the second Covenant and to live upon this principle in all our ways 1 That they are all of them objects of faith is clear for the ultimate object of faith is God 1 Pet. 1.21 Now as we are to take in the whole Scripture as objectum immediatum the immediate object and every part of the Scripture is to be believed as an object of faith so the whole Godhead all the attributes of God and all the persons in the Godhead are by faith to be rested upon for there are 1 Thess 3.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defects of faith so long as faith takes not in its whole object it hath not its perfect work Jam. 1.3 2 We are to worship them all though not as apart one from another yet as in our apprehension distinguished and we are to give unto them distinct worship as Christ says Joh. 4.23 The time cometh that you shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father he that will worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth for the Father seeks such to worship him c. Now worship is twofold either cultus naturalis qui ex ipsa Dei natura pendet natural worship c. There is no man that did ever worship a God but he did acknowledge that this God he was to believe in and hope in love and pray to and to hear and obey him in all things and there is a cultus institutus qui ex liberrima Dei voluntate pendet c. instituted worship which depends on the will of God Now the highest act of worship is in believing and it 's unto this that all the Institutions which are but media cultûs means of worship are properly subordinate for cultus institutus medii locum tantùm supplet ad cultum primarium being to worship the persons we must give to each of them that which is the main of worship and that is to believe in them 3 It is from the objects of faith that the life of the soul comes in Esa 38.16 By these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit for the Prophet Esaias had said Take a lump of figs and lay it upon the boil and he shall recover by this promise I shall live and many others that come after shall live upon the promises by this experiment that I have had and found of them for faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mouth and eye of the soul Now the delight of the eye in seeing comes from the object and the nourishment of the body comes in by the mouth and therefore it 's said Eccles 6.7 That all the labour of the man is for his mouth it 's from the meat that a man eats that the strength of his body is derived and therefore Christ as the object of faith saith That his flesh is meat indeed and his blood drink indeed it notes strength and nourishment comes from the object of faith and the way of conveyance is by union it is by sucking the sap and the sweet of it crede manducâsti and if any object of faith do not contribute its part and the soul lives not upon it it will in its strength decay and therefore we live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 because it is from the direct acts of faith that life comes in and here are two things to be spoken to 1 What the objects of faith are that the soul is to take in in the making over of each person under the second Covenant 2 What acts of faith the soul is to put forth upon them 1. The objects of faith that the soul is to take in in each of the persons are these 1 The persons themselves we are to believe the record of them all 1 Joh. 5.10 Joh. 5.45 we are to hear and learn of the Father and we are to believe in the Son To him give all the Prophets witness 1 Joh. 5.6 Act. 10.43 that whosoever believes in him shall have remission of sins Joh. 3.16 and we are to believe in the Spirit it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth and so we are to come unto them in duties in prayer and hearing and in all acts of worship and the ground of it is because we are to believe in him for they cannot pray to him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10.14 Rom. 10.14 Now though the benefit that we have by all these persons is exceeding great the Father adopts and justifies us by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ and the remission of sins and the Son is Jehovah our righteousness and he gives us power to become the sons of God and the Spirit is the bond of our union the principle of our sanctification and the guide of our way yet the ground of all this interest in their benefits is our interest in their persons so that as our interest in the Mediator and union with his person is far greater than all the benefits that we receive by him because it is the fountain from which they do all flow and the root upon which they do all grow 1 Joh. 5.12 so it 's here also interest in the persons is the foundation of all our interest in their benefits for if we had no title unto the persons we could have no benefit by them or any part thereof and therefore as they are personal promises that are the great promises of the Gospel so they are personal interests that are the great priviledges of the Gospel and that in which the main of the life of a Saint lyes so that as when Christ is set forth by God the Father as a propitiation lifted up in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.25 the soul by the recumbency of faith casts it self upon him leaves it self with him Psal 10.14 so the Father and Spirit are set forth in the Gospel as the God of consolation and the soul is to rely roll and cast it self upon them and as we are not barely to look upon the benefits that come by Christ so neither are we to the benefits that come by them but it is their persons ens incomplexum not things that the soul is to rest upon 2
that the Saints should seek in themselves Answ 1 Remember this is not in opposition to God or apart from God but in subordination to God 2 There is a double sufficiency 1 Not receiving an addition of good so God only is sufficient 2 As containing all things necessary and so there is a sufficiency in grace for it brings all things into the soul and fills it 1. There is a great proneness in the best men unto this great evil that having received grace they place their sufficiency in it and that for matter of strength and matter of comfort 1 As to matter of strength a man that has received grace is apt to think that he being made alive from the dead is able now to perform those vital actions that flow from this life surely now I can hear I can pray and can perform the duties of godliness as becomes a living man or if by the power of sin and the strength of temptation the outward act be hindred and interrupted yet they cannot hinder the inward workings of the Spirit and as I am able to do that which is good so I shall be able to resist that which is evil so that as grace is in me a well of water springing up to everlasting life in the duties of holiness so also it will of it self work out the mud of corruption that Satan and the old man doth cast into it from day to day and we see this in Peter he had received a principle of grace and his heart was warmed with a true fire the principle of the love of Christ whom he loved so greatly that he thought it impossible that he should so far forget it as to deny him and therefore he speaks for himself after the resolution or presumption of his heart Whatsoever other men do yet though I should stand by him alone come what will come I will confess him in the face of danger I will never deny him and so many a man doth by the strength of grace received promise himself security from some sins and therefore they are secure in themselves and exceeding censorious of others It is true men will say I cannot resist rovings of heart and vain desires and sinful love and carnal fear and inordinate passions c. but for drunkenness and adultery murder persecution of the Saints or Apostasie from Religion and the Truths of God I hope I am secure from these and the man walks not in fear of them and it 's very common for young and weak Christians so to do and they are exceeding bitter and censorious against other men and they immediately question their estates whom they see do fall into these sins which they ignorantly conceive that the very being of grace secures them from And so it is in respect of duties having received grace he doth conceive that he can pray and hear and perform the duties of Gods worship in another manner than a natural man can for he has received a new principle and therefore having done a duty at one time having trusted God or shewed forth an act of love to God he thinks he can do the same at another time and by this means a man is the less solicitous for an immediate supply for the discharge of such duties as he is to perform he thinks that he has received a stock sufficient to defray the charge It is true says he if I am put upon a greater temptation or upon the performance of any higher duties then I shall see reason to go unto Christ for a supply but as for these ordinary things in both kinds the grace that I have already received is sufficient for it according unto that ordinary and natural way of concurrence of God with his own grace which doubtless he will delight in as he doth concur with the creatures in the common actions of their lives and so a mans sufficiency in point of strength is much in reference unto the strength of grace that he has received either to perform duties or to resist sin And 2 as it is for matter of strength so it is for matter of comfort also having received grace from God men turn in upon themselves and by a reflection upon their own graces they think to raise their spirits under any desertion or dejection whatsoever and therefore when they walk in the dark at any time they are immediately poring upon their own graces to see what witness their own spirits will give unto them and by the evidence of their own hearts they conceive that they can comfort themselves at any time when they are in a doubt in the matter of their estates towards God Principale speculum ad videndum Deum est animus rationalis inveniens seipsum hoc speculum verus poenitens non cessat quotidie inspicere Bernard de inter Domo The principal glass of seeing God is the rational soul which a true Penitent inspects daily Now a man looks into his own spirit and sees his own face in this glass and upon this glass he that should see God sees himself and by this means thinks to raise and quicken and comfort himself from day to day which is the true reason why most Christians spend much more time in looking upon the witness of water than upon that of blood or of the Spirit on the witnesses upon Earth much more than to the witnesses in Heaven 2. There is a great policy of Satan therein if it were in the power of the Devil man should never receive any good from God for he that envied the good estate of man at first in which he was created touched him with the same devillishness that was in himself and thereby became a murderer from the beginning for he left no good in the man In me Rom. 7. that is in my flesh there dwells no good thing and he doth as truly desire and endeavour from the same principle of envy to keep out all good as at first he did to cast it out but if the Lord will sow wheat and the envious man cannot prevent the seed-time then he will take the opportunity to sow tares also with the wheat that he shall dishonour God with the grace that he has received from him and with it sacrifice unto himself who is under Satan the great Idol and by honouring himself he doth sacrifice unto Satan all the while and so a man placing his sufficiency in grace received even grace it self if it were possible should tend unto his destruction that was a special grace and with special and eternal love was given for his salvation for Satan looks upon grace in the Saints as being the image of God and as his greatest enemy and that which he hates more than he does the souls of men or any thing in the world for his main malice is at godly men only because they bear Gods image for his hatred is directly against God it is unto us but collaterally and in the second place
strength my buckler the horn of my salvation my high tower the Lord is my light and my salvation the Lord is the strength of my life it 's sweet to see all to be in God it 's glorious to see the fulness that is in Christ the beauty of him who is our Husband but it is much more to see it in God he is objectum ultimatum fidei the ultimate object of faith in whom the soul doth ultimately rest and the Lord is all these 1 unitivè unitedly all of them are united in him they do all meet in him as lines in a center they are scattered in the creatures but they are one in him as the Attributes of God are diversified according to their objects but they are one in God so are all the excellencies of the creature and therefore he is a Sun Psal 48.11 all the light that was scattered abroad all over the earth the Lord united in that body of the Sun and made it a glorious body because all light is in it so all the excellencies and sufficiency that are continued and scattered in broken rays in the creatures are all united in him 2 It is in God eminenter eminently so that he shall be unto us the end of all things in a far more glorious manner than any creature can be Deut. 32.31 their Rock is not like our Rock there is no God like our God there is no God that can save after this sort he is deliverance Dan. 3.29 he is protection provision and consolation and salvation in such a way as no creature can be fully indeed the creatures are good in their kinds and they do fetch in supplies to one another but it 's still but as a creature but God doth it in the manner of a God as having all eminently in him there is something of infiniteness something that manifests a God wherein God appears 3 Causativè causally the Lord is all things as being the cause of them all Who laid up all these things in the creatures was it not the Lord doth not all provision come out of his store-house and doth not all protection from the creature come from himself Zac. 2.5 I will be a wall of fire round about Jerusalem they had no wall but what is wanting says God I will supply it and they were never so guarded they never lay down in so much peace though the enemies were enraged against them round about the Psalmist saith The Lord takes my part Psal 118.7 therefore I shall see my desire upon them that hate me and the Lord is with them that uphold my soul It 's true that there is something in creatures but they are but instruments in his hand and there is but so much good as he will put into them and no more so much wisdom so much power and so much provision as he will put into them and no more and the same creatures that are now used for you he can turn against you Armies and Navies and wise men and great men shall all combine against you for evil as they have appeared for your good if you forsake God 2. Having God the soul doth not run out after other things in an anxious and a solicitous way but having him he saith I have enough whether I have much or little Gen. 33.9 11. Esau seemed to have a kind of contentment in the creatures but he says only I have much multum habeo but there is another kind of speech of Jacob Sunt mihi omnia I have all having God the soul hath room for no more for you can have but all and he that hath the Lord for his God hath all things else and so Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I abound and am full a little supply is fulness to him because there is God in all he hath and therefore he looks upon all things else as things indifferent if he have them they are not his portion and he doth not set his heart upon them and therefore when other men are busied all their days in a traffick of creatures yet there is to him but one Pearl of great price Phil. 3.20 his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conversation or merchandise is in Heaven all things here below are dross My heart panteth my strength faileth me saith David but the wicked his heart runs to and fro from one market of the creatures to another and hunts what he can get of them for his treasure is in the things below he hath all his good things in this life and his hope in this life and then a man is miserable but while other men are hunting for the creatures as it 's said of Nimrod He was a mighty hunter before the Lord it was for a Kingdom that he did hunt there is a prey that all such men do pursue as the Lord threatens Jer. 16.16 I will bring many fishers and hunters upon you that is the Chaldeans men skilful to take all prey and they shall be hot and fierce in the pursuit of it but the prey that the Saints hunt after is this Ego Deum venor meum c. I hunt after my God he that hath drunk of this water his thirst is allayed in respect of all creature-comforts for ever and therefore it is enough whether he hath little or much and he can be content with the things that are present as the exhortation is Heb. 13.5 and who can be more happy than that man cui omnia sunt ex voto humiles sunt hoc volunt pauperes pauperie delectantur Allow them but the Lord for their portion and they can easily spare the things of this world unto the men of the world and leave the pursuit of these things to them that have no higher good to follow 3. He only fears the loss of God if he can but keep God with him still he fears nothing else Psal 27.1 2. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear so long as God is with him there is no fear enters into him What misery or affliction is there in this world that I cannot object God against it all tell me of poverty and can he be poor that has an interest in him that is Lord of all tell me of disgrace the Lord is my glory and the lifter up of my head tell me of danger the Lord is my rock and my shield my high tower if I can but keep him to me it 's enough for me only the soul remembers that the rule is The Lord is with you while you be with him Now when his soul departs from God 2 Chron. 15.2 then he remembers that it may befal the Saints sometimes that their shield is departed and the Lord will give them up their rock has sold them Deut. 32.30 and therefore his great solicitude is to keep God with him his fear is ne discedat lest he depart and this is the
Earth and therefore thoughts of God do secretly steal away his heart with a sweet and unspeakable delight as it is with a man in the pleasures of sin his soul is stoln away with the thoughts of them insensibly much more is it so with the thoughts of God as the Lord having chosen us doth rejoyce over us as a Bridegroom over his Bride Hephzibath much more should we rejoyce in him as our portion There are two things wherein joy is exercised 1 Contemplation when a man takes a view of the happiness of his own condition by reason of his interest as Nebuchadnezzar doth Is not this great Babel that I have built and Jezebel to Ahab Dost not thou now govern Israel So a Saint Is not the Lord my portion in the land of the living 2 There is a dilatation in joy it doth enlarge the heart and thereby prepares it for the entertainment of the object for it doth transport or carry a man beyond himself as we see in Davids dancing before the Ark and the Saints should be much in rejoycing in God for the joy of the Lord is your strength 7. Make your boast of God glory and triumph in him Psal 97.7 My soul shall make her boast of God as it 's said of wicked men that boast themselves in their vain gods c. so a Saint should make his boast in God and say I have made a sweet choice I have a goodly heritage and undervalue all other Beloveds in comparison of your own There is no God like unto our God Make your challenge to the men of the world and bid them bring forth all the gods of the world and let them be compared with Jehovah there is none like the Lord therefore in thy choice bless thy soul that there is no rock like our Rock this God is our God and there is none besides him triumph over all thy enemies and their opposition In thy strength we shall tread down our enemies bear your selves high upon your God despise them say The virgin daughter of Sion hath laughed thee to scorn we care not though they be gathered together against us they shall fall for God is with us Job 5.22 At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth c. And this is to have a self-sufficiency and to have a mans mind conformed to the greatness of his interest these things can never be known but by experience and practice nunquam futurum ut quis speculativè tantùm fiat Christianus none ever became a Christian by speculation only Vse 4 § 4. See and observe from hence the happy condition of the Saints that they have an interest in the alsufficiency of God Psal 144. ult Happy are the people whose God is the Lord. It 's a special duty that lies upon the people of God to maintain in themselves high thoughts of their own interest and the excellency of their condition and a special step to bring men in to God is to have their thoughts raised and a high esteem of the blessed condition of them that have an interest in him and here consider 1. It 's the highest way of honouring God that can be in this life It 's a great honour to God for a man to see so much excellency in him as to chuse him at the first sight but many a man that doth so may afterwards fall from his former apprehensions and then his former affections do wax cold as there is many a man makes choice of Christ and calls him the chiefest often thousand and yet afterwards it may be said to him Where is the blessedness you spake of Gal. 4.15 it is still the same it was in it self but it was not so in their apprehensions it 's said many of the followers of Christ went back from him Joh. 6. and the Apostle speaks of men that do draw back Heb. 10.39 Heb. 10.39 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subauditur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Grot. We are not subductionis filii in which is an Hebraism and it signifies two things 1 Men excellent or eminent in any thing addicted or inclined unto it are said to be the sons of it as 2 Sam. 2.7 there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of valour men eminent in it 2 It signifies a man destinated and appointed unto it as 1 Sam. 20.31 Saul saith of David he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a son of death a man judged and appointed unto death Now there are some men that are the sons of Apostasie men that are of themselves addicted and inclined to it and they are by God judged to it of old ordained Jude 4. and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is subductio a secret withdrawment in an unobserved way not an Apostasie from the profession of the Truth but a receding of the affections and the inward dispositions of the soul they recoil for as Job 31.27 he speaks of a mans heart being secretly enticed and so there is a secret withdrawment of the inward man and blessed is that Christian who keeps up his esteem of spiritual things and that his apprehensions of them rise rather than fall for love is grounded upon esteem and as a mans apprehensions do decay so will his affections also Now this is the highest love that can be when a man upon second thoughts reflex thoughts can approve and applaud his own choice and can bless himself in his heart and say I would not have it otherwise so doth Paul shew his love to Christ I have and I do Phil. 3.7 yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus c. and so do the men of the world shew their love unto the things of the word Psal 49.18 While he lived he blessed his soul and they are looked upon as the blessed and happy men by all the world c. that if a man were to chuse his own lot he would be in such a mans condition but a godly man if he had all the estates and conditions of the world before him yet he would chuse and prefer this before them all to have an interest in God As reflex acts do most fully shew the setling of the soul in a sinful way that a man doth approve of it afterwards as by continuing impenitent in it it is manifest as the Devil non invenit locum poenitentiae ergo nec veniae Bernard so there is nothing that doth shew the establishment of the soul so much upon God as this doth that a man can reflect and take a review and say I would not have it otherwise for all the world as these reflex thoughts of our interest in God are most comfortable unto us so they are most honourable unto God also 2. It 's this that doth make a man to set light by the scorns and derisions that are put upon him by the world it 's
c. But now consider for thy better tryal 1. He that hath an interest in the alsufficiency of God hath an interest in Christ for though the Attributes of God are his Essence God himself yet there is a threefold respect unto Christ that we are to have in them 1 It is by him that we are intitled to them for he is first in the Covenant and we in him and therefore in all the promises he hath a preheminence therefore the Lord is first his God Joh. 20.17 and then our God Joh. 20.17 it 's by our interest in Christ that we have an interest in God 2 In him all the Attributes of God are discovered and revealed and that in such a manner as we never could have seen them 2 Cor. 4.6 We behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ for he is the image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 which I cannot look upon as spoken of Christ as God for so he is the invisible God and equally invisible with the Father but as Mediator and so the glorious Attributes of God do shine and shew forth themselves in him 3 As all the Attributes of God are exercised and actuated by him so all the mercy of God and the wisdom of God and the judgments and severity of God it 's all in the hand of Christ to be executed by him for the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son Joh. 5.22 He raiseth the dead and he quickneth whom he will he bears up all things by the word of his power he hath the keys of Hell and of death he kills and he makes alive c. he hath committed all his works unto Christ and all his Attributes are acted by him for the ruling and ordering of these works and he hath committed unto Christ all the promises and all the Attributes of God are in his hand for the accomplishment of these promises c. it 's the foundation of all a Christians comfort when he doth see the promises of God in the hands of Christ to dispense and the providences of God in the hand of Christ to dispense and the Attributes of God in the hand of Christ to exercise and to actuate for both these There is a fourfold sight of faith in this life that is exceeding glorious to see God in Christ Christ in God to see Christ in us and we in him Joh. 14.20 2 Cor. 5.19 he therefore that hath an interest in Christ hath an interest in the alsufficiency of God and none else and we are to try our interest in Christ by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us for if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8.9 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin and the Spirit is life because of righteousness 2. He that hath an interest in the alsufficiency of God doth chuse this for his portion to place his happiness in Josh 24.22 Josh 24.22 You have chosen the Lord to be your God no man hath an interest in God but by choice A man doth not only chuse his way some the broad and some the narrow way but men do also chuse their portion and the wisdom and folly of a man is much seen in his choice and in his esteem and as the first going forth of the love of God to us is in his election of us so the first going forth of our love to him is in our election of him also and he that doth chuse God aright doth chuse all that is in God as the mercy of God to pardon him and the grace of God to heal him and the power of God to defend him and the holiness of God to sanctifie him the wisdom of God to guide him and the alsufficiency of God to make provision for him and faith is seen in the electing as well as in the consenting act of the soul Josh 24.23 now as Josh 24.23 having chosen the Lord they must put away the strange gods that were amongst them and incline their hearts to the Lord God of Israel so you must cast away all sufficiency in any thing else all creature-sufficiency all self-sufficiency and look upon all as vanity and emptiness and as that which hath no sufficiency in it and as that wherein your sufficiency doth not consist And the word in the Hebrew doth signifie three things in the Scripture 1 Inclinavit for the bent of a mans heart to go out that way as Judg. 9.3 where there were two that contended for the supremacy it 's said That their hearts inclined after Abimeleck 1 King 2.28 Joab inclined after Adonijah though he turned not after Absolom a mans heart must go out in the bent of it this way 2 Reclinavit for a man to rest upon a thing Amos 2.8 You lye down upon cloaths laid to pledge c. and therefore the word signifies lectum a bed upon which men lye down or rest themselves and so it should be here the soul should rest and lean upon this alsufficiency of God as that which he hath chosen and in which he rests and therefore the word signifies baculum a staff to lean upon 3 Extendit expandit as Esa 4.22 He stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain c. so should a man do he should open his heart extend it and stretch it out enlarge it in all the desires and affections of it towards the alsufficiency of God and this will be the necessary and proper fruit of such a choice of God in his alsufficiency he therefore that hath an interest in the alsufficiency of God hath chosen him in his alsufficiency for his God and he that hath so done doth put away all other gods casts off all other sufficiencies and doth in the bent of his soul incline to God alone unto him he doth stretch out his soul in the latitude and utmost extent thereof and in and upon this he doth rest and sweetly repose himself in the middle of all difficulties and dangers whatsoever 3. He that hath an interest in the alsufficiency of God doth honour and exalt that Attribute in his heart for whatever we have the comfort of God must have the glory of as there is not a promise but if the soul sucks sweetness from it it is exalted in that soul and a man having tasted of it doth set a high price upon it and his soul goes out to it to live upon it all his life time Isa 38.10 and there is not a truth of God but by these things men live Esa 38.10 wherefore the price and the glory of them doth arise in the soul and he thinks he did never know how to value them before he knew not what they were worth but now he sees there is a value in them as Luther did in Rom. 1.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys As a man that hath found a medicine to relieve him when he was in great extremity
he lays up that as a choice receipt all his life time and when he sees other men cast the materials of it away as a thing of no value he saith O! there is an excellency in it did men know it they would set a high price upon it I was in such an extremity and it relieved me so it is with all the Attributes of God they are exalted in the soul suitable to the use and experience that a man hath had of them as he that doth undervalue duties doth it because he hath not found the spiritual good that is in them so he that doth undervalue the Attributes of God doth it from want of experience which makes spiritual things great in our eyes and therefore Paul having an interest in the mercy of God we see how it was exalted in him 1 Tim. 1.14 the grace of God was exceeding abundant God who was rich in mercy out of his abundant love and pardoning mercy c. Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like to our God that pardons iniquity transgression and sin And the Saints that have perfection of holiness from him they give him the glory of his holiness from day to day saying Holy holy holy for the highest glory that we can give unto God here is that we honour those Attributes in our hearts which he doth honour in his dispensation towards us whether it be wisdom or holiness or faithfulness or patience c. as he doth honour the word that he doth accomplish so we are to honour the Attributes that he doth put forth Jah is the same name with Jehovah and is a name of Being denoting that God is he that hath his Being of himself and gives being unto all things else he that is the Fountain of Being whence a soul having had experience of him to be such a one lets his glory in that respect arise and be exalted in his soul if you would have any Attribute work for you then exalt that Attribute by trusting in it and when it hath wrought for you then exalt it also by glorifying of it and as you have exalted God by his name Jah so by his name Elshaddi a God alsufficient also for there is no name of God but it will be exalted in the soul suitable to the interest that we have in it and the taste that the soul hath of it For there is a double putting forth of every Attribute of God savingly upon his Elect not only a putting of it forth in his works and administrations towards them but there is also a putting of it forth by exalting it in a man and therein the main sweetness of the discovering of it doth lye He therefore that hath not had the price of this Attribute raised in his soul nor tasted the sweetness of it nor rejoyced in it nor adored and admired it and God as such a one under the apprehension of such an attribute truly that man hath no interest in it If a Saint cannot say that attribute is mine and this attribute I have an interest in yet he can admire the attribute and give God the glory of it as an excellency in himself and he doth not only praise God for his goodness towards him but as it is in himself for the glorious excellencies that are in the Divine nature as we may see it in Hannah 1 Sam. 2.1 2. My heart rejoyceth in the Lord and my horn is exalted in the Lord my mouth is enlarged over my enemies I will rejoyce in thy salvation there is none holy as the Lord c. And as it is exceeding sweet unto the people of God and a Paradise to walk from one Tree to another in the Paradise of God and to say such a truth the Lord fulfilled unto me in such a case and in such an extremity and such a promise at such a time so much more for a man to be able to look over all the attributes of God and to say such a time the Lord did glorifie such an attribute towards me and such a time such a one and to see all the attributes of God as well as all the works of God to work together for a mans good every one in their proper places as the stars in their courses fought against Sisera and the threatnings of God fight against wicked men so to have the word of God the works of God and the attributes of God work for a man is their happiness and their joy 4. He that hath an interest in the alsufficiency of God will be raised up in his soul to an holy self-sufficiency as there is no grace that is in Christ but it will have a resemblance in us so there is no attribute of God but it hath its resemblance therefore 1 Pet. 2.9 we are said to shew forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vertues of him that hath called us and in this doth properly our conformity unto God in this world lye there is something in us that doth hold a resemblance with the attributes of God that are manifested and put forth for us And in this is the greatest exercise of the attributes of God for our good when the patience of God works patience in us and we be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful and holy as he is holy when the wisdom of God works wisdom in us and there is a resemblance of the power of God in us that we are able to do all things through Christ that strengthens us when the greatness of God works in us a holy greatness of mind and when the alsufficiency of God works in us a gracious self-sufficiency for there is a self-sufficiency that is a duty as there is a self-sufficiency that is a sin 1 Tim. 6.6 Godliness is great gain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 9.8 Every where and in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and it is that which the Apostle had learned Phil. 4.11 so Prov. 14.14 A good man is satisfied from himself There is self as divided from God which is a sin but self as united unto God is a great duty Self-sufficiency in opposition to the creatures is a duty for a man can be happy without them but self-sufficiency in opposition to God is a sin for if a man be one with God then a mans self-sufficiency is Gods alsufficiency for having God and that sufficiency that is in him he hath all though amongst the creatures he hath no portion no inheritance when a man hath the Moon under his feet and he can say when he sees all the world destroyed Se nihil habere bonum tantâ mole perdendum c. and can look upon the general conflagration of the world as Lot did upon Sodom in the burning without a relenting thought because his portion is not in them this man hath a self-sufficiency grounded upon his interest in the alsufficiency of God for as the Apostle saith of the Fathers Heb. 11.13 That chusing to be pilgrims they did declare
their life to the destroyers the Lord hath caused light to shine out of darkness and hath made their light to break forth out of obscurity and when they have walked in the shadow of death a light hath risen upon them as the Martyr that was in prison in his own spirit till he came into prison and the prison was that which the Lord made use of for his enlargement Schola crucis lucis fenestra and so we read of another Martyr who upon this ground did wonderfully bless God that he came into prison that thereby he became acquainted with that Angel of God John Bradford The providence of God is as wonderful in the consolations as in the conversion of his people for it is a creating of the fruit of the lips peace Esa 57.19 and that is ex nihilo 6. In temptations when the lust hath been high and the temptation impetuous and the man about to yield the Lord hath sometimes appeared and struck the lust as it were from Heaven immediately and said Stay thy hand and the lust hath vanished for the fashion of the world passeth away and the lust thereof that a mans heart hath been dead unto that which before it was with the greatest violence set upon the Lord hath hedged up a mans way with thorns so that he could not sin with security as other men do Hos 2.6 7. but still when he would have sinned there were stumbling-blocks in his way and some providences that did concur to cross him in a way of sinning and some to pull him out of the fire when he was falling in as the instance of Vzthazares the Persian and the story of Ambrose of a young man that met with his mistress with whom he had formerly had dalliances and when she met him again the Lord struck his lust so that when she said Ego sum I am she he answered Ego non sum I am not he 2. There is a special Providence over godly men for the good of others that are good in their present and in after-generations 1. There is a strange Providence in improving their parts Moses being to be a man of great imployment for the good of the people of God he must be learned in all the learning of the Egyptians and so the parts of Austin and his learning and so of Luther how strangely did God make use of for the good of his people and Luk. 11.22 't is said he takes from him all the armour wherein he trusted c. that learning and those abilities and improvements the Lord doth imploy for the good of his people and he hath strange ways of improving of those that he doth intend to imploy and men see not the reason of it till afterward 2. In drawing out of their graces as in Joseph by the temptation of his mistress and the persecution that he met with his bow abode in strength and his arm was made strong and so it was with Job that we might hear of his patience and what end the Lord made with him and we know how strangely the Lord did order things that the height of Luthers spirit did rise by the opposition that was against him that he that at first would have accepted of easie terms afterwards resolved that nothing but the utter overthrow of Popery should satisfie him Efficiam ut Anathema sit esse papista◠3. Thereby there is a Providence that doth turn them to the good of his people that are to succeed partly for admonition that they may be warnings unto them Remember Lots wife remember Peter and David and Solomon that you may take heed to avoid the same snares in which they were taken and partly for their consolation that God might shew in them a pattern of all long-suffering unto them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting as Beza said when one derided him for his wanton Poems in his youth Hic homo invidet mihi gratiam Christi c. 4. Their sufferings so it was with Joseph Gen. 50.20 Ye intended evil but the Lord turned it unto good to save much people alive it was your good that God intended in my affliction and so Johns banishment into Patmos it was that he might receive the Book of the Revelations which hath been the great stay of the hearts and faith of the people of God ever since and though it may be obscure yet Conrad Graserus speaks of it by his own experience Me non ex ullius libri canonici lectione ad instructionem consolationem plùs proficere pag. 2. I have not profited more by any book c. 5. Their labours As 't is said that Moses wrote the Book of Job for the consolation of the people of God when they were in Egypt and of what use hath that been in general to the Church of God ever since so many of the pains of the people of God in writing the lives of the godly and the Sermons and sayings of the Ministers of God and their own observations of the signs of the times and whatever they have of that kind been put upon in particular cases providence hath so over-ruled things that they have been as a standing benefit unto the Church of God in after-ages and they have lived when the men have died There are many defences of the people of God and Apologies that they have been put upon in all ages when men of corrupt minds have aspersed the writings and persons of those that have been eminent in their places for asserting the Truths of God and witnessing against the corruptions of the times c. 6. Not only their labours have been very useful in all ages but also their Examples of well-doing Povidence doth put the Saints upon many things and conditions that they may leave their example as monuments in the ages to come as the Apostle saies Phil. 1.14 By my bonds many of the brethren wax confident are much more bold to speak the truth without fear 1 Tim. 4.12 Be thou an example of the believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith and in purity they must be exemplary in every generation that they may leave their footsteps behind them that the people of God may walk after them and go forth by the footsteps of the stock in after-ages and that they may be so the Lord doth in his providence so order things that they shall have occasion to shew themselves examples in all things so that there is an over-ruling providence by virtue of the interest of the Saints in the Soveraignty of God that orders all things towards good men for their own good and all providences over them for the good of his people in the present and in after-ages that so a good man may be every way a common good 7. They have great advantages by the prayers of the Saints for even the wicked of the age yea and of after-ages do attain benefits by their prayers much more
yet amongst the Israelites not a Dog did move his tongue Signum est magni silentii dum canes silent A great love may be seen in an ordinary Providence to a man as Grapes to be had in a wilderness as a Messenger sent one of a thousand a word spoken in due season a Scripture opened to me when I had need it was directed to me in my necessity such a comfort administred at such a time when I was in extremity and it came in the season of it it is an argument of great love as when David was besieged and Saul thought that he had them sure now a report must be brought that the Philistins had invaded the Land and so change his Counsels and divert the forces from pursuing David 6. Small and ordinary things shall be for their preservation Exod. 23.25 He shall bless thy bread and thy water and will take sickness away from the midst of thee that whereas other mens food breeds and nourishes diseases his food shall be blest unto him that it shall be healthful and not hurtful and when Sennacherib is come to besiege Jerusalem after all his ranting and threatning he shall hear a rumour a report shall be brought him that the King of Ethiopia had invaded his Land and so change his purpose and it shall be for the preservation of the people of God 7. Ordinary things shall tend unto the destruction of the enemies and they shall fall by the turning of an ordinary providence the smallest things shall even ruine persons and nations as Pharaoh and all Egypt were even destroyed by flies and lice c. the Sun shines upon the water and they shall say that it is blood The Kings have destroyed one another 2 King 3.22 23. Sometimes by the turning of the wind great things have been done for the people of God great battels have been won both by Land and Sea and sometimes by rain strange things have been wrought for the defeating of the counsels of enemies Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an East-wind c. And we know what small providences have cast the balance for the people of God against the enemies and that in many doubtful cases when they had nothing but providence to work for them 8. Consider how by small and ordinary things the Lord doth preserve the lives and support his people in the world by causing the Sun to shine and the rain to fall the earth to bring forth the fig-tree to blossom and we see he gives them food out of the earth and the beasts do them service and they do it willingly and readily Now what a miserable life were the life even of a Saint here if it were not for such common and ordinary refreshments if the Lord should as a Lion watch over us as he doth threaten them he would be as a Lion and a Leopard in the way to observe them There is a providence that hath given these unto the sons of God as their inheritance so that they do injoy the comfort of them and eat the fruit of them day by day the service of thy hand maid and of thy beast all act for thee as being made by God to be thy servants It is true that the service of the Angels is comfortable but it would not be sufficient without these which are ours in a way of ordinary providence Cogita te esse in regione deserti in peregrinatione vitae Aug. and such as we account less though we taste the good of them from day to day Surely therefore all things even the smallest things shall work together for good to them that love the Lord for the good of their spiritual and temporal state also SECT IV. The Saints Interest in Gods Providential Kingdom both mediate and immediate necessary and contingent § 1. WE have gone thorow the first distinction of the providential Kingdom we come now to the second which is that Providence is either immediate or mediate The one is when the Lord works without means putting forth his own power immediately to the producing of any effect without the concurrence of any means or help of second causes and this is called making bare his arm or making it naked Esa 52.10 So long as the Lord doth work by means though there be his hand yet his hand is hid and covered under the appearance of creatures so that our eyes are either wholly or mainly upon them but when the Lord lays creatures aside and his own arm doth appear to bring salvation so that nothing else is seen but the hand of God in it without the concurrence of creatures the Lord is then said to make bare his own arm that is to shew forth his own power Hab. 3.9 purely and nakedly so Hab. 3.9 His bow was quite made naked c. he speaks it of the discoveries of Gods power in an immediate way and his bow is vis tua robur tuum Drus he speaks it of the dividing of the red Sea and the turning back of Jordan in its own chanel the power of God did immediately appear without any concurrence of means and any instrument or second causes and therefore his bow was naked c. the Scripture doth speak of the Lords smiting with the rod and with his fist c. And here there are three Propositions that I must lay down 1. That whatever the Lord does by means he can work immediately by his own hand without all means he that did give being unto the second causes can without those causes produce their effects he is independent in his working as well as in his being and doth not depend upon means and second causes in any thing that he doth and therefore if he do deprive his people of the means and will supply it in himself it shall be infinitely better they shall have a hundredfold more in this life eminenter the Sun shall be no more thy light by day but the glory of the Lord shall be the light thereof if he deprive them of the light of the Sun yet he gives them his own glory to be instead thereof and it shall abundantly answer it He hath indeed bound us in duty to use the means but he hath not bound himself he is still at liberty either to work by his own immediate hand or in the way that he hath set in the order and subordination of causes yea as much as if no such order had been made by him and therefore the time will come when God shall be all in all and this order of causes shall surely cease and then all effects shall be produced by God immediately and that in a far more glorious manner than now they are by the influences of their causes amongst the creatures 2. In the means which he doth use there is an immediate concurrence of his own power to the producing of the effect concurrit immediatè c. and without this the second cause could do nothing men
enemies of Israel he doth therefore rule the raging of the Sâ—â— when the waves arise Psal 89.9 2 Pet. 3.4 he saith unto them Peace be still and by this wicked men are confuted that say All things continue alike from the creation of the world but that they do not for first the earth was covered with water now it is separated and the dry land appears it was afterwards in judgment covered with waters in the Floud and then the waters entred into their own chanel again 6. The winds also they have a natural and necessary cause The Lord brings the winds out of his treasuries there are treasures of winds Job 38.22 and the stormy winds fulfil his word Psal 148.8 but there is not a wind that ariseth upon the Earth or Sea but he doth in this dispose of it for the good of his people Maâ— 24.7 the winds and the Sea obey him and if there be a wind in the earth an Earth-quake as there was at the Resurrection of Christ for the confirmation of their faith all these obey him Acts 16.26 Rev. 11.13 when Rome shall fall seven hundred men shall be slain by an Earth-quake and there shall be great discoveries of God in those things which he over-rules for the good of his people which when they consider should bear up their hearts in the greatest storms and tempests that any of the creatures can raise against them 2. There are also some things which are contingent or fortuitous that is though all things be governed by a determinate counsel in God and there be nothing casual unto him but foreknown unto him were all his works from the foundation of the world yet in respect of us there are some things which are contingent and meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without humane election and wonderful and those casual providences are for the good of the Saints in dreams in lots in ordering the wills and affections of men in the slip of a horse the fall of an house the meeting of a friend a man is casually cast upon such places persons occasions as Saul when he went forth to seek Asses and found a Kingdom we may instance in a more special manner in the business of war wherein though there be a Council yet in the execution or the executive part every thing seems meerly contingent and yet we see all to be for Alimoth Psal 46.1 for the hidden ones he doth chuse the Officers appoint the Souldiers appoint the weapons direct the execution order the strategems give the advantages act or take away mens courage and their skill the Captains shall be as Grashoppers and he it is that either teaches their hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken by their arms or the heart of a Lyon doth melt and the men of might cannot find their hands and he casts it for the victory it is he that doth put the Crown upon the head of the Conqueror for the victory is of God SECT V. The Saints Interest in Gods Providential Kingdom as it regards goods and evils § 1. NOw follows the fourth distinction and that is circa bona vel mala about good and evil things and in both these also Providence doth order all things for the spiritual good of his people 1. There is a Providence circa bona for all the good things which do befal the Saints for every good doth come down from him who is the Father of lights Jam. 1.17 they are all from him who is the Fountain of living waters they are streams from the upper Springs as in Election there is a special love so there doth flow from it a peculiar Providence If God cloath the grass of the field much more you O ye of little faith He is the Saviour of all men but specially of them that believe so that if we look upon all the good things which in this life befal them they have it by a special providence over them for their good for the present I shall instance in these particulars 1. In appointing of their calling for there is as truly an election unto calling and a separation by God as there is unto life and salvation Rom. 1.1 Separated unto the Gospel that is set apart by God to preach the Gospel and so Gal. 1.15 says the Apostle But when it pleased God who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace c. There is not a man that comes into the world but the Lord doth appoint him in what condition of life he shall serve and he doth set him apart unto an imployment for he is the Lord of Host and he doth set every man his station As it is said of Peter The Lord did appoint him by what death he should glorifie God so it 's true of all the people of God he doth appoint them by what condition of â—ife they should glorifie him and though Paul went on in another way a long time and little intended any such thing yet God ordered it so that he would reveal his Son in him both per modum objecti obâ—ectively that others should see Christ in him and subjecti subjectively that he himself should see the discoveries of Christ by a Spirit of Revelation and he should be a glorious instrument in the hand of the Lord to reveal Christ unto others and in this there is a wonderful and a gracious hand of Providence unto his people that unto other men their callings are for their hurt and their callings as well as their tables become their shares that they are intangled by them yet they are for the good of his people Thus Luther doth observe of himself in Gen. 17. Deus voluit me esse concionatorem sustinere prâ—pter verbum odium invidiam mundi Aliis imponit laborem manuum videntur mihi beati c. exerceor periculis tentationibus tamen mechanicus ille aequè atque ego salvatur But he saith this was the calling in which God had set him and in this he must walk with him and the works of this calling were unto him the works of God c. Of this we have a famous instance in Junius his father was exceedingly against his being a Preacher of the Gospel was desirous that he might have godliness in himself but that he should never be a Teacher of it vivus non fuisset passus c. but in sententia planè eram diversa à sententia patris in Vita Junii To ingage the spirits of men and to order occasions and opportunities that men might glorifie God in such a way of service as he hath appointed for them and that it should be suitable to their spirits their parts their graces and they shall be par negotio fitted for the work unto which the Lord hath called them that they may honour God in it with pleasure sweetness and delight there is a special hand of a merciful and a graâ—â—ous Providence therein 2. In
them to have the Remainders of sin in them in this life and they shall never be freed from it till their dissolution We shall easily see that he as the Lord of all has ordered this by his Sovereignty and Supremacy for the good of his people and that it was for their sakes 1 That hereby he may exalt the Grace of Justification unto the Saints for God to pardon sins past it were rich mercy infinite mercy but for the Lord to leave sin remaining in a man and while he is conflicting with it and fears he shall be overcome with it every moment sees himself still to remain a sinner and yet the grace of Justification still to hold out that as there is in me a Fountain of sin so God is the Father of mercies and he doth not only pardon at first but when I sin and endeavour to make a breach upon my Justification again he shews mercy still and doth multiply to pardon Isa 55.7 this exalts the Righteousness of Christ imputed in justification for tolle morbos tolle vulnera nulla erit medicinae causa Dam. Therefore a man doth daily wash his feet and sees the Sun of Righteousness to rise upon him daily that he may be justifi'd not only from the Acts of sin but also from the remainders and Reliques of sin that are in him Joh. 13.10 And this also doth exalt the grace of God the Father justifying When the Apostle had had more than ordinary experience of the remainders of corruption in him and was much afflicted looking upon himself as a miserable man by reason thereof and judging himself worthy to be destroy'd for it and might by reason thereof have expected the sentence of death every moment now he looks upon the grace of the Gospel as justifying and he finds a new sweetness in it there is now no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 Not only the sins committed before Conversion but the sins remaining after do justly make the soul liable to condemnation but such is the grace that justifies us that there is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus 2 That there may be a continual Conflict kept up in us our life is a Warfare and therefore Job 14.14 it is said all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the days militiae meae of my warfare this is not against enemies without against spiritual wickednesses in high places only but against enemies within in a special manner the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and by this means the war is maintain'd The Lord will have the time of this life to be tempus militiae a time of warfare and the other life laetitiae of triumph as Bernard speaks this laboris of labour that mercedis of reward and there is no conflict in the world like unto this to have two contraries in the same place each of them striving to destroy one another and yet neither of them compleatly and totally prevailing for they are contrary Gal. 5.17 and there is a greater opposition against sin than there is against the Devils themselves or any enemies without there are the sorest battels fought between flesh and spirit in the same soul and with greater displeasure and indignation against them than Saints against the Devil himself for this is the greatest evil to them because it is in them and because the Lord will have a conflict that so the graces of his People may be both exercised and also tryed and improved the power of Grace and the truth of it would never have been so gloriously seen if there had not been such a principle of corruption drawing it forth daily 3 That he may keep his people humble there is no one thing that the Lord takes more care of than that the Saints should not be lifted up it is the end of Affliction to hide pride from their hearts and of temptations and desertions in the flesh that they might not be lifted up in themselves and exalted above measure Now it 's true it 's matter enough to humble one if duely considered to call to mind what he has been as it did Paul I was a persecutor and a blasphemer and injurious 1 Tim. 1.13 As some of the Heathens having risen to be Kings from small beginnings would keep something still to put them in mind of their Original as one being a Potters son would be served only in Earthen Vessels all his life-time The remembrance of what is past might humble a man to say Such were some of you such were ye but it is much more effectual to humble a man to consider that very iniquity is not fully purged unto this day but there are still some remainders of it upon me there is still a law in my members that rebells against the law of my mind that when I would do good evil is present with me and this makes me to look upon my self as a wretched and a miserable man and makes me to loath and abhor my self the same sore is running upon me still I am sensible I have the leprosie and therefore I can take no pleasure in my self the Devil comes and hath something in me there is a Principle that is prone to close with any temptation there is a sea of corruption that doth but wait for a wind nay if the Devil should never disquiet it yet it is a Fountain that will cast mire out of it self c. 4 That the Saints may be exercised in Prayer and Repentance daily Now it is that which the Lord requires of them every day Pray without ceasing and a man is Nulli rei nisi poenitentiae natus c. Now that there may be something that we may ask of him daily to give us that is a further degree of Grace a greater measure of purging and that we may apply the Righteousness of Christ for to mortifie sin in us as well as to satisfie God for sin and that there may be always something that we may confess and bewail before God and repent of and mourn for this sin is still left in us And look what benefits the people of God do receive from these constant and daily exercises all these do flow from the Sovereignty of God towards them in leaving of the remainders of sin in them and by this means we come to have a part in that great honour which belongs to Christ and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking away of sin It 's true Christ only doth it by way of satisfaction and he is the only original of our sanctification but yet we do it as having our spirits also acted by the Spirit of Christ and so our wills and desires joyning and concurring with him in that work therefore we are said to mortifie the deeds of the body and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts to purge
to a more particular acquaintance with sin and self therefore the Lord doth let such lusts rise up in a mans heart A man that haply never thought that he could be tempted to be an Atheist and deny that there was a God the Lord will let forth such sinful risings and motions in his heart that he shall be ready to call all into question and see that it is possible for the corruption of his nature to make him like that fool that saith in his heart there is no God and a man that never questioned whether the Scripture was the Word of God or no for it is the faith that he hath been brought up in which he received from his parents yet the Lord will let that lust rise in thee which may bring thee to question the authority of the Scriptures whether they be of God or no. There is in a man a principle that tends to a denial of the doctrine of godliness and this principle lies deep and works mightily in our lives and therefore that they may see that this root of bitterness is in them the Lord will suffer them to rise up unto actual thoughts and then the man will say I thought I should never have doubted whether there was a God or no or a Heaven or Hell or a Scripture but now I see to what my natural corruption is ready to lead me and by this means his soul is not only humbled for those bosom-principles of Atheism but these bosom-principles of Religion are laid anew and more firmly in the soul which else would not have born the stress of a work of grace upon them 4 That a man may be drawn out to hate sin the more therefore the Lord doth let it rise in a man and infest him As a mans darling lust that has risen in him most and most troubled him that sin when he is converted he hates above all other Hos 14.8 and so Rom. 7. there is not only the being of sin but the rising of it Rebelling against the law of the mind and leading me captive to the law of sin and death when I would do good evil is present with me that the soul may see its misery the more and so hate its adversary the more for to love God and hate sin is our great work and the more the goodness of â—od is discovered unto us the more we should love him and the further the evil of sin is discovered unto us the more our hearts should be ingaged to hate this also It is true a man should hate sin in the root hate it at all times but specially when it rises within us and presents it self to us with the greatest enticement as Christ hated Satan always but then specially when he assaulted him with a temptation to worship him so should we deal with sin as Junius faith of himself he being a modest man a wanton woman came to kiss him and he gave her a box on the face he hated impudence at all times but specially when it was offered him and so it is in this particular also when lust doth rise in the soul presenting it self to be chosen he hates it then most as wicked men hate godliness always but specially when it comes nearest unto them and they are pressed to it then their hearts rise against it 5 The Lord doth in his Soveraignty permit that lusts should arise in his people but it is to awaken them and the Lord makes this an excellent remedy against a secure condition for if his people will sleep God has three ordinary ways to awaken them 1 By letting out corruption 2 By affliction 3 By desertion it is the first of them is the worst because there is not a greater evil than sin and there is not any thing that doth use to affect the hearts of godly men and awaken them more than to find former lusts revivâ— in their hearts which they thought had been dead long ago A man has formerly set himself to mortifie such a lust and prayed against it and used all means and now he hath through mercy in a good measure attained it but the man grows proud and secure and carnally confident then the Lord lets his lust revive again and the man shall see that his enemy is not dead but that the said root of bitterness still remains only the Lord by his Soveraignty permitted it to spring forth for such an end 6 It is that which is matter of repentance to the people of God continually they are not humbled barely for the sins of their lives that break forth in their conversation in the world but also those sins that do arise in their hearts and they do apply the Righteousness of Christ for the one as well as the other and they are more humbled for lust rising in their heart if they could be separated than for lust breaking forth in the act because this defiles the inward man the soul and so it 's said of Hezekiah That he humbled himself for the pride of his heart so confidence in creatures is what we ought to be humbled for and weep in secret for our pride and repent of all the inward risings of sin in our heart though not any discovery of it be made in our lives and conversation § 4. 3. The Soveraignty of God is seen in the actings of sin also and therein it doth order all for the good of his people sin shall not be always kept within bounds as fire in the bosom but it shall appear in the life many times and the members shall become weapons of unrighteousness lust conceived shall bring forth sin as there are many thousand lusts stirring in the heart that do never come into act they are conceived but do never bring forth there is much plotting in the world against godliness but they do bring forth the wind Esau says I will slay my brother Jacob but he never did it and Gâ—hazi had in his heart a hankering after Vineyards and Olive-yards c. and so they in Neh. 4.11 We will come upon them and destroy them and they shall neither see nor know c. But the act doth not succeed accordingly there are many devices in the hearts of the crafty when their hands cannot perform their enterprise Job 5.12 and so the Lord doth with sin in the souls of his people but yet sometimes it shall break forth into act it was as new wine in the soul and the act shall give it vent it was secret but the Lord by an act will permit it to be visible and legible when it was in the soul it is but thirst in the desire but it is drunkenness in the act when it is come to the full and all this doth the Lord permit by a supreme providence for the good of his people 1 That they may see the power of sin and the tendency thereof it is such a filthiness as would overspread the whole man it is a leprosie in the
mercy God hath shewed in me a pattern of Patience Oh that ever such a one should find mercy and favour with him that he should take me into his bosome 8 It puts a man upon the greater Mortification of sin he doth with the greater hatred abhorr all evil ye that fear the Lord hate evil Dolor dolore tollitur venenâ— venenis dispeâ—luntur Aug. now hatred will be contented with nothing but destruction the more the Enemy doth arise the more doth a mans hatred arise Gratia vexata seipsam prodit a man shall say What have I to doe any more with Idols to the Moles and to the Batts David hates that sin that had so defiled him and this sets him against the whole body of sin I was shapen in iniquity and now he looks for the Root Psal 51. and he doth hate sin in the Fountain of it And as it is in a sin in Practice so it is in an errour in Judgement he will not only be watchfull against it but he will also hate it the more There was not such an enemy against the Manichees in the world as Austin was because he had been himself deluded with it as when he was to dispute with Fortunatus Secum in eodem errore constitutum congredi putabat And so Luther that of Popery Brevi efficiam c. and so he doth answer himself Vincet mea audacia in Christo and Paul with more Zeal did preach that Faith which before he destroyed and thereby the Saints glorifi'd God for him Gal. 1. ult it makes a man zealous to honour God in that thing wherein he had so highly dishonour'd him 9 It makes a man tender towards others Gal. 6.1 he will put on a spirit of Meekness to others because he hath found the mercy of God to his own Soul and therefore he despairs of nothing that they may also through your mercy attain mercy Rom. 11.31 there being the same mercy shewed unto them that was shewed unto us and they are as capable of the same mercy as we were Christ shewed tenderness unto Peter and he appeared unto him one of the first after his Resurrection and he did comfort him even against his fall shewed him great favour and surely so will the soul be ready to comfort others also he that hath received mercy will put on bowels of mercy who is offended and I burn not no man is put off no man encouraged in his sin the pride of a mans heart is as well broken with Mercies as it is with Crosses and Afflictions and the Lord doth hide pride from the heart in them both that a man that doth put his mouth in the dust when God is pacify'd will be as low as the dust towards another in the same Offence with himself this I have had experience of and yet received unto mercy and it becomes me to put on the same bowels to others 10 Providence orders it for the consolation of the people of God and it is a mighty argument of faith as if when God gives his Son he will give all things so if God do bring good out of sin all shall work together for good Sin is the greatest evil greater than Hell the one God is the Author of but not of the other the one is against an uncreated good the glory of God the other is but against the good of the creature and yet even this shall be for good and so a man may say with Gregory of Adams sin foelix culpa but not talem meruit Redemptorem § 5. 2. Not only a mans own sins but other mens sins are turned unto the good of the Saints also the providence of God doth so order all things that they have a benefit by them and that both by wicked and godly mens sins and in the sins of wicked men it is true what Austin saith That God had never suffered sin to come into the world if it had been such an evil as he could have brought no good out of it Bonitas tua novit malis nostris bene uti Anselm Non solùm mala passiva quae nobis irrogantur in bonum cedunt sed etiam activa quae nos ipsi facimus Luther Collaudandus est benignissimus omnipotens Deus qui malis nostris non solùm non vincitur sed ex iis operatur nostrum bonum Gerson Omnipotens Deus cùm summè bonus sit nullo modo sineret aliquid mali esse in operibus suis nisi adeò esset omnipotens bonus ut benefaceret etiam de malo illorum nequitia est malè uti bonis operibus ejus sic illius sapientia est bene uti malis eorum operibus August And as all the sins of ungodly men shall turn to the glory of God so they shall all of them be for the good of his people they shall be gainers by all the wickedness that is done in the world as the Lord will work his glory out of all Though the Lord forbid sin and hate it and thereby appears not to be the Author of it so the Saints do hate sin and mourn for it that thereby it may appear that they are not partakers in it and yet for all this God doth work his glory and the good of the Saints out of all the wickedness and all the confusions that are in the world and next to the pardon of sin this is the great priviledge of the second Covenant that their own and other mens sins do work together for their good those things that they do mourn for and pray against c. And this I will manifest 1 in general and then 2 in some of the particulars thereof because it is maximum divinae providentiae argumentum Clem. Alex. 1. In general how doth God make the sins of wicked men to conduce unto the good of the Saints This will appear in these particulars 1 Hereby they may always read what they were as in the example of the Saints they may always read what they ought to be the one is set before them as a pattern as well as the other Tit. 3.3 We our selves were sometime disobedient foolish deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy and it is good for the Saints to be mindful thereof what they have been sic fuimus olim I was once saith Luther Monachus miserrimus look to the rock whence thou wert hewn Paul kept the condition of his unregeneracy always in his mind It is true God forgets our sins but we should not see the wickedness that is in the lives of other men and read thine own in it as Austin did in a child vidi puerulum c. and thence he doth conclude it was so with him quando minimus fui 2 By this they see what they are delivered from might not I have been such a one 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but now you are washed you are sanctified you are justified and by this the grace
but when once they began to turn the head of their policy against the Saints they did very speedily find their ruine therein the Lord did go beyond them and they were taken in their own craftiness For when Satan has ingaged their spirits against the Saints Satan never leaves but he makes them restless raiseth up in them both great plots and great hopes and so they never cease till they meet with the Church as a burdensom stone at which they will always be lifting till they be broken therewith for in their very policy they do perish and in their own plots as in the net which they had privily laid is their foot taken Zac. 12.1 2. Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and Jerusalem 2. How doth the Lord turn these plottings of wicked men be they never so deep unto the good of his people 1. God doth set Divine wisdom on work for them for they have an interest in all the Attributes of God and they shall be put forth for them as their necessities do require Psal 119.120 It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy law The Saints may desire God to put out an Attribute then and they do flye unto their strong hold unto their chambers as Esa 26. as when the power of man is exalted against them now it is time for them to say We have no might against this multitude but our eyes are upon thee it is all one to thee to save with few or with many so when carnal wisdom is exalted now is the time for God to put forth his wisdom for them that are his people for they say We have no wisdom against this wise and subtle generation but our eyes are upon thee and in thee is our wisdom laid up Herod had a plot against Christ and he will come and worship him that is he would come and destroy him and the Wise-men also that came to seek him now is the wisdom of God put forth for Christs preservation one is sent into Egypt and the other are admonished by God and they return into their own country another way And the people of God have more benefit by seeing the wisdom of God acting for them than they can have disadvantage or discouragement by seeing all the wise men of the world against them O great is the sweetness that the people of God have by seeing any Attribute act for them and for their good that by this means they may come to understand their inheritance in Attributes which is far beyond that of creatures or promises as a father his bowels are moved for a child when he sees him in danger and then his affections do discover themselves so do the Saints expect that the Lord shall fulfil his relation in that respect when dangers are pressing upon them c. 2. In the middle of all their plots they comfort themselves in this that they shall take no effect against them till they have done the service which the Lord hath appointed them unto Luke 13.32 they told Christ that Herod had a plot upon him to kill him he saith Go tell that Fox Luk. 13.32 behold I cast out devils and I do cures to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfected Franc. in his History Animalium gives us three properties of a Fox he is animal dolosum crudele gulosum subtle and deceitful all for death cruel and all for the prey and there is a double property of him as deceitful 1 Noctu prorepit he only goes forth in the night doth all things secretly and so do Plotters they must not be seen and a great part of their wisdom is to be undiscovered 2 Nunquam rectis incedit itineribus sed ambagibus He doth never go right on but always he hath his windings and turnings so Politicians they love to walk unseen and they never love to go in plain paths but in secret ways to ensnare men But Christ when they told him of the design of this Fox Herod he comforts himself with this there is a set time for my work and then when that is done my service is perfect then shall I dye and I know all his policy shall be able to avail nothing against me till I have finished the work that the Father has given me to do And so may all the Saints comfort themselves against all the plots of wicked men against them they shall finish their work notwithstanding 3. This shall sometimes make way for their service in a wonderful manner the Jews had a plot against Paul and they had taken an oath That they would neither eat nor drink â—ill they had killed him this occasioned his being sent unto Caesarea first and afterwards to Rome where the Lord told him he must bear witness of him also and glorious was the service that he did there and the souls that he converted were many and in a special manner even in Caesars family there were souls brought home unto the Lord Phil. 4.22 All the Saints salute you chiefly those that are of Caesars houshold it was Nero that opprobrium humani generis and yet the Lord had some to pluck out there and the Lord made the plot which they had against him the occasion of all this great work what loser was Paul by it nay how much honour did it bring unto tâ—â— Lord and how great thanksgiving was given unto God by these pâ—or converted souls who came unto the knowledge of the Gospel and the way to life by this means 4. What they do plot to hinder shall by their very plots be advanced Esa 44.25 he turns wise men backward that is they shall see a quite contrary effect unto that which by their wisdom they intended to bring to pass against the Jews and the raising persecution against the Christians since was to hinder the Gospel and to suppress it but this did further the Gospel for it did occasion their going forth unto the Gentiles and by this means the sound went forth into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world and 〈◊〉 the casting off of the Jews became the inriching of the Gentiles by this means which else had never been so gloriously and fully done and I do not doubt but the very opposition that is against the Ordinances of the Gospel shall establish them in the Lords time and the opposition against any truth hath ever established that truth for they are but as winds that root the trees by shaking of them they fasten Jer. 20.10 Report say they and we will report it the wicked plot to take away the good names of the Saints by casting out slanders against them as if they were the vilest wretches upon earth but there is not such a way to bring an honour upon them and to cause the Lord to make their light to break forth out of darkness unto after generations as to reproach them 5. Hereby they have experience of those glorious promises that God has made to his people of frustrating the plots of their enemies Esa 8.10 Consult but it shall come to nought speak the word but it shall not stand for God is with us Prov. 6.14 Frowardness is in his heart he devisâ—th mischief continually he sowed discord therefore shall his calamity come suddenly suddenly shall he be broken without remedy and Psal 19.21 Many devices are in the heart of a man but the counsel of God that shall stand Psal 64.6 7. They search out iniquity they accomplìsh a diligent search the inward thoughts of every one of them and the heart is deep but God shall shoot at them with an arrow and suddenly shall they be wounded Hereby the Saints flye unto those promises and they have experience of their interest and the prayers of the ancient Saints against all the enemies that ever plotted mischief against the Church as the instance of Judas they are answered in after-generations and there is a Communion of Saints that the people of God have with Saints departed upon this ground also they have a benefit by the prayers which they did put up upon earth which are accomplished upon the enemies of the Church and people of God in after-ages Lastly They have experience of strange secret and glorious deliverances by this means and truly experience of God in any kind is no small advantage to the Saints they make much of their own experiences and live upon them afterwards Possidon tells us in the Life of Austin that as he was travelling there were certain of the Donatists whom he calls Circumcelliones that did lay wait for him armed to kill him obvenit Dei providentia sed ductoris errore but he missed the way per hunc errorem manus impias evasit and so escaped This drew forth in him and in many others of the people of God many praises unto God for so great and unknown deliverance and I did the rather insist upon this because the enemies of the people of God are very busie in plotting against the Saints and we have cause to fear the fraud of the enemy as well as their force though if hand joyn with hand yet the wicked shall not be unpunished and the God that has delivered will again deliver These things may one day be worth thinking of when we are cast upon such providences that we know not what to do then the Lord will arise for the help of those that wait on him FINIS
of grace that all the persons have undertaken peculiar offices for the good of men and no men have benefit by them but they that are brought under this Covenant it is for their sake that the Father has given the Kingdom into the hand of his Son and what benefit other men have by it it is but as the beasts have and in some respect as the Devils have they have some less degree of torment and that 's granted them for their sakes who are heirs of promise and for their sake the spirit is the prorex and has undertaken to rule under Christ all the Offices of Christ are for their sake and for their good and all the Offices of the Spirit either inlightning convincing sanctifying or comforting they are all for their good and the common works of the Spirit that do fall upon any wicked men in the world is by the Saints Covenant or else you should have no more of them oh hear all you wicked ones than the Devils and damned in Hell have at this day Now the great plot of the Gospel in the new Covenant is not only to honour the Attributes of the nature but also to honour the Persons in the hearts of men this was the way for the Persons to undertake certain appropriated works in the dayes of the Gospel in the administration of the Covenant and all the parts thereof Now as you will have no benefit by the attributes of the divine nature but they all make against you and will at last day bring in their several charges against your souls that are out of this Covenant not only the Holiness and Justice of God but even the Mercy and Patience of God will cry against you Justice Lord for Mercies sake so you will have no benefit by the Offices of the persons but they will all of them be used against you and bring in their several charges against you Christ as a King a Prophet and a Priest will charge thee then shall the King say Go ye cursed and the Spirit of God as a Spirit that has been convincing thee and inlightning thee in thy life time shall condemn thee and Christ as a Judge will condemn thee and the Spirit of Christ as a Spirit of Bondage will in Hell perfectly torment thee for as in Heaven the Spirit shall be perfectly a Spirit of Adoption so he shall be in Hell perfectly a Spirit of Bondage for ever 3. Unless thou art in Covenant this way the Lord regards thee not nor any thing that thou dost an instance of it we have Heb. 8.9 There are Gods own people whom he took into Covenant with himself and for the outward part of the Covenant they did enter into Covenant with him but yet their hearts did not consent unto the terms of the Covenant and therefore they brake the Covenant The meaning is not that ever they were truly and indeed spiritually in Covenant for then the Covenant could never have been broken but they were only in the Covenant externally but their hearts did not come up unto the spiritual part of the Covenant and therefore the Lord saies I regard them not I took no care for them I made no account of them at all whatever became of them it was all one to me as it is with us of things that we have no regard of and for God not to regard a man or a people is the sum of all Judgement whatever did befall them the Lord pitied them not assisted them not c. But in the place whence it is taken Jer. 31.33 there is something more in it it is I Lorded it over them when I consider how the name Baal is used Hos 2.16 he did exercise his Lordly authority over them when they would not be ruled by him as a Husband he doth then lay Judgement and Chastisement upon them as a Lord he did not regard their persons whereas precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints yea he puts their Tears in his Bottle c. and he does pour out their blood as dust and their flesh as dung and he regards them not Psal 49. but man though in honour if he understands not becomes like the beasts that perish Without that Covenant he may be compared to the Beasts that perish pardon the expression but it 's suitable unto the intention of the Holy Ghost he is unto God counted no better than a Dog that dyes in a ditch And as it is for their persons so it is for their services also a man that is out of Covenant the Lord accepts nothing that he doth unto Cain and his offering he had no respect But a man in Covenant with God the words of his mouth the meditations of his heart find acceptance with God and be to him incense of a sweet savour their persons and their services their smell is as the Wine of Lebanon Hos 14. according to the promise of acceptation but all the services of men out of the Covenant are abominable to God as the Grapes of Sodom all the acts performed by them that are in Covenant are as the Grapes of Lebanon your works are very acceptable The Sun of righteousness shall rise upon you with healing in his Wings but for all others that are not in Covenant with him the Lord does not respect their offering or take it with good will at their hands but he saith Mal. 2.13 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices Incense is an abomination unto me it is a burden even your solemn assemblies are an offence to me I will not smell in them I am weary to bear them and when you kill an Ox it is as if you killed a man Isa 66.3 and he that burns Incense as if he blessed an Idol because you have chosen your own wayes therefore the Lord abhors you 4. This is a matrimonial Covenant and it is a Covenant of friendship it is of this Covenant that the Lord saith I will betroath you to me for ever Hos 2. and it is the same Covenant which when God had entred into with Abraham he doth call him Abraham my friend Wife and Friend are two of the sweetest and highest relations if any could prevail it would be the Wife of thy Bosome or thy Friend which is as thy own soul Deut. 13.6 Now in this Covenant a man enters into both these relations with God there is the nearest union with him he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit with him there is the interest love of the persons one to another they are most precious one to another and all the world besides are but as Pebbles to Diamonds which outshine all other stones and they are still prizing the love one of another how excellent is thy loving kindness O God! it is better than life because he has set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him and love him at all times and in
the greatest trials all true friends love most forsake not one another the fire burns hottest in Winter by an Antiperistasis God found Israel as Grapes in the Wilderness saw her in her blood and that was the time of love Cant. 1.13 my Love is as a bundle of Myrrh which is bitter yet he shall lye between my breasts all true love is like wild-fire the more you cast water upon it it will flame the more Cant. 8.6 Many waters cannot quench it true Lovers will bear any afflictions one for another in all their afflictions he is afflicted and when his Children are persecuted he sayes why persecutest thou me Let God saith Ambrose turn the adversaries of the Church against me and â—quench their thirst with my blood I had rather sayes Bernard men should murmur against â—me than against God The soul that loves God is willing to undergo any reproach for God and be dishonoured so God may be honoured And there is also the sweetest communion between friends opening their hearts one to another and each striving that they may exceed The Lords heart is contracted towards other men his heart is straitned he cannot discover himself to them but there is a secret of his Counsel and a secret of his providence the one is in the heart and the other upon the Tabernacle of those that are in Covenant and they pour out their whole hearts also to the Lord as Hannah did and â—ly Lord all my desires are before thee they keep nothing back and there is the fullest â—ommunication the Lord gives up all that he has unto such a soul Lev. The High-Priest was not to marry a Harlot nor a Widow and he shall inherit 〈◊〉 things I will be his God all that is in God is as truly thine for thy good as if thou hadst infinite wisdom and power and holiness in thy own hand and the soul gives up all unto God his love and his joy and fear c. for God will not marry a Harlot that hath any reserve from him but he will have all the strength of the soul the Apostle saies they gave themselves up to the Lord their bodies were the Lords Rom. 12.1 5. God and the soul know not how to live asunder tell my Beloved that I am sick of Love and as Augustin saith after the death of his friend Nebridius that he was in a streight desiring to dye because he knew not how to live by halves yet he was willing to live that his friend might not wholly dye but might yet live in part even in him And truly though relations amongst men be notions in a great measure and their affections do not answer them and fill them up yet with God they are not so but there is something still that fully answers every relation wherein he stands unto you and whereas your relations here are but for the time of this life it is but till God shall part us by death relations unto the Lord are eternal and it is entring into this Covenant that does invest thee with these relations It is also to this Covenant that all the promises are annexed they do all meet as lines in this center and therefore till a man be in Covenant he is not an heir of the Promise we that believe are Abrahams seed Gal. 4. and heirs of the promise if once by entring into Abrahams Covenant you become his seed then all the promises are yours but never till then for before all the curses of the first Covenant were thy due but not any one promise of the second Covenant belongs to thee which is the Covenant under which Abraham and David and all the Saints do stand and by which they hold their happiness at this day for it is the inheritance that is by promise now there is no way to be made blessed with faithful Abraham and to attain the sure mercies of David the blessing of the new Covenant but by this for they are all fruits of the Covenant and streams that flow from this Fountain 6. and Lastly The Covenant of Grace is the last Covenant that ever God does intend to make with mankind or tender to him 't is true he did make a former Covenant and you brake it and the Lord has made a second but he will never add a third Covenant Heb. 6.18 The Lord willing to shew the immutability of his Counsel c. God doth not change his Covenant because he has sworn the oath now binds him that he cannot change yet it was the unchangeableness of his purpose that he might manifest that to be the ground why he did it by an oath that we might be assured the mind of God will never change to eternity it is by this Covenant only that he intends to bring all his Sons to glory and he will never make another therefore as I may say of Christ This is the last way Salvation that ever God will take He that believes in him shall be saved but he that believes not in him shall be damned There is no hope of another the Lord has no more Sons in his Bosom to bestow And as these be the last Ordinances and therefore in the Lords-supper you shew forth the Lords death till he come so it 's here it 's the last Covenant that ever God will make and if you do not accept of this and like the terms of it you can never have the Lord to become your God in Covenant for ever Now it will be said What should we do and what is required on our part that we should enter into Covenant with the Lord All Covenants must be by mutual consent and out of choice and election and therefore some do derive the word in Hebrew signifying a Covenant from a verb which signifies to chuse because a Covenant must be an act of choice and therefore there must be something done on our part though God offer the Covenant we must accept it and that we may do the duty on our part it 's a work of almighty power Ezec. 20.37 and I will bring you into as the word signifies I will make you to come into the bond of the Covenant Now when the Lord in this Covenant is pleased to put forth the grace of it in the day of his power there are these three things that he does work the soul to wherein our entring into Covenant doth consist answerable to these three expressions 1 Jer. 11.2 Hearken to and hear the words of the Covenant a man doth learn and generally observe the terms of the Covenant upon what terms God offers a Covenant unto him 2 That in 2 Chron. 30.8 Give the hand to the Lord which is a token and an expression of a mans free and full consent to it when he does understand it there is a mighty power inlightning the understanding and bringing about and inclining the will to consent to it 3 Joshua 24.23 Incline your hearts unto the Lord or take
seeing his face which is his Essence or seeing him as he is which is reserved for them 2 There is nothing but this in the life to come that can make them happy It 's true there shall be in this Paradise a confluence of all good things and there shall be every way perfection fulness of joy rivers of pleasures for evermore Consider 1 the glory of the place it 's the Palace of the great King and if there be so much glory and magnificence in Kings Palaces what is there in the Palace of him that fills all and is all and is the King of Kings Paul was taken up into the third Heaven and yet he was not glorified but afterwards he had a thorn in the flesh and had need of the grace that should be sufficient for him so that to be in Heaven is not that which makes the Saints happy therein the formalis ratio the formal reason of their happiness doth not lye and therefore says Paul I desire to be dissolved not to be in Heaven Phil. 1.23 but to be with Christ which is best of all It is more to be with the Lord Christ than to be in Heaven and therefore Luther said well Malim praesente Deo esse in inferno quà m absente Deo in coelo c. I had rather be with God in Hell than without God in Heaven 2 There is a glorious society for we are gathered here unto the innumerable company of Angels and the souls of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 24. we be here as Tertullian says Angelorum candidati the Candidates of Angels c. Zac. 3.7 and I will give thee places to walk amongst these that stand by but as it is here in the Communion of Saints there is a great deal of sweetness yet herein is not the perfection of the happiness of the Saints but it 's in a higher communion so it is glorious to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God but they have all of them their happiness from the same fountain and that is in God himself 3 There shall be a glorious and a full enjoyment of Jesus the Mediator Joh. 17. he doth pray that they may be where he is that they may behold his glory and it 's that which Job doth glory in I know that my Redeemer lives Job 19. and that I shall see him with these eyes and Paul also longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ and to be ever with the Lord. But the height of the happiness of the Saints cannot consist in this partly because Christ himself as he is Mediator has a happiness in another Psal 16. thou shalt shew me the path of life and there is an eternal life promised him as well as promised us and therefore he having his own blessedness from another he doth direct us unto a higher Fountain of our blessedness and partly because that which was not the highest object of our faith can never be the greatest ground of our joy Now Christ as Mediator is not the highest object of our faith and hope and therefore cannot be the perfection of our joy 4 In Heaven there will be a perfection of graces For when that which is perfect is come 1 Cor. 13.12 13. then that which is in part shall be done away and this is after a sort a mans happiness and therefore the School-men do distinguish between beatitudo subjectiva objectiva subjective and objective beatitude There is a blessedness in us which doth consist in the perfection of grace in the man for glory is nothing but grace perfected and that haply is the meaning of the souls of just men made perfect that is their graces are perfected in them Heb. 12. and what is lacking in any of them is supplied that which is in part is done away and this doth indeed wonderfully perfect the soul but grace perfected is but a creature though it be the new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 and we are Gods workmanship created in Christ unto good works and therefore it hath but a finite good that can never make the soul of man happy which was ordained for an infinite good The perfection of grace is but a consequent of happiness for we shall therefore be like him because we shall see him as he is Therefore in the life to come there is nothing for the happiness of the creature both men and Angels to consist in but the Essence of God 4. It will appear from the nature of blessedness that nothing can make the creature blessed but the Essence of God and that will appear in three things 1 Nothing can make a man blessed but that which doth perfect his graces Now there is nothing can do this but the beatifical vision which is a vision of God in his Essence answerable to a mans vision of God 1 Joh. 3.3 such is the perfection of the image of God in the man Now while we know in part so long we are sanctified but in part for the vision of God is transforming 2 Cor. 3. ult but it is a perfect vision that doth work in the soul a perfect sanctification seeing God in his back parts will not do it it 's seeing his face this doth perfect the Angels they behold the face of their Father and so it shall do us when we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 There is nothing can make a man happy but that which makes him impeccable because the soul will still be in fear so long as he is a sinner Adam had a posse non peccare a power not to sin but that did not make him happy there must be a non posse peccare an impossibility of sinning now this only the vision and essence of God can give and therefore Suarez de beatif Vis saith Visio beatifica excludit omnem defectum tum erroris tum inconsiderationis ideò facit voluntatem impeccabilem The beatifick Vision makes the will impeccable c. 3 There is nothing can make a man happy but that which gives unto the soul a fulness of satisfaction Psal 17. ult when he sees his face he shall be satisfied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it notes a fulness and an abundant satisfaction so that the soul desires no more In beatitudine impletur omne desiderium beatorum All desire of the blessed is filled up in blessedness Aquinas Now the soul will never be satisfied while it sees any thing beyond what it doth enjoy till the soul can write a nil ultra c. There is primum verum a first truth and till the understanding come unto that it will never be satisfied in inferiour truths and there is ultimum summum bonum a last and chiefest good and till the soul comes to that it will never be satisfied in inferiour goods but the soul will be always aspiring because it sees something further to be attained donec requiescat in te until
and that is semen ejus quaerens panem non derelictum not forsaken though begging of their bread the Jews in this misery that they are yet grow rich where-ever they come the temporal promise is fulfilled to them 4 The term righteous may be restrained to such as are eminently righteous as to works of mercy So it follows vers 26. He is ever merciful c. So among the Hebrews mercy towards the poor is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness § 2. There is also a Providence circa mala about evils for his Kingdom rules over all and this malum evil is either culpae of sin or poenae of punishment concerning both which the Soveraignty of God doth gloriously work though it be in a far different way First the Soveraignty of God in his providential Kingdom is conversant about the evils of sin they do all come under the government of God and that it is so will appear from Gen. 45.5 6 7. Gen. 45.5 6 7. it was the observation that Joseph had about that unnatural act of his brethren he looked upon a double hand in it one was theirs which he from a principle of meekness and forgiveness was ready to pass by and over-look and another was a special hand of providence in this sin of theirs and that he speaks of three times as being much affected with the Soveraignty of God ordering of that sin of theirs both in respect of him and themselves Ye sold me but God sent me in that sin of theirs there was an over-ruling hand of Soveraignty and that he tells them three times together That it was God sent him and that it was not they that sent him Ye sent me out of malice and God sent me out of mercy you to destroy me God to preserve both you and me you sent me that I should be a slave to man God that I might be a father to Pharaoh and a Ruler of all the land of Egypt We see what a glory here is over this sinful action in respect of Joseph Pharaoh Egypt and the whole family of Jacob and this was not a casual thing something that came to pass by accident or by chance but it was by counsel a Soveraignty that did with wisdom lay this as a design and plot before-hand Gen. 50.20 so Gen. 50.20 You thought evil but God meant it unto good the word in both places is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie a plotted thought done by counsel Psal 10.2 Let them be taken in their devices that they have imagined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is spoken there of plotted designed evil and so it was here the good was done by counsel and it was a thing that comes not to pass without foresight but God meant and plotted it for good and therefore we read Exod. 28.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opus ingeniosè inventum a work that is artificially done upon which many thoughts went before it was brought unto a ripeness and perfection and such was this work here also they plotted upon evil and the Lord plotted and designed this their evil unto good Esa 10.6 7. so Esa 10.6 7. the King of Babylon comes against Jerusalem and the Lord sends him not by any command for the work was displeasing unto him as done by them and for which he will visit them vers 12. but arcano imperio by a secret act of the Soveraignty of God so ordering things in providence that this should come to pass and therefore Ezech. 9.1 they are called the visiters of the city men appointed by the dominion of God unto that office but yet the man had a thought of nothing less than to do Gods work in it or to submit unto his dominion or execute his counsel which unto them was secret he meaneth not so he thinks not so there are two words used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tacite secum cogitare he hath not such a thought that did ever enter into his heart he never had so much as the least secret imagination of any such thing and the other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie a devised designed and plotted thing it was a thing that he never consulted never designed in all that he doth to execute my displeasure against an hypocritical Nation but yet he shall do my work while he doth wholly intend his own and design that only and yet the work that shall be done upon Sion is the Lords work vers 12. and by these two Scriptures it will clearly appear that the Soveraignty of God is conversant about the sins of men things in themselves evil and forbidden of God and yet his Soveraignty reacheth unto them And this I shall branch into two heads 1 The Soveraignty of God over a mans own sins for the good of his people 2 Over other mens sins he doth so imploy his Soveraignty about the sins of men that they shall be ordered for the good of the Saints 1. The Soveraignty and Supremacy of God in reference unto the sins of his own people the Lord doth so rule and order all things thereby that their own sins shall in some kind work for their good that which in its own nature is only evil can by an almighty over-ruling hand turn into good which no man in the world is able to do they may make good use of things in themselves good but they are never able to bring good out of that which is per se malum of it self sinfull as sin is and this I shall demonstrate to you in four things 1 In respect of the being of sin 2 In respect of the rising of sin 3 In respect of the actings of sin 4 In respect of the raging of sin in an open violent scandalous way 1. It will appear in reference unto the being of sin in the Saints The Lord who has forbid all sin even in the Principles and being of it and has sent his Son to take away sin yet he has in his Soveraignty so ordered the condition of the Saints here that sin shall have a being in them and they shall never be perfectly freed from it so that it will be true of the best while they are here he that saith he has no sin deceiveth himself there will be reliquiae vetustatis as Austin calls it a Law in the members a body of death To be without sin here is given to us as praeceptum a precept in this life or else Original sin were no sin and the being of sin were against no Law of God the Law requires a holy Nature as well as holy Actions but in the life to come it shall be given to us as praemium a reward here as a Law and hereafter as a Reward And why has the Sovereignty of God so ordered it that those that shall be freed from sin perfectly in the Life to come and whom Christ shall present without spot or wrinkle or any such thing why will he suffer